youth music outcomes guidance

Taking an Outcomes Approach: Evidencing the changes your project brings about

1. What is the purpose of this document?1

This document outlines the key principles of an outcomes based approach to

project evaluation. It aims to provide information for Youth Music’s funded

partners that will be of use when thinking about how you evidence what

changes your work brings about. While the focus is on outcomes, the activities

and resources that influence these outcomes should also be critically

considered. This is the only way that we will be able to learn from what works

well or not so well in our funded projects, and be able to share those lessons

with others working in the sector. This document however is about outcomes

and what we consider a useful approach to being able to capture them.

Our approach is based on that of the Charities Evaluation Services (CES)2. We

would recommend that you consult their website for further information on

their approach to evaluation (www.ces-vol.org.uk). You may also be

interested in their training programme. In writing this document we have also

drawn on the Big Lottery Fund’s outcomes approach, as laid out in their 2006

guidance document3 (which is also based on that of the CES). We would

encourage partners to consult this more detailed report.

We consider this to be a working document that will be added to over time

as we and our partners develop more ways of working effectively with this

approach.

2. What does the document cover?

There are eight more sections in this document:

3. Why monitor and evaluate your work?

4. What are outcomes?

5. Youth Music as an outcomes funder

6. Taking an outcomes approach

7. Outcome indicators

8. Collecting information on outcomes

1 This document does not address the critical topics of codes of practice and ethical guidelines

to follow when carrying out research. As a start, you may want to consult the United Kingdom

Evaluation services guidelines http://www.evaluation.org.uk/resources/guidelines.aspx on

these topics. 2 For the purpose of this document we have in particular drawn on Practical Monitoring and

Evaluation: A guide for voluntary organsiations, (CES 2005) 3 Burns, S. & MacKeith (October 2006) Explaining the Difference your Project Makes: A BIG

guide to using an outcomes approach

http://www.ces-vol.org.uk/

http://www.evaluation.org.uk/resources/guidelines.aspx

2

9. Making sense of the information

10. Developing this document and related resources

Throughout the document we use an example project ‘Making Sounds’ to

illustrate the principles we are discussing. This is not a real Youth Music project

and the examples should be taken as illustrative rather than definitive samples

of ‘best practice’.

3. Why monitor and evaluate your work?

Before we move on to talk about outcomes specifically, we thought it would

be useful to explain why Youth Music considers evaluation to be a core

component of our and our partners’ work. Effective evaluation helps you to

assess how well you are doing and be more effective in your practices.

Obviously delivering projects is everyone’s priority, but it is critical that you

allocate resources to evaluate your work. It will enable you to:

reflect on your practice (both during and after a project) and improve

the quality of projects you deliver

assess whether you are reaching your target participants or whether

you need to amend the project to do so

feel more confident that you are delivering an effective project

identify both intended and unintended outcomes of your work

make a strong case when making future funding applications, by

having evidence of your achievements and lessons learnt.

In addition, by submitting the evidence to Youth Music this will help us to:

develop a body of evidence of effective practice in the sector to be

made available to all stakeholders

advocate on behalf of the sector on the wide variety of outcomes

music-making projects can achieve

identify areas of need, where achieving outcomes may be more

challenging and require innovation or extra resources

evidence the impact of the work of Youth Music and its funded

partners.

4. What are outcomes?

Outcomes are the changes, benefits, learning and other effects that you can

attribute to your project’s activities- they’re the difference your project makes

(CES, 2005, p.53). While these will probably focus on the children and young

people taking part in your music-making project, they may also relate to a

parent or carer, your staff or your organisation as a whole (see examples in

section 6.2 below).

5. Youth Music as an outcomes funder

Youth Music is clear about the changes we want to bring about through our

activities and those of the partners we fund. If you have applied to Youth

Music for funding under a particular programme then it should be clear what

that programme is trying to achieve. You will be expected to be able to

relate at least some of the intended outcomes of your project to those of the

programme. As part of the conditions of funding you will be expected to

report to us on your progress toward achieving those outcomes.

3

6. Taking an outcomes approach

When taking an outcomes approach to your project design it is helpful to

think about it on three levels (see Diagram 1 below):

1. Its overall aim

2. Its intended outcomes

3. Its activities

Diagram 1: Charities Evaluation Services Planning Triangle (adapted by Burns &

MacKeith, 2006 on behalf of

BIG4)

6.1. The overall aim of your project

What is your project setting out to do? What is the overall change or

difference you want it to make? Fundamentally this explains why your project

exists.

