CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Commissioning of the external review
1.1 In August 2007, the Health and Wellbeing Directorate of the Scottish Government commissioned The Saren Dixon Partnership to undertake an external review of ASH Scotland in the context of the funding it receives from the Scottish Government.
1.2 The review of ASH Scotland was part of the rolling programme of external reviews at 6 year intervals of agencies and organisations in receipt of major recurring grants of £100,000 or more. These are required under the Scottish Compact of Good Practice Guide "Advice on Scottish Executive relations with the voluntary sector" ii. This was the first such review of ASH Scotland.
1.3 This stand-alone project was closely linked to the external review of "Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health" ( PATH) which was commissioned separately.
1.4 The Health and Wellbeing Directorate funds ASH Scotland for the contribution it makes to the development and implementation of national policy designed to reduce smoking levels in Scotland. ASH Scotland was established under the auspices of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh and became a separate national organisation in 1993. ASH Scotland is a campaigning public health charity working to raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use and contribute to effective public health policies aimed at helping reduce and eliminate the health problems caused by tobacco.
Aims and objectives
1.5 The overall aim of the work was to examine ASH Scotland's performance in providing value for money in relation to the funding provided by the Scottish Government, both to support its core activities and for specific projects it manages ( i.e. Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health, the Tobacco and Inequalities Project, the Information Service and the Scottish Tobacco Control Alliance).
1.6 While the main focus of the ASH Scotland review was to be on the Section 16b of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 core grant, the research review team was also asked to address project grant funding made available towards the costs of specific initiatives: the ASH Scotland Information Service, the Local Tobacco Alliances Project and the Tobacco and Inequalities Project.
1.7 More specific objectives for this piece of work were:
- to examine ASH Scotland's performance in providing value for money in relation to the funding made available by the Scottish Government both to support its core activities and specific projects/ initiatives it has been taking forward
- to assess ASH Scotland's short and long term strategic planning processes and the organisation's performance in and contribution to developing and delivering national tobacco control policy specifically the Tobacco Action Plan "A Breath of Fresh Air for Scotland" which was published in January 2004
- to assess the effectiveness of ASH Scotland's standing financial instructions and the internal and external audit, and
- to identify key strengths, which can be built upon, and propose solutions to any weaknesses which need to be addressed, value for money ( VFM) and cost-effectiveness being a key feature
Period of scrutiny for the review
1.8 This review focused in particular on 2004-07, that being the most recent period of Scottish Government 3 year funding. In looking at the policy context, the review team had regard to the period from 1998 onwards to reflect back to the publication of ASH Scotland and the Health Education Board for Scotland's ( HEBS) iii "A Smoking Cessation Policy for Scotland" ( ASH Scotland and HEBS, 1998) 2, the UK Government's White Paper "Smoking Kills"(Department of Health, 1998) 3, and ASH Scotland's "Smoking in Public Places"( ASH Scotland, 1999) 4, in which it called for legislation to be introduced to effectively restrict smoking in public places.
Time period of the research
1.9 The fieldwork was carried out between late August and mid November 2007. An interim report was submitted to the Scottish Government on 15 November and, after discussion with the Steering Group for the review (see below in Section 3.4 for details of the Group), the report was amended and a final draft version produced in January 2008.
Structure of the research report
1.10 Chapter 2 sets the policy context for the review. Chapter 3 of the report explains the methodology employed in the research. Chapters 4 - 7 set out the findings of the research, each chapter addressing one of the review's objectives outlined above. Chapter 8 contains the review team's conclusions and recommendations. There follows a series of appendices containing background information.