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PART 2 STANDARDS, MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Introduction
2.1 The Bill requires local authorities to have regard to what the guidance says about how they should assess the quality of their performance in providing cultural services. It also requires local authorities to provide information to Scottish Ministers about how successfully they have provided cultural services and how cultural provision has assisted each local authority in its overall performance.
2.2 Local authorities will be expected to assess and monitor their performance in planning for culture and its wider applications, and in determining and providing cultural services, including entitlements. In doing so, they will be expected to use the strategic Quality Assurance Framework currently being developed. The assessment should include delivery by all relevant local authority service departments.
2.3 Ministers seek to ensure that local cultural provision is of a consistent standard across the country. Current activity to take this forward in the local authority sector is described below. The Bill requires Scottish Ministers to consult with appropriate people and organisations to inform their guidance to local authorities. Ministers will be looking for advice from the relevant national cultural organisations to inform a quality assessment process, which includes development of the "standards" mentioned in the policy statement, "Scotland's Culture". The national cultural organisations will develop that information in full consultation with local authorities, the cultural sector and stakeholders.
2.4 This part of the guidance is, at this stage, intended to be an introduction to future developments. In its final form it will include a strategic Quality Assurance Framework, focused on outcomes, which will subsume the 'standards' mentioned in the policy statement. Standards do not 'stand still' and the QA Framework will provide a means to work towards ongoing improvement in provision, as appropriate. Scottish Ministers expect that the QA methodology will be used by local authorities to evaluate their approaches to planning and delivery of cultural services and entitlements. The current plan is to make significant progress in developing the strategic QA Framework in the first part of 2007. With regard to museums and galleries, there is also a Significance Scheme which recognises a nationally distributed collection that will develop over time.
SELF EVALUATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE
The approach
2.5 The approach to quality assurance and standards of provision will be 'national', meaning that it will apply throughout the country. The standards attained will not necessarily be on a par with those of the National Collections bodies and national performing companies: the policy statement describes those bodies as "centres of excellence", with a matching level of performance expected of them. (That relates to the performance of national bodies' core activity, their touring, education and outreach and their governance.) It would be unreasonable to expect routinely such performance levels in all local government provision.
2.6 The object of performance management, including quality assurance, is that people can expect the same attention to quality in their local facilities - museum, gallery etc - wherever in the country they happen to live. That does not mean all facilities will aim to operate at the same level, e.g. in terms of the extent of their collection, the special exhibitions that complement it, and how many visitor services they provide. However, what they do provide should aim to be of a good standard, and be planned with quality in mind.
2.7 The product of this work will be a strategic QA Framework for self-evaluation that overarches the sector tools and focuses on outcomes and impacts. In practice, as discussed below, work by the national cultural organisations has already commenced and will inform, and continue in parallel with, the work of the QA sub group mentioned at paragraph 2.15, below.
Self evaluation and quality assurance models
2.8 There are several quality systems currently in use by local authorities, some of which will be familiar to officers within cultural services. These are listed for information, providing a context for the integrated approach being developed (see below): include Investors in People ( IIP), Charter Mark, ISO900, Quest and Museums Accreditation. Quality assurance and inspection processes have developed according to the principles of the Excellence Model of the European Foundation for Quality Management ( EFQM).
2.9 There are also inspection regimes managed by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( HMIe), such as "Quality Management in Education 2 - Self-Evaluation for Quality Improvement" (2006), "How Good is Our Community Learning and Development? 2 - Self-Evaluation for Quality Improvement" (2006), and the new framework for integrated children's services to be introduced in 2008, "A Guide to Evaluating Services for Children and Young People using Quality Indicators".
Current developments
2.10 The Scottish Library and Information Council ( SLIC) 17, as the advisory body for library and information services in Scotland, has been developing a new tool to measure the performance and impact of public library services, and to improve standards. The Public Library Quality Improvement Matrix ( PLQIM) is linked to the HMIe quality indicator framework. The tool is currently being reviewed following the first pilots.