Making Sounds5 - Overall aim

Project description

A project for young people in contact with a Youth Offending Team (YOT) in London.

This is a 12 month project where young people will learn a vocal based skill- singing or

beatboxing. They will attend workshops and will be linked to a peer mentor from a

local youth arts club, who will also attend the workshops.

Overall Aim

To improve the life chances of young people in contact with a London-based YOT,

through music-making activity.

4 Burns, S. & MacKeith (October 2006) Explaining the Difference your Project Makes: A BIG

guide to using an outcomes approach, p.8 5 Please note: This is NOT an actual project and does not necessarily reflect a project design

that Youth Music would/has funded.

The overall aim of your

project

The differences you intend to make or the changes you aim to

bring about – for your participants, staff, organisation,

community etc

The main services and activities you plan to carry out – what your project will deliver and what those working on your

project will actually do

Overall Aim

Intended

Outcomes

Activities and

Outputs

4

6.2. The intended outcomes of your project

Your intended outcomes are the changes that you are aiming to achieve

because of your project (i.e. what do you expect to change through your

project? What difference will it make, for example, for the young people

taking part?). The language you use to articulate these should involve words

that reflect change, for example to: ‘increase’, ‘reduce’, ‘expand’, ‘enable’

‘develop’, ‘improve’, etc. (CES, p18).

Your intended outcomes should be linked to the activities you will do (i.e. why

are you doing the stated activities? What do you hope to achieve through

delivering them?) The changes that result from your activities are your

outcomes.

They should also be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely

(SMART). Think about the time and resources you have available and the

type of activities you are providing, this will help you to devise outcomes (and

relevant indicators, see 7 below) that are SMART. They must relate closely to

the activities (specific), be counted or described thoroughly (measurable),

and be achievable and realistic within the time and resources dedicated to

the activities.

Making Sounds4- Intended Outcomes

By the end of the 12 month project:

To have increased the musical skills of participants.

To have improved participants’ knowledge of music-making opportunities in

their locality.

To have improved young people’s social and psychological well-being.

To have increased young people’s motivation to engage in education and

training.

To have developed a more positive attitude to young people’s music-making

among parents/carers.

To have increased the skills and knowledge of the music leaders in working

with young people in contact with a YOT.

6.3. The activities involved

What are you going to do that will bring about these changes? As mentioned

above, these are the activities you are going to deliver through your project.

While you use ‘change’ language for your outcomes (e.g. an increase in

musical ability), you should use ‘doing’ words for your activities (e.g. by

providing 12 workshops).

You may find it helpful to think about these within the CES Planning Triangle

structure (see diagram 1 for an adapted version of this). This allows you to

think about each level and how they relate to each other. Will the overall aim

of your project be met through achieving the intended outcomes? Will the

activities you have planned realistically enable you to bring about the

changes outlined in your intended outcomes? While some activities will help

deliver on more than one outcome, it is critical that each activity is linked to

at least one outcome, and that each outcome has at least one activity that

will ensure your project delivers on it.

5

Making Sounds4- Activities

To run weekly workshops for participants during school term time.

To employ a skilled music leader to deliver high quality music-making

activities.

To provide pastoral care to young people over the course of the project, with

the support of youth workers from a local arts centre.

To provide an information pack to young people and follow up with 1:1

sessions with the music leader on progression routes and further local

opportunities for music making.

To hold 2 performances to which parents/carers will be invited and to send

them an information pack every three months about the project and key

achievements of the group.

To hold regular meetings between relevant YOT staff, the music leader and

youth workers to discuss the project’s progress and any issues arising.

Once you have looked at your project within this structure you should ask

yourself the following questions developed by BIG for their partners:

“When you have filled in a triangle, check the following:

Have you used words of change in the top and middle and doing

words in the bottom of the triangle?

Does the middle of the triangle describe what the changes you intend

for your project’s participants, their parents/carers, your staff etc?

Does the bottom of the triangle describe what those working on your

project are going to do?

