Arts Council England response to Civil Society Strategy Consultation May 2018

About Arts Council EnglandArts Council England is the national development agency for the arts, museums and libraries in England. Our mission is 'great art and culture for everyone' and we work to achieve this by championing, developing and investing in arts and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives.

Overview4. We interpret civil society as inclusive of all those outside of the public sector, who share the mission of building a stronger society and improving lives, regardless of traditional sector boundaries such as charity or private and for profit or not. What are the advantages of using this interpretation in developing this Strategy?

Arts and culture can play a strong role in supporting civil society. Engaging with culture enables people and communities to:

Articulate their own ambitions and aspirations and find social and cultural resources to realise them

Shape shared identities that bring people together and provide the basis for community action

Provide safe spaces and means to negotiate conflict and difference Provide opportunities for people from different backgrounds to

engage together Reduce loneliness, isolation and exclusion, and promote wellbeing

The value of arts and culture to providing resources for building civil society are therefore clear. It is, however, the nature of the culture sector that provides the opportunities to realise these benefits and at the same time create civic value.

The majority of organisations providing these cultural benefits are not within the public sector, but are charitable bodies, delivering charitable objectives.

Culture exists in and is rooted in place, and supports civic engagement within that place.

Arts organisations, museums and libraries and civic institutions in their own right. Even where they are provided directly by public bodies or through public investment they are trusted public spaces, rooted in the communities that they serve.

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Partnership 18. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are aware of in the UK or abroad, how are partnerships across sectors improving outcomes or realising new potential?

Creative People and PlacesThe Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places (CPP) is an innovative approach to local place based partnership. The CPP programme was specifically designed to bring together new and different partners to realise new potential. Each programme is led by a consortium that includes arts partners, non-arts partners, voluntary sector partners. As a national body, we use our relationships and investment to back ambitious plans across the country. We work with communities and local authorities to increase access to arts and culture and contribute to social mobility on programmes such as CPP, building supply and demand in places where people have fewer opportunities. We invest in programmes such as CPP to address disparities in the level of arts and cultural opportunities and engagement across the country, and to build supply and demand in places where people have fewer opportunities. In its first two years, CPP reached over 1 million people, 75% of whom had not engaged regularly in the arts before.

The evidence of impact as a result of the Creative People and Places approach can be seen in the evaluation http://www.creativepeopleplaces.org.uk/our-learning/year-3-ecorys-report-impact-outcomes-and-future-end-year-3.

Local Enterprise PartnershipsA number of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS) recognise the value of arts and culture to the prosperity of the places that they serve and, by their very nature, their potential to contribute to inclusive growth. Local Enterprise Partnerships are voluntary partnerships between local authorities and businesses. They have boards representing the private sector, councils, higher education and others, with a small number of officers. There are 39 throughout England. LEPs play a central role in determining local economic priorities, as well as undertaking activity to drive economic growth and create jobs in their area. They also have access to significant sources of funding. Engaging with LEPs offers opportunities for investment, a higher profile amongst key local economic decision makers and access to other partnerships. Many LEPs have put tourism and the creative industries at the heart of their plans for growth.

One example, is the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership. They have recognised tech clusters centred around Norwich’s fast-growing digital creative hub and Ipswich’s world-leading centre of innovation in communications technology at BT Adastral Park. The New Anglia LEP has sought to realise this potential through the development of a strategy for 2018 to 2022. The East is at the forefront of digital innovation, with strengths in cyber security, quantum technology, Internet of Things, UX

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design and fintech. Both Ipswich and Norwich are recognised as Tech Clusters in the Government’s Tech Nation report. Norwich hosts a vibrant cluster of digital creative businesses, and a rich ecosystem of interlocking meet-up groups catering to a range of tech and digital interests. This example demonstrates the ability of sectors across civil society to work in a mutually beneficial way to realise new potential.

Local Cultural Education PartnershipsThe Cultural Education Challenge asks art and cultural organisations, educational institutions and local authorities to come together to drive a joined-up art and cultural offer locally, to share resources and bring about a more coherent and visible delivery of cultural education through Local Cultural Education Partnerships.The Arts Council has established Local Cultural Education Partnerships to improve the alignment and outcomes of cultural education for young people, in places where this is most needed. This work is in partnership with the British Film Institute, Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

In each Cultural Education Partnership, the Bridge organisation will work with schools, the local authority, voluntary and community organisations, further and higher education, and music education hubs and funders to improve the alignment of cultural education for young people.

