Briefing Paper

Overview

Two shared learning seminars were held in Rhyl and Cardiff in June 2012. We aimed to:

• Raise awareness of the Wales Audit Office's role relating to Improvement. Our roles relating to Governance and Assurance are well known: the seminars demonstrated the close links between all three core roles; and 
  
• Address one of the recommendations from the Auditor General's "Grants Management in Wales" report, as good practice in monitoring and evaluation will improve current management and enable learning for future improvements.

The seminars are one of the many ways in which the Wales Audit Office supports grant practitioners across Wales, covering the public and voluntary sectors and the main non-statutory funders too. This builds on the valuable work that we began in 2009 with the launch of our Grants Management module on the Good Practice Exchange. We strongly encourage grant practitioners to continue to  use this network to share knowledge in the future.

Delegates

Forty-five delegates attended from the Welsh Government, the WCVA, the Big Lottery Fund, several unitary authorities and the county voluntary councils.
Delegate Feedback.

Overall 84% of participants who responded to our post-event survey rated the seminar as very/useful.  (16% very useful and 68% as useful); Comments included:

• "I found the whole day very useful and it made me reconsider my view on Monitoring and Evaluation as useful, rather than a 'chore'"; and
  
• "Very positive, supportive environment in which we could share, and it was good to have time to sit back and reflect". 
  
• Following the seminar, 84% of delegates now feel very confident/confident about monitoring and evaluation ;
  
• Our bringing together the representatives of the Welsh Government, local authorities and the third sector to share information and perspectives was seen by delegates as very beneficial;
  
• Delegates welcomed the sharing and learning approach: they saw others grappling with similar issues - and realised that it's not necessary for them to 'reinvent the wheel';

Outputs

Delegates wanted advice on over thirty grants management issues. The 'high-level messages' are summarised below, along with the learning shared. We found that often we could match up 'enquirers' with fellow practitioners having relevant knowledge, skills and experience. 
The shared learning seminars included expert presentations and provided a wide range of resources, all of which have been loaded onto our website.

1. Monitoring and evaluation.

Problems raised by delegates included:

• difficulties with setting desired outcomes when developing projects;
• how to monitor the 'right things';
• how to keep monitoring and evaluation 'appropriate'; and
• how to deal with the wide variety of requirements set by funders.
  
  A major grant funder explained how outputs and outcomes can be agreed in a supportive and collaborative environment, rather than though imposition.
  
  An expert trainer set out ten points for sound monitoring and evaluation and several delegates offered practical experience of specific programmes. 

2. Impact and communication.

Delegates wanted to know how to define impact and then communicate that effectively. A few recalled problems with handling enquiries from journalists.

Delegates received a presentation on the 'The Principles of Good Impact Reporting' as recently developed by the voluntary sector.
 
At Rhyl, there was also an informative presentation on the 'Results Based Accountability' (RBA) approach to impact and outcome measurement.

3. Governance and quality standards

Support bodies asked how they could encourage third sector organisations to invest in good governance and for trustees to plan for the future.

We ran an expert workshop covering management and leadership, governance and planning. We also promoted the new edition of the Governance Code for the Third Sector here.

Delegates face a bewildering variety of quality standards and wanted to know about their value.

We also ran a workshop on the PQASSO Quality Mark, one of the five most common standards for the voluntary sector.

Impact

Further impact evaluation is arranged for Autumn 2012, when we will interview a sample of delegates by telephone.  We will find out how they have used the contacts and other resources we made available in their day-to-day work, and see if any of their practices have changed.