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Statutory Performance Indicators
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Statutory Performance Indicators

SPIs are intended to provide useful information about local authority performance to contribute to improving services.

They provide information for:

• the public who pay for and use the services
• Council members and staff who are responsible for service delivery
• Government and regulators who are interested in the efficiency and effectiveness of services.

Each year the Accounts Commission publishes a Direction for the performance information to be reported by local authorities in the following year. In 2005 several indicators were changed in order to reflect the experience of people who use services, as well as to take into account Best Value and community planning.

For museums this meant the introduction of a new indicator.

The indicator
Visits to and use of museums:
a) the number of visits to / usages of council funded or part funded museums per 1000 population
b) the number of those visits that were in person per 1000 population

Definitions
For part a) of the indicator

• visits to / usages means
  • visits by members of the public, including group visits and school visits
  • enquiries (through whatever medium) for research purposes (excluding enquiries about opening hours, tickets, location etc)
  • web site hits for research (click here to find out how)
  • presentations made by museum staff to specific audiences, either on or off site (including schools, community groups and use of loan boxes)
• council funded or part funded museums means
  • museums that are run and funded directly by a local authority
  • museums that are run by an independent trust or company but that benefit from regular funding, buildings support or significant professional support from a local authority

For part b) of the indicator

• visits that were in person means
  • all visits by members of the public, either individually or in groups, for displays, events or research purposes, made to the museum site

Where a support relationship exists between a local authority and an independent museum the responsibility to collect and report the above information is shared.

Visits should be counted individually and only estimated as a last resort. Museums Galleries Scotland can help to meet the cost of installing visitor figure counting equipment through its small grants scheme.

To view a full version of the published SPI visit www.audit-scotland.gov.uk

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