2.11 The Scottish Museums Council ( SMC) 18 has commissioned a research project to develop a quality assurance tool for museum and gallery provision across Scotland. The aim of this project will be to research standards relating to all museum and gallery provision, develop a working model for a quality assurance tool and to make proposals for testing the model.
2.12 The Scottish Arts Council is developing a quality assurance tool, building on the appraisal methodology used in its 2005-06 Strategic Review of arts organisations to which it awards national funding.
2.13 VOCAL has also drafted proposals for a self-evaluation approach, based on the EFQM model, for culture and leisure services.
2.14 The development of the QA tools for the arts, museums and libraries sectors is being done in full consultation with relevant cultural bodies, local authorities and other stakeholders.
Diagram of the process to develop a Quality Assurance Framework
Towards an integrated approach
2.15 As shown in the diagram above, a small sub group of the Cultural Planning and Entitlements Working Group has been established to look at these developments in more detail, with a view to preparing a strategic, over-arching QA Framework for cultural services that will encompass the sector-specific developments, outlined above. (For more information on the Group and sub group, see the website 19.) This Framework will provide a comprehensive methodology that will also adopt the EFQM principles, allowing it to include other systems such as IIP and Charter Marker and to complement the "How Good" model used by HMIe. Ongoing work to develop a QA Framework for sports provision will be monitored to aim for consistency between the two models.
2.16 This outcome-focused approach will contribute to public sector objectives for streamlining.
2.17 The strategic QA Framework produced by the sub group will be disseminated through further editions of the guidance, together with proposals for testing the model. The principles guiding its development are that it should be user-friendly, focused on the key elements of each cultural service area. The assessment of each element should consider the perspective of the service user (the visitor, participant, audience member etc), and what it is reasonable for users to expect. The QA Framework will be geared to boosting quality in all key areas of performance and will inform the development of quality entitlements. Its use will be required in the version of the guidance that is issued formally.
2.18 Key headings for a QA Framework might include: leadership; policy and strategy; community engagement; partnership working; use of resources (including business, financial management and human resources); key performance outcomes (including improvements in service delivery); impact on service users (including interpretation and learning).
MONITORING
Introduction
2.19 Scottish Ministers will write to local authorities to request information on their cultural provision and the results of their self-evaluation. A timetable will be developed and disseminated so that local authorities know when to make their report.
Performance information submitted to Ministers
2.20 When local authorities submit information to Scottish Ministers on their cultural provision and its quality, as required by Section 3 of the Culture Bill, this must include the assessment resulting from their use of the Strategic QA Framework, including the process information mentioned in Part 1 of the guidance.
2.21 When Ministers receive the requested information from local authorities, they will consider it, bearing in mind their policies to promote consistent provision and to develop participation across the population and in particular amongst under-represented groups. If Ministers decide to provide further guidance in light of any aspect of the information returned by an authority (or authorities) - for example, regarding the content and impact of provision, or the approach to community consultation - they will do so. The local authority will be required by the Culture Bill (section 2) to have regard to that guidance, and to provide whatever further information Ministers request under section 3.
2.22 If Ministers are of the view that a local authority needs to take further action to comply with national policy objectives, they may seek the preparation of a strategy to get provision back 'on track', allowing a period of time that appears to them appropriate for the authority to effect implementation.
Performance review
2.23 Local authorities will also be expected to ensure that trusts and other third party delivery mechanisms, such as bodies they might fund to deliver entitlements, are monitored for quality using the strategic QA Framework. It should be made clear to those bodies in the service delivery contract what kind of performance and financial data they will be required to keep. That will also assist local authorities to complete the annual return to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy ( CIPFA) : "Cultural Statistics in Scotland".
2.24 As discussed, local authorities will also be expected periodically to publish their intended provision. Scottish Ministers require that the publication process will be used to review and seek feedback on the use and impact of cultural entitlements and other provision. Consideration should also focus on take-up by under-represented groups. Local authorities should then consider how to use that feedback in planning future provision.
2.25 The outcome of consideration of further options to help local authorities ensure consistent, independent evaluation or scrutiny of performance will be reflected in further editions of this guidance. This includes exploring whether audit and monitoring arrangements for cultural planning might be incorporated into an existing framework or regime.
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