ANNEX 1(a)
Strengths and Weaknesses
Judgement 1 - How good is the service?

Theme	Score	Strengths	Weaknesses	
Aims	2	°	Progress in developing clear aims for cultural provision overall
°	Some clear service aims	°	Clarity about what council is trying to achieve
°	Vague heritage service aims 
°	Lack of stakeholder involvement in developing service focus
°	Lack of local challenging targets for heritage services	
Opportunities	3	°	Range and breadth of opportunities and services
°	Joint use of sites for community facilities
°	High quality collections and music and youth arts provision
°	New ways of working and innovative projects
°	External funding 
°	Effective partnerships
°	Learning opportunities to improve skills 	°	Coincidental contribution to cross cutting agendas 
°	No consistent approach for target community groups
°	Limited cross service working
	
Access	3	°	Reasonable geographic spread of built facilities
°	Outreach and exhibitions programmes
°	ICT developments
°	Improvements for users with additional needs
°	Opening hours changed to meet local needs
°	Working with users to develop services	°	Diversity not routinely addressed
°	Limited data on local needs
°	Inconsistency and co-ordination of publicity material
°	Internal communication issues
	
Quality of experience	3	°	High levels of satisfaction
°	Professionalism of staff 
°	High levels of customer care
°	Heritage buildings
°	Positive feedback from users and participants in projects	°	Inconsistent levels of satisfaction
°	Lack of use of customer feedback 
°	Lack of service standards
°	Condition and size of some facilities	
Outcomes and performance	2	°	Some examples of activity impacting on quality of life particularly linked to youth arts
°	Examples of high comparative performance
°	Examples of effective use of resources 	°	No systematic evaluation of effectiveness linked to outcomes and benefits for local people 
°	Underinvestment in services
°	No value for money comparisons	
Overall Score –
Judgement 1	3
Good	

Judgement  2 - What are the prospects for improvement to the service?

Question 1 - How good are the service’s plans for improvement?	
Area of Focus	Score	Strengths	Weaknesses	
Ambition	3	°	Increasing awareness of contribution culture can make to delivering shared and corporate priorities
°	Commitment to achieving ambitions for cultural provision
°	Aiming for best 25 per cent performance in all areas by 2006	°	Clarity of vision 
	
Priorities	3	°	Corporately seeking to reduce high number of priorities
°	Directorate clarity on internal and external forces for improvement
°	Clear about what is not a priority 
°	Clarity of priorities for improvement in libraries	°	Clarity on relative importance of themes in cultural strategy
°	Lack of clear priorities for improvement in heritage services	
Future Plans	3	°	Corporate priority action plans for improvement
°	High level action plan that develops the cultural strategy themes
°	Libraries improvement plan funded and agreed	°	Links between corporate and individual service plans
°	Inconsistent stakeholder engagement in strategic thinking and planning	
Score for question	3	

Question 2 - Can the Council deliver its plans?	
Area of Focus	Score	Strengths	Weaknesses	
Focus	3	°	Appropriate mechanisms in place
°	Progress at service level in contribution to corporate priorities		
Capacity	4	°	Strong leadership
°	Raised profile for culture
°	Training opportunities for councillors on cultural issues
°	Role of scrutiny committee developing effectively for culture
°	Potential for joint working through new directorate
°	Partnerships recognised as important 
°	Increased resources	°	Lack of systematic mechanisms for sharing skills
°	Internal communication and co-ordination
°	Plans to sustain improvements and exit strategies
	
Performance Management	2	°	New performance management framework
°	Proposed service planning framework at directorate level
°	Some service performance monitoring	°	Few local indicators for cultural provision
°	Target setting
°	Lack of measuring impacts and outcomes	
Achievement of Improvement	2	°	Customer focused improvements in libraries
°	Unaudited data showing increased levels of business 	°	Lack of information on effectiveness of activity	
Investment	4	°	Review of property assets
°	Medium term financial plan 
°	Response to external challenge
°	IT Broadband developments
°	Management development programme		
Learning	3	°	Corporate awareness of  weaknesses
°	Some self awareness at service level
°	Barriers to change identified
°	Some evidence of learning from experience and from others	°	No systematic sharing of learning	
Score  for question	3	
Overall score –
Judgement 2	3 
Promising