Partnership Investment – Call for Local Cultural Education Partnerships Between 2019 and 2022 Festival Bridge will invest £500,000 towards the Cultural Education Challenge in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Peterborough. Partnership Investment is designed to attract and secure new sources of money not traditionally spent on arts and culture for children and young people. Partnership Investment can only be released by securing at least 100% match investment. Each of the existing 9 Local Cultural Education Partnerships in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Peterborough & Suffolk is eligible to put forward a proposal for £25,000 of Partnership Investment. The process for putting forward a proposal towards this allocation of £225,000 is outlined in the below. Further Partnership Investment will support the delivery of the Cultural Education Challenge in the area through two further funds:
Creating Regional Impact - £200,000 Creating National Impact - £75,000
Eligible Local Cultural Education Partnerships for this Partnership Investment Local Cultural Education Partnerships provide a place based approach to enhancing the cultural education offer for the children and young people in that place. Across New Anglia there are currently 9 Local Cultural Education Partnerships eligible for this opportunity.
Enjoy: Great Yarmouth Heart of East Anglia, serving West and Mid-Suffolk Ipswich Local Cultural Education Partnership PEACH (King’s Lynn and West Norfolk) Lowestoft Rising My Cambridge Norwich 2040 Local Cultural Education Partnership PHACE (Peterborough) Young Fenland Cultural Consortium
These partnerships are guided by Arts Council England’s Cultural Education Challenge and are supported by the work of Festival Bridge. This document outlines how Local Cultural Education Partnerships can put forward proposals for Partnership Investment.
What is Partnership Investment? As a part of their funding agreement with Arts Council England, Festival Bridge allocates 25% of the Arts Council England funding to Partnership Investment. Partnership Investment aims to attract and secure new sources of money not traditionally spent on arts and culture for children and young people in the Local Cultural Education Partnership areas. Arts Council England has produced the following statement to detail the scope of Partnership Investment: The Arts Council expects that Partnership Investment will support the strategic development of Local Education Partnerships as a priority focus wherever possible. This may include resource to support capacity, planning or evaluation of LCEP progress. Investment outside of this scope will only be agreed in exceptional circumstances. Our ambition is that LCEP areas will continue to grow and thrive over the next four years and we consider Partnership Investment to be central to this success. Partnership Investment must not be used to facilitate programme delivery, it is not an alternative to project grants and the Arts Council will not support the approval of applications where this is the case. Our ambition is that Partnership Investment will support local areas to create new financial sustainability for cultural education. Therefore at least 100% match funding must be sourced from alternative non-arts income. This cannot include Lottery funding or support in kind. Bridge Organisations will support LCEP partners to develop their cultural education offer locally and will be able to advise on how Partnership Investment can support their strategic development and future sustainability. Key Criteria
Investment can only be released at a minimum of £1 for each £1 invested. Our ambition is that applicants achieve match at a higher ratio. The minimum amount that can be invested is £25,000. Investments must support the strategic development of a Local Cultural Education Partnership Co-investors must be strategic not delivery partners Match cannot be from Arts Council, Lottery or be support in-kind
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Priorities for Partnership Investment Festival Bridge prioritises Partnership Investment that:
Demonstrates co-creation between sectors and/or young people and cultural education providers. If not in the development of the proposal, co-creation must be realised through the outcomes of the proposed investment Provides quality assurance for outputs, particularly through the use of Artsmark, Arts Award and the Quality Principles for work with Children & Young People Contributes to the Festival Bridge R&D priorities: a. Early Years Cultural Education b. Skills Development c. Wellbeing d. Digital e. Proving impact of cultural education f. Children and young people’s voice Enables new partnerships and / or new ways of working Supports sustainable and resilient organisations creating a return or longer term gain for children and young people
There is a strong interest in using Partnership Investment alongside different models of finance such as enterprise investment or social investment activity, which might increase the sustained impact of the investment.
