New arrangements for regional working
In July 2008 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced the findings of its review of regional infrastructure. For the first time, the DCMS' four key regional agencies – Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council – will have a duty to work together to jointly deliver a core set of shared priorities across the culture and sport agenda.
These priorities include:
- regional strategies
- local area agreements
- local government commitment to culture and sport
- place shaping
- LOCOG liaison on 2012 and the Cultural Olympiad
These new arrangements will enable the four agencies to continue with their existing and continuing sector specific responsibilities, but will also introduce a way of using contributions from all regional partners in a more targeted and effective way. For further information and detailed implementation plans for each region see Hodge review - new arrangements for regional working
New arts debate summary published
We recently published a new report, What people want from the arts, which provides a summary of people's views together with images and quotes from different stages of the research. In addition, we have produced supplementary guidance on the significance of the research for local government, suggesting how both officers and elected members can use the arts debate to better evidence the valuable contribution the arts can make to people’s lives.
What people want from the arts and more detailed information on the research can be found at here.
Why we work with local government
Local authorities and the Arts Council serve the same public; we believe that we can serve them better by working together. By combining our efforts we can, and do, make a greater contribution to communities than if we worked alone.
Our role in local government improvement
Our commitment to supporting the improvement of local authority cultural services is one we take seriously. We are a founding partner, and funder, of the Cultural Services Improvement Unit at the IDeA. The unit was set up in 2005 to support the cultural sector with a view to improving the services provided to the public by local government. It offers guidance and advice on improving cultural services within local government.
An improvement strategy for culture and sport
Launched at the LGA's culture, sport and tourism conference in Liverpool on 14 March 2008, A Passion for Excellence: An improvement strategy for culture and sport outlines the framework for improvement in the culture and sport sector. For progress on the delivery of this strategy see A passion for excellence: One year on. The strategy is aligned with the National Performance Framework and the National Improvement and Efficiency Strategy.
Our involvement with Local Area Agreements (LAAs)
We have a legislative ‘duty to co-operate’ with the development and delivery of Local Area Agreements (LAAs). Engagement with the arts is recognised as contributing to cohesive communities within the new performance indicator framework (NI11). We are keen to encourage the use of this indicator within LAAs and to work with Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to help them deliver their targets for increased arts engagement.
We have also produced two national datasets broken down by Local Authority area:
Artsmark: Benchmark data by top-tier Local Authority - this document contains the first published figures on Artsmark schools broken down by top-tier Local Authority area as well as regional summaries.
Arts Award: Benchmark data by top-tier Local Authority - this document contains statistics from the Young People’s Arts Awards’ first academic year in operation (up to September 2007) on the numbers of completed awards per top-tier Local Authority area and English region.
NI11
We are committed to supporting Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) who have selected NI11 as a local or negotiated target in their Local Area Agreements. This support will help these LSPs increase the percentage of the adult population that have either participated in or attended an arts activity at least three times in the past 12 months. For further information on Arts Council’s national programme of support for NI11 you can sign up to the NI11 Community of Practice at http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk
We have invested an additional £700,000 in data gathering for NI11, which will be collected via Sport England’s Active People survey between April 2008 and October 2010. From July 2009 NI11 data will be available down to district level on the Active People diagnostic at: http://www.webreport.se/apd/login.aspx
In December 2009, DCMS published NI11 interim progress on their website, based on data collected between October 2008 and October 2009.
Living places
The Arts Council is part of ‘living places’, an alliance of public bodies who believe everyone should benefit from the arts, sport, public spaces, heritage, museums, libraries and archives, the built environment and the creative industries, regardless of where they live. The aim of living places is to ensure that all communities, particularly those experiencing housing-led growth and regeneration, can benefit from cultural and sporting opportunities. By working together, the partners will ensure that culture is embedded in the development of our villages, towns and cities alongside other key areas of provision such as healthcare and transport.
Culture and sport planning toolkit
A key part of the living places offer is the Culture and sport planning toolkit. For the first time, this toolkit brings together a combination of existing and new tools to incorporate planning for culture and sport into new and existing developments. The toolkit is hosted on the living places website.
Arts, museums and new development: a standard charge approach
Working with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council we have developed a standard charge approach to arts and museums. Infrastructure planning and delivery is very important in making sure that everyone has the opportunity to experience great art. The standard charge approach explains how local authority planners can secure developer contributions for new or enhanced arts provision through new developments in an area. The work is an important part of the Culture and Sport Planning Toolkit, and is hosted on the living places website.
Sea Change
We are a partner with Sea Change, a capital grant programme that aims to drive cultural and creative regeneration and economic growth in seaside resorts. Funding is available for a range of cultural, heritage or public space projects including (but not limited to) theatres, museums, libraries, galleries, archives, outdoor performance spaces, landscapes, or projects which promote new forms of cultural engagement. Visit www.cabe.org.uk/sea-change for more information.
