Do The Right Thing

Arts'n'Care: evaluation report

11 October 2007: Derby Assembly Rooms

Here's How We did

The summary
Undoubtedly this has been the most successful event we have run in our short career! Words such as "inspiring" and "brilliant" were almost commonplace. Only one of the 65 evaluation forms seemed less than very happy with the day - scoring it in the 3s.
Even so - despite the ringing endorsements there were many suggestions to improve things further - of all which we acknowledge and nearly of all which we will try to put into place next time! The venue - although they looked after us very well - didn't lend itself too brilliantly in a physical sense - so that is definitely something we'll need to address next time.
Arts'n'Care 2008 will definitely go ahead - and will be over two days: one specialising in children's services and one specialising in adults-related services. See you there!

Here's How We Scored

Each question was scored on a scale of 1-5 (1= poor; 5= excellent).
We had 65 evaluation forms - thank you.

1 How would you rate the conference/festival overall?	4.7
2 How would you rate the venue?	4.1
3 How would you rate the administration before the conference?	4.3
4 How would you rate how things were organised on the day?	4.2
5 How would rate your first workshop? Can You Hear Us/Loud Minority; Absolute Salsa; To Drum For; Graphic Facilitation	4.7 4.8 4.7 4.5
6 How would rate your second workshop? Coping Strategies Gareth Berliner; CandoCo; Creative Routes; Drama and looked after children	4.5 4.7 4.9 3.2 3.2
7 How would rate the lunch time entertainment? BonkersPoets	3.6
8 How would you rate the food?	4.4
9 How would rate your third workshop? Heartstrings; Sound Minds – singing class; Sarah Chew	4.5 4.5 4.2
10 How would rate your fourth workshop? Channel One; Standing By; John Hegley; Culture & Heritage	4.5 4.6 4.3 4.2

What you told us

Here is a fairly representative sample of the things that were said:

The good stuff: what you liked
In general
"A really good day for me - and a really good idea to have this day"
"An excellent event which I'm sure will grow. We'd love to be involved next year in a workshop"
"Brilliant day. I increased my awareness in so many ways. Thank you all"
"Very enjoyable day"
"very enjoyable and full of ideas and inspiration"
"Superb. Had a fantastic day. Thank you"
"Keep it up!"
"I think the conference will help a lot of people and it was very good"
"Excellent day - lots of fun and informative things. 10/10. Excellent place to network and make links with others who work in the same industry"
"Fantastic atmosphere - left feeling invigorated. Got some good ideas to use with the young people I work with."
"Great day. Made very welcome. Thanks"
"An inspiring day with some impressive work being showcased and a great opportunity to network and share ideas. Please do another next year!"
"I had fun today and thought the workshops were helpful. Will return!"
"Thoroughly enjoyable day - went quickly!"
"A very enjoyable day"
"Very well done - keep up the good work"
"A fantastic day - inspiring and fun. Thank you"
"GREAT - very interesting day - THANKS"
"Excellent - really enjoyed the day"
"A very interesting day - well paced"
"Great event, I look forward to the next one - very inspiring and I got lots of ideas for my workshops!"

Organisation before and during the day
"Graham's e-mails very friendly and helpful"
"Staff were very friendly and helpful"
"Had no trouble fitting me at the last minute - thanks"
"Things remained calm in the day despite potential panic of the M1 incident and very impressed with my personal supply of diet coke for my caffeine addiction - many thanks for that!"

Workshops
"CandoCo were excellent"
"The singing workshop was disappointing - too short!"
"Absolute Salsa & Sound Minds were excellent - kept everyone entertained, very funny and good fun"
"Absolute Salsa & Sound Minds were very good; they had big groups in their workshop but got everyone joining in and having fun"
"The reggae was great"
"Proud labyrinth was fantastic"
"Loved labyrinth"

What you weren't happy about

The venue
"The column in Reception suite got in way of all activities held there. Difficult for disabled people to get around from room to room; acoustics in main hall not good for people with hearing impairments"
"Shame we had to walk through other venues while in session"
What we think: Not ideal we admit - but definitely need to find a venue that can house all the events we want to put on in rooms close together and entirely separate from each other.

The workshops
"Creative Routes was embarrassing. Couldn't wait to leave. Please don't book them again."
"Creative Routes- very disappointing/ late starting, no structure"
"I was disappointed that CandoCo didn't have any disabled members of their company with them as I was hoping that the service users I came with would have seen them"
"Too many people in workshops"
"Some facilitators struggled with numbers"
"Groups too large, rooms too small"

What we think: Sorry about these disappointments. Will pass on comments to Creative Routes and CandoCo. Next time we will definitely look at limiting numbers and perhaps running each workshop twice.

Your suggestions

"A come together at the end"
"A get together at the end to talk about the day"
"The event was very good but didn't come across as conference as such. It would have been good to have a speaker at the beginning and a Q&A session at the end. There was no context given about the 'conference' overall; given the broad range of backgrounds and experience this would have been useful."
"I was surprised that it was all workshops with no 'conference' style structure - but it worked quite well"

What we think: Oh how we all love the conventions! We took a decision to use the time just doing stuff and dispense with the conventional approach to a conference - we thought a more festival type of approach would work. That said there may well be something about putting everything into context at the start of the day and then drawing it all together at the end. So, next time we will look to make that happen.

"More things to do with painting and drawing"
"Hands on art"
"More visual arts"
"Artists leading workshops in creative skills that can be transferred to non-arts staff"
"Puppetry. Storytelling (not drama)"
"Would have liked more things to do with activities for elderly/dementia"
"More focus on disability and complex needs"
"More for physical disabilities"

What we think: Absolutely! We were, of course, limited by space as to what we could provide. And since we ran the vent other organisations have heard about us and want to be involved - so we have increased our database of potential contributors. Running the event over two days in 2008 will also give more scope to hosting a wider form of arts for more specific groups of service users.

"Wish this could come a little closer to Oxfordshire"

What we think: Be careful what you wish for! We are looking to work in partnership with others to host the event in different parts of the country - but with a bias towards the midlands - if only because it is, well, in the middle! We have all but sown up a deal to work with Warwickshire County Council in 2008. Watch this space.

"Tools or materials to take away to inform work with service users"
"Have a list of names and details of the organisations of the people who took part"

What we think: Absolutely. We will make sure that workshop facilitators provide appropriate handouts and contact information for all delegates - not just those that take part in a particular workshop.

"Two sessions of each workshop so as not to clash"
"At times it was difficult to choose which workshop to attend - they all looked so good. Working within mental health I was interested in all four of the 3.15pm workshops and it was a tough choice!"
"Signing up for workshops so less people"
"More space or less people in each workshop"
"better rooms to hear people talk"
"signing up in advance for workshops"
What we think: We will definitely sort this for next time.

"more small group work after performances"
"more discussing what works, hints and tips, active sharing"

What we think: We need to make sure that all facilitators - as well as getting everyone to take part in their workshop that they top and tail their workshops with context and information.

"Staff showing people around. Loud announcements. General cohesion"

What we think: We thought we did this fairly well - but will make sure we pay stronger attention to these details next time.

Thank you for all your comments. They really do make us think and change.