Reviewing your Big Local plan Why we review What we have learnt about plan reviews from our evaluation of the early years The 9 review questions Tools and templates to help you Putting you in charge: its your review, you choose! Why review? To see how you are doing To help plan what you are going to next To see what you have learnt To know how the money is being spent To tell your community what you are doing To help us to know if Big Local is working What the evaluation told us The Big Local journey is up and down not a straight line of progress – that’s Ok Not everything works – we are not expecting everything to work or run smoothly all the time Some things seem too hard to measure A pause to reflect and review was helpful… it can be hard to find the time but its worth it Some anxiety about reviews and evaluation… It’s too soon? Where do we start? Do we need special skills and knowledge? We need to focus on doing the work not measuring the results? – you are in charge! The 9 Questions! What you will review: Your Big Local plan 1. What has your Big Local area done against what was in your plan? 2. What money have you spent? The 9 Questions! What you will review: Your progress 3. What impact have you had? 4. What have you learnt? 5. Have you progressed on your vision and priorities? 6. Do you need to refresh your vision and priorities? The 9 Questions! What you will review: Big Local outcomes 7. How does this relate to the achievement of the 4 Big Local outcomes? Communities will be better able to identify local needs and take action in response to them. People will have increased skills and confidence, so that they continue to identify and respond to needs in the future. The community will make a difference to the needs it prioritises. People will feel that their area is an even better place to live. The 9 Questions! So you’ve reviewed! What next? 8. Do you need a new or revised plan, or will you continue with the existing plan? 9. How do you know this is what your community wants? Your review, you choose! You decide how to review You decide when to review We will support you Tools and templates to help you review your plan Annual review template Checking your progress toolkit “Headlines” report posters Measuring what matters self-assessment Big Local story mapping How have areas reviewed? In Lawrence Weston they used a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating system for their activities: Traffic Lights Rating Red THEME HOUSING Investment / Welcome Pack (p2a) Blockers Enablers Positive Action(s) Achievement Contribution to Progress Learning Amber Green Capacity √ Image' Project (a) Annual Event including New Parks Opening √ Image Project (c) Website (p2b) √ Will Sabido Chase & prioritise Bureaucracy Make ALW website more interesting, updated articles, recipes, tips, jokes to make residents search it more often All the background work done to inform the design and content. Doing the research was good for the Steering Group. When it goes 'live' the pack will boost percections and the image of the area. Great successs. Community brought together. Significant. Confidence raised. Inspiration for future. New Parks popular and wellused. Within the Big Local steering group; informing Ambition Lawrence Weston reviews; a growing appreciation of what is good in Lawrence Weston. How complex to run. Level of planning required. Bureaucracy. Costs involved. How have areas reviewed? In Allenton they created a step-by-step approach to their review: revisiting the vision – how does it sound a year on? reviewing the landscape – has anything major changed locally we need to be mindful of going forward? How have areas reviewed? reviewing the themes and activities activity headings had short summaries, which they then followed-up by answering some quick questions about them together they then marked all of their activities on a grid called the Boston Matrix which uses 4 ideas to review progress looking at the implications of their review for the coming year and actions required Tools – the ‘Boston matrix’ Donkeys: not much effort, but not much impact. So why are we doing this and how do we move forward? Should we drop it? Question marks: a lot of effort and not yet much impact. So, what are the cost / benefits? When and how do we expect greater impact? Community cows: low effort and high impact. Sounds ideal, but how do we keep this going and when do we know it is time to stop? Rising stars: a lot of effort and a lot of impact: So, are we ok with the impact and effort? What’s likely to change and what should we do? Who has done a plan review? How did you go about it? What did you learn? How did you use the information from the review? When you review next, what will you do differently? What is your top tip about reviewing? What will you do?! How shall we review? Review meeting? As we go along? Tools and methods? How have others reviewed? What help will we need? When shall we review? Towards the end of the first year? After we deliver something, eg the summer activities? When does the grant agreement end? What info do we already have? LTO reports on spend and activities? Evaluation forms from events? Info from the community? Evidence from others, eg police? What info will we need to collect? Details of money spent from the LTO? What does the community want us to do now? Tell us how you get on! Contact: Jayne Humm [email protected] 07815 596 487