Monitoring and evaluation

The key to understanding and evaluating the progress of this Strategic Approach over the short, medium and long term is to set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) targets and routinely monitor and report on progress towards its outcomes and their contribution towards successful delivery of the four Priorities set out in this paper.

To support this outcome a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan will be developed in collaboration with the ICP Key Stakeholder Group. Set and agreed criteria will be used to assess the proposals made in this Strategic Approach and to set SMART targets. It will include a series of performance measures which will go beyond the measures applied to the ferry operators through the CHFS and NIFS contracts and will capture a wider range of essential activity and better reflect the lived experience of users and communities. These could include:

  • Customer and community satisfaction.
  • Average fleet age.
  • Service reliability – reflecting user experience.
  • Progress against the Accessibility Standard and on number of passengers using ferry services who identify themselves as disabled.
  • Indicator on Timetables linked to Deck Space Reservation pilot.
  • Ratio of passengers to vehicles as an indicator of better “integration” and increased foot passenger usage; Measure of progress against a proposed “integration baseline”.
  • Carryings, capacity, and capacity utilisation (passengers, cabins, and vehicles) by route.
  • Volume of freight moved to/from islands.
  • Number of zero/low emission vessels in the CMAL fleet.
  • Fares indicator: e.g., ratio of fares to subsidy as an indicator of cost to Government; changes in fares vs inflation as an indicator of cost to users.
  • Environmental criteria.

Although this is the “final” version of this Strategic Approach, it will be reviewed and refreshed every five years to reflect changes and progress – recognising that the service delivery environment is dynamic, not static. This process will be informed by the monitoring and evaluation as outlined in the future Monitoring and Evaluation Plan. The first refresh is therefore expected to take place during 2029 and an updated Strategic Approach and Vessels and Ports Plan will be published by the end of 2029.

The Islands Connectivity Plan supports the National Transport Strategy and overall progress will be measured through Transport Scotland’s Monitoring and Evaluation of the NTS2 Indicators.