Evaluation is crucial to the development and sustainability of Arts Therapy and Arts& Health practices.

This guide supports practitioners in their quest to integrate thorough evaluation procedures in their everyday practices by providing practical guidance for designing, planning and implementing bespoke evaluation projects.

Based on the authors' experience of designing and realising evaluation projects and running training workshops, a range of suggestions are offered for developing appropriate timelines and collection tools, ensuring organisational diplomacy, and managing what can be a delicate balance of truth, fact and perception.

This guide will help practitioners to evaluate their services and projects by taking into consideration the unique profile of the practice, the workplace, clients, project participants, and sectors.

Giorgos Tsiris trained as a music therapist at Nordoff Robbins (London, UK), where he is now conducting his doctoral research. He is a research assistant at Nordoff Robbins where he coordinates the monitoring and evaluation portfolio. He works as a music therapist with terminally ill adults and bereaved families at St Christopher's Hospice. He is the founding editor of the open access journal, Approaches: Music Therapy& Special Music Education, and coordinator of the Research Network of the British Association for Music Therapy. Mercédès Pavlicevic trained as a music therapist at Nordoff Robbins (London, UK), and completed her doctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh's Department of Psychology with Colwyn Trevarthen. As a music therapist she has worked in a range of institutional and community settings, in Scotland, in the Lebanon and in South Africa. Mercédès was Director of the Master's in Music Therapy programme at the University of Pretoria until 2006 this was the first accredited training programme on the African Continent. She has authored, co-authored and edited numerous music therapy publications. She is Research Director at Nordoff Robbins, and Research Associate at SOAS Music Department, at the University of London. Camilla Farrant trained as a music therapist at Nordoff Robbins (London, UK) after reading Music at Christ's College, Cambridge University and studying the cello and piano at the Royal Academy of Music. She is the founder of and music therapist for The Music Therapy Tree, an organisation that provides music therapy to vulnerable children in mainstream education. She works as a research assistant at Nordoff Robbins, and performs professionally with The Massive Violins.

Foreword by Mike White. Introduction. Evaluation Basics. Phase 1. Planning. Phase 2. Developing Data Collection Tools. Phase 3. Collecting Data and Supplementary Material. Phase 4. Processing Data and Supplementary Material. Phase 5. Drafting Outputs. Phase 6. Finalising and Disseminating Outputs. Interlude: A Note on Ethics. Conclusion. References. Index.