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Case Study Three
Participation Indicator for Milton Keynes/South Midlands
Together with the other cultural agencies, MLA South East was asked to provide measures of participation that would serve to demonstrate the role that museums, libraries and archives play in community development within the Milton Keynes-South Midlands growth area. They were to be included in the Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub-Regional Strategy: Annual Monitoring Report 2006/7 in Strategic Policy 3: Sustainable Communities.
In the absence of nationally agreed participation measures that can be applied at a sub-regional or local level, MLA South East proposed that their tool for recording schools participation in museums related learning, Schools4Museums, should be used. With the implementation of a MLA national schools database, there was an opportunity to do this across regional and local authority boundaries.
So far, the percentage of state schools using local authority museums services in the growth area has been determined for 2006/7 and 2007/8 and included in the annual monitoring report.
Target Audience
Milton Keynes/South Midlands local authorities and Regional Government Offices
Aim
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To provide local authorities with a measure of participation in museum, library and archive activity that can be read across a growth area that spans local authority and regional borders
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To provide an indicator that can draw on a reliable data set on an annual basis
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To raise the profile of museums by demonstrating their involvement in providing services for children and young people by being able to monitor the level of schools participation taking place within a local authority
Process
The Milton Keynes and South Midlands Growth Area is a combination of elements of three English regions, the South East, East of England and East Midlands.
In September 2007 and 2008, sam (www.sam-culture.com) was commissioned by MLA South East to use the data modelling framework, developed as part of the South East Schools Participation Database, to determine which state schools (Primary, Middle, Secondary and Special) within the MK/SM growth area had used a museum service provided by a local authority-run museum (or a museum which receives at least 20% of its core funding from its local authority), also located within the same growth area.
Over two weeks in October 2007 and again in October 2008, sam ensured that schools participation data was collected from all the museums within the growth area. Sam then calculated the percentage of state schools using museums in the preceding academic year and the figure was forwarded to the MK/SM Cultural Coordinator to ensure that it was included in the annual monitoring report alongside the other cultural participation indicators, mainly supplied by Sport England and derived from Active People.
Impact and outcome
Increased profile of museums work with children and young people in the Milton Keynes/South Midlands Growth Area.
Evaluation
The level of schools participation in the growth area needs to be quantified on an annual basis to maximise its impact. This requires the continuation of the schools particiation database project so that it can continue to provide a consistant and reliable dataset across regional and local authority boundaries.
It also requires that data collection from museums in the growth area is carried out immediately after the end of the academic year. The relatively low level of schools participation in Milton Keynes has been noted by Strategic Commissioning and Hub Learning Managers in the South East and will be considered in future business planning.
Tips
Start data collection from museums before MK/SM Cultural Coordinator requests data in September because the participation figure is normally required to be returned in two weeks.
Future development
The completion of the national schools database will make this task easier in future.
It is hoped that the Strategic Commissioning team will be able to coordinate the collection of the data by the required deadline in future years following the closure of the regional agencies.
For more information contact Trish Popkin, MLA. 07787 572940