Area Priorities and Decision Making To ensure the greatest impact for Partnership Investment we have aligned to three sub-regional stakeholder groups. We intend for Partnership Investment to align to the aims of the relevant stakeholder groups ambitions. As part of the decision making process for these funds we will seek the views of stakeholders responsible for these strategies, we call these as Local Stakeholder Reference Groups. Across this Bridge area these are:
Cambridgeshire: Cambridgeshire Culture Norfolk & Suffolk: the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership Culture Board Working Group for Cultural Education Peterborough: Peterborough City Council’s Cultural Strategy
Cambridgeshire: Cambridgeshire Culture Cambridgeshire Culture (CC) and Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) recognises the particular value and transformational power of culture for children and young people and our communities as a whole and that participation in cultural activities helps to shape their identities, the places where they live and their contribution to society. CCC is a champion for all children and young people. It also has a statutory responsibility to ensure they have access to opportunities and the facilities and resources required to enjoy and achieve throughout childhood and subsequently as part of adult lives in their communities. Needs (evidence sources referenced in brackets) Cultural Education Provision across Cambridgeshire is variable in quality and opportunity (Needs Analysis from Cultural Education Partnerships, Taking Part Data, Music Hub Audit, Artsmark participation) 3
The Social Mobility, aspiration and progression routes within the county are poor in some places and cultural engagement can assist with this. (Social Mobility Index/DfE) Access to opportunities in locations are limited by the current cultural infrastructure. (Asset maps/City Culture) There are opportunities to increase reach and access making use of digital capability which should be explored. (Connecting Cambridgeshire, National schemes) There is a lack of Arts Development capacity across the County. (Local authority data) Mental Health & well-being is supported through cultural engagement and provision needs to be developed further. (Joint Needs Assessment/Fullscope group)
Cambridgeshire Culture Aims Supporting schools and settings to provide a broad spectrum of high quality cultural opportunities, curriculum provision and self-development for children and young adults aged 0-25 yrs as identified under Cambridgeshire School Improvement Board (CSIB), CCC and Arts Council of England (ACE) objectives. Enabling communities to have access to cultural education experiences beyond education institutions to support their community resilience and people’s creative engagement in the place where live. (CCC, ACE, City and District Councils) Encourage cultural education that guards local heritage and traditions and supports new forms of creativity. Develop appropriate location-based access and use the opportunities provided by technology to connect existing and new communities (CCC, ACE) Recognise and develop the mechanisms to promote the social and well-being benefits of cultural engagement as part of strategies beyond education and culture. (CCC, ACE) Provide a mechanism for high level strategic development across the county involving partners both internal and external to the Council. Norfolk & Suffolk: The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership Culture Board New Anglia LEP Cultural Board was created specifically to work with the LEP and to play a clear role in contributing to the LEP’s strategies for growth. We have fashioned a new approach to culturally driven growth in the region which will increase ambition and collaboration with our creative, business, tourism, education and public sector partners. The Culture Board has the following objectives outlined in detail in Culture Drives Growth: Objective 1: Accelerating Creative Job Growth Objective 2: Scaling Cultural and Creative Investment Objective 3: Backing Creative Talent Objective 4: Increase Cultural & Creative Diversity Objective 5: Building and inspiring place to live, work, visit and invest Objective 6: Broadening International Engagement The working group for cultural education The members of this working group bring together key stakeholders from cultural education in the New Anglia region. Members of the working group have significant reach, influence and networks in formal and informal learning and cultural provision. The working group has the following purposes: Adopting and promoting the Arts Council England Cultural Education Challenge ensuring it is meaningful for all children and young people in Norfolk and Suffolk Responding to the priority objectives identified in the ‘Culture Drives Growth’ strategy and New Anglia Cultural Sector Skills Plan by encouraging local networks of sector professionals to collaborate 4
Share information and intelligence regarding the challenges and needs of children and young people across the area Supporting Local Cultural Education Partnerships (Local Cultural Education Partnerships including identifying opportunities for collaboration between partnerships). Maximising the impact and reach of Partnership Investment funds in accordance with the Festival Bridge Partnership Investment plan ensuring partnership agreements are in place with partner organisations Facilitating connections between localities and relevant regional activity Facilitating connections between cultural education and other county, regional and/or national programmes, strategies
