Skip page header and navigation

Quality principles

The aim of the quality principles work is to raise the standard of work being produced by, with and for children and young people.

Seven quality principles have been developed as a result of close collaboration between the Arts Council England and arts and cultural organisations that work with children and young people.

The seven quality principles are:

  1. Striving for excellence and innovation 
  2. Being authentic
  3. Being exciting, inspiring and engaging
  4. Ensuring a positive and inclusive experience
  5. Actively involving children and young people
  6. Enabling personal progression
  7. Developing belonging and ownership

The Arts Council England commissioned two organisations; the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and Shared Intelligence to do real world testing of the principles in 2014. 

The testing was wide ranging. Fifty-one lead organisations tested the principles, working with 800 partner organisations and involving almost 9,500 children and young people.

Arts and cultural organisations found a variety of innovative, flexible and creative ways to test the quality principles. Some organisations devised ways to capture feedback from children and young people, and others encouraged children and young people to evaluate their experiences.

Research findings from the work can be found in the Using Quality Principles in work for, by and with Children and Young People report, which you can download and read below.

The Arts Council will now work closely with the sector to integrate the quality principles into work by, with and for children and young people.

Quality and the quality principles are also core to local Cultural Education Partnerships. As the NFER and Shared Intelligence report shows, cultural organisations working in partnership the capacity to deliver quality of provision, and that cultural education partnerships have added value to cultural programmes; enriching and diversifying cultural expertise and experiences.