State of the Region Report

STATE OF THE REGION Regional intelligence report on arts and cultural provision for children and young people in the North West 2012

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State of the Region

Contents click to jump to section

1. Introduction 2. Our Methodology 3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West 4. Consultation with Local Authorities 5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector 6. Relationships Between Arts and Cultural Organisations and Schools 7. Consultation with the Creative and Cultural Sector 8. Collaboration and Partnership Working 9. Networks and Networking 10. Information and Communication 11. Engaging Young People 12. Engaging Families 13. Outreach and Engagement 14. Achievement and Progression 15. Arts Award 16. Quality and Excellence 17. Artsmark 18. Funding 19. Threats for the Bridge 20. Advocacy

Thanks

Contents

3 8 12 28 37 48 56 72 80 86 95 111 116 121 130 135 145 149 154 158 163

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1. Introduction

State of the Region

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Curious Minds is part of a national network of ten bridge organisations funded by Arts Council England to use our experience and expertise to connect children and young people, and schools and communities with art and culture. We, along with the Arts Council, believe that every child and young person should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts and culture.

Our approach to delivering the North West Bridge role will be underpinned by a set of five core principles: 1. Collaboration, dialogue and partnership – acting as a broker, enabler and facilitator to develop a sustainable cultural ecology for children and young people 2. Cohering and simplifying – streamlining and simplifying the mechanisms that facilitate children and young people’s participation in art, culture and creative learning 3. Recognising the unique contribution of schools – a coherent strategy that focuses on high quality arts experiences within schools 4. Continuously striving for quality and excellence – raising quality across the region to sustain engagement 5. Enabling children and young people’s voice – supporting children and young people to develop as independent and informed consumers, critics, and commissioners of arts and culture.

1. Introduction

State of the Region

Mapping and the gathering of information is a key element of the Bridge initiative. In order to build a coherent approach to the development of children and young people’s engagement in arts and culture, both in and out of school, we need to be aware of the current offer, context and demand. This report aims to gather a regional picture of the provision, needs and barriers around arts and culture for children and young people.

This report will be used to inform our activity plan for the 2012/13 Bridge programme and ensure that it is rooted in stakeholder need and reflective of the distinctive context, challenges and potential of the North West region at this moment in time. It will be used to underpin the partnership investment decisions we make and how we prioritise our time and budget as a Bridge organisation. Our purpose is to make a difference to as many children and young people as possible and our mission is to build on what works well and be unafraid to work in partnership to change the things that could be better.

For the purposes of the Bridge remit, our definition of children and young people covers 0-19 year olds.

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1.1 Context and Approach Children and young people are living and learning in a period of great economic and social change, a time in which their emotional and physical wellbeing, the space afforded them to imagine, create and innovate and their ability to find work or access further or higher education are all playing out in a context full of challenge. For many living in some of the most deprived Super Output Areas in the whole of England, this compounds already high levels of disadvantage.

This is a time of transition in which many funding streams have been changing and it has been a challenge to develop a coherent overview of a constantly evolving context. Rather than focus on what has been offered historically we set out to focus on provision planned for 2012/13. That said we now know some of the organisations we have consulted with as part of this research will cease to exist in a few months time.

Others consider themselves to be ‘at risk’ while some are merging, restructuring or still working through the details of their offer for the new financial year. We are not operating in a static environment by any means and as such we offer you a perspective of the current context as we are able to interpret it at this time.

1. Introduction

State of the Region

This report is not about making the case for arts and culture for children and young people; although we believe there is much work to do in this area, the purpose of this report is to bring together information about provision for children and young people and analyse what they and the key practitioners, deliverers and funders working with and for them are telling us are the most important issues, challenges and opportunities facing them at this time. We have attempted to represent what people have told us in as objective a manner as possible.

What we present here is a summary of the vast amount of data and intelligence gathered over the last four months.

The detailed summaries of individual organisational offers, the particular issues facing specific schools and the differing dynamics of local authority areas cannot be presented here, there is simply too much information.

However we will continue making full use of this detailed data as we work in partnership with others to plan, deliver and evaluate the Bridge programme in the North West of England.

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Our role as a Bridge is to listen to what we have heard and work with partners to develop creative solutions that individuals, organisations and communities can implement.

We endeavour to offer a sense of realism in the picture we portray and a solutions focused approach in our response.

Some of our ideas for responding to identified needs are featured here. Others will follow as we develop our programme.

Meeting and connecting with so many people and organisations has been just as important to us as gathering the data, enabling us to forge new relationships, make fresh linkages and reconnect with existing partners.

We have made a deliberate decision to anonymise those consulted. Our reason for doing this was to encourage open and honest conversation that would build a real and representative picture of the region and to ensure we were not seen to be favouring any one provider, setting or local authority over any other. Most of the themes, needs, barriers and potential presented to us were not specific to one art

1. Introduction

State of the Region

form area or geographical location and a range of common themes emerged around which this report is arranged. We start with specific intelligence about each region, move on to look at the specific context facing local authorities, the cultural sector, schools and children and young people, and then turn our focus to the most common themes that came up in our consultation.

To date we have consulted with over 450 people and would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for sharing their time, expertise, experience and creative ideas. A full list of the individuals and organisations we have consulted with can be found in an appendix at the end of this document.

This is only the beginning; we know there are many people we have yet to connect with across the region and we look forward to doing this as we move forwards in our new role.

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Many thanks go also to the individuals and organisations who have supported us in the process of gathering intelligence across the region. Particular thanks go to: All About Audiences Barnardos Action with Young Carers Blessed Trinity High School, Burnley Claire O’Brien Creative Futures Cumbria CYCES - a school for young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties, run by The Together Trust Gayle Sutherland The Hollins Technology College, Hyndburn Janice McNamara Lyceum Youth Theatre

1. Introduction

State of the Region

Mid Pennine Arts Naomi Whitman Neil Winterburn North Lakes School, Penrith Paul Hine Peshkar Young Peoples Group Rosie Crook St Patricks CE School, Endmoor Sheni Ravji-Smith Young People’s Advisory service (YPAS) Zion Young Performers

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2. Our Methodology

State of the Region

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Representatives from Bridge organisations around the country came together to create an audit tool that would collect statistical data around arts and cultural provision for children and young people, including educational attainment, deprivation and other key indicators that would help us identify areas of particular need.

It was agreed that Bridge organisations would focus on gathering intelligence on ‘needs, barriers and potential’ within the following key areas: – The strategic issues for the region in the context of children and young people – Key threats and opportunities in the Bridge context – The specific dynamics of individual local authorities – Funding and commissioning agencies and potential partners – Geographic areas of ‘need’ for children and young people and ‘opportunity’ – Music education landscape.

2. Our Methodology

State of the Region

Meanwhile, in the North West we spent time devising a comprehensive process that would enable us to gather intelligence from as many young people, teachers, practitioners, funders and deliverers as possible.

We focused our attention on the following: – Children and young people – Schools – Arts Organisations - National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) – Arts Organisations - Non NPOs – Museums/Heritage and Libraries sector – Third sector, community organisations and charities – Local Authorities – Arts, cultural and education networks

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Feedback from these groups were gathered using the following methods: Statistical evidence Survey to all schools in the North West and a survey to all arts and cultural, museums and heritage organisations in the North West; this was part of a joint consultation delivered by All About Audiences and Curious Minds focusing on arts and cultural provision for schools.

Focus Groups - a series of group sessions with leaders from a range of sectors and backgrounds. These were targeted at the following: I. Artsmark trainers II. Arts Award advisers III. Arts Award trainers /moderators IV. NPOs V. Museum and Heritage sector VI. Primary Schools in rural settings VII. Secondary Schools in rural settings VIII. Primary Schools in urban settings IX. Secondary Schools in urban settings X. Local authority arts officers XI. SEN schools XII. Third sector and community organisations The sub-regional focus groups contained representatives from all of the above settings

2. Our Methodology

State of the Region

XIII. Sub-regional Lancashire XIV. Sub-regional Merseyside XV. Sub-regional Greater Manchester XVI. .Sub-regional Cheshire and Warrington XVII. Sub-regional Cumbria One: One Interviews - we conducted interviews with over a hundred leaders from the arts and cultural sector, museums and heritage, libraries, music hubs and schools.

Consultation with children and young people – one facilitator worked with two different groups of children and young people in each region. Their main focus was looking at what inspires children and young people to become engaged in arts and cultural activity.

Network Analysis - we researched the key networks in the region that have a focus on arts and cultural work with and for children and young people.

Cultural and Children and Young People’s Strategy Analysis - we conducted an analysis of local authority strategies around arts and culture and children and young people in the North West. This was to identify the key priorities for children and young people across the authorities and the plans local authorities have in place to support them.

Research on current political and cultural policy

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In bringing together the transcripts of interviews and focus groups we pulled out the main trends. Some of these were sub region and sector specific while others cut across these boundaries and were relevant to the contributing sectors and region as a whole. The common themes were identified as: – Information and communication – Engaging young people, their families and the hard to reach – Achievement and progression – Quality – Money – Advocacy This report brings together the voice of young people, teachers, arts practitioners, funders and local authority leads as one. For each of the sector specific and key theme sections we share the key intelligence collated including needs, barriers and potential. We also share our current thinking about how the Bridge will address the issues raised, during year one.

2. Our Methodology

State of the Region

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3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

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3.1 Analysis of the sub-regions Cheshire and Warrington Cheshire and Warrington is situated in the south and east of the region and includes the following local authorities: – Cheshire West and Chester – Cheshire East – Halton Borough Council – Warrington Borough Council The sub-region incorporates the historic city of Chester, a number of large towns as well as a large rural community.

Because of this geographical make-up there are areas of high prosperity and areas of high deprivation. In 2009 the district councils in Cheshire were replaced by two unitary authorities; Cheshire West and Chester and Cheshire East.

There are five NPOs (National Portfolio Organisations) in the sub region of Cheshire. Four of these organisations were within the RFO (Regularly Funded Organisations) structure.

The NPO’s are: – Action Transport Theatre – Artform: Theatre – Cheshire and Lancashire Touring Partnership – Artform: Combined arts – Chester Performs – Artform: Combined arts – Chester Festivals Ltd – Artform: Combined arts – Cheshire Dance – Artform: Dance

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

A rich cultural offer is also provided through local authority, educational and commercial settings across the subregion. Our consultation also suggests that children and young people from Halton and Warrington are often more connected to cultural experiences on offer in the nearby cities of Liverpool and Manchester.

In the sub region as a whole the levels of deprivation are low but at a more local level, there are pockets of serious deprivation. Areas such as Ellesmere Port have some of the highest levels of deprivation and lowest standards of educational attainment in the UK. This could easily be missed if on the ground intelligence and statistics are not gathered.

The statistics for the region support a key issue raised during the consultation process;

There is the perception that Cheshire is affluent so does not need funding

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State of the Region

Statistics for Cheshire 1. Population – (0 - 19) 206.7 (000’s) (20 - 24) 51.1 (000’s) 2. Population CYP (0-24) – 257.8 (28.9% of total population) 3. Arts Award – 127 successful awards April 2011 – September 2011 Total Arts Award 0.08% of young people (North West average = 0.18% / National average for England = 0.17%) 4. Arts Mark – 87 settings = 20.2% of settings (North West average 20.6% / National average for England = 19.2%) 5. Percentage of CYP (under 16’s) living in poverty – 13.5% (North West Average = 22.8%, National Average = 20.9%) 6. Unemployed Under 25 – 15,750 = 26.2% of total claimants (North West Average – 29.4%, National Average – 26.9%)

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

7. Index of Multiple Depravation – 16.22 (24 out of 39 in England) North West Average = 25.61 National Average = 19.15 8. Areas of low engagement In arts and culture (National ranking out of 354) – 49th – Halton 9. Setting listed in top 50 highest NEETS levels – 6th Ellesmere Port High: Around 20% 3rd Warrington Very High: Almost 25% Particular geographical areas of need mentioned in consultations – Ellesmere Port Halton Warrington Tarporley Nantwich Crewe Wilmslow Congleton Macclesfield

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3.2 Analysis of the sub-regions: Cumbria The Cumbrian sub-region is made up of a county council and six district/city councils: – Cumbria County Council; – Allerdale Borough Council; – Copeland Borough Council; – Barrow in Furness Borough Council; – Carlisle City Council; – Eden District Council; – South Lakeland District Council.

Cumbria is England’s second largest county and ranked third in relation to population sparsity. More than half of Cumbria’s population of 498,000 live in rural communities with only Carlisle and Barrow having populations exceeding 28,000. Over 70% of the county’s settlements have a population of less than 200 people.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

Home to the Lake District, Cumbria is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Despite initial appearances, there are significant issues which impact on the life chances of children and young people. There are significant levels of deprivation: twelve wards in Carlisle, Barrow and West Cumbria fall within the 10% most deprived nationally. There are also smaller pockets of significant deprivation and low incomes in some rural communities.

Our consultation uncovered two key barriers to engagement in arts and culture: economic deprivation in the west and south of the region, in areas such as Barrow in Furness and Workington; and rural isolation. Many people raised concerns about transport and lack of accessibility to arts provision. This is a particularly pressing issue for children and young people who live in the most isolated areas of the region.

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There are 14 NPOs in the region. Of which 12 survive from the RFO structure. The NPO’s are: – Art Gene – Artform: Visual arts – The Ashton Group – Artform: Theatre – The Brewery, Kendal – Artform: Combined arts – Cumbria Theatre Trust – Artform: Theatre – Eden Arts – Artform: Combined arts – Grizedale Arts – Artform: Visual arts – Highlights Rural Touring Network – Artform: Combined arts – Kendal Arts International – Artform: Combined arts – Lakeland Arts Trust – Artform: Visual arts – Octopus – Artform: Combined arts – Prism Arts – Artform: Combined arts – Rosehill Theatre – Artform: Combined arts – Whitewood and Fleming Theatre and Music – Artform: Combined arts – The Wordsworth Trust – Artform: Literature

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

NPOs and the museum and heritage sector play a key role in the life and education of the people of Cumbria. The number of cultural venues in the region is higher than the national average (outside of London). However, venues tend to be small and their offer is locality focused.

When asked during the consultation what they would like to see happen in Cumbria, most people asked for a more joined up offer across the region and strategic help with transport policy and routes.

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State of the Region

Statistics for Cumbria 1. Population – (0 - 19) 108.5 (000’s) (20 - 24) 25.3 (000’s) 2. Population CYP (0-24) – 133.8 (27.4% of total population) 3. Arts Award – 283 successful awards April 2011 - September 2011 Total Arts Award 0.35% of young people (North West average = 0.18% / National average for England = 0.17%) 4. Arts Mark – 54 settings = 15.7% of settings (North West average 20.6% / National average for England = 19.2%) 5. Percentage of CYP (under 16’s) living in poverty – 15.1% (North West Average = 22.8%, National Average = 20.9%) 6. Unemployed Under 25 – 7360 = 29.6% of total claimants (North West Average – 29.4%, National Average – 26.9%)

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

7. Index of Multiple Depravation – 21.06 (10 out of 39 in England) North West Average = 25.61 National Average = 19.15 8. Settings classed as cold spots (National ranking out of 354) – 65th – Allerdale 73rd – Barrow 9. Setting listed in top 50 highest NEETS levels – None Particular geographical areas of need mentioned in consultations – West Cumbria Barrow Workington Areas of rural isolation Eden South Lakes Carlisle Copland

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3.3 Analysis of the sub-regions: Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county. It is the second largest conurbation in the UK and is made up of ten metropolitan boroughs: – Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council – Bury Metropolitan Borough Council – Manchester City Council – Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council – Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council – Salford City Council – Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council – Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council – Trafford Metropolitan Borough – Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

The ten authorities of Greater Manchester are the first in the country to develop a statutory combined authority which will coordinate key economic development, regeneration and transport functions. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) was established on the 1 April 2011.

Through the local authority union of AGMA (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) the subregion has built a joined up approach to arts and culture in the area, ensuring provision and funding is spread across the whole region with key organisations focusing on specific needs and barriers. However, there are still big challenges to be tackled. The size of the conurbation and where and when the cultural offer takes place still makes it difficult for many children and young people to access arts and cultural provision.

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The hub of the cultural offer exists within the major cities of Manchester and Salford and is accessed by residents and young people from across the city region. With the move of the BBC to Media City in Salford there is a sense of a new lease of life and opportunity for a number of organisations.

But it can also be seen as a potential threat with a concern that funding and audiences will head in the direction of Salford Quays instead of the outlying areas around and in Salford, which statistics show have very high levels of deprivation and disengagement.

Communities throughout the Greater Manchester city region face a common set of issues associated with ex-industrial legacy. Barriers that affect young people include street by street gang separation, lack of identity within the local area, transport difficulties between and across boroughs, deprivation and youth unemployment and the threat of a city centre with a cultural offer much richer than a young person’s own neighbourhood.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

The main challenge to arts and cultural organisation is reduced funding, the expectation to do more with less and the capacity to achieve this. Although requests for extra funding came through loud and clear there is a notable positive attitude and willingness to develop new and sustainable ways of working to achieve this. Funding is not always the answer; shared working and programming aligned with the principles of openness and honesty was suggested as a key way forward.

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There are 36 NPOs in the region. Of which 30 survive from the RFO structure. The NPO’s are: – 24:7 Theatre Arts Network Ltd – Artform: Theatre – Carcanet Press Ltd – Artform: Literature – Chinese Arts Centre – Artform: Visual Arts – Comma Press – Artform: Literature – Commonword/Cultureword – Artform: Literature – Community Arts North West – Artform: Combined arts – Company Chameleon – Artform: Dance – Contact Theatre – Artform: Theatre – Cornerhouse – Artform: Visual Arts – Dance Initiative Greater Manchester – Artform: Dance – Full Circle Arts – Artform: All – Future Everything CIC – Artform: Visual Arts – hAb – Artform: Combined arts – Halle Concerts Society – Artform: Music – Inner City Music Ltd – Artform: Music – M6 Theatre Company – Artform: Theatre – Manchester Camerata – Artform: Music – Manchester Craft & Design Ltd – Artform: Visual arts – Manchester International Festival – Artform: Combined arts

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

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State of the Region

Manchester Jazz Festival – Artform: Music Manchester Literature Festival – Artform: Literature Octagon Theatre Trust Limited – Artform: Theatre Oldham Coliseum Theatre – Artform: Theatre Performing Arts Network & Development Agency – Artform: Combined arts Peshkar Productions – Artform: Theatre Psappha Contemporary Music Ensemble – Artform: Music Quarantine – Artform: Theatre Rasa Productions – Artform: Theatre Redeye, the Photography Network – Artform: Visual Arts Royal Exchange Theatre – Artform: Theatre The Lowry – Artform: Combined arts The Met – Artform: Combined arts The Whitworth Art Gallery – Artform: Visual Arts Tipp Centre – Artform: Combined arts Walk The Plank – Artform: Theatre Whalley Range All Stars – Artform: Theatre

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State of the Region

Statistics for Greater Manchester 1. Population – (0 - 19) 650.2 (000’s) (20 - 24) 211.4 (000’s)

7. Index of Multiple Deprivation – 28.44 (4 out of 39 in England) North West Average = 25.61, National Average = 19.15

2. Population CYP (0-24) – 861.6 (30.6% of total population)

8. Settings classed as cold spots (National ranking out of 354) – 20th – Wigan 30th – Salford 37th – Rochdale 53rd – Bolton 61st – Tameside 63rd – Oldham

3. Arts Award – 526 successful awards April 2011 - September 2011 Total Arts Award 0.18% of young people (North West average = 0.18% / National average for England = 0.17%) 4. Arts Mark – 229 settings = 18.3% of settings (North West average 20.6% / National average for England = 19.2%) 5. Percentage of CYP (under 16’s) living in poverty – 25.6% (North West Average = 22.8%, National Average = 20.9%) 6. Unemployed Under 25 – 73090 = 30.7% of total claimants (North West Average - 29.4%, National Average – 26.9%)

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

9. Setting listed in top 50 highest NEETS levels – Rochdale & Oldham – Very High: Around 20% Bolton – High: Around 18% Manchester – Medium: Around 15-17% Particular geographical areas of need mentioned in consultations – Rochdale Wigan M62 corridor Tameside North Manchester East Manchester

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3.4 Analysis of the sub-regions: Lancashire The Lancashire sub-region is made up a non-metropolitan county, comprising a two-tier arrangement with a county council, 12 district councils and 2 unitary authorities (Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool): – Lancashire County Council – Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council – Blackpool Council – Burnley Borough Council – Chorley Borough Council – Fylde Borough Council – Hyndburn Borough Council – Lancaster City Council – Pendle Borough Council – Preston City Council – Ribble Valley Borough Council – Rossendale Borough Council – South Ribble Borough Council – West Lancashire Borough Council – Wyre Borough Council As a sub-region Lancashire breaks down into three geographical areas which each have their own distinct characteristics, needs and artistic communities: Blackpool and the Fylde, Pennine Lancashire and Lancashire Central.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

Across the sub-region there are significant areas of deprivation, some urban and some rural. There are many examples where area pockets of deprivation are masked and compounded by the affluence that surrounds them.

For example, West Lancashire tends to be perceived as an affluent area even though the town of Skelmersdale suffers from significant levels of deprivation and offer minimal opportunities for engagement in the arts. Many people we spoke to were concerned that this has resulted in some areas being overlooked for funding or investment in the past. This is an issue across the sub-region of Lancashire.

There are 9 NPOs in the region. Of which 6 survive from the RFO structure. The NPO’s are: – Blackpool Grand Theatre – Artform: Dance – Burnley Youth Theatre – Artform: Theatre – Cheshire and Lancashire Touring Partnership – Artform: Combined arts – Horse And Bamboo Theatre Company – Artform: Theatre – Ludus Dance – Artform: Dance – More Music – Artform: Music – Nuffield Theatre Lancaster University – Artform: Combined arts – The Dukes Playhouse Limited – Artform: Theatre – The Grundy Art Gallery – Artform: Visual arts

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Lancashire as a whole has suffered from the National Portfolio Organisation restructure, leaving a large area across the centre of the sub-region without any NPOs, including the city of Preston. This has been exacerbated by the loss of the Creative Partnerships programme which brought a huge investment to freelance artists and arts organisations.

Over recent years Lancashire County Council has worked with local partners to bring together a strong cultural tourism approach to the region as a whole. There is a central regional pull towards making Preston the centre of the sub-region; however, some sub-regional partners fear that their area or town may lose investment and face similar issues to the Greater Manchester and Merseyside regions who suffer from the pull towards the city centres of Manchester and Liverpool.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

Consultation across the region showed that a range of issues are impacting on arts and culture for children and young people including: high levels of deprivation causing economic restrictions to accessing activity; some areas feeling they are a “poor relation of the county� and overlooked; the loss of arts and cultural provision for children and young people at county and borough level through restructure; a lack of activities and venues available; bad access to transport routes around the county; and rural localities having geographical challenges in accessing activity despite not being deprived areas themselves.