Now you can look at the triangle as a whole to check that the plans for your

project are realistic:

Look at each of your intended outcomes in the middle level. Will the

activities you have listed at the bottom realistically help you to achieve

one or more of your intended outcomes?

Now look at the activities. Does each one link directly to one or more

of the intended outcomes? If not, why is the activity included? You

may want to consider whether the activity really is important. It may

well be that the activity will help you to achieve another change. If this

is the case you may want to include another outcome. It may help to

do this if you number the outcomes and put the number(s) against

each activity.”

From Burns & Mac Keith, 2006 (p. 10)

7. Outcome indicators

Once you have decided on your intended outcomes you will need to identify

the indicators you will use to evidence your progress in achieving these

outcomes. What would you see, hear, or read about project participants that

would show you had made progress toward your outcome? What would

participants be doing differently? So, before your project starts you will need

to decide what information you want to collect to evidence you progress to

achieving your outcomes (outcome indicators) and how to collect the

information needed. As with setting your outcomes, it is important that you’re

realistic about the number of indicators you set out to monitor and what kind

of information you will be able to collect (see section 8 below).

6

Making Sounds4- Outcome Indicators

Outcomes Possible outcome indicators

Increased musical skills

Young people’s own assessment of musical

skills

Music leader’s rating of young people’s

musical skills

Improved knowledge of music-

making opportunities in the locality

Level of understanding of own strengths and

weaknesses

Whether participants can think of several ways

of finding out about different local music-

making opportunities.

Improved young people’s social

and psychological well-being

Whether participants feel:

able to express themselves in front of

others

able to make decisions that they feel

are good for them

listened to by other people

like what they say and do will make a

difference to their lives

and that they have:

been able to turn up to the workshops

on time

learned to work well with other people

Increased motivation to engage in

education and training

Level of perceived motivation to engage in

education/training

Attendance levels at education/training

A more positive attitude to young

people’s music-making among

parents/carers

Level of parent/carer attendance at

performances

Parents/carers views on the value of music

making for their young people and young

people more generally

Increased skills and knowledge of

the music leader in working with

young people in contact with a

YOT

Whether music leader feels well-equipped to

meet the needs of young people in contact

with a YOT

Whether music leader can identify a range of

sources of support upon which he/she can

draw to be able to effectively deliver the

programme of work with this group of young

people.

Some of the outcomes you set out to achieve may be difficult to measure

and count. CES (2005, p 23) give the example of the outcome ‘to change

young people’s attitudes about social issues’, which cannot be measured

easily, so you would need to use indicators that assess the change

approximately (proxies). They suggest that using time keeping and

attendance levels, alongside other evidence may be an indication of ‘an

7

increased sense of commitment and responsibility’, which relates to the

intended outcome.

8. Collecting information on outcomes

As mentioned in 7 above, before starting your project you will need to think

about how you will collect the information needed to demonstrate the

progress you have made in achieving your outcomes. Maybe you already

collect certain kinds of information as part of your monitoring systems that you

could use? Maybe you could tweak the monitoring system you already use

by rewording or adding questions? However, you may find that you need to

find a new way of collecting the information. If you are looking at change

you will need to think about collecting information at two points in time

(at/towards the start and at the end of the project). It is beyond the scope of

this document to provide a detailed account of tools/methods that you may

want to use, as these will vary from project to project and will depend on the

outcomes chosen6. For example, information on the outcomes for young

people could include:

Observation of their level of engagement/skills

Self-assessment questionnaires

Diaries they keep as part of the project

Notes kept by project leads

Interviews

Focus groups

Samples of work

Creative methods: role play, singing and rhyming, games etc

YM Outcomes Tools (See Appendix A)

As with all elements of this process it is important that you are realistic about

what data collection you can do within the given resources.

Making Sounds4- Sources of Evidence for ‘increased music skills outcome’

Outcome indicator Source of Evidence

Young people’s own assessment of

musical skills Youth Music ‘Musical Development’

Scale Music leader’s rating of young people’s

musical skills

Music leader completes a log at the end

of each workshop, noting progress made

by each participant.

9. Making sense of the information

The way you make sense of the data you collect on your outcomes will

depend on the kind of information you have collected and the way in which

you have collected it. For example, you will need to use a different approach

to analysing numbers to that adopted if you have done interviews with young

people. As with the tools for collecting data, it is beyond the scope of this

document to provide an in-depth account of how to analyse the data you

collect6.

