VENTAJAS Y DESVENTAJAS DE BOMBAS PERISTÁLTICAS a) VENTAJAS

One of the frequent topics of discussion among stakeholders was the issue of policy and project evaluation and the use of outcome or output indicators. Here, the story is widely divergent in terms of what is being measured, and how and to what end it is being measured. Basically, stakeholders mentioned three positions.

The fi rst position emphasises the need to measure outcome in order to make a long-term case beyond the current funding rounds, and some stakeholders are working towards measures for doing so (e.g., Cambridge and Bath and North East Somerset Council are currently working on different types of outcome evaluation frameworks).

However, many of those who would advocate this in principle emphasise that the level of data and staff resources available are currently

insuffi cient to work towards this ambition. One example is the district manager in Manchester who says:

Staff resources on performance are limited; it would be benefi cial if we had guidance on this but even then, the data available isn’t detailed enough.

An early years and extended services manager confi rms this:

We have the ambition yes but Local Area Partnership level data is not good enough, schools and Children’s Centre data are fi ne but for example, our Primary Care Trust data don’t have a usable format … we will start on a limited level, with Play Pathfi nder work, ex-ante and ex-post evaluations, and generate our own data.

A police constable in Radstock has no illusions about the effect of quantitative measuring of what is most important to him:

We cannot distinguish reporting logs on anti-social behaviour per age range so we cannot prove the effect this work [the play rangers] has, one over-21 nightclub audience could change the whole picture in the stats.

Some mention that, despite the ambition being valuable, ‘it would be too big a price to pay if it impacts on play quality itself, even though it would be benefi cial if a method was found’ (leisure and parks manager, Manchester). Others are more vocal about the limits. One deputy director of Children’s Services asserts that, after a similar exercise on the impact of youth provision, she feels that:

measuring in detail the effects on children’s health, socialising … that way madness lies. It’s unnecessary and the resource

implications are simply huge.

The second position emphasises the strengthening of output

measurement as a necessary fi rst step to show that improved investment is widening access and uptake of existing and future play provision capacity. The argument is that, with a positive outcome being accepted and after asserting that detailed outcome measurement is impossible or undesirable, we should focus on what might be feasible: for example, tracking the number and percentage of children within an area that actually use a facility. This is currently already happening in some places. For example lottery-funded projects, such as

Manchester’s Parktastic, already produce quantitative output indicators.

It is a part of good practice for all six case studies, who tend to see this as burdensome yet inevitable, and who have all put simple

protocols in place to achieve this.

But many play and open space stakeholders report that, for example, recording of attendance in parks and play centres is patchy or absent, so there needs to be a drive to achieve this fi rst – especially, as some remark, for third sector delivery partners who need to improve in this area.

No one suggests, of course, that the output measure alone should defi ne the success of the provision; such assessments do not do justice to the richness and variety of services and experiences.

However, as one ingredient of a broader impact framework, it needs to be taken seriously.

The third position is the emphasis on qualitative stories and the experience of frontline professionals, and some stakeholders see untapped potential in using qualitative accounts of impact much more creatively. This primarily consists of communicating stories about children and how they change, especially stories by the children

themselves. For example, one director of Children’s Services says that ‘in a Council scrutiny session I was pleased to be asked by a Councillor for real stories, qualitative case studies rather than quantitative data’.

This is confi rmed by a strategic play offi cer, who mentions that

‘instead of number-crunching, I do case studies which I fi nd particularly useful when I have to convince the powers that be that there needs to be more attention given to play rangers’. She argues that, for example,

Key findings

when the play rangers’ input enables vulnerable children to access services, which in turn might lead to behaviour change, this is best captured in narrative.

Equally, the local police constable for Glamis, when talking about how the changes in the area relate to the adventure playground, says:

I don’t always need to go by fi gures because the perception is clear, from what I see and from what people on the street say to me: the area is better for it.

Others mention that qualitative measuring, such as focus groups with parents, needs to play an important role alongside output measure. In Cambridge, the Head of Community Development of the council

explains:

How do we showcase it? That’s a mix: opening opportunities for kids to demonstrate the value of what they do with us to the

community; events, with CDs and videos of performances … we are a small city after all; if councillors see the kids enjoy themselves, that makes a huge difference.

In fact many comment that mixing methods is crucial: output indicators combined with focus groups, National Indicator data (gathered through schools) and perception questionnaires – grouped together, these will provide a reliable and persuasive picture. Similarly, a leisure and parks manager in Manchester cautions against an over- reliance on ‘hard’ data.

We should also trust the professional judgement of playworkers more as basis for evaluation, lots of playworkers feel they should provide play not measure.

In other words, the discussion about measuring is ongoing, and for many stakeholders is becoming more urgent in the context of the current round of investment and for future change based around the commissioning of new projects. Enrique Peñalosa, the charismatic reformer and ex-Mayor of Bogotá in Colombia, famously said that: ‘Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for all people’ (Peñalosa and Ives 2002), and this belief is increasingly shared by service

providers and others. How to capture this is a challenge indeed, and one which we will return to in the following chapters.