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State of the Region

Statistics for Lancashire 1. Population – (0 - 19) 353.8 (000’s) (20 - 24) 97.2 (000’s) 2. Population CYP (0-24) – 1425.3 451 (31.6 % of total population) 3. Arts Award – 204 successful awards April 2011 – September 2011 Total Arts Award 0.11% of young people (North West average = 0.18% / National average for England = 0.17%) 4. Arts Mark – 196 settings = 14.5% of settings (North West average 20.6% / National average for England = 19.2%) 5. Percentage of CYP (under 16’s) living in poverty – 20.6% (North West Average = 22.8%, National Average = 20.9%) 6. Unemployed Under 25 – 28150 = 29.2% of total claimants (North West Average – 29.4%, National Average – 26.9%)

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

7. Index of Multiple Depravation – 24.42 (9 out of 39 in England) North West Average = 25.61 National Average = 19.15 8. Settings classed as cold spots (National ranking out of 354) – 15 – Blackburn with Darwen 16 – Preston 18 – Burnley 26 – Hyndburn 50 – Blackpool 59 – Pendle 123 – Rossendale 9. Setting listed in top 50 highest NEETS levels – Blackpool – Very High: Around 20% Particular geographical areas of need mentioned in consultations – Rossendale Skelmersdale Burnley Hyndburn Rawtenstall Blackpool

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3.5 Analysis of the sub-regions: Merseyside The Merseyside sub‐region is made up of 5 local authorities: – Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council – Liverpool City Council – Sefton Council – St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council – Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Merseyside is a sub-region hugely influenced by the central magnet of Liverpool City Centre and the rich cultural provision provided there. But it is also a complex region with high levels of deprivation and disengagement in arts and cultural activities, for different reasons from one area to the other. It has many similarities to the Greater Manchester sub-region but has its own individuality and over the years has been seen as a competitor to its nearby neighbour of Greater Manchester.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

When the City of Liverpool was awarded the European Capital of Culture 2008 this triggered further growth in the arts and cultural services in the city and further afield.

The city centre already had historical arts and cultural organisations such as National Museums Liverpool, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Everyman and Playhouse theatres and the Bluecoat, but has been joined in recent years by the TATE Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial and FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology).

The Capital of Culture profile enabled the ‘Big Seven’, along with Unity Theatre to join together as one voice in the LARC (Liverpool Arts and Regeneration Consortium) structure. This enabled more focused cultural programming and promotion of cultural tourism across the city and sub-region. Sharing services and expertise through schemes such as Thrive, the city’s main arts and cultural organisations were able to reach out and develop disengagement programmes with communities in the city and beyond. The Find Your Talent programme also started to build a joint movement to bring a rich arts and cultural offer to children and young people across the sub-region until the programme was cut short.

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Outlying areas such as Southport, Sefton, South Liverpool and the Wirral continue to suffer from limited access to arts and culture and the provision has survived in these areas by the hard work and determination of individual artists, a few arts organisations and the local authorities. That isn’t to say that all areas that have had significant investment over the last 6 years are now vibrant and rolling in a rich arts and cultural offer. Those areas still have some of the highest levels of deprivation economically in England. What they do have though is a generation of children and young people who were given a chance to lead and develop the arts and culture provision around them. A large number of those young people now connect with arts and culture on a weekly basis, as we were told during our consultations.

The local authority structure across Merseyside is particularly strong, with relationships built up through networks. This has resulted in all authorities placing children and young people at the centre of many of their plans. During our consultations, people cited a key barrier as the focus of funding and provision on the city centre of Liverpool while the outlying areas can be forgotten about. It was felt there is a need for a more local town by town approach.

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

State of the Region

There are 21 NPOs in the region. Of which 17 survive from the RFO structure. The NPO’s are: – 20 Stories High – Artform: Theatre – Africa Oye Limited – Artform: Music – Brouhaha International – Artform: Combined arts – Collective Encounters – Artform: Theatre – DaDa - Disability & Deaf Arts – Artform: Combined arts – FACT (Foundation For Art & Creative Technology) – Artform: Visual Arts – Fittings Multimedia Arts – Artform: Theatre – Great Georges Community Cultural Project Ltd – Artform: Combined arts – Homotopia – Artform: Combined arts – Hope Street Limited – Artform: Combined arts – Liverpool Arabic Arts Festival – Artform: Combined arts – Liverpool Biennial Of Contemporary Art – Artform: Visual Arts – Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse – Artform: Theatre – Merseyside Dance Initiative – Artform: Dance – Milap Festival Trust – Artform: Combined arts – Open Eye Gallery – Artform: Visual Arts – Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra – Artform: Music – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society – Artform: Music – The Bluecoat – Artform: Combined arts – Unity Theatre Company – Artform: Theatre – Writing On The Wall – Artform: Literature

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State of the Region

Statistics for Merseyside 1. Population – (0 - 19) 348.3 (000’s) (20 - 24) 115.6 (000’s)

6. Unemployed Under 25 – 48760 = 28.6% of total claimants (North West Average – 29.4%, National Average – 26.9%)

2. Population CYP (0-24) – 463.9 (32% of total population)

7. Index of Multiple Depravation – 32.74 (1 out of 39 in England) North West Average = 25.61 National Average = 19.15

3. Arts Award – 484 successful awards April 2011 – September 2011 Total Arts Award 0.24% of young people (North West average = 0.18% / National average for England = 0.17%) 4. Arts Mark – 191 settings = 29.3% of settings (North West average 20.6% / National average for England = 19.2%) 5. Percentage of CYP (under 16’s) living in poverty – 27.6% (North West Average = 22.8% National Average = 20.9%)

3. Analysis of the Sub Regions Within the North West

8. Settings classed as cold spots (National ranking out of 354) – 8 – St Helens 43 – Knowsley 9. Setting listed in top 50 highest NEETS levels – Wirral – Very High: Around 20% Liverpool – High: Around 18% Particular geographical areas of need mentioned in consultations – Sefton – Formby / Southport (feels cut off and not connected) Liverpool Riverside Kirkby St Helens Wirral

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4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

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4.1 The Bridge vision A growing body of evidence demonstrates that arts, cultural and creative approaches to engaging with local people can have a powerful impact on health, education, community empowerment and crime reduction. The Bridge believes there are many opportunities for the best creative and cultural providers to support local authorities to deliver outcomes in these areas. It is the role of the Bridge to help make this happen.

4.2 What people are telling us The strategic landscape is uncertain and shifting Our consultation has involved county, city, borough and district councils as well as unitary authorities across the North West. They view and prioritise art and culture in very different ways, with little on offer in some areas and much more in others.

State of the Region

The security of local authorities’ arts officers’ positions varies widely. While one county council’s arts service has been protected for the next three years, an arts officer in a neighbouring authority has no sense of her position or when it will become clear. Arts officers are saying ‘it is hard to develop or implement meaningful long-term strategies around arts and culture’; equally, ‘having a strategy is no guarantee of continuance.’ There is currently much stasis within local authorities while they continue to review and restructure their services at a varied pace.

A number of representatives described how often local authorities moved ‘arts and cultural provision’ around within directorates. In one authority, Cultural Services had sat within four different departments in the last eight years and was currently located in Technical Services. The people we spoke to are concerned that decision makers lack understanding about how cultural services can deliver wider corporate objectives, resulting in a lack of wider council support for art and culture.

The consultation also revealed that cultural teams are not always working or communicating effectively with Children’s Services. Many departments could not offer any insight into their colleagues’ priorities within other teams.

Some people perceived that funding for social services drains wider resources.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

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Public sector cuts are having a significant impact on arts and cultural education Local Authorities have significantly reduced numbers of staff. Often whole areas of service such as Arts Development, the Youth Service or Children’s Library Services have disappeared. Remaining officers are often covering two or three roles, straining to fill the gaps and without the capacity to sustain services to children and young people. Building closures, the loss of national agencies for youth dance and theatre, and the loss of local authority link workers and specialist officers were all factors in eroding points of access, referral and signposting for young people. Some services have merged with Children’s or Cultural services, some are being outsourced and some are developing a trading arm which may involve arts education and consultative services for arts subjects.

In some cases, combining posts is stretching and maximising staff skills. For example, in some sub regions Arts Development and Museum Learning Officers are combining their duties with departments such as Events, Tourism, and Libraries. A whole new range of ideas, relationships and possible partnerships are emerging as librarians work in museums and museum officers take on arts development roles.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

Local Authority priorities have shifted widely across the region and the economic pressures are causing two contrasting things to happen to arts services: some provision is becoming more targeted and aligned with wider council priorities meaning that the general population of young people may miss out; in other areas provision is becoming more universal and mainstream, offering something to as many people as possible in a bid to represent value for money.

Some feel that disadvantaged areas with high indicators of deprivation have received a lot of incoming investment while ‘middle of the road’ areas with limited physical resources and pockets of deprivation don’t have the same investment, resulting in them becoming true ‘cold spots’.

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Local Authority relationships with schools has changed dramatically Many local authorities are now retaining school improvement teams solely to deliver statutory functions with and on behalf of schools, with their main focus on raising attainment in schools with special measures.

The Head of School Improvement in one local authority told us that a more targeted approach to cultural and arts education in schools was not a relevant strategy to support these priorities.

Local authorities recognise schools are not looking to them less for support and acknowledge they could not offer that support now either. A number of authorities would like the Bridge to offer support in developing ‘arts clusters’ of schools to share practice. Others would like the Bridge to support them in communicating their offer to schools.

One borough council, for example, would like the Bridge to promote their dance and animation summer school programme for them this year. Many local authorities said engaging schools across the board is increasingly difficult as it tends to be the same schools that engage with all the available offers and the same schools that don’t engage with any.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

Collaboration across local authorities is varied While some authorities appear to be mainly inward focusing, others are keen to connect across sub-regional areas.

They see the benefit of mounting a joint effort to create an evidence case for arts and cultural work that will help map and contextualise local gaps and develop stronger subregional connections.

In fact there is increasing collaboration between local authorities. Nine of the ten AGMA (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities) districts recently prepared a ‘mega-hub’ Music Education Plan bid. CHAOS (Cheshire and Warrington), Learn Together Partnership (Merseyside, Halton, Cheshire and Warrington) and Greater Manchester Local Authority Arts Officers are all examples of thriving networks. This is beginning to go beyond sharing practice to joint delivery.

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Commissioning processes need to be more accessible Many felt that their own local authority commissioning approaches were inaccessible and paper-based, needing more dialogue and relationship-building as part of the process. One strategic commissioner said she would always prefer to hear what children and young people who have previously worked with a particular provider had to say before making a decision.

Cultural tourism is a key strategy for many local authorities Some local authorities are working hard to promote cultural tourism to bring more visitors in to the area, leading to some very successful programmes of collaboration between heritage venues. There is an ongoing debate around the role of publicly-funded and commercial activity and how these mixed economies can work together to attract external visitors to an area.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

Cultural buildings Some authorities are working hard to make their cultural buildings accessible and popular, whilst others are disposing of them or closing them. In one authority the arts officer explained how closing venues was having a knockon effect on family engagement as parents like to see endof-project performances in a professional venue and use the type of venue as their own measure of quality.

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Local authorities’ Children and Young People’s Plans The most common priorities for the Children and Young People’s Plans (CYPPs) for the five sub‐regions are to: – Promote healthy lifestyles and choices and identify those at risk of harm at an early stage – Improve access to and influence over services and opportunities for vulnerable groups – Promote enjoyment, positive play, recreation, sport and leisure activities and the take up of these – Improve access to culture and sport both in and outside the curriculum – Improve advice and guidance about culture and sport – Increase family commitment to learning – Improve attainment of pupils at early years – Value and engage children and young people as responsible members of their communities – Raise the aspirations of all children and young people in all aspects of their lives – Support children, young people and their families to achieve economic well-being and reduce the numbers living in poverty – Improve the emotional well-being and resilience of children and young people – Improve safety and safeguarding

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

There is very little explicit discussion of art or culture in most of the CYPPs, with the focus tending to be more on ‘positive’ and ‘leisure’ activities.

Local authorities strategies for arts and culture Children and young people are mentioned in these, particularly within priorities relating to schools: – Challenge and support schools and the wider community to develop art, culture and creative learning in the curriculum and beyond, so children can access it in and out of school – Provide support and training in partnership with others to develop a creative curriculum in schools – Develop the 14-19 curriculum promoting vocational opportunities related to the cultural field – Place professional creative practitioners into primary schools and other learning environments – Incorporate culture and sport within the Building Schools for the Future programme – Ensure that creativity is a core priority in life-long learning

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Other related agendas include: – Developing the contribution of culture to the children and young people’s agenda – Promoting formal and informal life-long learning opportunities in a range of venues and settings – Sharing best practice in arts education – Providing education and training relevant to the needs of business, individuals and the community – Social regeneration: youth-led practice that empowers young people to identify their interests – Making the enjoyment of and participation in culture and creativity accessible, affordable, important and enriching for all people, especially the young – Improving the self-esteem and health of children and young people

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

Other related themes: – Arts, culture, the built environment and sense of place – Economic contribution, regeneration and development – Increased participation and access – For the arts and culture to be an integral part of supporting health and well-being – Engaging with art and artists – Funding, development and policy making – Providing opportunities for young and old to work alongside professional artists and creators – Addressing issues of social inclusion through concession schemes – Developing opportunities for high quality arts activities to take place in rural and outlying locations – Increasing access to information about funding opportunities for the arts – Working with organisations to secure sources of funding and to encourage the development of bids

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Youth work Youth workers are a major asset to enabling young people to access arts and cultural provision. They have local knowledge and contacts in the most deprived areas and existing relationships with hard to reach young people. They already run arts-based activities amongst many other types of activity and are often responsible for young people’s first experiences in cultural participation.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

The agencies we spoke to identified the following challenges: – Local authorities have cut open access services and shifted the services that remain, targeted on young people already disengaged with the formal education environment, to school settings – A lack of connection between Youth Services and other young people’s agencies – Concern about the quality of Youth Service provision of art and culture – Difficulty in finding the right person to speak to in many youth sector agencies to initiate partnerships

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4.3 The Bridge response When the dust settles on recent cuts The Bridge anticipates that many local authorities will develop models for commissioning external partners to meet their aims. In many ways the market is more open than ever before and there are significant opportunities for arts and cultural organisations to offer competitive provision that would previously have been delivered by the local authority. It is our role to work closely with local authority commissioners who wish to develop their understanding of the contribution arts and culture can make to Children’s and Young People’s plans and broader social agendas.

4. Consultation with Local Authorities

State of the Region

4.4 Bridge approach – Facilitate conversations between commissioners and creative and cultural providers, supporting providers to communicate in commissioner-friendly language; e.g. ‘X young people experienced Y and the benefits are Z’ – Attend local authority Arts Officer network meetings, offering a regional perspective and promoting opportunities to join up programmes and approaches.

Raise the profile of local authorities who are championing arts and cultural provision for children and young people, prompting other authorities to reengage

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5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

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5.1 The Bridge vision Our vision is to support more schools to embed art and culture across the curriculum and beyond so that pupils experience a rich diet of cultural experiences every day and come to expect no less. Schools are uniquely placed to ensure that all their pupils have the opportunity to access the very best art and culture. For children from the most deprived backgrounds, it is particularly important that schools offer them experiences they may never otherwise have access to. The Bridge plans to develop the concept of schools as outward facing cultural hubs in communities. We will work with schools to help them define themselves as cultural spaces which are accessible and relevant to the communities they serve, and which have wide knowledge of local provision grounded in local networks.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

5.2 What people are telling us Strategic context Many schools offer excellent arts and cultural education and experiences both during structured curriculum time and as part of extended, extra-curricular provision.

Children attending these schools access a diverse range of arts and cultural activities as a stimulus for learning, and programmes of after-school activity for children with passions for particular art forms. Many schools, particularly high-performing schools, bring in creative practitioners to work alongside classroom teachers. These creative practitioners may be freelance specialists, employees of arts and cultural organisations or private sector companies from the creative and cultural industries.

Schools now have more autonomy and choice about how they spend budgets and it is possible that some schools will support arts and culture more freely. We spoke to schools that are using cultural learning to demonstrate to parents that they offer not only a high standard of education but also dynamic experiences that support their children to become better communicators and learners, more confident and ultimately more employable.

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State of the Region

The 2010 Schools White Paper ‘The Importance of Teaching’ states that children should expect to be given a rich menu of cultural experiences. However, the majority of schools in the region who value arts and culture are concerned that the English Baccalaureate does not give schools any incentive to prioritise the arts and cultural learning. Instead, they will concentrate money on areas they will be judged on the most. There is growing unease that schools will begin to devalue subjects such as Art and Music and perhaps not offer them at all.

Money Historically, local authorities would often commission arts and cultural organisations to work with clusters of schools. Delegated budgets now mean schools can judge the market more independently and make their own commissioning decisions. In many ways this will be a positive step for schools but it does mean they are less able to benefit from the economies of scale and the security and coherence that came with block bookings and local authority co-ordinated programmes.

Many of the schools most committed to arts education have demonstrated this through achieving Artsmark Gold, becoming Creative Partnerships schools or achieving specialist arts status. These head teachers now say their ideology is in conflict with the recent developments in education policy. They are still passionate about the intrinsic benefits of arts and culture but say that as it’s not statutory or measured, the reality is that a myriad of other pressures are taking priority.

Schools themselves are concerned about funding and say that without the budgets they used to have or access to Creative Partnership’s-style initiatives, external provision of arts and culture is becoming increasingly limited.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

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State of the Region

The role of parents and culture in schools For many children and young people, parents are the most influential adults in their lives. The majority of people we spoke to, including children and young people, said they would like schools to help parents understand that arts and cultural experiences can support learning and skills. They would like schools to develop parents’ experiences of arts and culture, to promote a positive attitude and help them value the arts and creative industries as a viable future career option for their children.

Time and money Value for money and cost effectiveness are increasingly the most important factors in selecting external provision. Many schools have little experience of or skills in fundraising and lack time to build this capacity. When schools receive lengthy application forms with little guarantee of success, they are unlikely to complete them. Schools recognise that building a longer-term relationship with an arts organisation will be mutually beneficial but can often only afford a oneday workshop.

With falling local populations and pupil enrolments, where parents choose to send their children can increasingly mean the difference between survival and closure. In some areas, family and parental voice is becoming as important to schools as league tables. High quality arts and cultural provision and emphasis on experiential learning opportunities will make schools more appealing to many parents, while others will make selections based on past performance tables and Ofsted reports.

Schools do want to know about quality provision available locally but again lack time to do the research. Relevant information sent to school administrators doesn’t always get through to teachers.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

Schools would like the Bridge to signpost the most relevant initiatives to them and support them with writing bids. They would also like examples of bids from people who have received funding in the past.

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The role of the senior leadership team Schools with a strong track record in arts and cultural provision have buy-in from staff at senior management level.

These people understand and can articulate how sustained high quality cultural interventions contribute to school improvement, improved learning outcomes and raised achievement.

Schools welcomed Henley’s idea of a cultural learning lead in each school who would be a member of the senior leadership team, first point of contact and cultural champion within the school. This person would be responsible for understanding the cultural offer, bringing appropriate provision in to school and signposting pupils to activity in the wider community. They would also be a key contact for the Bridge who would give them as much information as possible and encourage them to feed back on provision.

They felt that an existing member of staff who understands the school would be the best person to take on this role.

They would be able to negotiate complexities from within when planning programmes and initiatives.

State of the Region

However, some schools felt that without external funding schools it would be difficult to embed this as existing staff simply do not have the time or capacity to prioritise arts and culture when under pressure to deliver so many other outcomes. One school suggested a cluster of schools could share responsibility for an individual who could act as an effective ‘conduit’. They could signpost local provision and coordinate activities between schools. The model could be similar to that of the Extended Services Co-ordinators or the School Sports Coordinator roles.

Cluster working, networks and advocacy The changing relationships with local authorities mean that many schools are now keen to develop new clusters or strengthen existing clusters with a focus on developing arts and cultural provision. Schools are also interested in linking with other schools across the North West. Within clusters, and with the support of a ‘conduit’, schools could share expertise in different art form areas, explore principles of good partnership working, pool funding resources and cocommission provision.

Existing school networks include the National College for School Leadership, the Teaching Schools Network and academy networks. There are also many sub-regional and local networks of schools leading and advocating for arts, culture and creativity in this new landscape.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

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Professional development Teachers will continue to play a specific role themselves in delivering arts and cultural education. Many of those consulted believe current professional development to support arts and cultural learning in the classroom is inadequate. The eleven Teaching Schools in the North West will hopefully provide a valuable resource here, supporting NQTs to deliver arts education in partnership with arts organisations, developing relevant, real world connections to the cultural sector.

Free schools and academies Many people in the region hope to see interesting models emerge from free schools and academies that prioritise cultural learning, integrating it into their curriculum planning and day-to-day activities. They see opportunities for the cultural sector to advocate creative approaches to head teachers and governors and for schools to employ creative partners as members of their core team to embed high quality arts education. These schools, rather like Creative Partnerships ‘Schools of Creativity’ could then support others to embed arts provision by sharing practice widely and evidencing the impact high quality arts and cultural engagement can have on learning outcomes and achievement.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

Schools as cultural community hubs Despite all of the contextual challenges, many teachers still want to push for arts and culture to be at the heart of school improvement, family engagement and learning programmes.

New BSF schools have told us about some practical barriers in relation to this. One reports being unable to put pupils’ work on the walls themselves (‘it has to be sent to a company that turns it into a peel-able transparency’) and another describes obstacles to community use of school spaces (‘you have to buy the space back at extortionate commercial rates out of core school hours’).

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A secondary school in the North West The school has had a very unstable few years due to low standards and other challenges, related to being in a deprived area. It has a falling roll which is set to continue.

This means they have a lot less funding, making it difficult to fund new initiatives when they are simultaneously making staff redundant. Staff are also stretched for time. A wide range of subjects at KS4 makes the timetable tricky and not very flexible. Recently they have been concentrating on settling the staff team but the head is now keen to use culture and creativity to enliven the curriculum.

The school has excellent art teachers and a strong performing arts department. School productions are always well attended by the local community and pupils, and there is very little other provision in the local area. The head believes the school is the heart of the local community, and would like to grow the school into a creative hub for the whole community, not just pupils.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

The school has limited cultural connections but a lot of experience of working with other outside agencies, especially around sport. The pupils experience some visits to cultural institutions but would benefit from more. They use a handful of artists occasionally to enhance classroom activity, mostly people they have used before or that other schools have recommended. They do not currently engage with Arts Award or Artsmark, but might consider this once other more pressing issues are addressed.

The head believes that culture and creativity could make the curriculum more accessible, as pupils currently struggle with a curriculum that is too academic. They have limited experience of the wider world and opening up more arts and culture experiences could raise their aspirations. He believes cultural learning encourages resilience, enthusiasm and curiosity and that quality is personalised to his pupils, something which engages them successfully, with a long term impact and clear outcomes.

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A Special Educational Needs school in the North West This specialist performing arts college runs its own theatre company in partnership with a professional theatre company. The whole FE department gives a full day a week to the theatre company and is involved with every element of production including props, costume and technical provision. They tour to other schools and have performed at adult training events for those working with SEN children.

As a specialist college, they also provide CPD training to schools on KS3 dance, drama, music and art. The deputy head is concerned there are very few progression routes for pupils and wants the theatre company to advocate this approach to people responsible for post-19 SEN provision.

They want to continue to actively support the professional theatre company working with them as they are worried they may soon go out of business. This is the only company that provides arts and cultural provision out of school that is accessible for their pupils in the local area.

Teachers are very enthusiastic and on board but sometimes the parents need persuading. They run open sessions to encourage parents to see what their children are getting out of the arts and cultural provision. Many pupils can’t travel independently and are reliant on parents and carers to participate in out of school activity, so the school spends a lot of time advocating the value of arts and cultural experiences to parents.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

For this school the arts and culture support pupils to communicate and express themselves and value their work, helping them develop the skills they need for life.

In selecting practitioners the school always starts with people they know and trust. It takes a long time for people to understand the complexities of the pupils and the school.