The New Anglia Culture Board Working Group for Cultural Education recognises that the benefits of a broad and rich cultural education are well understood, yet access is not equal across the New Anglia area. We intend to redress this by delivering the following headline aims:
Access for all: Tackling the barriers to participation and engagement across socioeconomic and other demographic divides (Culture Drives Growth Objective 4) Progression: Ensuring the opportunity to progress in a cultural interest or creative career is available and accessible to all children and young people (Culture Drives Growth Objective 3) Joined up and meaningful offers: Ensuring those working in cultural education have the support, advice and investment required to be resilient and grow their offer (Culture Drives Growth Objective 2) Wider benefits are realised: Ensure cultural education makes the fullest possible contribution to improving the region’s quality of life by impacting positively on education, health and well-being (Culture Drives Growth Objective 5)
Peterborough: Peterborough City Council’s Cultural Strategy / Culture Board A new culture board for Peterborough is being developed. As this is likely to begin work at some point in the delivery of this fund, we will update this guidance as soon as possible. Until that point Festival Bridge will ask colleagues at Peterborough City Council / the Combined Authority to advise on decisions. Peterborough’s Culture Strategy runs from 2015-2020. It’s vision is: To bring local, regional, national and international interest in, and acclaim for, the city’s cultural offer based on the variety and quality of the inspiring experiences it offers. One city – many communities. Priorities: To further increase participation in and enjoyment of cultural activities and celebrate our diversity – culture, connecting and reflecting our communities. To attract, develop, promote, retain talent, including developing the local creative economy, complementing the city’s growth. To create places and spaces for culture – using the public spaces and our green open spaces to ensure there are ‘places to go and things to do’.
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How to invest with us We have designed a process that is light touch for those looking to invest, whilst open to scrutiny from the sector partners to ensure we realise the best opportunities for impact. The process for requesting investment is described below. The process is as follows: 1. Proposal submitted to Festival Bridge 2. Festival Bridge assess proposal 3. Assessments reviewed by Festival Bridge Committee & Arts Council England Relationship Manager 4. Assessment reviewed by ‘Local Stakeholder Reference Group’ 5. Recommendation reviewed / approved by Arts Council England Area Management Team 6. Lead partner informed of decision Decisions will be made against the following criteria: Source of Partnership Investment How well investment meets the aims of Local Cultural Education Partnership(s) involved How well investment builds capacity of the Local Cultural Education Partnership How well the proposal meets wider aims of Festival Bridge How well the proposal meets the aims of the key local strategies referenced above Who can submit a proposal? A single Local Cultural Education Partnership (as listed above) represented by a lead applicant from a constituted organisation A collaboration of the Local Cultural Education Partnerships listed above represented by a lead applicant from a constituted organisation When to submit a proposal? Proposals are welcome at any time before the final closing date of 30th July 2021. Activity proposals, including reporting, must be complete by 31st March 2022. The fund will close as soon as funds have been allocated which is likely to be before the final closing date. Proposals will be reviewed on a rolling basis. The intention is to respond to proposals quickly but due to the scrutiny required this may take some time. Proposers should expect a reply within 12 weeks from the date of their proposal being received by Festival Bridge. We recognise that having confirmed investment may enable the Local Cultural Education Partnerships to negotiate with third parties about investment opportunities. As such, it is possible to submit a proposal before Partnership Investment is secured but it is expected that the proposal will contain, at the very least, a clear intention as to where investment will be secured from. Investment will not be released by Festival Bridge until the minimum £1 for each £1 match is secured. Evaluation and monitoring will be agreed with each investment based on the proposal, however as a minimum partners will be expected to provide an end of project report detailing the finances and how agreed objectives have been achieved, including the impact of the investment on improving outcomes for children & young people. Before submitting a proposal we encourage all LCEPs to contact Festival Bridge. 6