6 Practical Monitoring and Evaluation: A guide for voluntary organsiations, (CES 2005) provide

some examples of data collection tools and some initial guidance on data analysis.

8

Making Sounds4- Making sense of the information for ‘increased music skills’

outcome*

Young people varied in the extent to which they felt their musical skills had

increased over the course of the project.

On average, participants reported a 4 point increase (on an 8 point scale) in

how they rated their musical skills.

None of the participants reported a decrease in their skills.

Four felt they had only improved by 1 point. However, the music leader’s

observations noted in the session log show that three of these participants had

initially ranked themselves toward the top end of the scale. Once they began

to learn more about their chosen vocal skill their self-awareness had improved

and they realised that they had more to learn to be ‘top of their game’. For

the other participant in this group of four, both he and the music leader felt his

musical skills had improved little over the course of the project.

*This example only deals with reporting on the actual outcome and does not take account of

the activities and resources that influence these outcomes, which should also be critically

considered.

10. Developing this document and related resources

Data collection tools

If you have developed any tools (such as questionnaires for young people) to

collect information on the outcomes of your project, and would be happy to

share them with others working in the area we would greatly appreciate it if

you could send them through to us. We would like to develop a repository of

tools that could be accessed by funded partners.

Let us know what you think

As mentioned in section 1, we consider this to be a working document and

would greatly appreciate your feedback on how we can improve it. We also

plan to develop it further by drawing on examples from our partners’ work in

this area. Please forward any comments to [email protected]

Other useful sources:

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_explaining_the_difference.pdf

Big Lottery Fund- Explaining the difference your project makes: A BIG guide to

using an outcomes approach

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_self_evaluation_uk.pdf

Big Lottery Fund- Self Evaluation: A handy guide to sources

www.ces-vol.org.uk

Charities Evaluation Services

http://www.evaluation.org.uk

United Kingdom Evaluation Society

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_explaining_the_difference.pdf

http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/er_eval_self_evaluation_uk.pdf

http://www.ces-vol.org.uk/

http://www.evaluation.org.uk/

9

APPENDIX A - Youth Music Outcomes Tools

1. Youth Music Outcomes Tools

These tools have been designed to demonstrate the outcomes of your

work with children and young people. They indicate whether changes

have occurred in musical ability, personal development and social

development.

These tools provide a quantitative method of capturing outcomes, but

you should be using many methods – e.g. talking to the children and

young people on your projects and recording what they have to say,

keeping a reflective diary of how the activities you engage in affect

the organisation and it’s work, and keeping track of changes and

developments using film, photos and other creative methods.

The numbers you collect using these tools can tell us if outcomes have

been achieved as a result of a project, but many other evaluation

methods are better at telling us how this has happened and will help

tell the story of a project and what we can all learn from it.

2. What tools have been provided?

Each scale is attached to a different type of outcome.

It’s likely that one of your intended outcomes will be an improvement in

musical ability, therefore you should use the Musical Development

Scale (for children and young people aged 11-18), or the Young

Musicians Development Scale (for children aged 6-10). These scales

are based on work done by the Institute of Education investigating

musical ability.

If you are running an Early Years project, you can use the Early Years

Musical Assessment Scales (there are separate ones for children aged

0-2, 2-3, and 3-5), which should be completed by an early years

practitioner, a music leader, or a parent (depending on how the

project is being delivered). These scales are based on work done by

Nancy Evans for Youth Music and Sue Young at the University of Exeter.

There are more scales designed for use with the 11-18 age group, these

are:

10

The Youth Music Agency and Citizenship Scale – measuring how much

children and young people feel in control of their lives, are able to

make decisions, and feel connected to their communities.

The Youth Music Attitude and Behaviour Scale – measuring whether

children and young people feel they have developed skills such as

working with others, punctuality and commitment.

The Youth Music Wellbeing Scale – based on work done by the

University of Edinburgh and the University of Warwick, these measures

demonstrate how children and young people have been recently

feeling. There is also a ladder measure (‘Cantrill’s Ladder’) used to

capture overall wellbeing.

There are two more scales, designed to capture the reflections of the

music leaders involved in the project: The Music Leader Job Satisfaction

Scale, and the Music Leader Professional Practice Scale. These can be

used to assess how those employed to deliver your projects feel about

their work, and if they are committed to the Music Leader code of

practice.

