RCTs and QEDs

Many services can show promising outcomes, positive feedback and powerful stories of change. But when decisions about funding, scaling or redesign are at stake, there is often a harder question to answer: is the service really making a difference - would these outcomes have happened anyway?

At Cordis Bright, we help clients answer that question through robust and proportionate impact evaluation. We design and deliver randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs (QEDs) that work in live service settings - where referral routes change, recruitment is hard, data is imperfect and people’s lives do not fit neatly into research designs.

Rigorous evidence with real-world insight

Our team has led and supported RCTs funded by central government and What Works Centres. We have evaluated complex interventions across children’s services, criminal justice, domestic abuse, the NHS and social care. We know what strong evidence needs to look like, but we also know the practical realities of generating it with busy services and real people.

Working with you across the full evaluation journey

We can support you with:

• Feasibility and evaluability: working out whether an RCT or QED is appropriate, practical and ethical before major commitments are made
• Evaluation design: developing theories of change, outcome measures, randomisation approaches, comparison groups, recruitment plans and retention strategies
• Delivery: supporting implementation, monitoring fidelity, managing data collection and dealing with the problems that arise in delivery
• Analysis, reporting and dissemination: producing findings that are clear, credible and useful for decision-making

Methodological expertise

Our expertise spans individually randomised and cluster RCTs, matched comparison studies, propensity score matching, interrupted time series and difference-in-difference analysis. We combine this with qualitative and process evaluation, because knowing whether something worked is only part of the picture. You also need to understand how it worked, why it worked, who benefited, who may have been missed and what this means for future delivery.

Evidence that makes a difference

We work closely with funders, commissioners, practitioners, delivery partners and people with lived experience. This helps us design evaluations that are rigorous, realistic, inclusive and useful. Equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded throughout, from design and recruitment to analysis and reporting.

The point is not just to produce a technically sound report. It is to give you evidence that helps you decide what to keep, what to change, what to scale and what to stop.

If you are under pressure to prove impact, strengthen your evidence or make a decision about the future of a service, we would be very happy to talk.