The deputy will occasionally take a risk on someone new but prefers not to. For this teacher, a quality practitioner is someone who invests in planning and reflecting as part of the process, gives equal emphasis to process and product and engages all pupils in achieving something new.

Funding isn’t currently a problem as they have this through their specialist status although this will end next year. They have previously had fundraising training to help staff source money. The school would like the Bridge to help them be part of a network, to share ideas and information about funding and how to access it with other teachers and attend artist marketplace events to find new people.

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A primary school in the North West This was a Creative Partnerships Change School and in the academic year following the end of Creative Partnerships the school governors committed £20k to arts and culture, to bring in two excellent practitioners for a full year. This funding has now gone and will not be renewed.

Following Ofsted this year the school is under incredible pressure to improve attainment as they are not currently hitting their floor targets. The falling standards are putting enormous pressure on staff. They are worried they will be forced to become an academy and are strongly resistant to this. The head is not particularly involved in arts and culture.

The current focus is firmly on quick wins to raise attainment.

There is a general perception within the school that using culture as a tool for learning does get results but not quickly enough.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

They are still using a lot of the skills learned through Creative Partnerships and have done some interesting projects but less than they want. They have regular dance workshops funded through the school sports partnership but feel this is slightly different because it comes from a sport perspective. The children themselves would really like a choir and their class teacher is trying to make this happen.

For most children English is their second language. Singing and voice are a priority for the school to encourage the children to be vocal and to express their opinions. However, the staff don’t feel they have the skills to set up a choir and there is no money to bring anyone in.

Staff believe that widening pupils’ perspectives and experiences of life is essential, as they ‘do very little except go home, have dinner, do homework, go to mosque’. The school has shortened the official day by thirty minutes to ensure they offer the pupils some cultural experiences within school time. This does mean however that the day is very rushed and there is less time to squeeze everything in.

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For this teacher, a quality arts and cultural experience is practical, hands on and interactive. It must have a high visual content because of the language barriers and be good value for money. She prefers individual practitioners to big companies as she feels larger companies don’t listen properly to school’s needs and just do what they do.

This teacher would choose a practitioner if they had been recommended by another school. They tend to use the same people and places as new things are a gamble and it’s time consuming to find out about them.

This teacher would like the Bridge to supply a directory of opportunities, preferably with reviews from other teachers from a similar type of school. She would like the bridge to work with artists to help them understand schools better and to be able to explain more clearly what areas of the curriculum their work will benefit. Everything has to be linked to learning outcomes and practitioners are not always good at making the links, meaning teachers have to do extra work to make these links explicit.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

It would be good to create a forum where schools can meet and talk although getting out of school is costly and problematic, so it must be effective. Schools could cluster together to access companies from further away and share the cost of travel and accommodation. Funding information would be useful but it would have to be quick and easy to access.

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5.3 The Bridge response There is a clear role for the Bridge to tap into existing school networks of heads through the National College for School Leadership, the Teaching Schools Network and academy networks, for example. Sub regional networks of schools can act as leaders and advocates for arts, culture and creativity in this new landscape. The Bridge will work alongside these networks and other key regional and national educational partners to support the campaign for arts and culture to remain a core part of the curriculum as separate subjects and to ensure all children and young people have regular access to arts and culture within their educational settings.

The Bridge will offer these existing networks and clusters advice and ideas about integrating arts and culture into School Improvement Plans. We will advocate for Artsmark and Arts Award to improve engagement, progression and achievement. We will support arts and cultural organisations and other key partners to engage more schools so that a greater proportion of children and young people have access to these opportunities.

5. Consultation with Schools and the Education Sector

State of the Region

5.4 Bridge approach – Signpost schools to relevant opportunities and offer bid writing support.

– Research forums for accessing schools en masse and use these opportunities to advocate for arts and culture in education.

– Launch a campaign encouraging every school in the North West to nominate a member of the senior leadership team as a Cultural Education Champion.

This person is the first point of contact for the Bridge.

– Work with sub-regional school clusters and develop strategic relationships with teaching schools to offer advice on arts and cultural education and how they can use Artsmark and Arts Award to improve engagement, progression and achievement.

– Invest time in advocating for schools to regularly include arts and cultural activities in the decisions they make and facilitate networks of head teachers committed to cultural education and creative learning.

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6. Relationships Between Arts and Cultural Organisations and Schools

State of the Region

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6.1 The Bridge Vision A key remit of the Bridge organisation is to help schools identify and access arts and cultural opportunities and help cultural organisations bring the experiences they offer to more children and young people. We want to support effective partnership working between these sectors.

6.2 What people are telling us Accessing one another This section gathers a range of perspectives on the issues, challenges and benefits of partnership working between schools and cultural organisations that result in effective learning outcomes for children and young people.

Many people identified that one of the biggest challenges is the different terminologies, concepts and pressures on these two sectors. They felt that developing a shared language would enable meaningful collaboration to follow. Good practice requires a two way flow of listening and dialogue.

State of the Region

Supporting arts and cultural organisations to find and access one another is only the beginning. But it is one of the biggest challenges. Cultural organisations often find schools difficult to make contact with. Although many teachers now have email it can still be hard to access the right email address and ensure information reaches its destination and is not lost at the reception desk. The majority of arts and cultural organisations we spoke to would like access to schools simplified and opened up.

Schools say they know there are brilliant people out there but they don’t have enough time to research available options. They want communication to be clear and comprehensive but as brief as possible. Teachers often live outside the immediate area and may not know about cultural opportunities in the local community.

6. Relationships Between Arts and Cultural Organisations and Schools

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Selecting provision Schools said they valued a wide range of art forms with music, theatre, dance and visual arts the most popular.

Their perception is that provision is not easily affordable or accessible. The most common criteria affecting selection of external provision are value for money, prior positive experiences or recommendations from similar schools, expertise of a particular art form and capacity to link work to the curriculum. They say quality varies greatly and if you don’t know the person or provision

It’s a lottery as to what you’ll get.

People market themselves so well but often it doesn’t mean anything, it’s just words.

State of the Region

One arts network said that some schools favour price over quality, have an unsatisfactory experience and then abandon arts and culture altogether. Many cultural organisations made reference to the learning and value of the Creative Partnerships brokerage process, which diagnosed needs and provided a bespoke response.

Some thought that this kind of programme was the most effective way to engage schools. However, others struggled to see how this kind of approach would be possible with increasingly limited resources and capacity.

Some arts and cultural organisations felt that schools may be more confident in approaching new providers if there is evidence that they have attained certain standards.

Henley suggests that cultural practitioners quality checks should align with how Ofsted assesses whether learning is of a high standard and believes this would help heads be more confident in trusting they are spending money wisely.

Some teachers applauded this idea. Others said they would always want recommendations from a school or another head they knew locally.

6. Relationships Between Arts and Cultural Organisations and Schools

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Money Of the 33 schools surveyed by All About Audiences, all had spent something on external arts provision in the past year but 56% spent less than £1000 and 41% said they would spend less money next year. Only two schools said they would spend more.

Two thirds of schools surveyed by All About Audiences had engaged with an arts or cultural organisation in the last two years. For 92% of schools the most common way of connecting was through a one-off workshop in school or a visit to a show, exhibition or event. Two thirds of schools had worked with freelance arts practitioners and a third had employed freelance practitioners for a month or more. This is by no means a representative sample of the North West but it does highlight a particular challenge for arts organisations. It appears that the schools most open to engaging with external arts and cultural provision are much more likely to employ a freelance practitioner for an extended period than engage with an arts or cultural organisation for the same length of time.

Relevance to the curriculum and learning outcomes Schools want to work with arts and cultural organisations that can provide a clear offer tied to pupil learning outcomes. They also want organisations to be flexible about tailoring their approach to school needs and want to work with practitioners who are keen to develop dialogue with teachers and are open to joint planning approaches.

State of the Region

Schools want cultural organisations to ensure their activities support classroom activities and learning outcomes and make explicit links to the curriculum. They want organisations to understand the market and keep up to speed with any changes in curriculum focus. They also want organisations to understand the pressures they face to improve literacy, numeracy and wellbeing.

Museums and Galleries want the Bridge to help them promote the breadth of their collections, staff resources and buildings, so that schools and the wider cultural sector can see the links to the curriculum. They also hope that their relationship with the Bridge will help them connect with Arts Council England and its aims and priorities.

If arts and cultural organisations can liaise effectively with schools who are clear about what they would like to buy, perhaps up to a year ahead if necessary, these organisations can have time to develop a high quality package that other schools are also likely to be interested in.

Some primary schools said that young ‘role models’ from secondary schools or arts or cultural organisations could deliver activity, providing a positive way to enthuse younger children through peer connection.

6. Relationships Between Arts and Cultural Organisations and Schools

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Practical challenges Some schools look to national institutions such as the RSC rather than local providers because they believe they are more geared up for sending a touring company into schools.

Some teachers say provision has to come to school.

Reasons for this are: cost of transport; the time it takes to organise this and associated risk assessments and paperwork; and the difficulty of taking pupils off timetable.

Many cultural venues and sites say that taking provision into schools reinforces the negative perceptions many children form from a first experience of culture: ‘the visit to school.’ They want young people to encounter imaginative experiences early on, forming positive memories of the arts and culture in incredible settings outside the classroom.

Many organisations offered solutions to some of these challenges, including downloadable risk assessments, model documents on websites, pre-visit activity sessions and ideas for INSETS. They suggested that schools could justify the cost of a coach if cultural organisations have collaborated to present high quality, full day experiences that link with specific curriculum topics.

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Networking with teachers One gallery has set up a popular bi-monthly primary school art teacher’s network, while a city-based theatre company organises regular gatherings of secondary drama teachers.

At this network, one teacher suggested performances at 4pm to enable them to bring pupils to the theatre straight from school. This prevents pupils having to go home then back again and allows everyone to be home mid-evening.

Coupled with performances programmed at the right times in the school calendar in response to teacher feedback, this has led to a large increase in ticket sales from schools.

Despite the challenges of working with schools, many cultural organisations believe they can have more impact in schools rather than informal settings because the young people are a ‘captive audience.’ It can be difficult to find outof-school groups with the stability to develop work over an extended period of time.

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Partnership working in action A rural secondary school in Lancashire has a strong partnership with a local performing arts venue. The venue facilitates a forum of young people (in school hours), supported by four local high schools. Through this forum young people influence what the venue delivers, so that the programmes genuinely represent young people’s ideas and curriculum needs. It gives the venue a short-term guarantee that young people will buy tickets for current shows and a long-term audience development strategy based on customer loyalty. It gives schools genuine ownership of a local cultural offer and a working connection to a professional theatre.

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Ideas from the cultural sector focus groups for engaging schools – Coordinate our offer, decide on our organisation’s specialism and do less but better. Agree with each other who and where to target so we’re not all hitting the same schools.

– Drip-feed schools with information, promoting through lots of partners.

– Bring schools together for creative events and build relationships from these shared experiences.

– Work with the highest quality artists to develop shared programmes of training for schools.

– Get schools and arts organisations to work together more strategically as peers sharing skills.

Encourage skills exchange and mutual support.

– Involve schools from the start so they have ownership.

Find out from heads where they see arts and culture fitting into their school working day. Start with school needs rather than what we think fits.

– Phone teachers and build personal relationships. Make sure they have the right information to hand, make them feel they are part of something bigger that they can contribute to.

– Have a network of heads and teachers but look for ways to keep information flowing to the wider staff network.

– Use Arts Award as a vehicle to access schools; heads like accreditation opportunities.

– Offer short twilight sessions in inspirational cultural venues or informal sessions around a theme, rather like a book club.

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6.3 The Bridge response The Bridge needs to support arts organisations and schools to work more closely together on long-term not short-term interventions that sustain impact on both schools and cultural organisations. The Bridge also needs to support schools to take responsibility for articulating their needs clearly, and to be explicit about required learning outcomes.

We must help arts and cultural organisations to position themselves as an invaluable resource to schools, targeting and designing programmes that respond to schools’ and teachers’ needs, link to the curriculum, are shaped with teachers and pupils and align with the school calendar.

We need to share existing models of excellent partnership practice widely.

A key role for the Bridge going forward is to bring arts or cultural organisations together with schools to develop meaningful, long-term bonds. We need to make time and space to build these cross-sector relationships, based upon open and honest dialogue, allowing a reciprocal exchange of ideas and understanding.

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Benefits for arts and cultural organisations would include: gaining a deeper understanding of school needs, the language of learning outcomes and the pressures schools face; valuable feedback on recent initiatives; a space for artist residencies or research and development; tips for ‘selling’ packages to other schools; and an opportunity for audience development by engaging directly with more parents and families.

Benefits for schools would include: a deeper understanding of the role of art and culture in developing curriculum innovation; access to the use of a venue for performances; access to new practitioners and CPD opportunities; and real world opportunities for pupils to connect with a professional cultural organisation.

As a result, relationships and understanding of needs will deepen, resulting in higher quality programmes and increased business.

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6.4 Bridge approach Create a comprehensive information and brokerage service to schools and youth settings, working closely with a wide range of arts and cultural providers and existing networks to cohere and signpost provision and make it easier to access.

– Raise awareness within schools and youth settings of what local cultural organisations can offer.

Enable schools and youth settings to make better use of what is geographically close to them.

– Support arts and cultural providers to tailor their offer to the particular needs and priorities of schools and youth settings through providing regular updates on changes to educational policy, creating more opportunities for staff from both sectors to work collaboratively and highlighting excellent practice.

– Support schools to be effective commissioners of cultural education with a more sophisticated understanding of quality and value for money.

– Support best practice through signposting resources on our website such as forums, case studies, ‘top tips’ and ‘how to’ guides.

– Support existing arts and culture networks for teachers and extend, encourage or introduce new networks where these are lacking.

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7. Consultation with The Creative and Cultural Sector

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7.1 The Bridge vision The Bridge will provide the arts and cultural sector with a regional overview to support strategic programming. We will employ constructive challenge to improve quality and bring more young people and arts organisations together in meaningful ways.

7.2 What people are telling us Strategic landscape In this context the creative and cultural sector encompasses individual freelance practitioners, small to medium enterprises and larger cultural institutions. It includes arts organisations, museums and libraries, and organisations specialising in heritage and film.

The Government’s positive response to the Henley Review of Cultural Education has provided a recent boost to the arts and cultural sector. Budget cuts have severely affected many organisations, some of whom may cease working with children and young people, whilst others will have more money this year. The recession continues to have an impact on organisations dependent on ticket revenue and/ or commissions. The most anxious arts organisations are those who were unsuccessful in their bid to become an NPO. Arts and cultural organisations are asking for varying levels of support, from engaging more effectively with schools, families and wider communities to creating new relationships with venues and helping schools raise money.

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National Portfolio Organisations (NPO’s) For many NPOs, their work with children and young people was a key element of their successful funding application and so this provision will either remain stable or increase.

For some of these NPOs, provision for children and young people is the primary purpose of the organisation and they will use ACE funding along with other confirmed funding streams to support this work. Other NPOs will be focusing on children and young people as a significant strand of their work for the first time.

Some organisations feel that becoming an NPO will create a perception they have plenty of funding and will make it harder for them to bring in additional resources. NPOs are no longer able to bid into Grants for the Arts. This is causing concern for some NPOs, particularly where this had accounted for up to 50% of their funding in the past.

Others are worried about their own lack of skills, time, budget and resources to find and apply for funding, with some citing lack of marketing expertise and support.

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Impact of local authority cuts The decreased capacity of local authority officers, arts development teams, neighbourhood and renewal managers and youth support is not only impacting directly on the targeted services they deliver but also on the capacity of cultural and community organisations to reach out to wider audiences. Without local authority support, these organisations are finding it harder to attract match funding for grant applications and partnership projects.

Organisations who have historically been commissioned by local authorities to deliver services for children and young people are finding it difficult to plan ahead.

The high turnover of staff due to cuts and restructuring is making it difficult to sustain continuity between schools, arts organisations and local authorities. Relationships are between people, not organisations, so when a particular champion leaves it can feel as if the partnership has ended.

Arts and cultural organisations widely recognise that local authorities are no longer a direct conduit to schools.

They are finding it more and more challenging and time intensive to contact and gain access to schools. They have lost the LEA advisers, school clusters and economies of scale that made block bookings and en masse communication possible.

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In some instances arts and cultural organisations are competing for school commissions with newly-independent, ex-local authority school improvement providers. However, as the local authority is no longer providing school improvement services to educational settings, there are opportunities for cultural organisations to fill this gap themselves, becoming training and support providers.

Arts organisations, museums and libraries are following many of the traditional engagement paths, focusing on young people from BME communities or affected by economic deprivation, disability, offending behaviour (including imprisonment), addiction and substance abuse or simple lack of engagement. Meanwhile, local authorities are either pursuing an ‘everything for everybody’ model or targeting services on such specific needs that there is no room for development. Some said that arts and cultural organisations need to get better at accessing funding from Children’s and Health Services, developing a more rigorous approach to planning, delivering and measuring outcomes and impact, with a greater emphasis on professional standards and quality assurance.

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Partnerships with schools Arts organisations say there is a big slump in bookings from schools, who are being careful with money while they wait to hear about future funding and the full extent of the longterm cuts. They recognise that schools have less money to spend on external partners and it’s harder to work with them because they’re ‘so burdened with targets.’

The end of Creative Partnerships funding has reduced the income of some organisations. There are fewer requests for support with after-school provision. Some cultural organisations say it is often impossible to persuade schools to accept even a fully-subsidised, free offer.

Cultural organisations fear the pressure of having to decide whether to engage as many schools and young people as possible or to offer more meaningful relationships in fewer settings. Their decision depends on how the market emerges, which at this time is difficult to predict.

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The impact of reduced funding on direct work with children and young people Nearly all arts and cultural organisations have a specific strategic objective around access and inclusion. However, reduced funding and staff has particularly affected special outreach work delivering long-term, sustained work with and for children and young people. These are being replaced with partnerships for imaginative projects within the museum, gallery or theatre itself.

The creative and cultural sector perceives that most funding streams open to them are now very project-focused.

Individually-funded projects often provide irregular bursts of activity, making it more difficult to offer sustained activity for children and young people over extended periods. The sector feels that outreach work cannot be funded effectively through short-term project funding. There is more about this in the Engagement section of this report.

Many funders appear to be pushing for numbers over quality. Because some arts organisations are managing a large number of funding streams, they are delivering numerous projects with a variety of goals and audiences.

They feel that this dilutes any overall offer for children and young people. Smaller organisations with small staff teams are finding it most difficult to fundraise.

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Those working within the constraints of a commerciallyoperated venue are finding it difficult to prioritise children and young people. One organisation commented;

Without ongoing provision such as a youth theatre or orchestra and with irregular events aimed specifically at young people it is hard to find meaningful ways to engage them other than as an external audience. It is hard to interest them through social media and it is particularly hard to connect with young people whose parents are not existing users of the venue.

Some organisations express concern that they are in competition with a large number of private providers who ‘market themselves all over the place’, offering drama, dance and music provision of varying degrees and quality.

This type of provision can be quite expensive making it difficult for many families to access.

Some locally-based arts organisations are now being asked by funders to deliver their offer across a much larger geographical area to widen their reach and are worried that capacity challenges will mean this outreach offer is in reality spread very thinly.

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Arts organisations are concerned that the necessity of becoming more funding-led is compromising their vision, objectives and integrity. Some are finding it difficult to shift gear to a pragmatic approach to fundraising. A considerable number of people working within arts and cultural organisations said the sector needs to be less precious and get on with the real business of making a meaningful difference to lives by addressing the needs of their participants. This may require prioritising a social or community vision over an artistic vision in order to access public funds. One individual described it as

connecting authentically, creatively and passionately with the people who have the most to gain from the amazing opportunities culture offers.

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Engaging with young people Many organisations cite a significant increase in participation when they go into local communities and meet young people in their own environments. There are many successful models demonstrating how important it is to engage audiences by meeting them on their own terms. For example, the Rural Touring Network, which has a thorough understanding of the profile of rural communities, has been successful at increasing audiences by visiting secondary schools, building relationships with the head of performing arts and offering taster workshops in advance of performances. Last year only 27% of their work was specific to children and young people but 95% of it was suitable for children and young people. Teenagers often want to engage with work created for an adult audience rather than with something designed specifically for them.

Some cultural organisations could make much better use of digital and social networking communication with schools and young people, which is cheaper and more youngperson-friendly than print and flyer distribution.

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Some arts organisations recognise they could extend and develop the skills and confidence of their staff in engaging with young people and making them feel welcome. Venues, particularly museums, need to encourage visitors’ feeling of ownership of a local resource; several said visitors had demanded that displays they remember from childhood should stay the same.

Some people in arts and cultural organisations see work for, with and by children and young people as inferior. Two theatre companies downplayed the involvement of young people in their marketing in order to sell tickets.

Young people are sometimes seen as ‘a desirable demographic to work with for funding streams.’ Others said there is no point trying to be all things to all people: ‘Do we always have to chase everybody? It dilutes the offer.’

Another commented:

Make sure your door isn’t closed, but don’t worry if they don’t go. The sector would be better off seeing themselves as a menu that audiences go to as and when suits them and their time of life!

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The freelance workforce Some people are concerned that the emphasis on NPOs

by Arts Council England, and potentially by the Bridge, may destabilise the freelance market. This coupled with the end of Creative Partnerships, which relied mainly on freelance practitioners to deliver creative learning programmes, means less work for practitioners. They are concerned about inadequate investment in the ongoing skills development of creative professionals and in young people wanting to gain professional experience, causing them to lose particular expertise and specialisms. Some arts organisations are saying it is harder to retain good freelance practitioners as there is less work to offer them and they are either leaving the area or the sector for good.

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Breaking down cultural barriers There continue to be class barriers in the arts, creative and cultural sectors. Elitist attitudes pervade the sector and many families believe culture is ‘not for them.’ Many perceive community arts as a poor relation to traditional arts institutions. A significant percentage of the largest grants are still directed to arts organisations whose principal client base is drawn from the educated middle classes. Within the sector there was a sense that some of the larger arts and cultural organisations contribute to the perceptions of elitism in the way they showcase themselves as institutions.

Safeguarding procedures Many organisations feel that the CRB process could be radically simplified and overhauled. Some suggested a ‘passport’ system to prevent each school, arts organisation and Local Authority from having to continually check practitioners anew, which is costly, time-consuming and overly complex.

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Learning for arts and cultural organisations Arts and cultural organisations recognise that in the current climate there is very little space for short-term ad-hoc initiatives based on what they want to do.

They acknowledge that their publicly-funded function must be led by the needs of the individuals and communities they serve. They identify that sometimes they sacrifice this in the interests of self-preservation. They also recognise that staff from education and programming departments within large arts organisations need to build stronger links.

Working closely together, they can align programmes relevant to children and young people with the school calendar and build in opportunities to extend the reach of the work. This isn’t always easy to achieve as organisations have to prove their worth, especially to funders, by serving wide audiences.

Some arts and cultural organisations identified a lack of coherence, cross-marketing and signposting between them.

A more united approach to communications, with a clear set of shared principles, could make a clearer case for arts and culture and have more influence.

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People within the arts and cultural sector remain resilient and highly motivated. Right now, some cultural organisations are designing programmes that go beyond the traditional curriculum and focus on, for example, health and emotional well being outcomes. They are also considering opportunities for organisational development; for example, reconstituting as a not-for-profit organisation to access a wider set of prospects.

Some existing arts organisations are branching innovatively into new art form areas. For example, one theatre company is branching into digital animation and has invested in a good quality camera and mobile studio.

They believe this will offer more opportunities for outreach work and they would like the Bridge to help them by promoting taster sessions.

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Museums and heritage settings Funding The loss of Renaissance funding means that museums and heritage settings have to massively reduce provision for children and young people. For example, the Learning team in one museum has fallen from three people to a single person. Other Education and Learning teams are worried about the loss of training and networking between museums and galleries that Renaissance provided.

7. Consultation with the Creative and Cultural Sector

The cuts are putting pressure on these teams to generate income. The people we consulted are concerned about the varied quality of programmes, duplication and competitiveness across and between museums in the same area. While some schools will always choose to work with a museum on their doorstep that they can walk to, most schools will need to use transport to access even a relatively local museum. Some schools feel the current offer is confusing and would prefer a more streamlined offer that would help them understand the distinct specialism that each museum offers.

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Curriculum Museums are concerned that the Arts Council’s focus on the arts will cause schools to neglect the wider offer related to cross-curricular learning and teaching. Many of these organisations offer very specific curriculum focused work. One museum supporting the teaching of Science, for example, would want to promote science-based accreditation for young people rather than Arts Award.

They are also concerned that diminishing staff and funding will reduce opportunities for Research and Development and staff will revert to safe experiences and basic programmes (e.g. tours and object handling) rather than living history or sessions led by artists.

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Schools say that whilst they value the quality of collections, Education Officers can underestimate how much teachers benefit from working directly alongside them, with direct access to their expertise.

Museums provide unique opportunities for children and young people to visit places of specific interest, but with the ever-increasing cost of transport and other logistical challenges, schools are bringing pupils out of school less often. Some museum staff believe many parents think of museums as a school activity and not something they would do at weekends.

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Engaging with young people and communities Many settings feel that limited marketing budgets make it hard to access young people to tell them about what’s available. They are struggling to combat the age-old perception amongst young people and their parents, that museums are places with ‘old dusty objects’.

Many organisations have ‘priority audiences’ in addition to children and young people; this can result in conflicting priorities for resources.

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Libraries Libraries see themselves as a key resource to support schools to improve standards of literacy. Many acknowledge that digital technology is forcing fast-paced change and they sometimes need support in keeping up.

Library staff may have limited experience of working with young people and it can be difficult for them to engage young people on a sustained basis. Get It Loud In Libraries has been a particularly successful initiative in Lancashire.

By hosting bands, libraries attract more people through the door and dispel the perception that libraries are outdated and have too many rules. Evaluation suggests that 60-80% of the people who came to the gigs, mainly young people, had never been in a library before and 27,000 people have become new library users. Young people have been involved in all kinds of ways beyond being audience members such as shadowing technicians, coordinating publicity, media and design, and running refreshment bars. Get It Loud In Libraries has not been cheap to run and the reality of getting local libraries on board has been challenging but it provides a brilliant example of how cultural spaces can be used in innovative ways.

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Historically there is no particular remit for librarians to use arts as a vehicle for engaging children and young people but many do as they have found it so successful. Sleepovers in libraries have also been successful, using games and activities to encourage children to use library resources, honing their library skills in an effort to win a themed scavenger hunt. The evening creates a special bond between children and the library and leaves a strong impression because children see the library from a different perspective.

Another example is a film and animation project with schools funded by the BBC. This produced films for local libraries, showing young people how libraries have changed. The films promote two under-used digital media spaces in local libraries that were developed three years ago.

Some libraries in the North West have embedded Arts Award into their programming for children and young people, others have started but most don’t yet offer this. Examples include Arts Award being embedded via a dedicated youth worker post, funded by the local authority.

Other exciting initiatives include a library currently being refurbished that will include two spaces for artist residencies.

Libraries have potential for becoming cultural community hubs offering family learning opportunities.

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Music Hubs Many music services face average cuts of around 60% over the next three years.

Some music services are adept at offering provision in line with young people’s preferences; one music service described how X-factor and Rock School type competitions take place alongside brass bands, choirs, orchestras and ensembles.

Most music services are confident that every child on their patch currently has the opportunity to experience high quality music making and performing during their primary career, with plenty of well-signposted progression routes and buy-back from every school in the borough. Many music services also run excellent outreach and out-of-school provision in community venues. All are conscious of the significance of the outcome of the pending music hubs application process.

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The establishment of Music Hubs will represent a seismic shift in how arts and culture is provided to schools and children and young people in general. It appears some local authority music services do not fully grasp the implications of the Music Education Plan and the market-led context they are now working in. Others realise this is an opportunity to develop a business market and are taking steps now to build a high-quality, cost-effective service that will be schools’ number one choice three years from now and able to pay its own way. The most business-minded music services are inviting schools to view Music Services sessions so they can gauge quality just as they would through observing a lesson by a peer. This is an excellent example of a way to engage with schools on their own terms.

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During the last six months the Bridge has connected with most of the Music Hub networks as they developed their sub-regional music bids for Arts Council England. Where we have seen good practice and great models of sustainability we have endorsed these networks and consortia fully. Some Music Services have partnered up to offer a joint service (which could potentially offer robust competition in a few years time) and others have bid independently in the hope of preserving their existing service.

These consortia have agreed with The Bridge how important it is to gather intelligence on the needs, interests and perceptions of children, young people and schools around arts and cultural opportunities. All potential Hubs have agreed to establish an information-sharing agreement with us and to align our information-gathering activities with theirs, thus minimising duplication and extending reach.

Once knowledge has been processed we will work together to agree a coordinated response to what stakeholders in sub-regions and region-wide are seeking. We have also asked successful Hubs to present their new models and approaches to us in the hope these models may prove transferable to the improvement of arts and cultural provision across the North West more generally. We have also agreed to work together to broker connections between Hubs and the wider arts and cultural sector across the North West.

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7.3 The Bridge response If the creative and cultural sector harbours a genuine desire to develop ‘family capital’ we need to support positive attitudes and look closely and honestly at both how the sector presents itself and how it is perceived. There is a collective responsibility for arts and cultural organisations to continue investing in the development of existing and emerging practitioners as they often depend heavily on freelancers to deliver their programmes. We will ensure that continuing professional development and networking opportunities are opened up to freelance practitioners as well as arts and cultural organisations wherever possible.

The Bridge will support education and programme departments within large arts organisations to build stronger relationships with one another. We will also support Local Authorities to consider commissioning arts and cultural organisations to deliver universal and targeted services for children, young people and families.

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We will encourage l Music Hubs to embed Arts Award within their practice and models of engagement. Arts Award will increase the scope of the Music Hubs to offer accredited outcomes for the children and young people who take part in their provision and this should help increase engagement.

Similarly the Bridge will advise Music Hubs on how their offer complements the Artsmark kite mark for schools. We believe this could increase engagement with Artsmark and support schools to communicate to parents, Ofsted and the wider community that their work is of the highest standard.

We want to ensure that children and young people, especially the most disengaged, have sincere and meaningful opportunities to exercise their voice and leadership across Music Hub programmes of work.

Empowering children and young people as decision-makers is a core principle for the Bridge. We will advise Hubs on this and signpost them to best practice.

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7.4 Bridge approach – Develop the sector’s capacity to work closely with other civil society partners to achieve increased levels of investment; for example, through local authority commissioning and consortium bids and to respond to partnership investment and business development opportunities, brokering partnerships that bring new money into the region.

– Offer regular updates to arts and cultural organisations on changes to education policy and flag up their potential relevance.

– Support arts and cultural organisations to get information to the right places and use social media as a marketing tool.

– Support organisations with advocacy, raising awareness of organisations’ skills and expertise, demonstrating that the work has meaningful presence and is making a measurable difference to their audience and/or local communities.

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– Encourage and support cultural organisations to widen access to and accelerate the growth of offer to children and young people and families.

– Support the expansion of Arts Award across the sector.

– Create opportunities for libraries to be community culture hubs for children and young people and help them to connect meaningfully with other arts and cultural organisations and providers of children’s services in the local area.

– Provide opportunities for arts and cultural organisations to come together to develop their workforce and share knowledge. Support them to pool resources and offer training around functions such as governance, pedagogy, evaluation and safeguarding.

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8. Collaboration and Partnership Working

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8.1 The Bridge vision Collaboration, done well, has much to offer, not least because of the economies of scale, added value, diversity of practice and higher professional standards that emerge from effective collaboration. There is a real complexity involved in ensuring successful partnership development and collaboration and a need for a deep and practical understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved.

There is sometimes tension between commissioners, funders, deliverers and artists. The bridge organisation has a role to play in providing that conduit between national policy, funders and regional providers right through to educational settings and grassroots organisations.

8.2 What people are telling us Collaboration in 2012 Collaboration in 2012 requires collective will. It requires a clear picture of what each partner brings to the table, honesty and trust, a willingness to acknowledge where the gaps and duplication are and a fundamental desire to put the needs of children and young people first.

8. Collaboration and Partnership Working

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Streamlining and minimising duplication of resources means more money can be spent on working directly with children and young people. For young people, good collaboration between providers means increased progression routes, a more diverse offer, access to more resources and more opportunities for showcasing work.

These are challenging times but there are also real opportunities to evolve our own practice and work together collaboratively to achieve strategic objectives.

Communicating and co-ordinating the offers of different partners collectively, offering complementary programmes in the same geographical areas, and signposting from one offer to the next are all examples of innovative collaborative practice.

Collaboration is not only more important but also more under threat than ever. There are instances of insincere and unequal partnership working with some organisations’ specialist expertise being exploited by others to attract funding. Many organisations feel like they are competing with colleagues for funding as they struggle to cover core costs. Some felt there was very little genuine information sharing between organisations at this time. The competitive climate means we must work hard to break down silos and barriers and build up trust.

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Pooling resources Many cultural organisations are pooling and sharing physical resources and venue spaces and working together to prepare joint funding bids while some are in the process of full mergers. Two organisations in Manchester are merging within a single new building which will enable the interplay between youth theatre and youth filmmaking to be explored. People are talking collectively about focusing on ‘less but better’; agreeing what’s working well and really focusing on it. There was also talk of a ‘franchising’ model where organisations with particular specialisms work with others around the region, sharing their expertise to develop programmes of appropriate quality. This could be particularly relevant to working with looked after children, children with disabilities or children in the youth justice system, for example.

8. Collaboration and Partnership Working

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The larger supporting the smaller Larger organisations can offer office space, administrative support and resources to smaller peers, collectives or freelancers along with mentoring support to ensure the cultural ecology continues to thrive and remain diverse.

There are also working models in the region where a properly constituted larger organisation agrees to vouch for and take legal and financial reporting responsibility for an unconstituted smaller community organisation.

There are worries that small arts organisations will find it increasingly difficult to exist in isolation and that the Bridge could play a role in developing a series of consortia to work together who can find a way to thrive through collaboration rather than competition.

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Partnership working Ultimately getting better at partnership working is about ensuring the best possible deal for children and young people as the real strength of partnership working is in accumulated knowledge.. A successful partnership pools resources to develop expertise and produce something new. A successful partnership must have mutual benefits and desired outcomes for all partners including children and young people. This may be shared aims and objectives or an exchange of expertise. It requires clarity of roles, objectives grounded in action, enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and a commitment of time.

Many organisations are now using partnership links to develop their offer across the sub region or region. Similarly, cultural organisations are working together to share skills between providers.

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There are some good examples within the region of independent cultural organisations located in close geographical proximity with very different specialisms offering a joined up vision for children and young people’s provision. Another model involves a series of city centre based arts organisations collaborating to offer Arts Award between them. There is an ongoing role for the Bridge in showcasing good examples of partnership working and collaborative programming.

While it’s important for organisations to have their own purpose and individual offer there is much to be said for a more joined up approach, working individually but as a collective to connect the dots by providing individual services to bridge the gap of need. There are key conversations to be had around ways in which more organisations and venues can work together to provide opportunities that will engage and appeal to the interests of the young and how we can increase the participation of children and young people who do not normally engage in cultural activities. The Bridge can carry out scoping studies that draw together great practice in the region and share this at seminars.

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According to many, the sector as a whole should look to work together to provide a complementary offer with a wide variety of experiences available, working in parallel with those offering individual cultural art forms.

Young people should have access to a broad range of connecting opportunities that build upon each other and stretch them, constantly redefining their sense of what’s possible and continually raising their aspirations. There should be a ‘continuity of care’ across providers so that each experience for a child or young person builds on the last, in response to their own interests. Organisations should be willing to pass participants and projects on to the most appropriate provider and accept some will be better than them at certain things.

That said, not all offers between arts and cultural organisations are necessarily compatible. Rather than being critical or looking down on another organisations’ work it is important to acknowledge the breadth of provision within the sector that makes for a varied offer.

Consortia should be developed because the offers complement, not just because two organisations are sited on the same geographical patch.

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Sharing information There is an identified need for the cultural sector and local authorities to communicate more effectively, improving the interface between the sector and the many commissioning arms of the local authority. There were a number of examples highlighted where arts and heritage activity was being offered by the local authority and similar activities were being offered by larger cultural organisations, leading to possible duplication and lack of clarity.

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New partnerships and cross-sectoral collaboration There is real appetite for new introductions to form fresh partnerships that inspire, provoke and challenge and are based on collaboration rather than competition. It was also suggested the sector could get better at building partnerships in readiness for opportunities to come up, rather than trying to build them into a two to three week commissioning window.

The strongest message coming through from cultural organisations was the desire to develop new relationships and collaborations beyond the sector, particularly with voluntary and community providers and agencies.

Opportunities to open new conversations and develop cross sectoral networks will be greatly welcomed.

Much of this is due to the increasing emphasis on devolving commissioning and decision making to a local level. The voluntary and community sector as a whole will engage much more with the delivery of local education, children’s and cultural services and new partnership agreements between voluntary, public and private providers will be needed to make this work.

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Some felt that arts organisations have little to teach each other and that the emphasis should instead be on learning from schools because it is schools that commission them, and from voluntary organisations who have different approaches to engaging young people and accessing funding. It was suggested that mentoring opportunities between cultural organisations and schools and between cultural and voluntary organisations could be very beneficial.

There are arts organisations currently working with voluntary, community and faith sector organisations both to upskill them and to benefit from their specialist expertise. Cultural organisations recognise that voluntary and community organisations are experts at bringing communities together and engaging them meaningfully. In time, working together more collaboratively could mean the voluntary and youth sectors playing a much bigger role in enabling more young people to access cultural engagement through referral and signposting to appropriate providers.

The mixed economy We should continue to value the mixed economy in which we work – sole traders, cultural organisations, public sector bodies and national agencies all have skills and expertise.

In this environment it is ever more important to remember everyone has something to bring to the table.

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8.3 The Bridge response It is clear that the Bridge has a role to play in facilitating collaborative working across a variety of art forms and sectors. We aim to exemplify, strengthen and showcase good examples of partnership working.

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8.4 Bridge approach – Act as a broker, enabler and facilitator to develop a sustainable cultural ecology for children and young people and offer appropriate challenge, bringing together to network and forge new partnerships in the role of honest and transparent broker. So that the cultural sector can connect more effectively with faith groups, the police, NHS, primary care trusts, youth services, clubs, etc. – Cohere opportunities for strategic and thematic joint delivery across local and regional areas. Showcase work in different settings and explore the commonalities across the region.

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Myplace Myplace is a Big Lottery programme to create world class youth centres. There will be ten centres in the North West, largely in deprived areas, which have either opened recently or will open soon. All are making some kind of arts and culture offer to the young people largely in the form of workshops, alongside a range of sport and support services. Many have high quality creative facilities such as recording studios, media suites, performance and rehearsal spaces. All have a commitment to engaging hard to reach young people and may in practice be a first point of contact with arts and culture for many young people.

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The centres will be in: – Blackburn – Bradley, Nelson – Halton – Carlisle – Harpurhey – Knowsley (Huyton) – Blackpool – Toxteth – Trafford

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9. Networks and Networking

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9.1 The Bridge vision In the Free Dictionary, networks are defined as ‘extended groups of people with similar interests or concerns who interact and remain in informal contact for mutual assistance or support.’ Networks can be anything from a formally constituted body that meets monthly to a one off networking event.

There is real appetite for active, value-adding regional and sub-regional networks and networking opportunities that enable new relationships and partnerships to be forged, practice to be shared and challenged, advice and support to be accessed and learning to be disseminated.

These networks are also vehicles for driving up quality and excellence and minimising duplication of activity. Our main purpose in supporting networks will be to develop a connected and coherent cultural ecology across the North West that directly benefits children and young people.

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Our first priority will be to map existing forums and their rationale and communicate clearly with existing network coordinators to be sure we don’t duplicate a well established offer that is relevant and fit for purpose.

We want to develop a cross regional networked response and support the current infrastructure by drawing on existing networks, communication mechanisms and delivery partnerships.

From here we will look at how local partnerships and networks could be improved and how new partnerships can be created to connect young people, schools & communities with arts and culture. Having identified what is working well and where the gaps are we will also make connections with other structures and networks. For example, if there is a sub- regional local authority led forum with a focus on children and young people, we may seek to propose a sub group with a specific focus on arts and culture for children and young people.

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State of the Region

9.2 What people are telling us Sub regional and pan regional networks Sub regional networks are most useful for providing opportunities to link current projects and activities and coordinate and cohere local organisations’ offer. As one representative put it, ‘it’s an opportunity to get the house in order’ before inviting the wider world in. There are interesting models to explore where local networks of schools, support agencies, museums, galleries, libraries, arts organisations and the local authority come together within a particular locality to coordinate and share responsibility for promoting a local offer with one clear voice.

Pan regional networks are most useful for bringing in a regional dimension and harnessing different perspectives and experiences. They provide opportunities for meaningful debate around current themes of importance and opportunities for sharing good practice within the region, nationally and internationally. These do not have to be formal networks with traditional Terms of Reference; instead they can be a series of open seminars, each with a clear purpose and focus. While face to face networking is still seen as important by many, technology should be used

9. Networks and Networking

to good effect to enable more people to connect digitally through video and podcasts so that current debates within the sector are captured and can be shared more widely.

The Culture & Achievement North West forum described how creating a platform for discussion and information exchange had led to increased responsibility of and ownership from the membership to drive the network, shifting the relationship with Curious Minds from leader to facilitator.

Some in the North West feel there is plenty to connect with professionally already, others are asking for networks to reduce isolation, to provide independent advice on better signposting around young people and to be a critical friend. They would like motivational meetings and exciting seminars and a dialogue around quality. A few organisations did express frustration that they spend a large amount of time networking and trying to generate attention and interest but seem to get little back from their efforts.

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Cross sectoral networks There is a need to make room for both sectoral and cross sectoral conversation. Cross sectoral networks are less common and there is much interest from the cultural sector in networking with non arts based voluntary sector providers in areas such as health and social care and with successors to SureStart. There are also clear opportunities to support the third sector in developing their offer through intelligent networking.

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Networks as business development support for smaller organisations One larger network spoke of how it could support business development for smaller arts organisations by brokering direct relationships with schools and head teacher forums; this would allow the smaller organisations to concentrate resources on delivery rather than generating and nurturing contacts. This is something to explore. However, we also heard that when networks are driven by larger institutions this can sometimes lead to certain approaches and outcomes which may not ultimately be a reflection of need from the young person’s perspective.

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What do individuals want from a network and networking?

Ideas from the Culture & Achievement North West forum An approach – A joined up and more coordinated offer for children and young people, in this context around progression routes – Collective leadership and advocacy for arts, culture and creativity in the new landscape – Constructive challenge – A regional approach – ‘looking over the parapet’ – Inspiration Information & knowledge – Opportunities to link current projects and activities and minimise risk of duplication in the same area – Exchange ideas for best practice & co-production, such as discovering what other organisations are doing to develop young audiences in terms of progression – Learning from case studies – Exchange & dissemination of practice, policy and strategic developments – an opportunity to keep up to date with new developments in the sector and share ideas for how we respond to them. Networks can offer a summary and contextualise changes within the region or a particular sector

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– Forum for gathering evidence of need on a wide scale and being able to position an individual offer against the wider sector to address gaps – Use networks to ensure the learning from Find Your Talent is embedded within the sector People – Focus on children and young people rather than institutions, politics or jobs – Networking for potential collaborations – Meeting others with different levels and breadth of experience – An opportunity to put faces to names and connect with like minded colleagues Reflection – Space away from the day job, space for thoughtful reflection and sharing

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9.3 The Bridge response Where it will be useful, thematic working groups can be established with a commitment to take something specific forward for an agreed length of time. There is no need for the Bridge to necessarily lead these groups, they could be led by a range of organisations from across the region but there is a role for the Bridge to play in cohering and bringing such groups together.

We hope to seek out examples of best practice from both the near and distant past and disseminate this learning as widely as possible. We want to ensure maximum return on investment from the resources already invested in the regional arts and cultural offer for children and young people. Some felt that while case studies are useful we need to focus on ‘making it work on our patch in our own context and celebrate this for ourselves.’ Case studies should be designed to inspire rather than encourage replication.

We want to ensure all networks are as open access and inclusive as possible. Individuals and organisations should be able to come and go fluidly within and across these networks. Our focus will be on working to develop a cultural ecology of equality where as many voices as possible can be heard, including those of children and young people.

Most importantly there should be an ongoing honest assessment of the benefit these networks or groups are bringing to children and young people.

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9.4 Bridge approach – Offer clarity around purpose of distinctive local, sub regional and regional networks – Promote relevant networks and look at establishing new forums or hosting events where there are gaps – Provide access to other sectors and other children and young people’s networks – Involve young people meaningfully in network events – Facilitate opportunities for international working and exchange

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10. Information and Communication

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10.1 The Bridge vision Our research has highlighted how difficult it can be for children and young people, schools, families and other organisations to quickly access information about the arts and cultural opportunities available in their locality and in the region as a whole.

A significant part of the Bridge role will be to develop a more joined up approach, streamlining and targeting the information available and championing innovative methods of communication.

10.2 What people are telling us Young people are asking for more information about arts and cultural opportunities, schools are asking for easy ways to access information in one place about what is available in their area and arts and cultural organisations are keen to increase the reach and visibility of their offer to schools and young people.

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Children and young people from all areas, both urban and rural, described the difficulty of ‘not knowing what is available.’ Arts and culture should be advertised more, ‘at schools, on the internet sites that young people go to, on buses.

Young people in Merseyside said;

There could be loads of good stuff on, but if we don’t know about it, it’s not worth anything.

And;

The best way to let us know about things is online, through Facebook and sites like that.

There was consensus that the internet would be their preferred method of accessing information about art and culture. A young person from Merseyside said;

It would be good to have one place to look to find out what we can do, not to have to look on all these different web sites.

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YouTube was a big influence for many young people in exploring potential art and cultural experiences. Many of the young people had turned to YouTube for ideas and tasters of what they could take part in. Another young person in Lancashire said;

With some things you have to search and search on the internet, go through links and web pages and loads of different things to find a website just to go to a gymnastic club or something... if they handed leaflets out and then you could just use a web address or something... well you’re straight there, it’s so much easier to find. And you feel more... well it kind of appeals because you haven’t tired yourself out like trying to find it.’

A need for centralised information on key venues and providers A need was expressed for a central service or resource for schools, teachers, parents and young people to enable them to more easily gain access to the wide range of services offered by organisations in their area. Ideally information should be searchable by art form, distance from a particular postcode and age group appropriateness. This resource could act as a first point of contact for the North West in relation to the arts, culture and young people.

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The feasibility of the Bridge being able to promote up-todate information on the cultural offer was raised by a large cultural organisation that offers 200 free-to-book workshops to schools with a designated call centre managing demand.

Instead of the Bridge attempting to upload a fully up to date programme of every activity taking place across the North West it was suggested it should support organisations through effective signposting and promotion, providing a brief example of the offer on a portal linking through to organisations’ websites or contact details. This way a network of quality information and advice could be developed creating a centre point for information sources from other organisations, linking, signposting and directing rather than aiming to catalogue everything.

This level of information would not only provide an invaluable resource for children, families and schools but arts and cultural providers could make use of the information to build a more thorough overview of the activities available and possibly to recruit artists for projects.

The emphasis would be on supporting and encouraging greater coordination between providers to ensure a more effective offer.

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State of the Region

Signposting young people and families to opportunities If school websites were to link through to the portal described above this could encourage young people, parents and teachers to access information more readily.

Parents are often the key gatekeepers to the cultural offer and may not know where to look to find out what’s available.

Similarly, if arts organisations engaging young people were to direct them towards the portal, young people could look for ‘more like this...’

Quality assurance One 15 year old boy in Merseyside said he wanted to do break dancing but feels he has not found a group he would want to go to yet. He cares a lot about the quality of the provision and places a lot of importance on seeing ‘good reviews’ before he tries anything new. This was echoed by young people from some of the other areas. ‘I’d rather not waste my money on something I don’t like,’ said a 15-yearold boy about one potential dance group.

A need was also expressed for online resources offering information and guidance to young people on funding, courses, accreditation options and career routes within the arts, cultural and creative industries along with information on initiatives such as somewhere_to. Schools, young people and Arts Award advisers are also asking for relevant resources such as ‘Get into live music’, ‘Get into theatre’ and Creative Choices to be signposted.

This is a key question to address. If service users access the provision and have a poor quality experience then trust in the portal will begin to erode. It was suggested that the Bridge begins by featuring organisations funded by Arts Council England as NPOs, Major Partner Museums or through Grants for the Arts, along with museums and heritage organisations funded directly by the DCMS. The Bridge could then start including programmes and organisations that are receiving strong peer reviews from young people, schools and the public alike.

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Setting up a regional database of quality assured artists and freelancers One teacher said to us;

It would be brilliant if there was a national database. You need something like a Michelin Star process.

Another school suggested that something akin to an online arts notice board would help schools access the breadth of the cultural offer.

Concern about duplicating existing models such as Artists In Schools and ‘theartsroom’ database in Greater Manchester which are well used and trusted was expressed, but the Bridge could also play a role in establishing a resource for schools and working hard to promote it. The resource could link to trusted practitioner networks online and offer the Bridge portal as a cross signposting and referral point to what already exists. Rather than duplicating networks and databases the resource could bring them all together in one place. The Bridge role would be to ensure that schools can visit one portal and be signposted to everything available in their area within just a few clicks.

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Schools said they would need the directories that the Bridge signposts them to, would need to meet certain standards.

A provider would be expected to describe what they can offer in specific terms and plain language, be Enhanced CRB certificated, have an adequate level of public liability insurance and come with reviews and recommendations from other schools.

One cultural provider challenged;

There are so many ‘one-stop shops’ already.

Why are teachers not using these?

What do we know about these?

How can the Bridge offer be different?

This is something the Bridge needs to explore through further teacher consultations. Perhaps teachers don’t know about these websites and need regular prompts, through e-bulletins for example, encouraging them to make good use of the resources available.

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Digital Developments There is a real opportunity to make best use of the exciting developments in new technology and work directly with young people, schools and families to shape the arts and cultural offer in our region. Young people suggested they would like to be able to shape and contribute to digital developments through an online rating facility wherein providers can be reviewed by young people and their families. This online ‘rate your provider’ facility could be similar to eBay’s feedback rating system where visits to cultural institutions and events can be scored. This information could be used by providers to improve their offer.

The concept of ‘Timebanking’ was discussed; a means of exchange where time is the principal currency. In this context young people could receive free tickets in exchange for providing constructive reviews or attending focus groups. Providers could use the young people’s time to help them develop their offer and in return young people have free access to provision, growing the cultural consumers of the future along the way.

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The Bridge needs to work with young people and key digital organisations in the region to make sure any portals developed are accessible and built to fit for young people.

As somebody said during our consultations;

we need to fish where the fishes are.

In other words, we need to provide a tool that sits within the digital spheres that young people actually interact with.

If young people are influenced primarily through social networking and peer referral and are unlikely to visit a ‘new website for young people’ then this needs to be taken into account. There also needs to be a clear promotion strategy in place.

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E-bulletins The Bridge could promote available provision through monthly e-newsletters linking to the best of what’s on and showcasing different arts organisations and practitioners.

This would raise awareness and profile of the work that is taking place and the opportunities young people, schools, families and other arts and cultural organisations can access and learn from. One suggested feature is a guest blog where arts and cultural organisations, school leaders, young people and community organisations can discuss their work and the current landscape that exists in the North West and beyond.

We know that Arts Award advisers and other freelance practitioners working with children and young people would also appreciate regular updates via e-bulletins. A number of Arts Award Advisers say they currently use tourism or local What’s On websites to try and keep abreast of local performances, exhibitions and events. They would appreciate a joined up resource that would help them plan arts and cultural visits for young people conducting their Arts Award qualification.

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Promoting provision outside the digital sphere When connecting to the cultural offer families, particularly parents, still access much of what is available through local papers, mail shots and local radio and television promotion. Many young people described how much parents, both their own and their friends’ parents, impacted on their exposure and attitudes towards art and culture. The young people said they would like information on what, where and how much along with the benefits of taking part to be better promoted to their parents to encourage more positive attitudes.

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10.3 The Bridge response The Bridge clearly has a role to play as a coordinating body providing coherence to the creative and cultural offer by positioning itself as a first point of contact for young people, schools and families. For this to be possible, the Bridge will focus on signposting and supporting rather than duplicating what is on offer.

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10.4 Bridge approach – Keep people abreast of flagship projects and programmes as they emerge. Examples of these include the Cultural Olympiad, Preston Guild, and the Gang Crime Agenda – Profile key networks in regular e-bulletins – Develop an online portal that links to other relevant websites and information – Involve young people who have grown up using the internet to help us work out how to position our digital offer – Conduct further research into the best ways of communicating with schools and teachers

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Key priority areas from the young person’s consultation around information and advocacy – Embedding art and cultural experiences into the everyday contexts that young people find themselves in, so they can have more impact on and relevance to their lives.

– Being inspired by young people’s everyday lives and interests when designing art and culture: for example the world of MMO computer games, the Mighty Boosh, Harry Potter, school, other teenagers and their specific local area.

– Better and clearer marketing and promotion of services through the Internet, which seems to be a young person’s preferred mode of receiving information.

– Using YouTube, Google and Facebook to promote art and culture, and developing facilities for online reviews to help young people decide what to take part in.

– Better and wider marketing and promotion of services and the benefits of art and culture to parents and carers on buses, radio, TV; days to share information about jobs in art and culture.

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– Enabling children and young people to share information about art and culture with each other, rather than only receiving it from adults. How could schools play a role in helping children share information about art and culture with pupils from other schools, to widen their awareness of what is on offer?

– How we communicate with young people: is it important to ask them to separate what they think from what they feel when they experience art and culture? Is it right to ask young people to deconstruct their experiences, rather than just allowing them to ‘soak them up’?

– Exploring methods for measuring, tracking and keeping an up-to-date understanding of young people’s feelings as they engage with art and culture, prioritising their needs rather than the needs of adults and organizations.

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11. Engaging Young People

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11.1 The Bridge vision All children and young people have the right to receive the highest quality arts and cultural education both in and out of schools, in formal and informal settings. Our primary purpose as a Bridge is to enable more young people to see and experience great work that enriches their lives, and increase access to experiences they would otherwise not have had. Our role is to increase access and parity and ensure young people can access cultural experiences regardless of geography or financial circumstances.

Participation in creative and cultural experiences is for many young people a key factor in ‘turning the corner’ in difficult circumstances. Participation builds skills, resilience, emotional well being, friendship networks and social capital; all essential components of a successful life.

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11.2 What people are telling us There are economical, logistical and psychological barriers to engagement. Despite much fantastic work taking place across the region there are still many young people and their families who do not feel the arts or culture are for them.

There is real concern that in the current environment, the most disconnected and disengaged will become even more so. The inclusion agenda is more relevant than ever, yet outreach of this sort takes intensive and patient effort and this is vulnerable in an era when arts and cultural institutions are struggling with funding cuts and stretched capacity.

In the last ten years there has been an increase in the supply of cultural opportunities for children and young people but evidence suggests this has not changed the proportion of children and young people engaging; the same young people are simply engaging in more activities. Young people already participating in arts and cultural activities are more likely to learn about what else is happening and therefore accumulate cultural experiences quickly. This means the same young people access multiple opportunities while others remain disengaged.

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There are huge inequities in cultural participation and this serves to reinforce broader social inequities. If choosing not to engage is a positive choice this is perfectly acceptable but we must be clear that choosing not to engage does not stem from difficulty of access or lack of awareness of the possibilities.

Children and young people now are living and learning in a period of economic instability and social change.

Young people tell us they are worried about poverty and unemployment and have little faith in politics and related structures. The ‘recession’, or the notion of the recession, has an impact on young people’s perception of what is available to them. There are real fears that only the most tenacious children and young people will be able to engage, access and progress through a range of cultural opportunities. However evidence suggests that the biggest obstacle to young people engaging with art and culture, particularly those with emotional and behavioural difficulties or mental health problems, is lack of self confidence or lack of awareness and appropriate support.

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Perceptions Young people’s perceptions of art and culture are as diverse as our own. The terms ‘arts’ and ‘culture’ are seen as elitist by many. The language of aspiration and improved outcomes is not the language young people use. Perhaps we need to start by developing with young people a shared understanding of what is meant by arts and culture and challenge our own received ideas about these terms.

The most common ways young people described their engagement with culture on a regular basis was through dance, particularly street, ballet and tap, going to the cinema and individual music tuition. For others, it involved watching television and sport and playing music with friends.

The cinema has significant cultural importance for many young people. The cinema is often the first venue a young person will visit ‘under their own steam’. One young person said there should be more small local cinemas and they could be hubs for young people to engage with other art and cultural forms. This may be particularly pertinent in rural areas.

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Ensuring relevance There is a real shift taking place across the cultural sphere from the idea of the audience as the consumer of culture.

It’s now much more about ‘the art of with, rather than to or for’ and in this context we can see young people are interested in participating in and collaborating with others to make culture. The digital age is enabling consumers to access and manipulate products in different ways.

Music, films, newspaper, broadcasting, playlists, peer reviews, comparison websites and social networking sites are personalized to our needs and encourage us to offer feedback as we go. The arts and cultural world need to embrace these ways of thinking more readily, both in terms of their digital offer and more widely in terms of the ways in which they seek to engage audiences face to face.

The word ‘boring’ came up a lot in our discussions with young people. ‘I don’t do it, because it’s boring’, ‘I stopped doing it, because it’s boring’ and ‘I wouldn’t go there, because it is boring’. However, young people also expressed a strong desire to get more involved in art and culture in their local areas. They discussed the idea of taking responsibility for making sure art and culture didn’t become ‘boring’. They understood that it was a two way relationship between the provider and themselves and understood the need for patience in the process of creating something new. A young Merseyside man described how he became very bored and frustrated when filming a scene over and over again to create a film, but he understood that he needed to do this to achieve his goal.

Young people sometimes say they can’t see their own lives or views represented in the provision they are offered.

Stories are not always told in a meaningful relevant way, there is often a perception that ‘it’s not for us.’

There are also specific issues around the low expectations or aspirations of young people amongst parents and teachers, coupled with a lack of ambition and understanding of what’s possible in many cases.

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Accessibility Many young people said they don’t know what’s available other than at school. Others said they don’t like going to a place they don’t know or feel unsafe going into a community they don’t know or trust. Young people in Oldham said they were nervous of going into Manchester as it was ‘unfamiliar’ and they encountered ‘aggressive behaviour’. It emerged that this was fear that people were not going to be like them, that diversity would not be welcomed and that there would be racism or discrimination. Young people in Hulme shared the fear of ‘not fitting in and feeling uncomfortable’ and worried about ‘appearance issues, struggling with selfesteem’ and bullying.

A young Kurdish man from Merseyside said the biggest barrier for him accessing art and culture was the fear, ‘what if I fail?’ This fear of failure and possible embarrassment was echoed by young people from all sub-regions and lack of confidence was a key recurring issue.

Young people don’t always understand how to behave or what to do in certain environments if they haven’t been exposed to these experiences from a young age. They are afraid of being told off and have often inherited an anxiety or ‘don’t touch’ mentality from their parents.

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Provision is often not available when young people are free to access it; for example, one music service acknowledged there was no provision at all in the evenings or at weekends.

Another music service does have after school provision but some young Muslims are unable to access it because they have to go to mosque straight after school.

One young person said more activities should be available on Friday and Saturday nights when young people are most in need of something to do and most at risk. Some young people living in rural Cumbria said there were never enough other young people interested in what they wanted to do and so it wasn’t offered.

Many young people said the pressure of homework gave them little time for art and culture. Time is a particular issue for young carers, Muslim children who attend mosque and for children working weekends or evenings on their parents farm, for example. Some young people said that parental permission was a barrier and that organisations needed to build a stronger relationship with their parents so there was a level of trust.

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What are arts organisations main ways of engaging with children and young people outside of the school environment?

– Through youth groups and youth service – Focused marketing campaigns and advertising – Peer referral through existing youth groups – Outreach programmes – Family orientated days and activities – Social networking including Facebook & Twitter – Through health and social care settings and their programmes – PRUs

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Money and geography We need to work collectively to do what we can in the current climate to make art and culture affordable or free to young people; one young person suggested some kind of pass that could not be forged or copied that would allow them to access art and culture for free or at a reduced price.

Although many art and cultural venues are free of charge, travel costs in particular can make visits difficult or impossible for young people, especially those from disadvantaged families in rural parts of Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire or those living in urban areas far from the cultural hubs of city centres.

Many young people told us there should be more cheap public transport. Others described the availability of transport as an issue, both in rural and urban areas, particularly if they don’t feel safe travelling at night or if the bus times are irregular or the journeys are too long. Pendle has found a way around lack of buses and trains by staging events on a Saturday afternoon so they finish around 4pm before public transport finishes.

Even in the city sub regions there are real barriers around mobility; for example, getting across the Manchester boroughs and the associated costs of this.

Young people from rural Cheshire felt they lived a long way from any art or cultural venues of interest. Because of this distance, money and lack of time was a substantial

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contributing factor in young people not visiting as many venues as they would like to. Some young people are very aware that where they live limits their art and cultural opportunities. Young people from Burnley said they have visited and accessed art and culture in big cities and know what they are missing;

Burnley’s limited to certain things, whereas Manchester’s like whoa! And I haven’t even visited the whole of Manchester.

Other young people are not aware of what they are missing, particularly children living in quite isolated, rural areas. For young people in Cumbria, transport and distance from large cultural hubs is a huge barrier to their engagement with art and culture, many are unaware of what they might be missing.

Many young people said ticket costs were a major barrier, particularly if their siblings want to go or join a group too.

Some arts organisations offer free tickets to young people and also fundraise to cover the costs of young people’s travel to events. The costs involved can be small but make a significant difference to the young person. On the other hand some youth theatres have had to introduce a charge to young people to keep them going and this is having an impact on the attendance of young people from low income families.

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Specific issues facing rural areas according to the focus groups – Finance, access and transport are major issues in rural areas.

– Poor transport links to towns and communities.

A struggle to take activities out into rural areas.

– Due to lack of funding work is often based in central locations, therefore not reaching the more rural communities. People are expected to come to town centres to access provision.

– Rural communities are audiences that arts organisations wish to re-engage with. Currently they don’t feel in touch with the rural community.

– A perception that rural areas often lack ‘quality’ work or resources.

– Young people who will become future creative leaders tend to migrate away from the region once they become adults.

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Space Lack of access to venues for activity in local communities is a big problem; schools will not always engage or cannot afford to. One BSF school acknowledged that their state of the art facilities were rarely used because ‘it’s not done in house any more, you have to liaise and book the space and it’s very time consuming.’ Community venues can also be problematic; ‘they are managed by community associations who can often be perceived to have a negative view of young people.’

Organisations could take more work into settings where children and young people already spend time and are comfortable, such as youth clubs, shopping centres, football grounds. People felt libraries and museums could open their doors more freely and more generally that programmes of activities could be more coordinated to run across voluntary, community, education, cultural and public spaces. Social clubs, youth clubs and disused shops are all non traditional spaces that could be used more for activities and performances. Some local authorities are actively continuing the practice of converting disused retail spaces into cultural spaces. Outdoor events were seen as a good alternative; here ‘people can attend on their own terms rather than a theatre’s terms.’

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somewhereto_ is an excellent example of a programme working to match make young people with underused, disused and empty spaces and get people thinking more creatively about their communities.

One local authority expressed frustration that so many of their own buildings are closed at weekends. For example, Saturday mornings are often a good time to engage young Muslims who are at mosque in the week after school but they can’t find a space. They say parents will bring their children if there is somewhere they can have a coffee nearby or the sessions are long enough for them to go home and come back later to pick their children up.

Young people in Cheshire said there was no venue in Chester city and very few creative facilities across the county. There are plans to establish a new cultural venue in Chester by 2015 and build an associated youth theatre community around it before then. Other areas lacking venues are working to attract capital investment to put something sustainable in place.

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Some theatres are starting to host more touring productions for children and young people which could see them becoming more of a hub for arts and culture within their communities. Some have floated the possibility of cultural venues entrepreneurially stepping into the gap left by the closure of many Sure Start centres.

It was suggested we could focus on encouraging place based activity across sub regions to link more explicitly with provision in large city based organisations; in essence we should take the cities out to isolated areas. Others suggested the arts and cultural sector could be less ‘venue centric’ and focus more on meeting neighbourhood objectives where activity takes place more in community based centres of learning and culture and where sports and leisure centres, schools and City Learning Centres play a significant role as cultural spaces to interact and engage young people through.

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Co-construction Young people want to be respected as curators, critical consumers and creators of cultural learning, they want to input into the services and structures surrounding them and they want opportunities to lead and advocate for what they do.

There are excellent examples of programmes being delivered with, for and by young people and their communities. The best quality arts and cultural services proactively involve young people as co-constructors of the experience, engaging them in design, delivery and evaluation and thus ensuring that what is offered is relevant and valued. If young people play a bigger role in shaping programmes for them then it follows they will be more tailored to the needs of children and young people. We also know that attendance at events is greatest when they have been planned by young people themselves.

Organisations need to be brave enough to let young people genuinely take a lead in setting the agenda rather than approaching them with a pre-planned offer and only allowing them to shape the details. Organisations need to continually challenge themselves and be open to challenge by young people to consistently produce high quality experiences.

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Children and young people should continually be encouraged to be decision makers and producers of culture in their own right and to understand the value of this so they can play a role in advocating and campaigning for this approach more widely. We have to build demand from children and young people for high quality opportunities otherwise it will often be the sector doing work for young people rather than with young people. Young people can help providers understand what availability, inclusivity and relevance means to them so that programmes really can be personalised to the demands of young people and their needs, aspirations and ideas. Young people should be able to expect and demand no less.

Ultimately we want to make sure that young people’s voice is brought into every debate to give it credibility and authenticity. Young people really want ‘a relationship’ with an organisation, not a series of one off interventions. One suggestion was that the Bridge retain a small `risk fund’ to get trusted organisations to carry out utterly collaborative `risky’ projects with young people to explore models of genuine co-construction in action.

Young people feel their work is not always respected; ‘young artists’ engaged with one cultural organisation in Manchester spoke eloquently about not being seen as artists in their own right; they felt that the term ‘young’ designated them as an outreach outcome rather than as an artist on a par with any other and this felt to them like a devaluing of their work.

Cultural organisations reminded us that the arts are an excellent vehicle for engaging around all sorts of issues.

Agencies such as the NHS, Youth Services, Fostering Agencies, Social Services, and the Police are often seeking young people’s opinions. There could be a role for the Bridge in matchmaking between these services and arts organisations who successfully elicit the opinions of young people, but are struggling to bring them to those who can actually make the decisions which will improve their lives.

There are ways in which the work could be woven together to ensure that young people have a genuine platform and a reason to create.

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Organisations also spoke about ensuring mechanisms are set up to systematically listen to young people through focus groups and creative consultation events and to use existing young people groups such as Youth Parliament.

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Digital technology The constantly evolving digital landscape offers significant opportunities for children and young people to access culture in new and exciting ways and to communicate with their peers informally through a range of platforms. Although not available to everyone, with reports of particularly poor service in rural areas, many young people do have access to high speed broadband and smart phones.

Sometimes it seems that young people use technology to access art and culture because it’s the cheapest, easiest and most accessible thing to do. Or if they are nervous, shy or have had negative social experiences, it saves them from the risk of having to mix with other people socially: ‘…that’s what you do – in your free time you go on face book!’ ‘And I listen to music on You Tube.’ ‘I don’t do very much. I got bullied so now I just do it on Just Dance.’

The cultural sector as a whole is at risk of alienating themselves from younger generations by not keeping up with digital advances. Cultural providers should work more closely with the young people who have these communication tools at their fingertips to help them understand how these can be deployed to best effect to disseminate information about opportunities and events.

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Digital technology also makes it easier for young people to make a direct contribution to culture – they can engage with, create and critique events, activities and products. People talk about everything and anything online; ‘let’s get young people talking about culture more.’

Although technology opens up many opportunities, some young people feel it can close off the opportunity to be part of a real community: ‘…it’s like culture changes with the time. Like before, when they didn’t have computers it was a closer community but now that you’ve got all the technology it’s kind of changed the culture completely.’ Some rural schools say that digital technologies are sometimes seen as a substitute for face to face cultural interaction with their young people. They were worried that digital advances could be used as an excuse not to bring provision out to rural areas and they wanted to make the point that a lot of young people don’t have access to the internet.

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Profiling young people’s work Young people and children are immersed in a world full of high quality media, advertising, film, fashion, design, music and performances. They want to show parents, friends, family, peers and the wider public what they have achieved and offer something to the world of their own. Technology can offer a great platform for children and young people to profile their artistic work. Online cultural portfolios offer a safe space in which children can document and exhibit their work, curate the work of others and solicit comment from their peers. It can also help ensure access to great arts and culture for young people in rural communities who would otherwise remain disconnected from the offer.

In addition to virtual platforms we need to find more physical platforms for young people to perform, exhibit and celebrate their art, particularly the harder to reach or those living in rural areas. Young people want opportunities to be seen and to feel like professional artists; they want to perform in a professional venue or public space and exhibit alongside other local professional artists. Much of this work happens in small pockets and we need to find ways to ensure young people have opportunities to perform in prestigious places too.

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Engaging the ‘middle ground’ Many described the challenges associated with engaging the ‘middle ground teenagers’, those who would not currently be classed as hard to reach but who are possibly at a ‘turning point’. Typically they are feeling disenchanted with school and are interested in participation but don’t have any specific support or encouragement because they are neither ‘gifted and talented’ or ‘offending’. It was felt that the cuts in youth services have made it harder for these young people to access provision and they could be easily swayed in either direction. Concern was expressed that this cohort of young people are experiencing a lack of attention and are the hardest to get funding to work with.

Similarly, the most culturally active young people need to be challenged, stretched and celebrated.

It was suggested that the arts and cultural sector might learn from the models being used by the sports sector.

Sports Leader Awards and the Sports Community Leadership scheme offer models that enable young people to train as leaders, gain qualifications and respective employment, which also encourages other young people to participate.

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Targeted provision There is a need to direct targeted and intensive partnership investment towards strategic work focusing on groups of young people in particular danger of remaining disengaged in addition to children and young people from low income families.

These groups include disabled children and young people, children and young people from black and minority ethnic communities, looked after children, young carers, young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) and young people within the criminal justice system.

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We recognise there are specific challenges in accessing cultural education for these young people and others outside mainstream education and training. There are arts and cultural organisations and agencies within the North West who have national expertise in working with each of these groups. We will work with these organisations to develop improved coordination of services and closer collaborative working.

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Supporting young people with additional needs Many young disabled people feel isolated both geographically and socially and find it very hard to access activity unless in a very supportive environment. Personal budgets for disabled young people does mean some can access a support worker to get out and about but for many, the local arts activities are so limited that the cinema is the only option. Young people with limited disabilities have now lost access to this funding too.

Cultural organisations should continue working together to share ideas for developing a positive, welcoming and inclusive environment with clear policies about how to tackle racism and other forms of prejudice. We should look at supporting arts and cultural providers, many of whom are volunteers or low-paid workers, to develop more inclusive policies and provide staff training about how to accommodate young people with additional needs. For example we spoke to some young people with additional needs who have all had negative experiences of youth provision. They receive a high level of support in the school environment but if they were to join a local drama group they would be unlikely to receive additional support and class sizes would be four or five times bigger than that at school. It is important to provide support that does not alienate the young person or dictate to service providers.

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Many organisations don’t have the resources for ensuring their programmes are accessible. An organisation can’t advertise something as accessible if they can’t provide sign language and signers cost £30 an hour in addition to travel time. With tight budgets access is available for ‘most’ performances and activities but not all. As one director put it; “in my opinion, that’s not good enough.” The Bridge could play a role in supporting organisations to offer access such as Braille and signing, perhaps even having a pool of people that the sector could dip into so that access is always available.

Many creative and cultural organisations would benefit from developing a deeper understanding of how to engage young people with additional needs. One organisation specialising in disability awareness spoke of the low aspirations and expectations that parents of disabled children can have.

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11.3 The Bridge response We recognise there are a myriad of reasons why young people do not engage with arts and culture. We want to work with a variety of stakeholders to open up opportunities for children and young people and make information about those opportunities readily available.

Young people can find it difficult to understand what is really on offer, even a taster or ‘inspirer session’ does not always get this across. Our role is to help children and young people ‘find their thing’ and investigate what really motivates young people to get involved and the benefits as they see them of getting involved.

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11.4 Bridge approach – Facilitate an ongoing programme of research through focused discussions with young people on their needs and interests to support more effective outreach and audience development – Work with schools, arts and cultural organisations and local authorities to open up opportunities for children and young people to influence programmes, policy, strategy and operational practice in a meaningful way – Provide opportunities for arts and youth organisations to share models for offering targeted provision for specific groups of children and young people – Explore ways to track the impact of young people’s engagement in arts and culture

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12.1 The Bridge vision We know that engaging parents and families is one of the most important factors in engaging children and young people and we believe that arts and culture make a significant contribution to strengthening family capital, raising aspirations and breaking cycles of deprivation.

For many, the support of their parents equates very simply to the difference between participating and not participating. Parents and carers perceptions and their own engagement in and support of arts and culture are widely seen to be a significant predictor of the likelihood of a child’s participation.

12.2 What people are telling us Parents and grandparents who have no prior experience of engagement with arts and culture find it difficult to demand or guide opportunities for their children. Parents also affect how a child participates - one example was given of an aspiring young musician having to exchange her trombone for a cornet as the latter would ‘clutter up the house less.’

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The ‘significant relationships’ in children’s and young people’s lives have a big impact on their engagement. One young person in Merseyside described happy memories of her father teaching her a couple of Beatles songs on guitar which have led to her learning to play the electric guitar.

Another young woman in Manchester described how her Mum had helped her set up her own radio show and get funding to write her own play.

Young people also told us how significant their friends’ parents were in enabling them to experience new arts and cultural experiences. Independently, children from all backgrounds cited various interactions with arts and culture in the context of the privacy of their own bedrooms.

Many play instruments, draw, listen to music and watch films. Young people from more disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to cite creative experiences in relation to encounters with high art or cultural institutions, but still recognised a lot of their self-directed activity as being cultural.

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Economic barriers One of the most frequently cited barriers was economic.

This is seen to be worsening as family budgets get tighter. It was pointed out that for some, £3.50 spent on a music club would have to be weighed up against the cost of lunch or a breakfast club for their children.

A young person from a relatively affluent family describes the problem of money;

I didn’t want to stop dance classes but I had to discuss it with my parents and I said, if it’s costing too much I can lose a couple of them and they said no, we’ll find a way to do it so...

But it does still come into your mind when you think about it, not obviously when you’re dancing but when you look at how much it’s costing you with shoes and leotards and skirts and costumes and things like that. Then you really think, well this is mounting up to hundreds and hundreds of pounds.

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This person is lucky to have parents who can afford to pay for some art and cultural activities and values the activity enough to find the money somehow; this highlights how difficult it must be for children and young people from low income families or with parents who have never engaged with or valued art and culture themselves.

A museum representative said they found it easy to motivate children to attend activities and shows but ‘it’s parents that actually decide’. Even free activities involve the cost of transport and refreshments. One organisation said that even free activities are mostly attended by children from middleclass families whose parents can and will drive them to and from sessions. One local authority representative suggested that making activities free can sometimes be

A double bind: if sessions are free they’re not valued and people don’t turn up; if they are charged for, people can’t afford it and don’t come.

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Perceptions and influences Some of the barriers described were largely perceptual.

Parents who see themselves as having little engagement in ‘the arts’ may consider ‘it’s not for them’, which reduces their likelihood of being supportive and can influence their children’s attitudes too. Organisations felt some parents might want to engage but lack confidence in taking their children to new places, fearing they might not be welcomed. An example was given of parents being concerned about young children being noisy in a gallery. Others might have historical associations of buildings or areas; an example was given of Salford Quays still being perceived as ‘a working area for men, not a place for families or for leisure.’

Other parents wish to protect their children from possible negative influences; for example, Muslim families may not allow children to participate unless they are confident the activity is appropriate and respectful of their beliefs. According to teachers at the SEN focus group, parents of disabled children sometimes have low aspirations and expectations of their children, which may prevent them from participating.

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Engaging more families Some suggested that low income families and those from rural areas should be offered support towards travel expenses to help them visit venues that are of interest to their children. In Canada this has been addressed with incentives such as tax credits for those engaging in arts activities.

It was noted that cultural venues offer competitive prices when compared to typical leisure offers such as the cinema and bowling which families might be more likely to engage in. It was felt that this could be a route to growing family audiences through better marketing campaigns.

Many said that high quality provision has great power to retain participants once they have persuaded people to walk through the door. Familiarity is a useful hook; for example, one organisation used the familiarity of Red Riding Hood as a key to get audiences in, but the piece was still challenging and unusual, and able to broaden the horizons of the audience.

It was felt that arts organisations should offer more ‘family friendly’ events which are specifically designed to welcome all members of a family. Joint family activities which offer quality experiences can contribute enormously to building family capital and the Family Learning Agenda. Schools could also extend their cultural visits to invite the families of their pupils.

Intergenerational work involving grandparents was seen to be an area warranting further exploration as grandparents often care for their grandchildren during the day.

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12.3 The Bridge response Our role is to work in partnership with local authorities, schools and a wide range of arts and cultural organisations to develop strategic initiatives that directly address the economic and perceptual barriers that make it difficult for some families to engage regularly with arts and culture.

The Bridge also has a vital role to play in promoting family friendly arts and cultural opportunities to reach a wider audience.

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12.4 Bridge approach – Work with local authorities and the CVSE (community, voluntary and social enterprise) sector to enhance and add value to current initiatives designed to engage families more widely in the community – Work in partnership with schools and family centres to improve the quality and amount of information going to parents and carers about arts and cultural opportunities available locally – Work in partnership with cultural venues to develop effective strategies for engaging with and welcoming in families who are reluctant, nervous or think culture isn’t for them.

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13. Outreach and Engagement

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13.1 The Bridge vision We believe that targeting provision at low income families and children and those unable to access arts and culture independently should be a shared priority for the sector.

We feel that despite much funding being targeted at engaging the hardest to reach, provision is simply still not getting to the core. We know that increasing supply of the current cultural offer could simply mean the same people accessing more and we recognise we need to think differently to do this successfully.

The most successful organisations working directly in communities are ‘working where the young people themselves are at,’ valuing their existing experiences, identifying what they want to do through youth participation models and building customised programmes which feed their interests, meet their needs and build aspirations.

Positive experiences lead to more demand. Starting with community interests can be useful; for example, engaging young men with the museums sector through football was one unusual approach which had worked well.

13.2 What people are telling us

Others felt that whilst barriers often exist initially, once relationships have been formed with communities these barriers usually break down quickly. It is then essential to ensure there is ongoing provision which is continuous and progressive and which is difficult for any single organisation to sustain. Some felt it would be useful for the Bridge to broker partnerships with more organisations with established working relationships with the hardest to reach groups, such as the Probation Service.

Engaging the hardest to reach Some organisations acknowledged that when resources are inadequate or timescales short they will get the ‘usual suspects’ involved in order to ensure the success of a project. Genuine engagement of the hardest to reach is of course very difficult.

There are invisible boundaries that exist which organisations may not perceive but communities do. The hardest to reach communities form very tight-knit groups. This can prevent communities crossing geographical boundaries and organisations often find it very difficult to take their work out to these peer groups and break down the preconceptions that exist in some of these communities.

Some organisations hold locality specific tasters before starting a more central programme.

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It was also felt strongly that a targeted offer must be careful not to stigmatise those that participate. The ultimate aim must be for all people to feel welcome and able to access all provision, not just that which is specifically ‘for them’.

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The challenges for arts and cultural organisations Arts and cultural organisations can successfully engage young people where schools struggle, by meeting young people on their own terms and being able to offer a more personalised and targeted approach. However, only 40% of those surveyed said that working with children and young people was a significant focus for their work; others had lesser involvement. This suggests that the number and profile of children and young people focused cultural organisations is in the minority and the possibilities for genuine co-construction are accordingly limited. Only four organisations described themselves as geared up to codeliver and create with young people.

Creating a supply led rather than demand led approach is a challenge for many organisations. There is a risk that cultural programmes for young people will focus on perceived high cultural forms at the expense of popular cultural forms which may be closer to young people’s experience. This is not about ‘dumming down,’ as one organisation put it, but ensuring the starting point is the actual lived experience of young people rather than the traditional cultural forms of the organisations involved.

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The majority of arts and cultural organisations fully understand the value of involving young people in shaping programmes over a sustained stable period. There is no point in raising then dashing expectations and many feel tasters and short term courses should not be staged unless long term follow up is in place. They know that longer term offers are more likely to offer consistent and sustained engagement than frequent short term initiatives. However, funding uncertainties mean that some organisations may have problems with programme continuity and worry that young people currently engaged have expectations that the same will be available next year. It can also be difficult for cultural organisations working with agencies that engage young people out of school hours as many of these agencies are understaffed and rely on volunteers. The consistency and resources to broker genuine partnership work and support young people are sometimes hard to maintain.

Arts organisations say it can be difficult to get enough continued commitment from young people to sustain project activity. They cite academic and parental pressures, part time jobs and spending time with friends as competing priorities.

In rural areas it is difficult to get enough children together in one place. They may not turn up regularly and there is a real lack of paid youth workers to coordinate activities on behalf of small local groups. Some participants expressed strongly that the relationship with the young person must come first and is key to successful engagement.

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13.3 The Bridge response The cost per head of outreach and the capacity and resources required is causing a strain for many organisations in the current landscape. We will work with arts and cultural organisations to support them to find costeffective ways to develop outreach programmes and to continue engaging the audience of the future.

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13.4 Bridge approach – Identify organisations working particularly successfully with the hardest to reach young people and work with these organisations to share the detail more widely of what’s making them successful.

– Identify networks that already exist amongst those working with the hardest to reach outside the cultural sector and look at how we can access them to and create a flow of information between and across sectors..

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Early years Early years engagement can engender a lifelong interest in the arts. We believe that the majority of under five provision should focus on cultural and creative activities as a means to progress a child’s social, emotional and intellectual development as well as the intrinsic benefits these activities bring. The early years of life are the most significant period for brain development and it is during a child’s early years that they begin to recognise who they are and build a sense of security in their own identity.

The dramatic shifts in subsidised early years provision are likely to have a big impact on the early years workforce.

We are told that many people working in the early sector have little access themselves to quality cultural experiences and that the campaign to embed creativity and culture into the basic training of the early years workforce should be stepped up. That said we also recognise that many early years professionals do engage children in creative and

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cultural activities and offer plentiful opportunity for children to explore their own creativity on a daily basis. Perhaps the emphasis is on increasing professionals ability to articulate and advocate for what works and why. There are many examples of fantastic collaborations between creative practitioners and early years professionals which we should seek to promote more widely.

The transition between Early Years and Key Stage One deserves more focus as this is often the time when children’s access to creative and cultural activities is reduced quite significantly and this can result in levels of disengagement at a crucial time of development. 0-2s and under 5s are a significant new focus for many museums and galleries and we look forward to working with Earlyarts and other partners to bring together cultural professionals to share practice and ideas.

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14. Achievement and Progression

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14.1 The Bridge vision Young people today are faced with a shifting landscape that is complex to navigate. For some, the arts and culture form part of a well rounded education. For others, it’s a path to a professional career. However, navigating this path can be complex and many are dissuaded along the way. The education and cultural sectors need to work more closely together to raise aspiration, support innovation and nurture talent. We must take collective responsibility for ensuring that young people have the necessary tools, support and training to develop the entrepreneurial and professional skills required to thrive within the creative and cultural industries.

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There is a sense of urgency to inspire, motivate and retain creative talent within the region, so as to grow the next generation of cultural leaders and North West artists.

At the end of 2011, the Department of Work & Pensions employment statistics showed that 20.09% of 16-24 year olds in the North West are unemployed. However, in Sept 2011 the CBI report on skills for the creative industries highlighted considerable potential for growth within the sector and its contribution to the UK economy. However, funding for talent development is seen to be in decline and a stronger support infrastructure is required for those looking to work within the creative and cultural industries.

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14.2 What people are telling us Impact of the recession There are real concerns within the cultural sector that young people entering today’s workforce will struggle to establish and sustain a freelance or portfolio career. Apprenticeships, work placements and internships have always played a key role in pathways to employment within the creative and cultural sectors and are widely seen as an essential entry point. The prevalence of low or unpaid work is a long standing barrier for many, compounded by the recession as fewer families are able to support their children whilst they seek to establish themselves. Those hoping to work as freelancers face similar challenges, often limiting this opportunity to those from middle class backgrounds.

The removal of the Education Maintenance Allowance and increased university tuition fees are likely to have a significant impact on the uptake of arts and cultural courses within further and higher education.

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Government funding cuts and consequent redundancies or displacement have created a surplus of skilled and experienced individuals looking for work. At the same time, more organisations are cutting costs through wider use of volunteers and interns. Overall there is more competition for fewer roles making it much harder for those entering the labour market to get their first break.

Many are worried that cultural organisations who do offer placements and work experience to students may no longer have the resources or capacity to do so. As such, the barriers to accessing an already highly competitive sector are growing and it is becoming harder for children and young people to see working in the creative and cultural industries as a viable option.

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Progression and talent pathways Progression routes within the creative and cultural industries can be complex, often traversing a range of art forms, providers and sectors. It is vital that young people have access to relevant and high quality information, advice and guidance so as to understand the range of opportunities and routes available. A more coherent, meaningful and connected approach to accreditation and progression across the North West is required, ensuring that young people have access to the same opportunities wherever they live.

Some cultural professionals feel that young people expect to become experts within their field too quickly and do not fully appreciate the time, hard work and discipline required to achieve genuine recognition and success. Many are concerned about the current ‘cliff edge’ approach to vulnerable young people who receive very little funding or support upon leaving the Government ‘system’ at 1921 years old. University graduates often struggle with the transition from academic study to employment, finding it difficult to continue developing their practice or to establish a freelance career.

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Many feel that existing progression routes fail precisely because they don’t address the journey a young person needs to make from developing an interest or gaining accreditation through to developing the required degree of skill that will enable them to generate an income. Without money from parents or connections in the relevant industry, many young people cannot make this transition. Young people are requesting support with scholarships for theatre school and art academies and a fund that young people could apply for to pay for some exams.

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Cultural employers Many arts and cultural organisations already provide meaningful progression and development routes for young people. However, these opportunities tend to relate to a specific organisation or the art form/sector it represents.

We need to create a more joined up offer that supports young people’s cultural and social mobility and is more genuinely responsive to their interests and needs.

Developing partnerships with national agencies such as the National Skills Academy (NSA) for Creative & Cultural will help to champion and make visible the vocational options and entry points within the cultural sector.

Many feel that work based and vocational learning offers need to better emulate and support real life experience so as to provide genuine insight, manage expectations and develop skills for employability. The cultural sector should provide more opportunities for work related learning outside of formal education through Creative Apprenticeships and work placements, traineeships, internships, master classes and other ‘hands on’ learning programmes.

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Creative and cultural employers across all sectors should be encouraged to share models of supporting young people’s progression with a particular focus on access and inclusion. There are some good examples of structured job creation for young people within the region, including the Manchester City Council funded ‘Creative Stars’ project through which a consortium of cultural organisations are supporting 19 young people to develop and showcase their talents over the course of a year. However, funding for these types of programmes is increasingly scarce. It has been suggested that cultural employers could work with Job Centre Plus to run ‘creative job clubs’.

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Support and inspiration for young people There are a range of excellent models supporting emerging artists within the North West, many of which prioritise the development of business skills alongside creative practice: – Merseyside’s Creative Apprenticeships pilot was held up as an example of what’s possible – the first graduates of the programme all went straight into employment in the arts and cultural sector.

– PANDA Youth offers networking, coaching and training opportunities for young people with an interest in performing arts.

– NOISE offers online portfolios, networking opportunities and access to industry professionals that connect progression opportunities with employment opportunities in the cultural industries.

– The ‘Stride’ project run by Company Chameleon and DIGM supports young male dancers to develop their own choreographic skills as creative apprentices.

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A cultural careers champion programme was suggested to encourage inspiring figures from the North West who have enjoyed a high-level of success in the arts to act as role models.

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Accreditation and qualifications Within formal education, the value of many arts based courses has been undermined with the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc). Although the Creative and Media Diploma is still available, the main modules used by schools will not count towards the EBacc, making it less likely that schools and colleges will support them.

Most creative digital and ICT courses will count however, providing some potential for embedding creativity within EBacc delivery.

Following the Wolf Review of Vocational Education, the Department of Education has reduced the number of non GCSE qualifications recognised in school and college performance tables for 14-16 year olds from three thousand to seventy. This overhaul aims to reaffirm the status of courses providing young people with high level skills for employability. Within the remaining seventy, there are a number of creative and cultural based qualifications, such as BTECs, which it is hoped that schools will feel more confident in using following the Department of Education’s endorsement. Arts Award will no longer be recognised within school league tables, although the Gold award

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continues to carry 35 UCAS points and is increasingly recognised by FE and HE as a strong indicator of project management and leadership skills. Although changes will only be implemented in league tables from 2015 many expect to see a significant shift in courses offered from September this year.

The ongoing Government review of Apprenticeships and the new Youth Contract provide a range of opportunities.

Liverpool Community College and Salford College lead on the delivery of Creative Apprenticeships within the North West and we are awaiting further information on the introduction of regional National Skills Academy hubs.

Links with Higher Education There is a clearly articulated desire to build stronger partnerships, research labs and action research projects with Higher Education – something the Bridge could facilitate with its strategic links. More graduate placement schemes and the possibility of graduate apprentice posts have also been discussed.

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Careers information and guidance Although a number of resources have been developed nationally to support careers advice for the creative and cultural industries, public awareness and use of these resources is generally low. All young people within the North West should have access to high quality information, advice and guidance about creative and cultural career opportunities and support in finding relevant work experience, where appropriate. Many feel that more needs to be done in raising awareness of existing opportunities to reach a broader audience and increase uptake, particularly amongst the most hard to reach young people. Parents, schools and careers advisory services were all cited as needing better access to information. However, many are concerned about raising expectation amongst young people without having a clear sense of what opportunities the creative and cultural landscape may hold within the next 5 years.

Online portfolios We are exploring opportunities for online showcasing of young people’s creative work, potentially linking with current research and promotion of web based portfolios for Arts Award and other cultural programmes. It was thought to be important that we support young people in taking their work to a broader audience, sharing their achievements with friends and family and presenting evidence of skills and experience for college or university interviews or to potential employers.

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Work experience and volunteering Cultural organisations would like schools to be more flexible and innovative in their approach to work experience, specifically requesting a move away from concentrating all placements within a single week. As a solution to this particular problem one theatre recently took on twenty children for a week long ‘Behind the Scenes’ programme . Students worked 9-4pm each day, developing their knowledge of theatre production, management and administration and having the opportunity to spend a full day with a department of their choice. The theatre and the school are keen to develop this relationship further and students have already been given access to a range of volunteering opportunities.

Many youth clubs, theatres, museums, galleries, and heritage settings offer opportunities for dedicated volunteers. It is vital that young people are welcomed by these organisations and given access to such opportunities.

More cultural organisations should be able to articulate how they are developing young people’s skills through their volunteering offer.

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14.3 The Bridge response The Bridge will continue to encourage and promote opportunities for young people to gain recognition and accreditation through their engagement with arts and cultural activities. We will also work to ensure better integration of vocational learning schemes such as Arts Award, the Creative & Media Diploma and Creative Apprenticeships across the region so that as many young people can access them as possible.

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14.4 Bridge priorities for year one – Develop relationships with the National Skills Academy (NSA) for Creative & Cultural and work together to champion and make visible the vocational options and entry points within the cultural sector and to provide a more coherent, meaningful and connected approach to accreditation and progression across the North West – Continue to advocate for Arts Award and other forms of accreditation supporting young people to develop a career in the arts and cultural sector.

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15. Arts Award

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15.1 The Bridge vision The Bridge will work to encourage and promote opportunities for young people to gain recognition and accreditation through their engagement with arts and cultural activities. We have a specific role to play in promoting Arts Award and ensuring the qualification is fully integrated with other forms of vocational and workrelated learning.

15.2 What people are telling us Areas of low engagement Participation reports provide a breakdown of moderations by local authority twice a year in October and April.

Although regional uptake within 2011 has more than doubled the Trinity target, moderation numbers are still so low as to be disproportionately affected by one centre taking a large group through; e.g. in Warrington in 2010-11 101 Bronze awards were achieved; however 100 of these were achieved by one high school. Figures for Cumbria and Lancashire are countywide. As such, these statistics cannot stand alone in providing an accurate overview of engagement within a specific borough.

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A basic ranking of local authorities using 2009-10 and 2010-11 moderation statistics shows Manchester and Liverpool achieving the highest number of awards, with lowest uptake in: – Cheshire West – Cheshire East – Halton – Rochdale – Tameside – Blackburn – St Helens The following details some of the key strengths and challenges of Arts Award as highlighted by those consulted in recent months.

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Strengths of Arts Award – Arts Award offers progression routes outside formal education and connects young people to arts and culture in their local area.

– The flexibility of the award means that it can be delivered in a wide variety of settings, formally or informally depending on the needs of specific groups.

– Bronze and Silver levels of the award have proven to be particularly successful as tool for engaging young people in custody and providing a genuine opportunity for progression.

– Arts Award provides a measurable outcome that can be used by cultural organisations to evidence participation and achievement (to funders etc) – Many have found the flexible framework easy to integrate within existing programmes of work, stressing the importance of embedding delivery rather than creating add on activity.

– Arts Award (including Arts Award Welcome) provides cultural organisations with the opportunity to promote their offer for children and young people through a regional network of centres and to develop futures audiences.

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– The relationship between a young person and their adviser can sometimes provide a rare opportunity for that young person to have 1:1 support from an adult.

– There are great examples of Arts Award being used to support young people with specific challenges, particularly helping to develop confidence and communication skills. The flexible approach to gathering evidence & documentation gives participants space to reflect, as well as ownership and autonomy over their own journeys - an almost unique experience while gaining a recognised qualification.

– Arts Award can be a valuable tool for cultural organisations to assess quality and review provision for children and young peoples. As participants develop their role as cultural commentators, they provide a rich seam of feedback unusual for arts and cultural organisations to receive.

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Challenges of Arts Award – Some arts organisations interested in delivering the award are finding it hard to recruit participants (particularly in areas where lots of schools are already registered centres) and there is a need for further support in articulating the value of Arts Award directly to young people.

– Some are concerned about the status of Arts Award outside of the cultural sector and the extent to which it is genuinely recognised by universities and employers.

– Schools and arts organisations can often find the overall costs of delivering the award to be an issue. Schools in particular cite the accumulative expense of releasing staff to attend training, training and moderation fees and visits to cultural venues.

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– There are a large number of trained advisers across the country who have never delivered.

– The discontinuation of school performance points for Arts Award from 2015 could have a significant impact on uptake, particularly with regards to sustained and ongoing delivery.

– Although personalisation is also cited as a strength of the Arts Award framework, advisers often find it challenging to ensure that each individual’s experience is structured to support their own needs and interests.

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15.3 The Bridge response Increasing uptake of Arts Award across the region is a key role for the bridge and is something our success as a Bridge Organisation will be measured on. However, our desire to champion the accreditation and see more children and young people achieving the accreditation comes from a very genuine belief that Arts Award is a brilliant vehicle for increasing engagement in the arts. We know from experience that it also provides a useful framework for cultural organisations, schools and youth groups who want to embed a quality approach to delivering cultural programmes and embedding young people’s leadership.

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15.4 Bridge approach – The Bridge will continue to provide support and advice to Arts Award trainers, providers and moderators, advocating for and encouraging increased take-up across the North West. We will work in partnership with Trinity and with Arts Award trainers, schools and cultural organisations to address the challenges highlighted during our consultation.

– We will provide direct support to organisations interested in embedding Arts Award within their programmes and activities, helping them to develop a clear and flexible approach to engaging targeted groups of young people in arts and culture.

– We’ll work in partnership with NPOs and Major Partner Museums to develop a tiered approach to Arts Award delivery; identifying opportunities for local partnerships and promoting their offer to schools and young people across the region.

– We’ll develop a joined up approach to advocacy and communication for Arts Award and Artsmark, enabling a single cultural conversation when we meet with schools.

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16. Quality and Excellence

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16.1 The Bridge Vision Arts Council England is committed to raising the standard of work being produced by, with and for children and young people. It has identified the need to develop a shared approach for arts and cultural organisations to understand and compare the quality of this work. The Bridge, in partnership with the region’s key stakeholders, will contribute to the development of this shared approach. Alongside this, we will work with our consultative networks in the region to identify, promote and share best practice.

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16.2 What people are telling us Definitions We gathered a range of perspectives on the quality of arts and cultural provision across the region from children and young people, schools and cultural organisations. They talked about provision that was fantastic, mediocre and poor.

Some see ‘quality’ as an abstract concept unless it is defined in relation to a specific piece of work or experience.

The sector represents a diverse range of practice using different approaches, language and assumptions. Many felt that the sector should always use the work itself to stimulate discussion about how we define quality, rather than letting the debate about what quality means dominate our time.

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Quality frameworks Some people welcome the call to define quality and agree established, national standards. They say that a framework would be a ‘useful starting point to stimulate dialogue.

They believe that continuous and sustainable quality needs supportive organisational structures and attention to policy, principles, values and skills development. Many approve of a framework that encourages peer-to-peer support.

Others say that ‘frameworks cloud the artistic quality’ and we should concentrate on practice. For them, raising the bar in a systematic way may introduce an additional layer of bureaucracy or be daunting to busy staff. They are concerned about the impact of this on those who are ‘already underfunded and overstretched’. Some say we should trust people who are already doing great work and not reinvent the wheel. Quality artistic practice is important but we should direct our energies towards enabling more young people to see and access great work and connect with highly skilled professional artists.

Some made a case for aligning quality assurance of cultural education to the systems and strategies used by schools.

This could result in both improved artistic practice and the growth of business through increased commissions.

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Raising the profile of excellence Many say we should focus our attention on raising the profile of art and culture by celebrating great work and flagging up excellent practice. They would like the Bridge to shine a spotlight on great practice across the whole region, not just the cities, giving people opportunities to come together to share and experience the great work taking place across the North West. They would also like platforms for exemplary individuals and organisations to talk persuasively to their peers about achieving excellence.

People suggested that representatives from the sector come together with a cross-section of young people to share examples of high quality programmes or projects, resulting in a bank of examples we could use to analyse what makes a ‘quality experience.’

Learning from young people Young people say they want to experience performances that are: 1. Professional 2. Socially fun 3. Offer refreshments 4. Are inclusive

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Young people say they want the chance to create art and culture through activities that are: 1. Well-facilitated by adults who treat them with respect, see them as equals, and know how to help them feel comfortable and confident 2. Fun, hands on and stimulating, with active, equal involvement 3. Relevant to their interests, and chosen by the young people themselves, although they would also like to try lots of different and varied art forms and cultural experiences, to find out what they enjoy 4. Challenging, stimulating their own creativity: this level of challenge should be flexible, depending on the young people’s needs. Young people want to learn new things but not be given impossible tasks. Facilitators should pace activities to keep young people interested, making them not too difficult at first.

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5. Tailored and designed to their needs and appropriate for different ages and abilities 6. Well resourced – children want to use state of the art technology and quality materials, and be able to have food and drink when they need it 7. Respectful of how creative young people are able to be during arts and cultural experiences. Young people enjoy doing, instead of just looking and listening alone and would like to spend time with artists who are interested in their needs 8. Designed to enable them to share work with an audience alongside high profile artists All the young people we met in Cheshire had visited Eureka!

The National Children’s Museum and spoke of it positively.

They said that other venues, individuals and organisations should visit Eureka! and other venues and organisations recommended by young people to experience directly what made it so special for them.

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Process and product Many feel there is still a perception of the arts as a product rather than a process. There was a general consensus that arts and cultural production are both the process and the product and the two have equal value. A quality product will usually emerge from a quality process. Others feel we should give equal attention to process, product and engagement, using the product to celebrate successful engagement with the artistic process. Many said that ‘great art ‘for’ everyone’ should be rephrased as ‘great art ‘by’ everyone.’

Defining a quality arts and cultural ‘experience’ Some suggested that the term ‘arts experience’ combined process and product and that a quality arts experience should be creative, challenging, empowering, inclusive, responsive to needs and able to provide opportunities for further progression.

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One organisation said to us:

Look at the numbers of young people coming through our doors and decide for yourselves if we offer a quality experience, no funding application form can capture the life changing impact of our work better than that.

Progression People said that great experiences ensured that children and young people could progress through their participation in arts and culture. They described many activities currently on offer as limited and repetitious, offering the same entry-level experiences over and over again. Quality programmes have tangible learning outcomes young people can build on.

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Workforce development Many arts and cultural organisations stressed the importance of finding funding to support a structured workforce development programme. This would enable staff to develop professional skills and competencies that would improve the quality of work with communities and schools.

Many of those we consulted were concerned about the quality of some community arts practice and felt that the process can sometimes be at the expense of artistic excellence. They were also concerned that individual practitioners no longer have as many opportunities to participate in affordable professional development now that Creative Partnerships has ended. Creative Partnerships was a lucrative income stream for many practitioners but required them to participate in CPD and commit to evaluation, self-reflection and the ongoing development of their own practice.

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It was felt the Bridge should place particular emphasis on supporting third sector organisations to improve the quality of arts and cultural activities they offer through links to quality arts workers and organisations. This would be of particular value to communities that do not have a venue or arts organisation on their doorstep. Perhaps we could invite schools to observe quality arts and cultural sessions as they are used to doing with teaching, adopting a ‘school-friendly’ model. We should also involve parents in assessing and engaging with quality.

One local authority said that some community arts practitioners were threatened by the concept of developing their practice. Peer review was cited by a number of people as a good mechanism for improving quality, sharing excellent practice and regional models across the sector and art forms.

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Poor quality provision Many worry that poor quality provision is worse than none at all. They say that cheap or free offers from individuals, arts organisations and private enterprises, that undercut other providers, are now emerging and many are of a poor quality.

If a young person has a negative experience it may close that young person’s mind to further engagement for good.

The sector has a duty to offer all children and young people the best possible experience every time, whetting their appetite for continued engagement.

Schools It is very important that schools understand quality; teachers are experts at measuring impact and quality of learning experiences but some people are concerned that in the current climate, schools increasingly commission services based on price not excellence. They gave an example of schools commissioning a neighbouring authority’s service because the price was lower than their own authority.

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Measuring impact Organisations are asking for support to measure and capture the social impact of their work. The arts and cultural sector need to capture those light-bulb and life-changing moments which we hear about anecdotally all the time.

Many articulated a collective need to tell a richer story about the value of the arts to the society that funds it. They recognise this in turn costs money and takes time. We need to understand and find effective mechanisms to articulate why these moments make a difference and the longer term impact they have. Many think that instead of submitting dry evaluation reports to funders the sector should find engaging ways to articulate evidence of impact and value to the wider world as part of their funding agreement, learning from each other along the way.

It was agreed that it is a big challenge to measure how many young people have ‘reasonable access’ to cultural experiences, whether they are taking up this offer and whether the engagement is sustained. Perhaps instead, it was suggested, we should concentrate on tracking the impact of young people’s engagement in arts and culture over a number of years and explore research programmes that could help us do this.

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What do young people think a quality experience offers?

Children and young people, like adults, have subjective perceptions of what quality and excellence means. It depends on personality, identity and taste. What matters is finding an experience that challenges, motivates, inspires and confirms your understanding of life, and helps you to cope with your feelings and emotions.

Feelings, emotions and identity – One 15-year-old boy from Merseyside who loves painting (although he has experienced many barriers to broader art and culture because of his family circumstances) recognises that art helps him understand and manage his feelings:

Art can help you find ways to represent your emotions and if you can represent your emotions then you can start to control them.

Another described how a quality cultural experience gave young people the chance to explore and express their individuality and celebrate who they are:

It felt like I was who I was, I made something that I wanted to make.

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Interactive and interpersonal experiences – Young people in all the groups said that the quality of their experience was affected by the level of interaction they were allowed or able to have and the more multi-sensory it was the better:

...There’s one in Rochdale and downstairs it’s like really interactive, like history. And then upstairs it’s like modern art, you know like those things where you put your pen in and it’s a spiral and it makes those circles? There’s a person that’s done one, that’s like the size of this wall. And you get to do one yourself and you can stick it around it. And it’s really fun and me and my friend spent lots of time in there when we got to Rochdale.

Another young person described a desire to be active:

If it’s something different like a concert or something, you don’t want to just be sat there watching them, you want to be like involved with it.

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Respect, equality and ownership – The quality of a young person’s experience is highly dependent on the attitude of the adults involved and their ability to foster a positive, inclusive environment:

Yeah, he spoke to us like adults. He spoke to us like we were people so we could make our own choices and we would be sensible about it.

Yeah but it wasn’t just standard stuff that would be like rehearsed, you know when it’s just like, you do this, you do this, you do this, and this is how you do this.

It was kind of like right OK, well what do you want to do about it? And we were just like right, OK then!

The quality of one young person’s experience of a workshop was marred by an adult talking too much. He said he ‘would have learned more in a digital photography workshop and enjoyed it more, if the photographer had stopped talking and allowed them to do more.’

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Challenge and learning – Whatever type of art or culture young people are interested in, the need for challenge is a recurring factor in enabling them to enjoy it. One 14-year-old boy who described himself as ‘alternative’, said that the art and culture he’d been involved in had been ‘too samey’. He said, ‘it was just games’, ‘there was no challenge to it’ and ‘it was not serious enough.’ He has visited many historical venues in and around Stockport on his own, because

you can learn a lot about the future from the past, and if you know about the future, then you’re on to a winner.

Progression and achievement is important for young people. They want more than the basics; they want indepth learning using proper equipment and resources, and adequate time. They want their facilitators to be professional, to manage time properly, give them choices and communicate clearly.

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16.3 The Bridge response We believe a set of shared quality standards across the arts and cultural sector would support organisations to provide quality and excellence to children and young people.

An effective quality assurance system should support continuous improvement at all levels, offering challenge and inspiration to those whose practice is already strong and guidance to those at an early stage of development. We also believe it’s important that any quality assurance framework is regularly reviewed to take account of new developments, improvements in practice or shifts in methodology.

Artsmark will be a significant tool for supporting schools and other settings to achieve quality, through innovative collaboration with the best artists and practitioners working across the North West.

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16.4 Bridge approach – Champion and celebrate great work around the region across as many forums and using as many platforms as possible.

– Support grass-roots and fledgling organisations to improve the quality of arts and cultural activities they offer through links to well established arts workers and arts organisations.

– Facilitate peer-to-peer quality improvement partnerships across the education and cultural sectors.

– Ensure children and young people have plentiful opportunities to contribute meaningfully to the quality debate.

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17. Artsmark

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17.1 The Bridge vision The Bridge will use Artsmark to celebrate best practice in the North West and how this has impacted on children’s and young people’s academic attainment and other achievements. We will connect Artsmark schools to each other and other schools through events and networks to share practice, build capacity and learn from each other.

We will explore opportunities across the North West to widen interest in and applications to Artsmark, and to develop a more intricate network of relationships with arts and cultural organisations that will encourage schools to continually innovate and children and young people to deepen their understanding and experience of art and culture, stretching their imaginations and potential.

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17.2 What people are telling us Strengths of Artsmark – Schools see Artsmark as an excellent tool that gives them the confidence to enable children and young people to consume, create and celebrate all forms of art and culture.

– Schools want Artsmark to give children and young people access to a diverse range of artists and experiences of high quality.

– Schools recognise they could use the profile of Artsmark and Arts Award more strategically to enhance their competitive edge, proving to parents and others that their arts and cultural offer is of the highest standard.

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Challenges of Artsmark – Reduced school budgets may make it more difficult for some schools to fulfil the requirements of Artsmark, particularly in relation to developing partnerships with professional artists and providing continuing professional developmental for staff. Schools will be looking for cheaper or free partners and this could lead to a reduction in quality and excellence – More academies and secondary schools appear to be turning ‘lukewarm’ towards Artsmark as the pressure to deliver against other priorities intensifies.

– Many schools see the Artsmark application process as being too time consuming and complex. This time round, Artsmark trainers were unable to really meet the needs of schools in the time available. However there is a real appetite from schools for follow on support.

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– Artsmark trainers have raised the concern that some applicants see the ‘requirement’ to offer Arts Award as a hidden cost of the Artsmark application.

– This year the ‘peer assessor’ role has often been handed from headteachers and senior managers to less experienced and sometimes reluctant staff. Who are not confident or skilled enough to play a strong role in assessing other schools.

– As Trinity takes on the role of delivering Artsmark as well as Arts Award for Arts Council England, the cross-promotion of both programmes will create both opportunities and challenges.

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17.3 The Bridge response We will work with schools who are interested in Artsmark but who have either not yet achieved the kitemark or not yet decided if it is for them. We will listen to schools’ challenges and how they have overcome them. We will fund meetings, events and networks that enable schools and other settings to learn from each other and build capacity of staff to work with the arts and cultural sector. We will work with people who have a track record in supporting successful Artsmark applications and will continually seek and create opportunities to promote and advocate for Artsmark.

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17.4 Bridge approach – Establish a pan-regional Artsmark working group for the North West Artsmark workforce.

– Support schools to identify and collaborate with artists and organisations who offer a high quality service.

– Work with Artsmark trainers and others to ensure schools receive sufficient support during the Artsmark application process.

– Advocate Artsmark to all schools and young people’s settings across the North West. The Bridge will build on relationships already established through Creative Partnerships, work closely with Artsmark Gold schools to promote and share best practice, and make new links.

We will give particular priority to areas with low take-up of Artsmark or at risk of becoming so.

– Offer recommendations to Trinity based on feedback from schools, Artsmark assessors and trainers to make the application process as simple as possible without compromising quality.

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18. Funding

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18.1 The Bridge vision During our consultation for this report, cuts in funding and the potential effect of this on the provision of arts and cultural opportunities for children and young people was a recurring theme. We know that realising the ambitions of the Bridge is dependent on a well resourced cultural sector and making the case for more money being spent on work with children and young people.

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18.2 What people are telling us The focus groups conducted throughout the region looked at existing and potential funding streams for arts and cultural activity and the box below gives a comprehensive list of the sources identified.

There was consensus that those providing cultural education need to look more closely at mixed economy models and public/private partnerships. The role social enterprise can play in building sustainable businesses in the current economic climate was acknowledged which could offer greater independence, sustainability and flexibility.

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Ideas for the support the Bridge could give in accessing funding streams were: – Help and expertise in bid writing. Capacity building so that key people become expert in writing successful bids and are more entrepreneurial in their work.

– Help arts & cultural organisations identify investment opportunities through raising awareness of what is available through e-bulletin communication.

– Start to bring together consortia from across all sectors – arts organisation to youth centre to local authority – so these groups can bid for funds as a whole entity. Build the foundation of activity and then find funds for it, not the other way around.

– Build awareness across all sectors so each sector knows more about each other’s needs, barriers and visions are.

– Match make between organisations and groups. Provide the opportunity for arts and cultural organisations to pair up and build relationships – laying the foundations for future funding bids together. Develop mutual support and advice between them.

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– Be an advocate for work with children and young people in the North West and promote this with major funders. Give them the sense of “We want to be part of this movement”.

– Act as more than just the conduit to relationship building between sectors but actively play a role throughout the process, advising on next and new directions and be an access point for support as a bid is submitted by groups / consortia.

– Generate business funding through CSR .This is a very new area for a lot of organisations. How does a private funder decide where to make their investment?

They need a broker. The Bridge could speak to big companies who will listen. They could accept a large donation and trickle that down to lots of smaller projects.

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18.3 The Bridge response There is a clear role for the Bridge to advocate for work with children and young people to major funders, promote commission readiness, offer training and support around fundraising and look at opportunities for the sector to diversify its funding. We will support arts and cultural organisations, schools and other key partners to access the money needed to give children and young people the arts and cultural provision they deserve.

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18.4 Bridge approach Communicate with large funders to make them aware of the Bridge’s role in the North West.

Identify and develop partnerships and consortia that could facilitate co-ordinated bids for funding or sponsorship.

Capacity build the sector through help with bid writing and development of fundraising strategies, especially with ‘grass roots’ organisations.

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What funding streams are available in the region? Ideas gathered from focus groups – Philanthropy - Role of philanthropists is becoming increasingly as significant, the government is attempting to encourage more philanthropic giving. Projects involving children and young people are very attractive to businesses wanting to be philanthropic.

– Sponsorship from industry & corporate social responsibility. Projects involving children and young people are popular with business looking at ways to connect with a corporate social responsibility agenda.

– Charitable trusts - could the Bridge have strategic level discussions with big funders like Children in Need and Comic Relief about strategic projects and multi partner cross region delivery?

– Consortia: Matchmaking and leading consortia to bid for larger programmes – Health sector partners – By contributing to Health and Wellbeing agendas

18. Funding

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Private sector – eg. Housing LA commissioning arms length services LA funding Lottery Funding – Awards for All / Heritage/ Reaching communities ACE – Grants for the Arts / Capital Funding / strategic touring / Catalyst Venue and trader fees Revenue from admissions/ticket sales Memberships and/or subscriptions Selling service skills of the sector e.g. expertise in technology or social media, show production, firework displays, equipment hire Community Foundations Political members can have very small discretionary amounts to give- £3K each for example

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19. Threats for the Bridge

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This section is designed to acknowledge the potential threats the Bridge faces in delivering its remit successfully across the North West. Here we have reproduced the potential threats identified in the regional focus groups. These are being considered alongside our activity planning so we can mitigate against them as much as possible. We will work to manage expectations and provide clarity around what the Bridge is and isn’t here to do. The responses have been grouped under four main headings - geography, communication and attitudes, capacity and funding and are summarised below.

Geography – Is the North West region too geographically large for this work – will the offer be diluted and therefore not bring about any real change?

– Size and diversity of the region threatens local knowledge – is there a need for sub regional officers?

– Will the number of arts organisations in the region make it difficult to co-ordinate a strategy?

– Are the different sub regional agendas too diverse? Is there an assumption one size fits all?

– Complex geography

19. Threats for the Bridge

– Urban deprivation and rural isolation – Localism – young people themselves very locally focused and not interested in the bigger world – Some museums are very building/collections focused which can mean a lack of opportunities to collaborate – can be parochial in focus – Diverse population-deprivation both rural and urban – Focusing on the regions rather than just the cities

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Communication and attitudes – Is the concept of a bridge tokenistic? – Without much project money how can you do and not just talk?

– Managing expectations – Arts organisations – initiative overload and cynicism – Single site museums and non Renaissance local authority services know little of Curious Minds and Arts Council – Many organisations closing, there is a perception that you’re ok and not really doing anything – Knowledge base – painting wrong picture – reinventing the wheel rather than building the car!

– Default to former ways of working / existing partnerships

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– Lack of “buy in” from organisations – Fear factor of small organisations – Confusing children and young people – two different audiences – High hopes, - for new funding streams – School /non school balance and approach – Focus too much on local authorities at expense of wide network of organisations – Lack of knowledge – other agencies have a lack of knowledge about how the arts could be used by them and how we work together

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Capacity – Do arts organisations and schools have the capacity to make this work without funding?

– Does the arts sector have buy in to this agenda?

– How can anyone offer an holistic offer for all 0-19 year olds? The needs of this age group couldn’t be more diverse.

– Is there a conflict between the commitment to collaboration and the very real competitiveness for funding and audiences currently facing arts and cultural organisations?

– The lack of long term commitment from the government threatens buy in as three years won’t solve the long term issues – Stretched too far, is it too big?

– Not fully understanding that equality doesn’t mean equal (danger of being spread too thin and only the most vocal heard and everyone wanting a piece of pie) – Timescale – Longevity of programme – capacity of programme – Fewer organisations to offer services

19. Threats for the Bridge

State of the Region

Funding – There is an expectation to build on the outcomes of Find Your Talent – it was only in 2 areas and we haven’t got the money they had!

– The arts infrastructure is fading away and key partners are disappearing – Arts and culture are already falling off schools agendas – Funding climate devolved, localised and potent fragmented – so orgs have to demonstrate they offer and prioritise needs of audience and participation, and plan and develop projects in partnership – Climate for arts organisations due to funding cuts or / and cuts in staffing results in reduced levels of outreach.