Partners from the pilot phase report that Local Cultural Education Partnerships have added value to cultural programmes; enriching and diversifying cultural expertise and experiences.

Most recent research May 2018 gives indication of how the LCEPs are progressing. Their work is highly localised and so reflects local priorities and outcomes for CYP. Before formation of LCEPs the sectors LCEP organisations collaborated with mostly were libraries, cultural and heritage sector and formal school settings. LCEPs are now reporting some collaboration with other sectors – health and wellbeing services (52%), children and family services, youth centres (22%), faith centres (3%), sport and leisure (2%).

By working in partnership with the cultural sector, public bodies can find new ways to support wellbeing, and combat loneliness and exclusion. This has direct health benefits, and can be supported through partnership or commissioning. There are particular ways how promoting civic value through cultural engagement can improve lives -especially for older people, and people who are experiencing mental health challenges.

Finding way to support health and wellbeing

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Arts Council England is actively engaged with health and wellbeing agenda, to realise new potential outcomes through arts and culture.

Increasing engagement with the arts and culture across the population can be a means to promote good health and reduce demands on the NHS.

Between 2015 and 2018 Arts Council England invested £23m of grant in aid on organisations that wholly or partially work towards health and wellbeing.

In 2016/17 Arts Council England invested £3.8m of lottery funding in 202 individual arts projects that had health benefits.

We also invest £895k in the Cultural Commissioning programme. The key challenge is ensuing that GP practices and surgeries

understand what they can achieve through cultural initiatives, and the positive influence culture can have to combat growing issues, such as loneliness.

Arts Council England has also worked in partnership with the Baring Foundation to develop https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/celebrating-age. The programme will support cultural spaces and other organisations working collaboratively, in a partnership or as a consortium.

Social housing and social integration Social housing is in itself an expression of civic society, but there are a number of challenges associated with it. Social housing tenants sometimes experience high levels of deprivation and lack of opportunity that leave them excluded from civic society. Sometimes the prejudices of others stand in their way.

Engaging with culture is a way to ensure that those living in social housing are engaged with civic society and the life of their community, and the opportunities it presents.

Social housing providers and cultural organisations share an interest in, and commitment to, creating better places for people to live. There are numerous examples of how the two sectors have worked together, highlighting how social housing providers across the country recognise the potential of arts and culture to bring communities together by building common ground and promoting social mixing. Through community arts projects or in shared spaces, such as libraries or music venues, people of diverse backgrounds are brought together and through creativity are given the opportunity to build shared values and aspirations.

Case studies show how cultural organisations have worked together with social housing providers to create better places, and to tackle specific issues such as loneliness and social isolation, health and wellbeing, skills and training, and integration.

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20. Are there any additional factors that would enable more impactful partnerships across sectors?

Funding – National funding programmes need to enable local areas to take account of their own aspirations, challenges and opportunities as help them design appropriate solutions. It is entirely appropriate to have national programmes and funding streams, but they need to leave space for local innovation and partnerships. Governance needs to be considered within this context as well. Giving local and community interests a voice and taking account of diversity in the governance of such programmes strengthens civil society.

Youth provision 21. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are

aware of in the UK or abroad, how is collective working with or within the youth sector, supporting delivery of local provision that meets young people’s needs?

Arts Council England invests in a range of education programmes to ensure that children can access art and culture regardless of location or social circumstances.

That every child should have the chance to experience the arts is one of Arts Council England’s five goals.

Over 80% of our NPOs offer opportunities for young people to engage with culture.

Since 2012, the Department for Education and the Arts Council England have invested £267 million in music and cultural education.

Engaging young people in governanceEngaging young people in governance is an effective way of ensuring that provision meets the needs of a community. At the Roundhouse in London they believe that listening to young people is only the starting point. Taking what young people say seriously means that they can then work with young people, not just for them. The Roundhouse believes that a board of trustees should be representative of the people it serves.

The Roundhouse has been recruiting young trustees to the board annually since 2005, putting them at the heart of their decision making, and they want to encourage other arts organisations to follow suit. Not only does it make good business sense, but it provides brilliant opportunities for young people to lead early on in their careers.

