RCTs and QEDs

Cordis Bright has a successful track record of designing and running randomised controlled trials (RCTs), especially for What Works Centres and central government. We are skilled at the full life-cycle of an RCT including preparing the ground, designing the approach, implementing the RCT, and analysing findings.

If you choose to work with us on your RCT, then you should expect:

• An approach that is supportive and collaborative. Entering into an RCT can feel daunting for your team and wider stakeholders. We recognise this and provide support and accessible advice across the evaluation. We bring the whole team with us in agreeing, designing and implementing the RCT. We can also help you get ready for an RCT, ensuring that your programme includes all the key components for likely success.
• An ability to evaluate sensitive, complex and challenging programmes, such as youth offending, domestic abuse and school inclusion. A core principle to our approach is ensuring that no one who participates in a RCT study is cut adrift or left without support.
• A team with an excellent technical skillset, which is rooted in strong academic backgrounds and with longstanding links into the sectors in which we specialise. This includes wide ranging experience in undertaking RCTs and mitigating the practical challenges that can be encountered over the course of a study.
• An active interest in working on RCTs that take co-productive and participative approaches with people with lived experience. This is paired with a commitment to ensure we implement an approach that is ethical and promotes equality, diversity and inclusion, including race equity.
• Outputs that are robust, accessible and help to answer your key evaluation questions in a way that enables you to understand “what next?”.

We also have the skills and expertise to design and run quasi-experimental designs (QEDs) including difference-in-difference, regression discontinuity design and propensity score matching approaches.