Minutes of Full Group mtg held on 7 July 2011 Present: Ian Martin (Chair) Pound Arts Trust - Pound Arts Centre, Corsham Festival and Rural Touring scheme Jo Day – Freelance Arts Manager, Project Manager and Mentor Deryck Newland – Director, Salisbury Arts Centre offering a wide range of performance, visual art and participation Rachel Selley – Director of Arc Theatre Trowbridge, professional theatre part of Wiltshire College Trowbridge Carrie Creamer – Co-ordinator of Wiltshire Youth Arts Partnership part of the integrated youth service within Wiltshire Council Rosie Upton – Village Pump, 100 seat venue behind the Lamb Inn in Trowbridge, not for profit present concerts, a festival and venue hire Peter Tyas – Manager Arts and Archives, Wiltshire Council Faye Bradley – Arts Development Officer, Wiltshire Council, Eastern side of the County Sue Kemp – La Folio (nee Sarum Orchestra) concerts, participation, work regionally, nationally and internationally Simon Jeffery – Commissioning and contracts lead for Wiltshire Council Meril Morgan – Arts Development Officer, Wiltshire Council, North and West of the County Heather Minto – Project Development Co-ordinator, The Unit Salisbury Ruth Jones – Director of The Unit, Salisbury and Firestarter Arts. Also works for RIO as regional co-ordinator of Arts Awards Clare Jack – Executive Director Wiltshire Music Centre – music venue with a concert hall that presents 90 concerts per year, in addition to extensive participation work. Jules Hobbs – Actor and Director of Finding The Will. Touring their own show Bard Head, part of the rural touring scheme, work for 10 year olds+ Caroline Peacock – Salisbury International Arts Festival Manager – participation programme through the year and runs Salisbury food and drink festival. Jackie Crowther – Grow, organisation to support the voluntary sector Paula Hammond – CEW (Creative Ecology Wiltshire) Apologies: Mark Bishop - Big State Juliann Worall-Hood - artist Stephanie Jalland - Hoodwink Nicolas Fogg - Marlborough Jazz Festival Michelle Carwardine-Palmer – Salsibury Playhouse Dominic Somers – CEW Dave Buxton – Devizes Carnival Peter Ursem – ArtCare Natalie Ball – designer
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Update from Peter Tyas
Where we are now
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b. c. d. e. f.
There have been 1 million recorded visits to arts events in Wiltshire during 2010/11 NB these include free events, festival and art exhibition, is mindful of needing to keep records of ticketed and non ticket events separately also. 13000 events were supported by Wiltshire Council, 2000 more than last year mainly due to the increased small grants fund There are 113 full time equivalent posts in the arts, 200 freelance practitioners supporting organisations, 700 volunteers equally about 36,000 hours of work, £250,000 unpaid work 17,000 days of work is facilitated for artists There is a 10 – 1 leverage level, so that for every £1 invested by Wiltshire Council a further £9 is spent. The overall expenditure on arts activity for the year was £6.5M £2 mil worth of tickets purchased
Peter and his team will do more work on the economic impact of arts expenditure. Where we’re going?: Cultural Strategy Will draw together all of the work people are doing, will visit internal partners eg libraries, VCS unit and others. Peter shared that he felt the arts sector is a little ‘disconnected’ from Wiltshire Council’s core activity and will look to demonstrate that there s extensive work in the arts is happening that may just not be being communicated effectively. The draft Cultural Strategy is to be given to the Core Leadership team in October / November. Team Wiltshire Team Wiltshire will look to co-ordinate the torch relay for Wiltshire. LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) want every Local Authority to have a team that they can work with to deliver the games and its legacy, including the torch relay. Team Wiltshire will be developing subgroups which are to be formed by the end of 2011 which leaves little time so the advice is that we need to start planning and thinking now about what we could do to animate the torch route but keep that planning ‘adaptable’. A key value of this work is to advocate ‘bureaucratically’ to cabinet. The value to those involved is the building of networks and capacities, looking at learning gained from the Cultural Olympiad and a potential boost in profile. Peter has put a call out to those he sees as being able to support the work of the subgroup, a meeting has th been scheduled for the 28 July. How will looks now: There is a sense that there is a recovery taking place: long term unemployment has reduced; unemployment not as extensive as it could be. It is felt that the Future Jobs Fund project has been very successful for both the young people and the organisations they have worked for. What we want to achieve
broaden the employment base so that Wiltshire is less dependent on public sector employment and a low wage economy; make jobs more local so that we can lower our carbon footprint; tackle barriers to employment growth and make Wiltshire a location of choice for businesses; improve the skills and employability of Wiltshire based workers and those who are unemployed; reduce and minimise the regulatory burden on business;
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maximise volunteering; create an Employee Assistance Programme for those facing redundancy; develop stronger links between businesses and communities; and support the vulnerable and offer advice to individuals in crisis.
