Shaping the Community Scorecard Action Research Project Final Report
| Title | Shaping the Community Scorecard Action Research Project Final Report |
| Author(s) | LSIS |
| Organisation | LSIS |
| Date | October 2011 |
| No. of pages | 38 |
| Key words | improving further education; community learning; urban deprivation; local partnerships; social productivity; internet connectivity; widening participation; social value; community empowerment; local networks; digitised technology; digitised learning |
| Description | In spring 2010 the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and LSIS explored the implications for colleges of a proposal for ‘community scorecards’ to be part of an emerging suite of public information to inform choice. This report outlines the experience of the 11 providers involved in the action research |
| Select quotations | The purpose of the community scorecard: “to strengthen and demonstrate providers’ contributions and accountability to their communities.” “Some providers felt that it would be difficult to develop a single community scorecard, even one just of their organisation, and chose to focus their community scorecard on one or two distinct communities that they served, whilst two provider networks explored the possibility of putting in place a single scorecard for the whole network.” “Where measures emerged beyond the existing national indicators they were around measures of community engagement – for example, numbers of students volunteering in the community, the number/range of events open to the community; the extent to which patterns of participation could be mapped to areas of disadvantage; and the extent to which the provider’s curriculum offer could be seen to be meeting the needs of the community.” Proposals - “It is important to recognise the wide range of audiences for information on FE and skills. The sector needs to develop its awareness of the priorities of strategic partners and civil society in order to shape its response to the emerging ‘Big Society’ concept.
- “It would be helpful to develop a spectrum of measures as examples for providers, but ultimately the measures providers select must enable them, with their communities, to assess progress towards and achievement of their goals.”
- “Sector leaders should consider the new challenges and opportunities of working with and for different audiences/stakeholders. LSIS could support the sector to explore how information and communication strategies should underpin the shift towards greater community responsiveness.”
- “The implications of emerging thinking about social productivity could be further explored as a possible guiding framework for generating more meaningful metrics to account for providers’ strategic engagement with and contribution to their communities and localities.
- Sector providers should explore innovative approaches to developing dynamic engagement with their communities, including how to harness the potential of technology, and the possible economies of scale of working across the sector.”
- Sector leaders should consider the implications of the shift to greater community responsiveness and public information for their approaches to accounting for their contribution to the economic and social life of their communities.”
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| Link | www.lsis.org.uk/Services/Publications/Documents/LSIS-Community-Scorecard-finalreport2011.pdf |