The Roundhouse created a Youth Governance Guide in partnership with Arts Council England which outlines the impact that organisations can achieve by bringing young trustees around the table. It includes practical tips on how to prepare a board, how to build a talent pool, support young trustees and how to overcome potential challenges along the way.

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The Roundhouse firmly believes that any cultural organisation that wishes to shake things up, foster progressive attitudes and remain relevant must include young people in its decision-making progress. By involving young people in decision making processes, the Roundhouse is supporting the delivery that directly responds to and supports their needs.

Saturday ClubsA partnership (major funding partners are the Arts Council England and the Department for Education) with the UK’s leading universities, colleges and cultural institutions, the National Saturday Club offers programmes of expert tuition in four subject areas to 13–16-year olds, for free. There are Saturday Clubs in Art and Design; Fashion and Business; Science and Engineering; and Writing and Talking, and each runs for up to 30 weeks across the academic year, using the specialist facilities of its location. The clubs are particularly important, as the funding for creative subjects continues to be limited within schools.

Club programmes are tailored individually by tutors and all designed to encourage exploration and spark creativity. As part of their activities, Club Members take part in Masterclasses with leading industry professionals, come together for an inspirational visit to London, and show their work in a major public exhibition at Somerset House.

The National Saturday Club network is wide-reaching and continually developing. All its participants – Club Members, tutors, student assistants and industry professionals – benefit from being connected and able to share knowledge and best practice. Past and current partners credit Saturday Clubs with helping them forge better relationships with their local communities, and with being an effective means of meeting widening participation objectives.

The Saturday Clubs are an example of collective working across different sectors of society to support the delivery of a provision that meets young people’s needs.

2015-2016 Club Members stated that:-67% felt more confident at the end of their year-64% said their Club helped them progress in the subject at school-60% said joining a Saturday Club made them more likely to go to college or university-66% knew more about careers in their Club subjects

Music Education Hubs are made up of groups of organisations working together in partnership. The partnerships include both music and youth organisations who all have an interesting in supporting the lives of young people in local areas. There are a number of examples of how this is working:

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Essex Music Education Hub has worked with Youth Services and the Essex Youth Assembly to develop a two-day festival, ‘Sounds of Essex,’ to celebrate young people’s musical learning and to promote positive mental health and wellbeing.  

Surrey Music Education Hub’s programme, ‘I speak music’, brings together professionals and community groups who work with, or have an interest in supporting newly arrived and vulnerable young people (for example young asylum seekers, young refugees, young people who have been trafficked to UK) through the arts and music.

Bristol Music Education Hub has received funding from Youth Music to develop its ‘Ambition for inclusion excellence’ which brings together partners to transform the musical education for children greatest need, such as children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability, Looked After Children and Children from Traveller Communities.

Youth Music funds many projects that are partnerships between musicians and the youth sector.  For example, The Crib in London was funded to run the Five O Band, which brings together police officers and ‘at-risk’ young people to form a band together with the aim of improving relationships between young people and police officers.

Summer Arts Colleges, managed by Unitas, provide intensive courses for young people who are on Detention and Training order with the aim of reintegrating young people into education, training and employment. Unitas offer a structured programme of art, music, dance, drama, photography and creative writing. Since 2007 this programme has engaged with 3000 CYP.

22. Are there any additional changes that would enable stronger collaboration and more cross sector partnerships to support young people?

A recognition by partners that they have a civic responsibility to the places where they are based to work with and for local communities.

Ensuring that partners understand the needs of young people and respond effectively to these

That young people are involved in the governance of organisations working with children and young people and involved in the management and delivery of activity.  

Sharing of ideas and practice.

26. Reflecting on your own experience, or examples you are aware of in the UK or abroad, what does an effective pool of funding and financing as well as income opportunities for the voluntary and community sector look like?

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Catalyst funding programmeThe Arts Council England has supported the Catalyst Evolve programme, as an effective funding opportunity for the arts and culture sector. This programme supported organisations with a limited track record in fundraising to enable them to attract more private giving. It did this by supporting organisations that had recently started fundraising to achieve step change in their ability to earn philanthropic income. Donations and philanthropy will never replace public-funding shortfalls. However, they are an important source of support for organisations to explore to reduce their financial risk and help them become more resilient.

