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APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW TOPIC GUIDES
1 CONSULTATION WITH PROJECT MANAGERS
Section 1: Project Background and Rationale
1. Please describe your Pathfinder project in terms of its objectives, structure, activities and target groups?
2. How was the project structured and managed within your organisation? (probe for extent and nature of cross service working and cross authority collaboration)
3. How does the project fit with existing strategic guidance in relation to cultural provision in your area(s)? (probe for whether the project was developed within the context of an existing strategy or if it was intended to develop strategic guidance)
4. At a strategic level, what was the project intended to achieve? (probe here for links to Community Planning, engagement of specific under-represented target groups, policy issues around widening access to culture etc)
5. How is the project being evaluated? What stage is the evaluation process at and are there any issues with collecting suitable data? What kinds of issues will it address (e.g. impacts on beneficiaries, policy influence, impacts on partners etc)?
Section 2: Activities and Processes
6. Please describe the means by which your project engaged with:
a. under-represented target groups within the local community (may be different approaches that worked for different marginalised groups)
b. other departments within the local authority
c. Community Planning partners
d. Other stakeholders (e.g. national agencies such as Scottish Arts Council and local stakeholders e.g. NHS - specify who)
7. What worked well in this respect, and what did not? (probe for key points of learning around means of engagement across each of the stakeholder groups and for mitigating actions taken to overcome issues etc.)
8. To what extent, and in what ways, will these lessons influence the planning of cultural provision in future?
9. How important has partnership been to the overall running of the project and what issues or challenges did you encounter in working with partners? How were these addressed?
Section 3: Achievements and Impacts
10. Please comment in the extent to which you think the project has been successful in:
a. engaging with Community Planning processes and structures
b. encouraging participation in cultural activity, particularly amongst 'hard to reach' groups
c. encouraging participation and input to planning future cultural provision
d. influencing key partners/ stakeholders (specify who) and raising the profile of culture across other service/ policy areas (e.g. regeneration, education etc)
11. What have been the impacts of the project on:
a. your organisation (e.g. raised profile of culture, enhanced buy-in/ support etc)
b. key partners/ stakeholders (e.g. raised profile of culture, broadened understanding of role of culture across service/ policy areas etc)
c. participants (e.g. personal benefits, increased interest in local neighbourhood, increased interest in culture etc)
d. the cultural sector in your area(s)
12. Have there been other benefits of the project not mentioned so far? Please describe.
13. What would have happened without the Pathfinder project? Would these impacts have been realised in other ways? Please expand.
14. Has the Pathfinder project meant that other activity could not be delivered? What has been the impact of that?
15. What elements of the project did not work so well, and what actions were taken to address these issues - what are the key lessons?
16. Taking into account the cost of the project (including Scottish Government funding, match funding and in-kind support) do you believe it has offered value for money? Why do you say this? (and how was match funding levered?)
17. What do you believe will be the longer-term legacy/ legacies of the project (if any)? Please expand.
Section 4: The Pathfinder Programme
18. How clear and efficient was the application and assessment process for the Cultural Pathfinders Programme? Any issues/ suggestions for improvement?
19. What are your views on the role of the Scottish Government in the management of the Programme? Any issues/ suggestions for improvement?
20. What are you overall views on the strengths and weaknesses of the Cultural Pathfinder Programme as a whole? (probe for policy rationale/ relevance, suitability of objectives and funding criteria etc)
21. Did you find the Cultural Pathfinder Learning Collaborative useful? Please expand - any issues/ suggestions for improvement?
22. Have you made use of the Scottish Government's Evaluation Toolkit? Has that been useful? Please expand - any issues/ suggestions for improvement?
23. Any final comments/ issues not covered in our discussion?
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