Culture and sport improvement toolkit

• Culture and sport improvement toolkit
• Views on the toolkit from pilot authorities

The new culture and sport improvement toolkit (CSIT) supports self-improvement by offering a new approach to self-assessment and improvement planning, focusing on:

• organisational capacity
• performance management
• reviewing relationships with key partners.

The toolkit enables self-assessment against a new benchmark, validation, peer review and other forms of support and helps you improve how culture and sport:

• is positioned in local sustainable community strategies and local area agreements (LAAs)
• delivers measurable outcomes for communities and people
• is measured for performance and impact.

The toolkit includes an optional 360-degree feedback assessment to help you improve your partnership working.

The CSIT was developed and piloted in eight local authorities during 2007, and independently evaluated by the IDeA (now Local Government Improvement and Development).

The toolkit can be downloaded below either by chapter or as a complete document via the compressed (‘zipped’) file. You may then use it to carry out unsupported self-assessments. If you want support and help, we can nominate trained consultants for you to employ directly.

If you wish to have your self-assessment validated you should approach us before commencing the assessment. Refer to chapter nine of the CSIT below.

Groups of councils can work together as a local improvement network and use the peer-supported improvement process as an alternative to validation. If you wish to do this, you should contact Martyn Allison (martyn.allison@local.gov.uk) to access the guidance material and advice.

Culture and sport improvement toolkit

Compressed file containing all 18 sections

*Culture and sport improvement toolkit (compressed file, 989KB)

*To view the 18 documents contained in this compressed file, save the file to your desktop and open from there. (Do not try to open the file before saving.)

Full document by section

1. Introduction (PDF, 3 pages, 103KB)
2. Guidance notes (PDF, 25 pages, 263KB)
3. (a) Benchmark theme 1: Themes, criteria and key features (RTF, 7 pages, 94KB)
   (b) Benchmark theme 2: Policy and strategy (RTF, 4 pages, 55KB)
   (c) Benchmark theme 3: Community engagement (RTF, 4 pages, 62KB)
   (d) Benchmark theme 4: Partnership working (RTF, 5 pages, 99KB)
   (e) Benchmark theme 5: Resource management (RTF, 126 pages, 126KB)
   (f)  Benchmark theme 6: People management (RTF, 7 pages, 126KB)
   (g) Benchmark theme 7: Customer service (RTF, 2 pages, 50KB)
   (h) Benchmark theme 8: Performance, achievement and learning (RTF, 9 pages, 153KB)
4. Evidence and probes for self-assessment (PDF, 20 pages, 180KB)
5. Benchmark for 360-degree external feedback (RTF, 45 pages, 453KB)
6. Evidence and probes for external perspective (PDF, 16 pages, 138KB)
7. Scoring your assessment (PDF, 5 pages, 90KB)
   (a) Scoring and record sheet: main assessment (RTF, 40 pages, 869KB)
   (b) 360-degree feedback scoring sheet (RTF, 35 pages, 664KB)
8. Improvement planning (PDF, 12 pages, 162KB)
9. Validation (PDF, 11 pages, 112KB)

Views on the toolkit from pilot authorities

Liz Borthwick of Spelthorne Borough Council said:

“It has helped identify improvement needs and is do-able and practical. It will also help position culture within the LSP.”

Iain Varah of the London Borough of Redbridge said:

“The engagement of our team in the single improvement process was particularly useful in breaking down barriers between services. It is getting people to think creatively about future cross-boundary service development and improvement.”

David Grocott of Gloucestershire County Council said:

“Best I can say is that the tool definitely helped our positioning with senior managers in the county council, including the chief executive. It brought the family of cultural services together in a helpful way – we are split around the authority – and provided useful feedback from external partners. This reinforced some positive feelings about our partnership working.”

Kate Davenport of Bristol City Council said:

“The self-assessment process has led to some cathartic discussions between managers in the department. It has got some difficult issues out into the open between us.”