3. Using the tools

Each tool that you want to use for your project should be put into a

questionnaire and completed by participants near the beginning and

near the end of the project.

The Early Years tools should be completed by a regular attendee at the

sessions (e.g. a practitioner, music leader or parent) at the beginning

and the end (ideally the same person will fill it out at the beginning and

end). The Music Leader tools should be completed by the music

leaders and trainees involved in the project at the beginning and the

end.

If you want to demonstrate change that has happened because of

your project, it is important that you record the responses near the

beginning and near the end so you can calculate the difference.

Using the templates below, cut and paste the appropriate scales that

match your outcomes into a questionnaire (e.g. if you are hoping to

improve musical ability and wellbeing, cut and paste these scales into

a questionnaire, if you are hoping to improve musical ability, wellbeing

and attitude and behaviour, use these scales).

It is important to use the same ID number on the questionnaire so you

can match the responses at the beginning and end of the project. Ask

the participants to complete the questionnaire, or spend some time

filling it out with them as necessary. Then store the questionnaires

somewhere secure before putting the results into the Excel spreadsheet

(provided separately).

11

All the questions are on ‘likert scales’ scored from 5 (strongly agree) to

1 (strongly disagree) which makes it easy to store the numbers and

calculate ‘mean scores’ (averages) for your sample overall. Each

scale has five questions, so the maximum a person can score on each

scale is 25 (35 for the scales that also have a ladder question) and the

minimum on each scale is 5 (or 6 for the ladder scales). The total

number of questions you will ask depends on how many scales you use

(which is decided by what outcomes you are looking to measure).

When putting your questionnaire data into Excel, store the ID number in

the first row, enter the date of the first survey, and the date of the

follow up survey (you can put all the data in at once at the end, or put

it in when you get it and enter the follow up data at a later stage - the

latter is recommended). The next step is to put the individual score for

each question in each of the associated columns. There is also a total

score column which will tell you about each scale as a whole (e.g. how

have people’s musical ability overall changed).

You can work out ‘where people are’ on each scale by looking at the

‘baseline scores’ (how they scored early on in the project) - this might

be a useful way of know what elements you want to focus on in

delivery (e.g. if all your participants are scoring low on the

’opportunities in your area’ ladder question, you could encourage

music leaders to focus on this in discussions with participants).

Question Means

The next step is to figure out mean (average) scores for each question.

Add up all the scores in a column under a particular question and

divide the total by the number of responses you have, this tells you

where your participants are overall in relation to each question.

Example – The first question on the musical development scale tells us

how participants feel about their musical ability. ‘Dougie’ rated himself

2 at the beginning, so we can work with Dougie to try and improve his

score by the end. There are 24 other people on the project. By adding

up Dougie’s score with everyone else’s and dividing it by 25, the overall

score for question 1 (self rated musical ability) is 2.4 at the start of the

project. By repeating the same task at the end you can observe

change (indicating musical ability).

Scale Means

Do the same thing for your ‘total score’ column and this will tell you

where your participants are for each scale overall.

Example - For the musical development scale, you might find that,

overall, your participants are scoring around 9 or 10 at baseline (Scale

Mean), but after 10 sessions, when you collect the follow up data, the

average score is 13 or 14 (don’t be scared of decimals - they just tell

you whether it’s closer to 13 or 14!). This is a really interesting finding - it

seems that there is some clear development in overall musical ability as

12

a result of your project. This might not happen, but by looking at

question means you will see whether there have been changes in

some respects but not others.

N.B. The scores won’t always go up. Maybe the participants were

overestimating their musical ability in the beginning, and the project

has made them realise that they don’t think they have much ability

overall compared to others or the music leaders. This is completely fine

and to be expected. When presenting the results of your surveys you

can discuss this as one of the explanations - you’ll probably also have

lots of juicy qualitative data that will help to explain the findings

anyway. The point to remember is that this is a research exercise and

there will be results you didn’t expect.

If you subtract the baseline scores from the final scores, you will see the

difference (this could be + or -), which is a good way to finish the

analysis (e.g. overall musical ability for the group increased by 3 points).

Again you can present this at a question level or scale level as

appropriate.

