This paper outlines a vision of evaluation and its place in social and educational policy and practice. It focuses on the 'presence' of evaluation in theory, organizational learning and internationalization and the 'voice' of participants in the evaluation process drawing on a range of examples of evaluation practice. It argues for an 'inclusive' evaluation stance from a moral/political standpoint and from the standpoint of sound evaluation design. It offers evaluation as a way of promoting and depicting the effects of social policy on its recipients and concludes by suggesting the way evaluations can promote 'provisional stabilities' for those experiencing rapid and complex change.