Policy evaluation in leisure services - the Northern Ireland case

Public policy evaluation in leisure has been largely ignored until recently when attempts have been made to assess the impact of capital and revenue expenditure and its value-for- money consequences. Two recent studies - the Roberts’ Report: Community response to leisure provision in Belfast (1989) and the Local Government Audit study (DoE, 1989) on indoor provision in Northern Ireland - highlight the difficulties in evaluating leisure policy. A detailed examination of both studies suggests that developing leisure objectives which are amenable to both quantitative and qualitative assessment and the complementary use of meaningful performance indicators are a necessary pre-requisite for future leisure policy evaluation.