External Review of ASH Scotland 2014

2 Methodology

2.1 The review was carried out between April and June 2014 and was based on the following activities:

• A review of documents from ASH Scotland and the Scottish Government.
• An assessment of ASH Scotland's financial arrangements and systems from a review of relevant documents and interviews with key staff.
• Interviews and focus groups with ASH Scotland staff to elicit their views on the organisation's strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and their engagement with external stakeholders.
• Focus groups and interviews with a purposive selection of external stakeholders, carried out face to face where possible and by phone where necessary.^[2]

2.2 The analytic framework for the review was based on the Best Value guidelines from Audit Scotland, although some adaptations were made to reflect the specific purpose of this review.

2.3 In addition, in agreement with the Scottish Government advisory group for this review, a light touch comparison was undertaken with two other voluntary organisations which receive grant funding from the Scottish Government and with the two other ASH organisations based in London and in Cardiff.^[3]