The programme offered match funding to incentivise philanthropic giving; invests in the skills, capacity and culture of organisations to better enable them to raise philanthropic income; and philanthropic income could be in the form of major gifts, trusts and foundations, corporate donations, sponsorship and individual giving. Increasingly important are smaller, regular-giving programmes, which can provide organisations with a predictable and regular source of income.

From the 305 eligible applications, 140 projects were successful and collectively received a total of £17.5 million through the Catalyst Evolve programme. 

Successful projects included:-The Bureau of Silly Ideas was awarded £150,000 as lead in a consortium also including Red Herring and KP Projects (Bicycle Ballet). The funding allowed the organisations to invest in the development of their corporate and social profiles, fundraising skills, strategies and capacities in order to encourage more varied income sources and significantly enhance their continued resilience and sustainability.-Based in South Bristol, from where it supports individuals and communities to get the most out of digital technologies, music, media and the arts, Knowle West Media Centre is deeply rooted in its local community.  This funding helped to expand their donor base and develop fruitful relationships with individual givers, private trusts, foundations and corporates so the organisation could invest more resources in the production of high-quality art and cultural experiences, particularly for young people.-Evolve helped Project Art Works (PAW) significantly increase its capacity to fundraise, supporting the team to develop new relationships with trusts and foundations. It also supported them to expand recent philanthropic work with individuals and businesses. The investment provided PAW with the resources to explore additional collaborations with academia, creating new revenue opportunities for the future.-Unity Theatre Company in Liverpool was been awarded £133,900 which helped it to deliver an ambitious and exciting creative fundraising programme additional to its current activity. The theatre tested a range of methods of income generation, building upon its recent experience of fundraising for their capital project, including establishing a number of

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point of sale and regular giving schemes with the aim of increasing and complementing its philanthropic income.-Two of England’s regional development agencies for literature joined forces to take a new approach to securing investment from trusts, foundations and sponsorship. Through a focused programme of training and research, Writing West Midlands and Writing East Midlands increased their fundraising so they can create more opportunities for people of all ages to be inspired by the written word.

Highlights of the Catalyst Evolve programme were evaluated as: Designing a compelling and innovative case for support Developing a mission and vision led fundraising strategy Identifying fundraising assets Developing fit-for-purpose governance Establishing a culture of fundraising within the organisation Understanding donor motivations Using consistent and effective messaging Deploying a tailored approach to relationship management

 Features of effective pool funding

Clear pathways for distinct stages of business maturity from start up or concept development, to pilot and scaling, as well as ongoing delivery.  There are also some examples in the ‘tech for good’ sector, like the Nominet Trust. Additionally, some stronger or more mature organisations could take a leadership role in supporting early stage ideas, like the Te Papa Tongarewa innovation accelerator in New Zealand. 

Speedy and efficient transitions for these various stages, for example securing follow on funding and investment for successfully piloted models can take time and is inadequately funded.  Pre-accelerator and accelerator models provide help in staging the ask, and an Accelerator Academy model for the voluntary and community sector would be helpful. 

Trustworthy brokerage between advisers, intermediaries and finance providers. With increasing growth and diversification in funding and finance solutions there needs to be solid support for determining the best match for the organisation’s needs at that time.   

Opportunities for, and active intervention to support, blended finance solutions.  Although there is a lot of current work (e.g. between Big Lottery/Key Fund and others who work together), from an outside or new entrant perspective it is still hard to make sense of where to start. 

Support services which speak to the specific needs of the sector. For example, acting on deficiencies in skills, mindset changes and technology capabilities 

Plans for building and protecting future pipelines, for example in relation to technology; millennial and youth engagement in civil

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society; responding to ‘consumer’ behaviour; and demands such as co-creation and democracy.

Differentiated approach for organisations with more assets (especially tangible assets such as building based organisations); those with a trading track record; and those which have more limited assets to deploy for growth (such as agencies or service organisations). These small, but potentially more agile, organisations are in danger of being left behind. 

27. Where is there the potential for changes to the funding and financing environment to better support the work of the voluntary and community sector, for example increasing the use of new models of funding, use of technology and/or changes to current funding practice?

We would highlight the following potential changes to the funding and financing environment to better support the work of the voluntary and community sector:

Reducing, where possible, short-term service commitments in favour of longer term agreements. This will enable organisations to create credible growth and delivery plans that are more attractive to social investors. 

