Monitoring and Evaluation

The Monitoring and Evaluation section of the LTS will enable local authorities to understand if they are on track to deliver their outcomes and transport objectives. It should set out the evidence pathway between the delivery of actions/activities (as set out in the delivery plan) and the Outcomes set out in the Strategy. This enables local authorities and others to judge whether they are delivering their strategy and whether the strategy needs to be adjusted to reflect changing circumstances or the experience of implementing the delivery plan.

Strategies should include a set of indicators to monitor performance (where appropriate) and potentially indicator-specific outcomes (different from the Outcomes/goals/priorities previously mentioned) which will be used to measure whether the Strategy is being successfully delivered. These outcomes will need to be aligned with the key outcomes from Policies, Plans and Strategies at National, Regional and Local level: for example on road safety, a LTS could set out the outcome of 30% reduction in adults killed and seriously injured and 100% reduction in children killed or seriously injured using the transport network by 2030 if the local casualty forecast indicates that it is achievable and aligned to the Road Safety Framework to 2030 outcome of a 50% reduction in adults killed and seriously injured and 60% reduction in children killed or seriously injured.

The National Transport Strategy (NTS) is a good example of the interaction between a high-level strategy and monitoring and evaluation; where each outcome of the NTS has related indicators to evidence whether those outcomes are being achieved, and these are reported on annually. 

It will be up to local authorities to determine the precise set of indicators which best reflect their particular local circumstances drawing on local evidence. The indicators should be unambiguous, based on existing evidence (where possible) and quantified – both behaviour and attitudinal data. Indicators should be meaningful, reflecting local circumstances and policy context and can draw on both quantitative measures and qualitative measures. There will be some areas where numerical targets are essential.