I’m Andi Fugard

I love gigs and techno nights, dusty second-hand bookshops, reading spy thrillers, befriending cats, and going on city breaks with my partner.

A little bit of what I do

I joined IFF in 2025, following over 15 years’ experience working in research agencies and universities. I’m a social policy evaluator, specialising in impact evaluation, which means working out whether social policies and programmes are making a meaningful difference. I’m currently the impact evaluation lead for two randomised controlled trials: one investigating the impact of debt advice services (Money and Pension Service) and another evaluating a programme designed to improve children’s understanding of maths (Education Endowment Foundation). Alongside project work, I provide training on evaluation methods and sit on the Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel, which advises government. I’m an enthusiastic user of the statistical programming language R.

What I’ve achieved

Policy evaluations are team efforts, relying on a range of expertise including policy knowledge, methodological design, project management, and large-scale data collection. I’ve worked on projects in areas such as family courts, educational attainment, alcohol policy, crime prevention, and psychological therapy. I’m particularly proud of projects where it initially seemed impossible to develop a robust design – and where, through collaboration, we found a way forward.