The Action for Wiltshire programme has been extended to deal with continuing issues such as re-skilling, business loans, personal debt, long term unemployment and help and advice for those experiencing difficulty. Phase 2 also takes into account the impact of the cuts in public sector spend on the Wiltshire economy which has already been weakened by the recession. A programme of work for Phase 2 has been launched based on the following:
a ‘Help and Advice’ programme to assist individuals with tackling the difficulties caused for them by the recession and the impacts of the public sector cuts; an ‘Employment Support Programme’ aimed at addressing the hardening of unemployment, reskilling a new workforce for Wiltshire and maximising opportunities for self employment and establishing a new business support model; a ‘New Business Development Programme’ aimed at maximising opportunities for self employment and establishing a new business support model, stimulating the appropriate development of social enterprises, co-operatives and employee-led businesses and maximising business to business opportunities; and a ‘Business Location of Choice Programme’ aimed at securing business investment in Wiltshire and tackling barriers to growth.
February 2011 saw the launch of a unique partnership between Wiltshire Council, Jobcentre Plus and 15 local employers which has halved the number of unemployed Wiltshire residents claiming Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) for 2 years or more. The Wiltshire Work Grant is a locally developed support package for disadvantaged unemployed people who have been claiming JSA for 2 years or more. It is operating in Wiltshire as a Jobcentre Plus pilot model for getting the very long term unemployed back into work, managed by Wiltshire Council. 4. Small Loans Targeted at businesses unable to access credit through the normal banking system, was awarded to Trowbridge-based Occasions for Balloons. The scheme is being delivered by the Fredericks Foundation with financial backing and support from Wiltshire Council, GWE Business West Limited and The Wiltshire Assembly through the Action for Wiltshire programme. Action for Wiltshire was set up to tackle the effects of the recession and prepare for economic recovery. The Arts Service is leading on piece of work around the commissioning of public art and we are going to deliver some training opportunities as well as a programme of shadowing to enable artists and arts organisations to work alongside some of the best public art practitioner on the delivery of projects in Wiltshire. The latest LEP submission builds on the Action for Witlshire programme, requesting new powers from government and delivering an investment programme targeted at the following key sectors of the Wiltshire Economy: ACTION: TS to share Action For Wiltshire PDF which looks at broadening the employment base, barriers of employment, carbon footprint etc. Link to page on WC website http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/wiltshirefamilyofpartnershipsworkingtogether/actionforwiltshire.htm Investment in Superfast broadband for Wiltshire will provide Wiltshire with a 95% coverage. Local Enterprise partnerships
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Looking at developing an investment programme which will include tourism, ICT, logistics and low carbon emissions. There is a real place for the arts in this, eg in supporting business through creative writing, arts can impact on tourism and culture. Aims: To supply business growth Create jobs in the private sector Wiltshire has many small and micro businesses but few large ones. Building sustainable communities: ACTION To achieve this we need to have services that can be accessible locally. Peter thinks WAP needs to speak with Action For Wiltshire and think about how we can work within this. Simon Jeffery – Demystifying Commissioning. Simon demonstrated the various definitions for this word explaining that there is no absolute clear definition. The Local Authority’s role is changing from that of a service provider to an enabler, facilitating activity in Wiltshire through a process of ‘buying’ services. A challenge was highlighted in how we access, find out who the commissioners or decision makers as to the needs are, and how knowledgeable they are about the options of delivery, ie what the arts can do. There is no database that will outline this simply for us, and there are many people (70 or more) who are involved in the commissioning process from the Local Authority end. Simon has offered himself and Peter as willing to help signpost us to these key people. Simon stated that it is important that we: gain an understanding of what our position is in the market know what our strengths are know what areas of need we are able to effectively respond to look at how we work: could we share costs; work together more effectively Look at our business plans o Are we working in a way that is right for now o Have we looked at and considered longer term trends There are concerns over peoples understanding of the arts sector, especially participation, there needs to be a demonstration of how the arts can deliver to a non arts sector agenda. The local authority needs to: Make large savings Have leaner services More effective outcomes Need to improve engagement with service providers. An example was given that Wiltshire Council have committed £34 million to the care of vulnerable adults. Q: How do we place ourselves as delivers within this? How do ‘bespoke’ providers like arts organisations compete with broad based larger organisations Challenges: WC are not currently transparent re who the decision makers are (See earlier note re Simon and Peter signposting for us) The standard understanding of cost .v. quality is 70/30, however, it is up to the relevant commissioner/ project lead to determine an appropriate ratio. Generally within community services a 60/40 or 50/50 ratio is applied. The regulations allow for this flexibility.