Increasing proactive brokerage and sign posting between finance seekers and finance providers. There could, for example, be more of the ‘invest for good’ pitching events used by the technology sector. This could also extend to matching organisations to business partners who can help build and grow enterprise experience and mindsets with an organisation. 

Improving distribution of information about how to navigate and select a route to finance that is organisationally appropriate. With increasing diversification, this is getting harder and there is still an obvious lack of understanding as to what types of finance are best suited to what type of need. For example, project delivery (where there is a rationale for a one-off intervention), as opposed to scaling impact or funding transitional change to a new business model. 

Better mapping of the pathways from early stage to scale and the support and finance mechanisms available during and between these stages.

Provision of greater support for skills and knowledge development in priority areas of: evidence gathering and presentation; risk management; governance changes; managing a more diverse finance function with material differences in impacts on cashflow; balance sheet and annual profit and loss. Also includes better awareness raising particularly through case studies of what good solutions can look like e.g. East Street Art Hostel Leeds. 

Continue to encourage individual investment and giving through tax incentives, particularly at the lower level. There is an interesting Folk2Folk model encouraging use of ISA’s. Many

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organisations in this sector are very small, so setting EIS or Arts Impact Fund deals at £150k is too high a financial threshold, as it would materially de-stabilise organisations.   

28. Which of the following factors are the most important in strengthening the funding and financing environment in the future? (Please rank up to three choices in order of importance, with 1 as the most important, 2 as the second most important and 3 as the third most important)  

___3___ Making it easier to bring together civil society with potential funders  ___2___ More skills training for civil society  ____1__ Raising awareness of new funding models – awareness of what is available but also what is good finance for what type of organisational need and an understanding of what organisational change is required to make those models work in practice. 

New investment models Over recent years, a range of new and innovative models have developed to fund investment into addressing social challenges. These have included the rise of venture philanthropy*, social investment, and the development of social enterprises* and mission-led businesses that are able to fund their activities through revenue generation. Increasingly, there has been growing interest in social impact in the mainstream financial services industry.

31. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are aware of in the UK or abroad, how are new investment models unlocking new potential and partnerships?

The UK arts and culture sector is beginning to think seriously about social investment & social enterprise. However, examples tend to be early adopters or pioneers, and this mindset is a long way from mainstream thinking.   

Non-profits generating ‘profit’ to reinvest in their own mission through broadening their trading. Examples include East Street Arts Leeds and Green Rooms in Haringey. They are using building assets to generate revenue with blended finance. 

Government and private giving combined, seen at the Spacehive blended model, as well as Crowdfunding in London and Plymouth. 

Organisations supporting their own sector’s innovation. This is seen at Te Papa Tongarewa’s accelerator model in New Zealand, called Mahuki https://www.mahuki.org/how-it-works/our-challenges or at SELCO in India http://www.selco-india.com/selco_innovations.html. 

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Innovation through community ownership. This is driven by hyper local skills and appetite. An example includes Bovey Paradiso, a community shares offer in the South West.  

Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Management and Innovation programme - https://aim.bloomberg.org/. By invitation only, selected organizations are being offered unrestricted support — roughly 10 percent of their annual operating budgets — in addition to arts-management training. That includes a consulting mentor for each organization and a series of seminars for all grantees in each city on topics such as fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and board development.

Social impact bonds do have some potential, but awareness and understanding is currently very low.  Many mainstream arts organisations have a challenging time understanding how this could apply to them. Arts organisations, as well as health, justice, and education organisations could benefit from good support around how to broker these relationships. An Arts Impact Bond for the education sector or youth skills training, given the squeeze on arts in the curriculum could be interesting avenue to explore.  

There is also interesting potential to be harnessed through arts and academic relationships to unlock more investment, which that could be either commercial or social. There have recently been interesting conversations taking place between icentrum (Birmingham Innovation Campus) and Anisa Haghdadi (of Beatfreeks) to explore means of building arts and technology capability. 

The Arts Impact FundThe Arts Impact Fund, launched by Arts Council England in 2015, in partnership with Nesta, The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. It is a £7 million initiative set up to demonstrate the potential for impact investment in arts. The fund provides repayable finance to arts organisations with ambitions to grow, achieve great artistic quality and have a further positive impact on society.