4. Presenting your findings

Once you have calculated your scores it is important to communicate

this effectively. You can put baseline and follow up scores in a table,

along with the difference, presenting your findings for each question

and for each scale overall. You could also put your findings into a bar

or line chart which is a useful way of showing any change. Remember

to also write a few lines on what you are presenting. Statistics never

speak for themselves and you should be very open and clear about

how you have interpreted them.

It’s also very important not to overclaim. Remember that these are

indicators of outcomes, not concrete evidence. You will be presenting

these findings alongside all sorts of other evidence and trying to make

sense of it all together. It’s also tricky to make huge claims about

change (and the extent to which your project is responsible for that

change) when you might have a very small sample or the way you are

delivering changes throughout the project. These are interesting and

useful tools for measuring and investigating outcomes – they are not a

‘magic bullet’.

Your own analysis can go into the final reports you send to Youth Music

and other funders and help you to show the effects of your project to

others. Unfortunately Youth Music will not have capacity to conduct

analysis for individual projects, but it will contribute hugely to our

analysis of projects at a national level. If you send your Excel

spreadsheets to Youth Music, we can see how the findings compare

nationally and if there are differences between types of project, age,

gender, and so on, which will help us to understand the effects of our

funding and potentially demonstrate the impact of projects at a

13

national level.

5. Ethics and Consent

You will have your own consent systems, which you should adapt to let

the young people (16+) or the child and parent/carer (0-15) know that

you will be doing some evaluation of the project that will involve a

short questionnaire. You need something signed and recorded that

this is ok. Everyone also has the right to refuse to participate in the

evaluation process at any point and you must destroy all data relating

to that person. People are always more important than data.

You should keep the consent forms, but ensure that no identifying data

is stored on questionnaires by using ID numbers. It is important that you

assign an ID number to each person and keep a record so you can

match up baseline and follow up data.

You also have to take responsibility for the secure storage of

information. Under no circumstances should a third party be able to

identify which data corresponds to which person (a good tip is to

always store your ID system, matching names and numbers, separate

from your excel data sheet). The same is true for paper questionnaires;

always treat in confidence and store securely.

None of the scales below are asking about particularly sensitive

information, therefore it is unlikely that people will feel upset or harmed

in any way by participating. However, taking part in any research

exercise can be a reflective process and you should be equipped to

support the children and young people if they are at all troubled by

the process. This is especially true when working with vulnerable

children and young people. Make it clear that everyone is free to stop

participating at any point, and be prepared to signpost young people

to appropriate services if you cannot deal with any issues raised.

Again, this is unlikely to happen as a result of the questionnaire

exercise, but should be remembered in all evaluation procedures.

Further ethical guidelines are provided by the Social Research

Association and can be accessed here: http://www.the-

sra.org.uk/documents/pdfs/ethics03.pdf

http://www.the-sra.org.uk/documents/pdfs/ethics03.pdf

http://www.the-sra.org.uk/documents/pdfs/ethics03.pdf

14

Youth Music Musical Development Scale

Please rate how far you agree with the following statements: 1. I am pleased with my current level of musical ability

5 4 3 2 1

Strongly Neither Strongly

Agree Agree nor Disagree Disagree

2. I am good at making sense of what other people are expressing

through music (e.g. thoughts, feelings and emotions)

5 4 3 2 1



3. I can express my thoughts, feelings and emotions through my own

music making

5 4 3 2 1



4. I am committed to my own music making

5 4 3 2 1



5. I feel like music making allows me to be creative

5 4 3 2 1



Please turn over

15

6. Here is a picture of a ladder, the top of the ladder means you know lots of

places to make music in the community in which you live, and the bottom of

the ladder means you don’t know anywhere to make music in your

community. Please mark on the ladder how much you know about

opportunities to make music in your community:

Lots

Nothing

16

Youth Music Agency and Citizenship Scale

Please rate how far you agree with the following statements: 1. I feel listened to by the people around me

5 4 3 2 1



2. I make decisions that are good for me

5 4 3 2 1



3. I feel like what I say and do will make a difference to my life

5 4 3 2 1



4. I feel well connected to others in my community

5 4 3 2 1



5. If I needed help I would know where to get it

5 4 3 2 1



17

Youth Music Attitude and Behaviour Scale

Please rate how far you agree with the following statements: 1. I work well with other people

5 4 3 2 1



2. I usually turn up to things on time

5 4 3 2 1



3. I am respectful of other people

5 4 3 2 1



4. I make a positive contribution to my community

5 4 3 2 1



5. I am good at committing to things

5 4 3 2 1



18

Youth Music Wellbeing Scale (Based on WEMWBS 2009)

Please rate how much you agree with the following statements:

In the last month...

