A recent internal evaluation was undertaken in July 2016 for 2 sections of the befriending scheme, the Children and Young People 7-15 yrs and the Additional Support Needs Children and Young People 7-18yrs sections. This was undertaken in line with the Quality in Befriending (QiB) re-accreditation process that occurred in June 2016.

In the Key findings the report states:

The scheme's focus will be to consider the key recommendations in this evaluation to ensure that the service continues to deliver a quality service. Staff and stakeholders have identified similar areas that need to be looked at. The main focus will be around the managing of matching lists and waiting times for a volunteer, volunteer recruitment, reviewing how training is delivered to new volunteers and reflecting on how endings in a match are managed.

Overall the feedback from those who have accessed the support, the young people, has been very positive, they have reported enjoying their time with their volunteer, undertaking a range of activities and they feel befriending has helped them in a positive way, which is what the service was/is set up to do.

The downloadable file 'Alongside to Help' [pdf 382KB] is an External Evaluation undertaken in December 2010 of Shetland Befriending Scheme by Mike Nicholson, on behalf of Befriending Network Scotland.

In the Key findings the report states:

Five years since its last external evaluation, this evaluation finds the Shetland Befriending Scheme to have developed into new areas with an expanded staff team, but to have done this with no compromise to its highly organised approach, its close regard to best practice, its professional and caring delivery of service to all involved, or the way in which it is viewed across the community.