Engine of Reform — Evaluation Task Force 2026 Conference champions evidence-led government

Civil service leaders, policymakers, and evaluation experts gather to discuss how government can learn from what works and use evidence to drive efficiency, effectiveness and innovation in public services.

The conference,  Learn Fast, Deliver Better: Innovating and Using Evidence to Reform Public Services, was held in collaboration with the School for Government at King’s College London and took place on Friday 19 June 2026 at KCL’s Strand campus. It was attended by more than 370 government analysts, policy professionals, academics, and evaluators. The event was a call for action to build the habits that will make the government genuinely learn its way to better outcomes and use evaluation as a tool for innovative, better delivery. 

Opening the conference, Juliet Chua, Director General for the Economic and Domestic Secretariat (EDS) at the Cabinet Office, invited civil servants from across all professions to leverage evaluation as a catalyst for effective reform. Her remarks underscored the alignment of this approach with the Cabinet Secretary’s broader ambitions for rigorous, innovation-driven public service transformation.

Levin Wheller, Head of the ETF, then set the stage for the day, linking the ETF core mission and new strategy to the wider government’s ambitions for public service transformation. He highlighted how the new ETF strategy accelerates this mission by shifting our focus from making evaluations happen to ensuring they drive better outcomes; and highlighted the Taskforce’s new priority workstreams. 

The conference showcased government evaluation projects using ‘test and learn’ approaches to improve delivery and how rigorous methodologies are being applied to complex public sector problems, including homelessness, reoffending and victims support.