1. I’ve been feeling relaxed

5 4 3 2 1



2. I’ve been feeling confident

5 4 3 2 1



3. I’ve been interested in new things

5 4 3 2 1



4. I’ve had lots of energy

5 4 3 2 1



5. I’ve been feeling good about myself

5 4 3 2 1



Please turn over

19

6. Think about this ladder as picturing your life at the moment. The top

of the ladder represents the best possible life for you, the bottom of the

ladder represents the worst possible life for you. Put a mark on the

ladder for where you think you stand at the moment.

Best Possible Life

Worst Possible Life

20

Music Leader Job Satisfaction Scale (Based on Illardi et al. (1993)

Motivation and Job Satisfaction Scale)

Please rate how far you agree with the following statements in relation

to your work on this project:

1. I feel I have a lot of input into how my work is done

5 4 3 2 1



2. I am free to express my ideas and opinions about the work I do

5 4 3 2 1



3. I have been able to learn useful new skills on my job

5 4 3 2 1



4. I have developed, musically, doing this job

5 4 3 2 1



5. I get a sense of accomplishment from my job

5 4 3 2 1



21

Music Leader Professional Practice Scale (Based on Music Leader Code

of Practice)

Please rate how far you agree with the following statements in relation

to your work on this project:

1. I am well prepared and organised for my music leading work

5 4 3 2 1



2. I have a strong sense of responsibility for the safety of myself and the

children and young people I work with

5 4 3 2 1



3. My music skills are relevant and up to date for the work I am doing

5 4 3 2 1



4. I regularly reflect on and evaluate my work

5 4 3 2 1



5. I am committed to my own continuing professional development

5 4 3 2 1



22

Early Years Musical Assessment Scale

Based on Tuning In to Children (Evans/Youth Music 2007) and Young

(2003), for completion by early years practitioners, music leaders or

parents:

Children aged 0-2

Please mark on the scale the extent to which your young musician… 1. Is moved or affected by music (e.g. soothed and settled by

lullabies)

5 4 3 2 1



2. Enjoys being physically moved to rhythms and beats

5 4 3 2 1



3. Listens intently to sounds and music

5 4 3 2 1



4. Shakes, taps, lifts and drops objects to explore the sounds they

make

5 4 3 2 1



5. Explores their voices with single syllable sounds (or more)

5 4 3 2 1



23

Children aged 2-3

Please mark on the scale the extent to which your young musician…

1. Participates in play songs and songs sung to them

5 4 3 2 1



2. Starts to learn songs and can reproduce or improve on them

5 4 3 2 1



3. Develops rhythmic, large body movements and begin to learn

control and coordination

5 4 3 2 1



4. Shows responses to music being performed, from intent listening to

energetic dancing

5 4 3 2 1



5. Imitates the musical action of others

5 4 3 2 1



24

Children aged 3-5

Please mark on the scale the extent to which your young musician…

1. Sings spontaneously in a range of different ways, alone and with

others

5 4 3 2 1



2. Begins to match pitch, keep in time, and coordinate their musical

ideas with others

5 4 3 2 1



3. Repeats, changes, and develops their own, or borrowed, musical

ideas into more complicated structures

5 4 3 2 1



4. Learned to control and coordinate their whole body and finer body

movements, increasing their range of dances and instruments

5 4 3 2 1



5. Can be an audience listener to live music for short periods of time

5 4 3 2 1



25

Young Musicians Development Scale (for children aged 6-10)

Please circle the face that is closest to how you feel about the

following questions…

1. How much do you like doing music?

Very much Not very much

2. How good at music do you think you are?

Very good Not very good

3. How much does making music make you feel happy or not so

happy?

Very happy Not happy at all

4. How much do you enjoy learning new things with music?


5. How much do enjoy making music with your friends and other

people?


youth music outcomes guidance

Documents

working document

project evaluation

outcomes funder

document cover

useful approach

effective evaluation

partners work

real youth music project