Understand the unique context of your work
Contexts vary enormously. No single public health message or wellbeing intervention will work for everyone—something highlighted clearly during the Covid-19 pandemic, but evident long before. Effective public service work always attends to context and is necessarily different each time.
Working well with context, and tailoring responses to individual or local situations, takes considerable skill and creativity. Yet this work is often invisible or undervalued.
The benefits of taking time to understand context
Taking time to consider context, and how it has shaped decisions and practice, is a powerful way to highlight the unique contribution your team makes to improving outcomes. Many teams find this reflective process both useful and affirming.
Thinking carefully about context can help you:
- identify key risks to your work
- consider how to mitigate these risks and build on opportunities
- set reasonable expectations about what is achievable within the time, resources and constraints available
Analysing and reflecting on context is widely recognised as the first step in any robust theory-based evaluation. Guidance from the Canadian Government, for example, highlights that strong evaluation reports begin with a clear account of the context in which work takes place and return to contextual factors throughout.
There is more information on working with risks and assumptions in the related post on this topic.
A practical framework to help you understand context
Many frameworks exist to support context analysis. One useful example is the ISM Framework, developed by the Scottish Government. It identifies factors within individual, social and material contexts that can shape the delivery and effectiveness of projects or programmes.
The framework was originally developed to support complexity-informed environmental behaviour change initiatives, but it is broadly applicable to public service work.
It can be used to:
- prompt discussion and reflection within teams about contextual factors that support or hinder their work
- organise and analyse information from sources such as meeting notes, consultations, staff reflections or relevant research
A full guide to the ISM framework and how it can be applied to public service projects and programmes is available to download.
Real examples of the impact of analysing context
Understanding and reflecting on context can have a substantial effect on how projects are delivered and understood. The following examples illustrate how context analysis has supported real initiatives:
Justifying resources
Lothian Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service supports people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, asylum seekers and refugees. Their work is shaped by multiple contextual challenges, including:
- a hostile immigration environment
- limited availability of high-quality interpretation services
- low levels of cultural competence among some health and care professionals
- the attitudes and beliefs of the individuals they support
Using a structured approach to analyse their context highlighted the scale and complexity of these challenges and helped the team articulate the need for a specialist service.
Setting realistic expectations
The My Life My Way pilot, led by East Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership, aimed to improve outcomes for people in residential care through increased choice and control. Early context analysis revealed numerous factors that made change difficult within the timeframe. This work helped establish realistic expectations for what could be achieved.
Doing the right thing
Age Scotland delivers dementia training to unpaid carers. By analysing the context surrounding their training—drawing on discussions with unpaid carers—the team identified gaps in local supports and services. This insight led them to adapt their approach: building a community around the training, offering ongoing information, and systematically capturing learning to inform wider campaigning.
Recording and sharing the context of your work
Whatever systems or tools you use, it is helpful to record contextual information in a clear and accessible place. Documenting your analysis – such as reflections linked to the ISM framework – can support internal learning and help others understand the environment in which your work has taken place.
Making context visible strengthens reporting, supports evaluation, and helps demonstrate why your work is unique, challenging and valuable.