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Forwarded to the list for information. Margaret Croucher, MLA -----Original Message----- From: Chris Batt Sent: 08 September 2005 18:22 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: PLAYLIST FOR PUBLIC SERVICES Dear Ed Mayo I am writing to you about NCC's "Playlist for Public Services" and, in particular, the ranking it includes of public services according to public satisfaction. Whilst welcoming any piece of work which aims to increase our understanding of people's attitudes to public services and being pleased - at first sight - to see that museums and galleries obtain a "top satisfaction rating", we here at the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council have concerns about the way the ranking has been obtained. We know you say "the surveys and services vary, so comparison is not straightforward", but we believe that the surveys are so very different that the compilation you have attempted produces misleading results. First of all, it is likely that very different results will be obtained from surveys that are carried out in individual institutions to those which survey a general population - the former invariably produce higher satisfaction figures. Even within these two categories, issues of question wording, self-selection, bias, representativeness, response and non-response all mean that the results of each survey need to be assessed on their merits. It is dangerous and potentially flawed to combine the results from different surveys without first considering whether it is possible, sensible and useful to do so. In the case of museums and libraries, your approach has led to results which we think are particularly misleading. Delighted as we were to see a 95% satisfaction rate for museums and galleries, we must point out that this figure relates only to the National Museums that are funded by DCMS (and therefore not to, for example, local authority museums) and is based on a visitor survey - as indicated above, visitor surveys (especially those administered by the institutions themselves) usually come up with high figures. In contrast, the library figure of 67% is based on Best Value community surveys. A better (but still not particularly meaningful) comparator with the 95% figure for the National Museums would be the 93% of respondents to the CIPFA PLUS survey who think that the library is good or very good. Interestingly, the Best Value User Satisfaction Surveys 2003/4 that produce the 67% figure for libraries produce a 42% one for museums. Another source of information on relative satisfaction is the People's Panel surveys conducted by MORI. In 2002, 85% of the population said they were "Very satisfied" or "Fairly satisfied" with the local authorities' library services and 79% with museums. In the People's Panel rankings, libraries come third out of 30 services and museums come fifth. In the 2003/4 average scores for the 14 Best Value Performance Indicators collected, libraries came fourth and museums, we are sorry to say, came last - admittedly this is for local authority services and you are looking at public services in general, but this is still at huge variance with your rankings. Obviously, this is a very complex issue - we welcome the intention behind it and would be more than happy to work with you now or in the future, exchanging our knowledge of and experience in this area with yours in order to help clarify it. One final point which I am sure others have already made to you - contrary to what you say, the public library service is indeed statutory! With all best wishes Chris Chief Executive Museums, Libraries and Archives Council 16 Queen Anne's Gate, London SW1H 9AA Tel: +44 (0) 7273 1476 ______________________________________________________________________ Unless stated otherwise the information contained in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential. If you have received it in error, you are on notice of its status. It is intended solely for the addressee. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender immediately and delete the email and any attachments from the system. This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________