Reviewing the year...
Looking back over 2008, Start has continued to develop its services and activities. To read more download a pdf of our Annual Review 2008. We are sure you will agree that there are exciting times ahead for everyone involved with Start in Salford arts project.
Project evaluation
Start in Salford's Monitoring and Evaluation system enables measurement and tracking of achievements, outputs and outcomes in several ways. The results are captured in a quarterly Monitoring and Evaluation Report produced in newsletter format that allows stakeholders to see:
- The numbers of beneficiaries, programmes of activity and other services delivered (hard outputs monitored through session registers);
- The soft outcomes such as impact on attendance, condition etc(through questionnaires, tutorials and tutor observations);
- Gaining of skills, accreditation and certification (through accessing ‘pathways’ provision at Start for education, volunteering, work based skills options);
- Beneficiary destinations into education FE/HE, external volunteering, employment and other options. Start also collects individual beneficiary exit and journey statements.
Within this methodology the involvement of members (service users) is of paramount importance to ensure that the services delivered meet the needs of the beneficiary groups. The input they give as ‘expert patients’ enables us to develop holistic services that provide added benefits.
Start in Salford evaluates long and short term projects and is continuously looking for improved and additional ways of measuring and evaluating projects to ensure that services are responsive to the changing needs of beneficiaries and other stakeholders so that lessons learned are used to inform new developments. Additionally, we seek to involve other organisations in evaluating projects and researching the benefits of interventions where possible.
Start in Salford participated in the ‘Arts and Health’ research project conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University funded through ‘Invest to Save’ a partnership between the Department of Health, the Arts Council North West and the Department of Culture Media and Sport. The Summary Report, 'Invest to Save: Arts in Health Evaluation' is available on their website. Start in Salford is also a member of Greater Manchester Arts and Health Network.
All of the above methodologies and systems will be used to ensure comprehensive monitoring and ongoing developmental improvement of all existing and new services.
Downloads:
