Community Wealth Building Evaluation: Learning Lessons from Scotland

Title Mixed-method evaluation of the impact of Community Wealth Building on economic and health outcomes and health inequalities in Scotland Aim To evaluate the health and health inequalities impacts of CWB as an approach to developing inclusive economies. Research questions 1. What are likely to be the most effective pathways for CWB to improve population health and reduce health inequalities? (See work package (WP)1 in the Methods section below) 2. How has CWB been implemented in Scotland and how does it vary across LAs? What changes have there been to policies, processes and practices on the pathways defined in WP1? (See WP2) 3. What are the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of CWB? (See WP2) 4. What is the effect of CWB on health and intermediate economic outcomes? (See WP3a) 5. What has been the impact of CWB on inequalities in health across groups defined by their individual or household social position? (See WP3a) 6. What is the contribution of different components of CWB to economic and health outcomes and does the impact vary with the degree of implementation? (See WP3b and WP4) Methods The evaluation will comprise five interlinked WPs • WP1 will refine the draft CWB Theory of Change (ToC) (see Figure 2) drawing on existing literature and stakeholder engagement (RQ1). • WP2 will assess whether and how CWB has been implemented in LAs in Scotland (RQ2) and the barriers and facilitators to progress (RQ3). • WP3 will involve two sub-work packages. In WP3a we will compare changes in economic and health outcomes and health inequalities in areas experiencing different levels and types of progress in implementing CWB (RQ4 and RQ5). In WP3b we will assess whether the timing, extent and nature of the implementation of CWB in different areas is associated with the level of change in health and intermediate economic outcomes (RQ6). • WP4 will identify across the 32 LAs the combinations of factors associated with the implementation of CWB that are necessary and sufficient to bring about particular economic or health outcomes (RQ6). • WP5 will synthesise and disseminate the results of WPs1-4.