Heritage Services wishes to establish a focus group to enable the service to consult with a representative cross section of Herefordshire society for a number of potential consultation exercises, in line with both national museum Accreditation standards for user consultation and the new "duty to consult".
The service has a long history of user evaluation, undertaking visitor surveys via questionnaires and interviews and tracking movement around galleries. We have offered a visitors comments book for several decades. New activities such as education workshops, gallery changes and special events are subject to formative and summative evaluation which informs future activity.
In 2005, the service undertook a non-user survey, questioning the public in High Town about their reasons for not visiting and asking what changes would encourage them to visit. Many of the suggestions made in the non-user survey have been incorporated into the main gallery re-display, launched in Feb 2009.
The service has had a long standing ambition to establish a representative cross section of Herefordshire citizens as a focus group to consult about issues such as publicity, marketing designs, changes to exhibitions, temporary exhibitions and programming. The first area to be consulted upon being a people's choice of objects for the summer 2009 exhibition "Made in Herefordshire - past product, present passion", with work needed on this in mid to late June.
The service had intended to draw together its own group using contacts made from previous partnership projects, for example Age Concern, the Youth Service, Herefordshire Ship, teaching advisors. However, senior management advised us the need to consult the Community Involvement Co-ordinator and a preliminary discussion established that it may be possible to approach a sub set of the Herefordshire Voice Citizens' Panel.
This consultation has now closed and is awaiting the formal response.
Consultation Summary
| Name | Heritage Services Focus Group |
|---|---|
| Description | A group for occasional consultation over museums policy, exhibitions and outreach. |
| Dates | From 1 Jun 2009 at 00:00 to 1 Jun 2010 at 23:59. |
| Status | Closed |
| Contact | If you have any questions, please contact
|
Who is consulting? |
|
| Organisation | Herefordshire Council |
| Department | Heritage Services Focus Group |
| Contact name | Kate Andrew |
| Contact email address | kandrew@herefordshire.gov.uk |
| Contact telephone number | (01432) 282590 |
Who are we consulting with? |
|
| Target audience | Staff, Older people, Targeted sample, Stakeholders, Service users, Young people, Women, Men, Black and minority ethnic people, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered people, General public, Visitors / tourists / non residents, Children, BME - including Gypsies and Travellers |
| Interest Areas | Arts/culture, Sport/leisure, Children and young people, Community and voluntary, Older people |
| The parish(es) covered | Countywide |
| The ward(s) covered | Countywide |
Why are we consulting? |
|
| The reason for this consultation | To ensure that services and products developed and delivered by Heritage Services are in line with public needs and wants. |
How are we consulting? |
|
| The methodologies that were used | Focus group, Exhibition, Mystery Shopping, Face-to-face survey |
| Methods of promotion | Council website |
How are the results used? |
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| How the results are being used | To guide the Heritage Service in development of services, exhibitions and outreach. |
The outcome of this consultation |
|
| Summary of the results | TBA |
| How to obtain the full results | Via focus group initially, ongoing survey/ evaluation reports. |
| Comments on the response to this consultation | |
Any further information |
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| Additional comments | |