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It may be that the arts needs to work in partnership/ as sub contractors to the larger organisations who are commissioned. Ie Provide dance/ theatre for the elderly through Help The Aged or Alzheimers Society. What we can do now: Wiltshire Council need to enable people to know who to speak to about what, in the mean time Simon and Peter will help with this signposting Look at ‘Buy Wiltshire’ website http://www.buywiltshire.co.uk/index.php (NB I had a look and under specialised education services I was only able to find The Unit, and nothing under healthcare, alternative/ holistic, might be useful for may more arts deliverers are in there) ACTION: TS will add WAP as a network to all of the possible relevant areas. ACTION: To demonstrate arts relevance to as many decision makers as possible. Pending successful funding TS will organise a conference event where members can demonstrate their work, have stalls and a speaker, ideally a commissioner who has seen positive outcomes from arts commissioning. This will need to be in 2012 giving enough lead time following funding outcome in October. Challenge of time on orgs to commit time to tender for work that may be unsuccessful! Undeniable, WAP’s development manager and network will work together to try to negate this as much as possible. There was much more that we could have spoken about, particularly about the procurement process itself. If there are members who would like to have another session with Simon to look at the detail of the process please let me know and I’ll try to organise this for us. Ruth Jones: Arts Awards Arts awards have always been for 11 – 25 yr olds, introducing new age 7 – 11’s Arts awards are highly inclusive having three levels 1,2 3 ?/ Bronze, Silver, Gold making them a great project to run as part of cultural Olympiad work. Arts Awards can be delivered in many different groups, youth justice, schools, sports sector. Arts Awards are a nationally recognised qualification, it contributes to school performance targets and Gold carries 35 UCAS points. This means that school can use their exam budgets to deliver these. Arts Awards are increasingly recognised as one way of bridging the achievement gap that is a key priority and of ‘enriching’ the curriculum. They are also a good route to other training and employment for young people. To train to be an Arts Awards deliverer you need to have 1 days training. As an individual this costs £140 per day. If we can get a cohort together through WAP we could reduce this to a max of £97.50 each. ACTION: TS to invite WAP members to access Arts Award Training Grow Wiltshire offered support in the delivery of training. I cannot do justice to Ruth’s presentation in these notes so please do visit the Arts Awards website http://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64 or contact Ruth directly at Ruth@ruthljones.co.uk The group then had an open discussion about the presentations, highlighting many of the points made. Key points were: Arts Service could usefully play a bridging role in the commissioning process: Arts Officers: ensure transparency Highlight and signpost opportunities The often short timelines for commissions were highlighted as another challenge. Would be useful to know the key people in: Young Peoples services Youth Justice
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Adult Social Care Response was that there are 60 – 70 people working as decision makers in these areas so not easy to do.
Grow Jackie Crowther from Grow gave us some information packs about their work as a support to community and voluntary groups in Wiltshire. Take a look at their website fir more information about their work and training opportunities http://developecs.ning.com/ Date of next full meeting: Dec 7, venue TBC
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