Income trends Measured in millions

Grant has been maintained in this region compared with last year. Some of the countries within the region have had a reduction in grant in line with the Europe strategy; other recent accession countries have had a small increase. Overall, income has decreased owing to the closure of teaching centres in Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Baku and the end of four EU contracts in Turkey and Macedonia.

Country share of income Measured in millions
Country in bold denotes head office
Audience engagement Measured in millions

While there has been a decrease in our audience engagement figures, there has been a corresponding increase in our audience reach figures. This is in line with our customer strategy of shifting our focus from direct engagement with a wider public to strengthened interaction with a more targeted audience of young influential professionals.

Audience reach Measured in millions

As some of our regional projects have moved into their second year, there has been a significant growth in our audiences, reaching over a million more people than last year. Our Beautiful Science project reached 700,000 people, while Skills@Work, Living Together and Creative Collaborations reached a further 14,000. Here, our principal contact audiences are leaders and people who influence others. Greater interaction at this level has enabled us better to identify mutual goals, develop partnerships and indirectly reach larger audiences of aspiring young individuals.

Customer satisfaction scores

Our work has generated a customer feedback score with a small overall increase on 2006–07. However, we have acknowledged the need to build on the scores achieved by the new regional projects (generating markedly higher averages from 81 to a particularly strong score of 87 for the Skills@Work project), in order to restore our 2005–06 levels of satisfaction.

Performance impact and looking aheadThe evaluation of long-term outcomes surveys were carried out this year in Turkey, Macedonia and Israel, three countries that reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of South-East Europe. Our results continue to be very strong (statistically on a par with 2006–07) and reflect the level of impact the British Council is making in all three countries.

We have achieved improved impact scores against the positive partnerships (73 to 80) and our long-term relationships (76 to 78) outputs. This reflects a successful move towards the new partnership model, which underlies our large-scale projects.

Our only result to show a decrease is against the creative ideas and achievements output (from 77 to 74). This partly reflects the unpredictable response to creative events in a very diverse region. Where we have variable scores for a single larger project (as is the case with Beautiful Science), we will be addressing the issue in 2008–09.