Self-evaluation is a process of review and action applied to a chosen area of activity. It aims to establish the strengths of the activity, and to identify any actions that will bring about improvement.
The following steps are designed to assist you in setting up and carrying out a self-evaluation exercise. It is not prescriptive, but should aid you in putting in place a robust process, capable of measuring impact and highlighting areas for improvement.
'How Good is the Learning and Development in Our Community', or 'HGILDIOC', is designed to support evaluation of the quality of services delivered through Community Learning and Development (CLD) type approaches, in Scotland.
Self-evaluation is primarily a method of reflecting on our work, and as such is an integral part of CLD (it should not be undertaken solely to prepare for an HMI Inspection!).
However, self-evaluations, and in particular those involving and consulting participants and partners, are of great interest to HMI, because they give a picture of where our strengths and areas for improvement lie, and provide evidence of the impact we have on individuals and communities – which HMI can then work with us to validate.
Records of self-evaluation can therefore be used as evidence in Inspections. It is suggested that the recorded results of self-evaluations form the ‘core’ of evidence, particularly for QIs 2.1 (impact on participants), 3.1 (impact on paid and voluntary staff), 4.1 (impact on local communities) and 8.1 (partnership working); and also to an extent for some QIs in key areas 5 (equality) and 9 (leadership).
For QIs 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1, particular attention should be paid to including any ‘statements of impact’ that may be made by participants during self-evaluation, as these are vital clues to the difference that we make to people’s lives.
The more meaningful and accurate our self-evaluations, the fairer and more useful our Inspections will be.
It is important that we not only pay close attention to the self-evaluation process (who is involved, and how and why they’re involved; what questions are asked, and how and why they are asked), but that we also record the results accurately, and pay attention to the suggested actions, building them into our development plans so as to base our service improvements on genuine consultation with those we work with.
