Improvement Project for Public Value, Sport and Culture

The Department of Communities and Local Government funds the Northwest Culture Observatory and Sport England in partnership with the North West Improvement Network to run an improvement project on ‘public value’, sport and culture.

Public value is defined as ‘equity and fairness in the delivery of public services’. This includes the idea that the public wants to see trust and legitimacy, efficiency, and organisational capability when public services are administered. At a time when we have increasingly good numeric data about participation in sport and culture, it is arguable that we still lack proper intelligence about what the public really wants when sport and cultural services are delivered.

The project aims to define this and assist elected members to make the case for sport and culture using arguments about public value. Manchester Business School is creating a model for this. The work consists of:

• Terms of reference (scoping)
• Focus group to define what ‘public value’ in sport and culture means
• Learning tools to be prepared
• Training session
• Report on lessons learned

Research and consultation is currently being carried out with key stakeholders, including Elected Members, and the model being piloted in the region. Findings from the completed project will be disseminated in report form and through seminar events from Summer 2007.