Self Evaluation toolkit: FAQs

The tool has four sections that include a total of 24 questions. Each question offers you the chance to rate out of ten how you are performing in a particular area, and how important this area is to you right now. You can also make notes as you go along.

While completing each question, the tool offers links to activities that can help you improve or think about your answers.

You can complete the sections or questions in any order, or come back another time to pick up where you left off.

You can complete an evaluation individually at your desk, by discussing the questions as a group or you can use some of the activities to develop your own reflections and action plans.

A report will be available for your evaluation once it is complete. You can preview this at any time.

The toolkit is for both individuals and organisations.  You can complete the questions as a team or on your own. 

You can use the toolkit to evaluate your work after a specific project or service, or to develop your organisation’s strategy as a whole.

If you are joining our National Portfolio for the 2018-22 funding period, self evaluation will be a requirement of your funding agreement.

However, you don’t have to use this resource to do so.  There are a number of other tools and resources you can use to fulfil this requirement and we provide links to these resources within the Self Evaluation Toolkit.

Your answers to the evaluation questions are private.

We won’t have access to any of the data or notes you enter into the tool. Your evaluation findings are for your use only and do not affect funding agreements or grant applications.

The only data we will gather from the toolkit will tell us how many people are using it, the size of the organisations using the toolkit and the main art form entered for each evaluation.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner to process personal data and are named as a data controller under the register kept by the Information Commissioner in accordance with section 19 of the DPA.

You can find out more about the Data Protection Act 1998 on the Information Commissioner’s website. 

We consulted with organisations and individuals across the arts and culture sector to build a tool that meets your needs and is easy to use.

If you have suggestions on how we can improve the tool, you can contact us here.

The tool encourages on-going self evaluation by bringing together new and existing resources.

We’ll keep adding content and resources to the tool to keep it relevant and up to date.

If you have suggestions on how we can improve the tool or want to report a problem, you can contact us here – please do get in touch, we want this resource to be as useful as it can be for you, the user. 

The Self Evaluation toolkit focuses on management and work behind the scenes, rather than artistic or cultural quality and impact. It refers to approaches like Quality Metrics and Quality Principles where appropriate but emphasises improvements you can make to ensure your work is more adaptive and sustainable.