– Everyone has less money, young people, families, schools, arts orgs and local authorities– is it an empty offer? How can we magic provision where there is none?

Can’t replace an organisation like Prescap – Family budget constraints – Being seen as a support agency to cultural organisations full stop, not just for work around children and young people – Managing expectations

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20. Advocacy

State of the Region

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20.1 The Bridge vision

We don’t share enough about what we do or what it is possible for us to do.

Right across the North West we have seen, heard and ourselves provided fantastic examples of rich arts and cultural provision for children and young people.

Many young people are benefiting from a rich and sustainable creative education and amazing work for, with and by children and young people is taking place.

It is the Bridge’s role to ensure that this work is profiled, promoted and embraced right across the North West and beyond. The ambition of the Bridge is that by April 2015 the North West is known as ‘the home for the best arts and culture for and by children and young people’.

Where creative education takes place in our schools it is with the highest quality artists and arts organisations and our children and young people are surrounded by and celebrating great art for everyone.

20. Advocacy

State of the Region

20.2 What people are telling us During our consultations the main suggestions for focus were to build a head of political steam and campaign for the benefits of creative education.

Education It was strongly suggested that there is a significant role for the Bridge to play in engaging the active support of the education sector and lobbying for educational investment in arts and culture for children and young people. The evidence and expertise is here in the region and there is a belief that arts, culture and creativity can survive within the new Ofsted framework. As an advocate the Bridge can encourage schools to continue to embrace creativity in education. There is a need for strong case studies and ‘case stories’ to demonstrate evidence of impact and the Bridge, along with many other providers in the region, have these already. These should be used to get the message out there that it can be done, it should be done and the Bridge is there to help make it happen. The Bridge wants to develop a coordinated campaign with Arts Council and other Bridge organisations lobbying political leaders to ensure the importance of arts and culture and education is recognised and celebrated.

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Advocates and patrons Strong advocates are always needed to ensure a movement has real connection to the general public and funders.

The Bridge can play a central role in gathering active and engaging advocates for arts and culture.

These advocates shouldn’t just be celebrities or actors, they should be the everyman and woman as well. The great head teacher, the young person going places, the community hub managers making a difference to their community all offer a personal story. This is one approach to engaging people, showing that arts and culture really can make a significant difference to people and their communities.

20. Advocacy

State of the Region

Championing the Arts and Cultural Education A report on the riots in England in summer 2011 highlighted the need for the Bridge and those working with children and young people to work with the media to share positive news stories about the great things young people are doing in the arts through arts organisations, schools and communities.

It also suggested that organisations like the Bridge should take a lead in using Twitter, social networks and e-bulletins to share such stories. Positive publicity and advocacy about young people and their achievements helps combat negativity in press coverage.

The press coverage of the riots revealed much negative stereotyping of young people by the media, and missing from all media reports during and in the immediate aftermath of the riots was the voice of young people who did not agree with the actions of the rioters. Only through pressure from arts and cultural organisations and certain media professionals did the national and regional press start to publish positive young people stories.

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Culture can make a very real contribution to improving outcomes for children and young people and contributing to wider agendas around community cohesion, economic prosperity, and health and wellbeing. It is important for the Bridge to explore ways to prove this impact and work with others to evaluate programmes effectively and rigorously.

Many emphasised the importance of capturing and disseminating persuasive evidence of the value and impact of culture. Making the case for further long term investment in arts and cultural education through improving evidence based practice needs to be a collective effort. Supporting arts and cultural organisations to do this well and then disseminating good examples is a key role for the Bridge.

20. Advocacy

State of the Region

As a region we need to spotlight excellent practice and interesting partnerships which successfully engage and consult the hardest to reach groups in the region. We need to highlight tangible examples where young people’s voice has actually made changes which have resulted in increased access for other young people.

It is also important to promote campaigns involving and led by young people, harnessing social networking media so young people can advocate to their peers, their own stories of the difference arts, culture and creativity has made to their lives.

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20.3 The Bridge response A key role for the Bridge is to champion the role arts and culture can play on improving educational and wellbeing outcomes for children and young people and demonstrating the impact high quality programmes have on other key agendas. That said, we aren’t a lobbying group; our advocacy role is not political but is about changing the hearts of minds of those people that don’t yet see or understand the transformational power of cultural education and participatory arts. We know from past experience of delivering collaborative programmes across the region that seeing is believing and with this in mind we want to capture evidence as we can to share it widely with key decision makers at national, regional, local and home (family) levels.

Although the Bridge is new, what we are championing is not; we acknowledge that a vast amount of evidence and expertise exists from both the near and distant past and we want to draw on this for learning as well as from the programmes that are being delivered now.

20. Advocacy

State of the Region

20.4 Bridge priorities for year one: – We will champion the North West as a region which strives to ensure that all children and young people have the opportunity to experience the richness of arts and culture.

– The Bridge will evidence and profile examples of excellent programmes, including from the past, to inform planning and attract additional investment.

– We will work with others to evaluate and celebrate the impact arts and cultural programmes have on children, young people, their families, the communities they live in and the creative and cultural industries.

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Thanks

State of the Region

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State of the Region

We would like to thank the following people from across the North West who took part in this consultation.

(People listed took part in consultations from July 2011 - March 2012 and job titles are correct at point of consultation.)

Cheshire Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Position / Organisation

Adam Holloway Adrian Sumner

Business Director, Cheshire Dance Creative Economy Officer, Cheshire West and Chester Council Music Service Leader, Cheshire West Norton Priory Museum & Gardens Programme Manager, Chester Performs Cheshire East Council Cheshire West and Chester Council Dewa Roman Experience, Chester Arts Development Team Leader, Halton Borough Council Operations Manager and Head of Performing and Visual Arts, Conway Centre General Manager, Chester Festivals Ltd National Waterways Museum

Janey Moran

Senior Arts Officer, Warrington Borough Council Cheshire Rural Touring Network Senior Arts Officer, Cheshire East Council Axis Arts Centre General Manager, Action Transport Theatre Nantwich Museum Cheshire West and Chester Learning Development Officer, Grosvenor Museum, Chester Arts Development Officer (Lead: Children & Young People) Cheshire West Council Visual Arts Officer, Halton Borough Council Public Art Officer, Warrington Borough Council

Alison Corten Allison Kirk Amber Knipe Anne Sheman Caroline Backhouse Christine Turner Claire Bigley Debbie Cottam Emily Brogden Helen Evans

Thanks

Jen Henry Jocelyn McMillan Jodie Gibson Karen Parry Kate Dobson Kate Harland Laura Orchard Louise Hesketh Louise Mor

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Name

Position / Organisation

Martin Cox Nicola Preston Sarah Clover Schools

Music Officer, Halton MBC Chester Cathedral Director, Action Transport Theatre Dorin Park School, A Specialist SEN College Cronton C.E. Primary School Mid Cheshire College St Martin’s Catholic Primary Ormiston & Bolingbroke Academy Palacefields Academy Arts Officer (Children and Young People), Cheshire East Council Artistic Director, Minerva Arts Youth Theatre Director of Learning, Halton Borough Council Lyceum Youth Theatre

Sian Rourke Steph Brocken Steve Nyakatawa Young Peoples Consultation

Thanks

CYCES, a school for young people with EBD, run by The Together Trust

State of the Region

Cumbria Name

Position / Organisation

Alex Jakob-Whitworth Arts Award Advisor Ali McCaw Lead Artist, Prism Arts Ann Singleton Cumbria County Council, Library Services for Schools Manager Anne Wilson Whitewood & Fleming Beverly Morgan Partnership Development and Participation Team Manager, Cumbria County Council Catherine Coulthard Director, Prism Arts Cherrie Trelogan Policy Officer, Cumbria County Council Deb Holden Senior Librarian and YP lead, Cumbria County Council Debby Akam Artist Denise Alexander Director, Creative Futures Cumbria Fliss Pocock The Old Laundry Theatre Gill Sharp John Ruskin School Gordon Watson Chief Executive, Lakeland Arts Trust Hayley Skipper Forestry Commission England Helen Hepworth Armathwaite Primary School Helen Moffitt Brewery Arts Centre Jan Shorrock Kendal Arts International Jeff Cowton Curator, The Wordsworth Trust Jill Shorrocks Kendal Arts International John Hall Octopus Judith Whittaker St Cuthberts Primary, Windermere Jules Wooding Tullie House Museum

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Name

Position / Organisation

Julie O’Connor Julie Tait Karen Thompson Kath Pigdon Laura Ferguson Linda Dean Linda Smith Mike Conefrey

Dowdales School Kendal Arts International (Lakes Alive) Carnegie Theatre & Arts Centre William Howard School Lakeland Arts Trust Cambridge Primary / Trustee Blackford CE Primary School 6-19+ Planning & Commissioning Manager, Cumbria County Council North Lakes Primary School Milburn Primary School Inspira (Connexions) Samuel King’s School Queen Elizabeth School Prom Art, Grange over Sands Appleby Grammar School Soundwave Cumbria Solway Community Technology College Artistic Director, Whitewood & Fleming The Brewery, Kendal Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Creative Futures, Cumbria St Patricks C.E. School, Endmoor

Mike Pincombe Nancy Lees Nichola Jackson Pat Cuthbertson Peter Hooper Robert Leach Samantha Bell Sarah Allison School Tim Fleming Trisha Gordon Vega Brennan Viv West Young Peoples Consultation

Thanks

North Lakes School

State of the Region

Lancashire Name

Position / Organisation

Andy White Ben Hunt Beverley Chapelhow Buzz Bury Celine Wyatt Cerys Smye-Rumsby

Blackpool Music Service Chief Executive, Prescap Freelance artist Freelancer and Arts Award Trainer Grand Theatre Blackpool District Children’s Trust, West Lancashire Arts and Events Officer, Wyre Borough Council Astley Hall and Arts Officer, Chorley Borough Council Lancashire Museums Service Education Director, Mid-Pennine Arts ArtPad Education Officer, Harris Museum & Art Gallery Ludus Dance Programme Manager for Creative Learning, Mid Pennine Arts Lancashire Sinfonietta Lancashire Museums Service Hyndburn Borough Council Blackpool council Young Lancashire Creative Learning Director, Dukes Theatre

Chris Wyatt Christopher Bryan David Brookhouse David Smith Dawn Beedell Dawn Worthington Di Cumming Dr Steph Hawke Fiona Sinclair Gail Bailey Gail Knight Glenn Mascord Graham Whalley Guy Christiansen

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Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Position / Organisation

Hannah Robertshaw Heather Pitman

Ludus Dance Senior Children & YP’s Development Manager, Cultural Services, Lancashire County Council Horse + Bamboo Theatre Burnley Borough Council INTACT Ingol and Tanterton Community Trust Groundwork Lancashire West and Wigan Towneley Hall Art Gallery & Museums Engine Rooms / Forward Motion Arts CIC Outreach and Education officer, Chapel Gallery, Lancashire Borough Council Storey Gallery Rose Theatre Arts Development Officer, Ribble Valley Borough Council Freelance artist Education Officer, Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool Arts Development Manager, The ACE Centre Advisory Headteacher at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council Helmshore Mills Textile Museum

Lucy Carlton Walker

Assistant Learning Officer, Harris Museum Bradley Primary School Burnley Youth Theatre The Arts Partnership Creative Director, Mid-Pennine Arts Blaze / In situ More Music Freelance artist Arts Service Manager, Blackburn BC, Creativity Works Business Director, Mid-Pennine Arts Culturepedia / Somewhereto_ Blaze Tor View Community Special School Educational Diversity Morecambe Road West Lancashire College, Skelmersdale Castercliff Community Primary School Pilling St John’s C.E. School St John’s Primary School Cedars Infant school Palatine Sports College KEQMS Devonshire Primary School Darwen Vale High School Highfield Humanities College

Helen Jackson Helen Jones Iain Mackie Jacqueline Mutch Jacqueline Simm James Furnell Jenni Ashcroft John Angus June Gibbons Katherine Rogers Keith Parkinson Kerry Hunt Kirsty Rose Liz Beaumont Louise Jacobsson

Thanks

State of the Region

Mandy Greenwood Mandy Precious Michelle Graham Nick Hunt Paul Hartley Peter Moser Pippa Pixley Rebecca Johnson Rob Carder Rob Howell Sara Domville Schools

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Name

Position / Organisation

Stephen Blackburn Stephen Irwin Stuart Parsons Sue Flowers Sue Latimer

The Grand at Clitheroe Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery Lancashire Libraries Service Green Close Programmes Manager, Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston Arts Award trainer, Prescap Blessed Trinity High School, Burnley The Hollins Technology College, Hyndburn Burnley Youth Theatre Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School

Teresa East Young Peoples Consultation

Greater Manchester Name

Position / Organisation

Amanda Dalton

Associate Director, Education, Royal Exchange Theatre Salford Heritage Services, Salford Museum & Art Gallery and Ordsall Hall Principal Arts Officer, Salford City Council Whitworth Art Gallery Gallery Oldham The Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, The University of Manchester Arts Manager, Oldham MBC Artistic Directors, Company Chameleon Spearfish Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum Chief Executive, Manchester Camerata The Bridgewater Hall Visitor Programmes Manager, Imperial War Museum People’s History Museum Director, Manchester Literature Festival

Amy Whitehead Andrea Bushell Andrew Vaughan Anna Sims Anne-Marie Nugnes Annie O’Neill Anthony Missen Ben Read Bob Bonner Bob Riley Bryony Bell Camilla Southall Catherine O’Donnell Cathy Bolton

Thanks

State of the Region

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Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Ceri Horrocks

Heritage Development Manager, Learning, Salford Museum and Art Gallery Imperial War Museum North Royal Exchange Theatre Greater Manchester Police Museum & Archives Peshkar Productions The Fusilier Museum Contact Theatre Director, The Met National Football Museum WFA, Media and Culture Centre Contact Theatre Whalley Range All Stars Early Years Coordinator, Manchester Museums Chinese Arts Centre Young writer and member of Young Identity, Commonword Cartwheel Arts Head of Learning & Interpretation, Whitworth Art Gallery CEO, The Citadel Executive Director, Royal Exchange Theatre RNCM Bolton Council

Gerard Booth Gillian Sherwood

Charlotte Smith Chris Wright Claire Claire Platt Daniel Jessop Danny Fahey David Agnew Denise Lambert Director Ed Cox Edward Taylor Elaine Bates Elizabeth Wewiora Elmi Ali Emma Melling Esme Ward Fay Lamb Fiona Gasper Fiona Stuart Gemma Morris

Thanks

State of the Region

Position / Organisation

Director of Music, Oldham MBC Community Development Manager, The Lowry Helen Jones Octagon Theatre Trust Limited Holly Marland RNCM Ian Morley Head of Interpretation and Learning, Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester Jackie Malcolm Future Everything CIC Jane Da Silva Performing Arts Manager, The Lowry Jennifer Cleary Manchester International Festival Jeremy Michelson Manchester Jewish Museum Jill Hughes MAD theatre company Jim Johnson Director & CEO, Peshkar Jo Ward Culture and Innovation Manager, Stockport Council Joanne Davies Manchester Art Gallery Jonathan Poole CAT Manager, Centre for Advanced Training, The Lowry Joy Thorpe Gallery Oldham Karen Vine Link4Life Arts & Heritage Service, Touchstones Rochdale Katie Donlon The John Rylands Library Katy Archer Director, People’s History Museum, Manchester Kevin Edward Turner Artistic Directors, Company Chameleon

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Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Position / Organisation

Kevin Moore Liam McCormick

Director, National Football Museum Education Officer, Royal Exchange Theatre Learning Officer, People’s History Museum Head of Activ8, Bolton Octagon Chief Executive, Zion Arts Centre Producer, Walk The Plank Learning Team Manager, Bolton Museum Learning Development Manager, Manchester City Galleries (Renaissance) Participation and Learning Manager, The Lowry Producer (Broadcast Project & Young People’s Programme) Cornerhouse New Writing Coordinator, Commonword Wigan Borough Council, Leisure and Culture Trust Wigan Pier Theatre Company, Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust BBC Philharmonic Turnpike Gallery The Manchester Museum

Michael Simpson

Head of Visual Arts & Engagement, The Lowry Arts Development Officer, Bolton Council Youth Dance, The Lowry Manchester Camerata Strategic Development Team, Culture and Leisure, Salford City Council Young writer and founder member of Young Identity, Commonword Executive Director, Culture, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust Head of Culture, Tourism and Venues, Stockport Council Saddleworth Museum & Art Gallery Artistic Director, Commonword Arts Development Officer, Oldham MBC MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) Artistic Director, Quarantine Oldham Coliseum Theatre Arts Award Advisor, Manchester MaD theatre Company Arts & Cultural Development Officer, Trafford Council

Lisa Gillen Lisa O’Neill Liz O’Neill Liz Pugh Louise Bienkowski Louise Sutherland Lynsey Merrick Marisa Draper Martin De Mello Martin Green Martin Green Martin Maris Martyn Lucas Menaka Munro

Thanks

State of the Region

Mindee Hutchinson Natalie Davies Nick Ponsillo Nick Thompson Nicole May Pete Gascoigne Peter Ashworth Peter Fox Peter Kalu Rachel Wood Rebecca Leese Richard Gregory Richard Hall Richard Shaw Rob Lees Robina Sheikh

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Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Position / Organisation

Ronan Brindley

Principal Manager, Learning, Manchester Art Gallery Arts Award Advisor, Manchester Library Theatre Company, Cornerhouse Deputy Head of Service, Tameside Youth Offending Team Arts Business Officer, Bury Art Gallery and Museum Bury Transport Museum New Media Outreach Coordinator, Let’s Go Global, Trafford Council Programme and Engagement Director, Cornerhouse Lancasterian school New Bridge School Ladywood Special School Chatsworth High School & Community College Walmsley C.E. Primary School St Clement’s C.E. Primary School Mauldeth Rd Primary School Greenbank Preparatory The Albion High School Saddlesworth School King David Primary School St Paul’s Catholic High School

Schools

Loreto College The Manchester College Chorlton high school Freelance consultant Director of Young Identity, Commonword TIPP Director of Music, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester Education Director, The Halle DIY Theatre Company Inner City Music Ltd (Band on the Wall) And Brighter Sounds Learning and Development Director, Brighter Sound Tameside Museums and Galleries Service Zion Arts Centre Wigan Leisure & Culture Trust Bury Metropolitan Arts Association Peshkar, YP Group

Rosarie Walsh Rosie Stuart Sally Dicken Sarah Evans Sarah Kerrison Sarah McLoughlin Sarah Perks Schools

Thanks

State of the Region

Sheni Ravji-Smith Shirley May Simon Rudding Stephen Threlfall Steve Pickett Sue Caudle Tim Chatterton Tina Redford Tracy Webster Vicky Clarke Victoria Fletcher Victoria Robinson Young Peoples Consultation Yvonne Heywood Zoe Higgens Consortium

Zion Young Performers Ladywood Special School Cultural Strategy, Team Leader for Regeneration, Manchester City Council Manchester Libraries

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State of the Region

Merseyside Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Alicia Smith

Arts & Participation Manager, Liverpool City Council Floral Pavilion Assistant Head Teacher, Upton Hall School, Wirral Collective Encounters FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Techology) Williamson Tunnels The Bluecoat Liverpool Biennial Of Contemporary Art Executive Director, Education, Communities & Visitors, National Museums Liverpool Wirral Youth Theatre / Youth Arts, Universal Youth Support Services, Wirral MBC Arts Development Manager, St Helens MBC The Reader Organisation Port Sunlight Museum & Garden Village Thinking Film Ltd The Windows Project Programme Manager: Children & Young People, Tate Liverpool

Dr Jeremy Sleith

Alistair Armit Ann Spiers Anna Jones Anna kronenburg Barbara Price Bec Fearon Carol Ramsey Carol Rogers Caron Drucker Cath Shea Chris Catterall Clarinda Fidler Danny Kilbride Dave Ward Deborah Riding

Thanks

Position / Organisation

Head of Music Services, St Helens MBC Elaine Caldwell Project Manager, Liverpool & Manchester Design Initiative Emma Bush Create The Change Emma Lloyd Sefton Council Francesca George Partnership Co-ordinator, Liverpool Biennial Of Contemporary Art Gary Begusch Archbishop Beck School, Liverpool Gary Everett Festival Director, Homotopia Graham Whitfield Aspire Trust Helen Robinson Head of Communities, National Museums Liverpool Jackson Kavanagh As Creatives Jo McGuire Engagement Manager, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council Jo Stokes As Creatives Jonathan Dickson Head of Service, Liverpool Music Support Service Julia Samuels Co-Artistic Director, 20 Stories High Kirsty Hall Victoria Gallery and Museum Louise Flooks Participation Coordinator, Unity Theatre Company Louise Latter Young People’s Coordinator, FACT Madeline Heneghan Festival Director, Writing On The Wall Mandy Redvers-Rowe Collective Encounters

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Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Position / Organisation

Mark Parkinson

Acting Deputy Director, Children’s Services, Wirral MBC Fuse Theatre Lead Educational Transformational Officer, Liverpool City Council Africa Oye Limited Executive Director, Learning, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society Hope Street Limited Senior Youth Worker, Integrated Youth & Play Business Unit, Liverpool City Council Consultant in partnerships with the Cultural Sector, Liverpool Primary Care Trust Milap Festival Trust CEO, DaDa Disability and Deaf Arts The Black-e Young People Coordinator, DaDa Disability and Deaf Arts The Reader Organisation Everyman and Playhouse Theatres

Sarah O’Donoghue School

Liverpool Cathedral Huyton Arts and Sports College Oldershaw School Ormiston Bollingbroke Academy De La Salle School West Kirby Residential School Childwall C.E. Primary School Wade Deacon High School Hope School Wallasey School Development Director, Liverpool & Manchester Design Initiative Barnardos Action with Young Carers YPAS (Young people’s Advisory service) Young Tate Holly Lodge Secondary School Much Woolton Primary School Pagoda Youth Orchestra, Arts and Projects Development Officer Knowsley Arts Service

Michael Quirke Mick Daley Paul Duhaney Peter Garden Peter Ward Phil Windever Polly Moseley Prashant Nayak Ruth Gould Sally Morris Sam Wade Samantha Shipman Sarah Lovell

Thanks

State of the Region

Tanya Bryan Young Peoples Consultation

Zi Lan Liao Zoe Fagg

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State of the Region

Pan-Regional Name

Position / Organisation

Name

Anne-Marie Crowther Barbara Slack Caz Brader Chloe Whitehead

PANDA Highlights Rural Touring Scheme UFA and Arts Award Trainer Director, Proper Job Theatre company Youth Music Full Circle Arts Community Arts North West Arts & Business Director, Arts for Health Impact England CEO, North West Regional Youth Work Unit (NWRYWU) Regional Development Manager NW, Children England

Ginny Scholey Heather Walker Jeremy Glover Lou Llewellyn Naomi Whitman Paul Herrmann

Chris Spriggs Chrissy Hammond Cilla Baynes Claire Barlow-Orton Clive Parkinson Dennis Davis Elizabeth Harding Gill Middleton

Thanks

Position / Organisation

Arts Award Moderator Impact England OnSide North West freelance Arts Award Trainer Development Worker, CPAL Director, Redeye, The Photography Network Rob Jackson Chair, Children England NW & Assistant Director, The Children’s Society Rosie Marcus Programme Director, CAPE UK Ruth Churchill-Dower Early Arts Shila Fletcher National Trust Viv Tyler Manager, Business in the Arts: North West

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