I have a clinical background in midwifery and have been working as a researcher in health and social care at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE), since 2001. Over that time I have been involved in a range of projects, including three major evaluations: an evaluation of interprofessional educational provision (2001-2007, funded by DH), a national evaluation of innovative service initiatives (2008-2010, funded by DH) and an impact evaluation of patient and public involvement in research (2011-2014, funded by NIHR). More recently, I acted as Project Manager for a multi-institutional NIHR-funded mixed-methods study focusing on how quality is measured in community nursing (2014-2017). Since 2008, I have also been involved in smaller projects evaluating different types of service provision for the NHS, Local Authorities and third sector organisations. I was appointed as Evaluation Lead for the Centre for Health and Clinical Research at UWE in October 2019. and am also co-leading the South West Evaluation On-line Network with Jo Bangoura from the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).I am passionate about evaluation and think it is essential for anyone involved in quality improvement to become aware that evaluation must be an integral component of the process; and to realise that robust evaluation is not a trivial exercise