Coronavirus (COVID-19): Learning and Evaluation Oversight Group

Overview

This group was active between January 2022 and February 2024.

The overarching aim of the group is to bring together evidence to inform Scotland’s recovery from COVID-19. The group will run for a period of two years and includes a mix of internal and external members. It is chaired by Professor Linda Bauld (Scottish Government Chief Social Policy Adviser).

Components of the group’s activities will include:

• assessing the scale of the impact of the pandemic across sectors and population groups
• synthesising evaluation evidence relating to policy and community responses to the pandemic, to distil learning for approaches as part of recovery
• identifying key evidence gaps and advising on how these may be addressed
• reviewing international experience including how other countries are approaching their recovery strategies, and identifying implications for the Scottish context

Members

• Linda Bauld, Chief Social Policy Adviser (Scottish Government), and Professor of Public Health (University of Edinburgh) (Chair)
• Andrew Watson, Director for Budget and Sustainability, Scottish Government
• Audrey MacDougall, Chief Researcher, Scottish Government
• Gary Gillespie, Chief Economist, Scottish Government
• Mary McAllan, Director for Covid Recovery, Scottish Government
• Jennie Barugh, Director of Performance and Outcomes, Scottish Government
• Michael Kellet, Director of Population Health, Scottish Government
• Andrew Kerr, Chair of SOLACE
• Claire Sweeney, Director of Place and Wellbeing, Public Health Scotland
• Emily Lynch, Programme Manager for Performance Management and Benchmarking, Improvement Service
• Jim McCormick, Chief Executive, Robertson Trust
• Nick Watson, Professor of Disability Studies, University of Glasgow
• Nicola Dickie, Director of People Policy and Health and Social Care, COSLA
• Patricia Findlay, Professor of Work Employment and Organisation, University of Strathclyde
• Sarah Davidson, Chief Executive, Carnegie UK
• Sarah Skerratt, Chief Executive, RSE
• Steven Marwick, Director, Evaluation Support Scotland
• Kay Tisdall, Professor of Childhood Policy, University of Edinburgh
• Vittal Katikireddi, Professor of Public Health, University of Glasgow
• Tom Lamplugh, Head of Social Policy Unit, Scottish Government (Secretariat for the Covid-19 Learning and Evaluation Group)

Publications

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Learning and Evaluation Oversight Group: terms of reference