This fund reflects the fact that arts play an essential role in our everyday lives, our cultural identity and our economy. They inspire, challenge and educate us. For the business sector, the arts create economic growth, job opportunities and valuable income for our communities. And there are shining examples of how arts organisations can touch the lives of people and help tackle some of the most entrenched social problems.

We want to invest for artistic, social and financial return. We focus on both artistic and other social outcomes in order to promote the wider positive impact art has on society and support more organisations to benefit individuals and communities through their work.

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By investing in the arts, we want to support more organisations to become enterprising and resilient. We want arts organisations to see impact investment as another route to sustainability and achieving their goals. By demonstrating how ambitious organisations can grow and have greater impact using unsecured loans, we want to attract more impact capital to the arts to benefit the wider sector.

Repayable finance in the arts and cultureA recent Nesta report which evaluates the Arts Impact Fund to date, (‘Repayable finance in the arts and culture sector’ March 2018), states that there is likely to be at least £309 million of demand for repayable finance in arts, culture. The report outlines the importance of continuing to plan for the future. We need to build a social investment ecosystem bringing both sustainability and resilience to the arts and cultural sector, and vibrant and uplifting investment opportunities to social investors of all descriptions. However, social investment is not intended to be a panacea. Repayable finance will never replace grant funding – some projects and programmes, and even organisations, are not designed to be sustainable or self-funding, cannot be reimagined to attract consistent revenue streams, and will need to be subsidised in perpetuity. There are opportunities for arts organisations to invest capital and make a return. The purpose of Arts Impact Fund loans is to allow organisations to do this, and this makes financial sense for everybody where the realised return is above the cost of the loan. Whilst we believe that repayable finance will not be an appropriate tool for all organisations, the proportion of the sector interested in and excited about the opportunity to invest in their own resilience will grow.

32. Where is there the greatest potential for the future development of investment models for civil society?

Arts and social impact investmentsArts and social impact investments need to be further investigated at the smaller end of the scale. The impacts would not necessarily be huge in terms of percentage economic contribution, but the mindset and organisational shifts that underpin success would be very significant for the long term. There is scope for the sector to use technology to underpin the switch from hyper-local impact, to national or global impact (e.g. transference of a quality product/service/solution from one place to somewhere else via digital platform). This needs more research and development, as well as formal testing. There is also more research to do on exploiting non-building based assets within social investment opportunities. 

 Community sharesCommunity shares could be embraced more by the arts and culture sector. This is not currently an easy route for existing organisations

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because of their constitutional set up mainly as companies limited by guarantee and registered charities. For new organisations, or quasi new organisations being established as an independent entity coming out of local government control, there is potential to be thinking about using community shares. 

Responsible business

36. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are aware of in the UK or abroad, how are businesses unlocking new partnerships and potential within civil society? Please tell us how this is different to other types of organisations.

 Capital FundingThere are a range of businesses unlocking new partnerships and potential within civil society. The Arts Council England Capital Programme saw some interesting collaborations between contractors and arts organisations when novel solutions were needed.  This example from Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (http://advisor.museumsandheritage.com/features/ikon-gallery-light-bulb-moment-lighting-design-entrepreneurship/?utm_source=Cultural+Digital&utm_campaign=cfe18f3ce4-culturaldigital122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f5c318bb03-cfe18f3ce4-144888037) demonstrates an innovative approach to a problem, solved in partnership with business.   There has also been an interesting partnership between Soft Touch Leicester and local businesses, including Smith Partnership Solicitors. Soft Touch engage with young people with very challenging life circumstances, that the solicitors often meet at the other end of the justice system. The partnership offers the solicitors a chance to see and understand youth ‘clients’ differently, resulting in symbiotic sponsorship.

Business Improvement Districts A new report describes how Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and cultural organisations can work together to drive economic growth and help their communities thrive (https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/arts-and-culture/arts-and-culture-publications/improving-places-culture-business). It makes the case for even greater collaboration, and includes priorities for next steps as well as recommendations for BIDs, cultural organisations, and local and national authorities to help them work together more effectively.

Inquiry into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is currently engaged in a national conversation about how English civil society can flourish in a fast-changing world, and how they can unlock new partnerships and potential within civil society. The Inquiry seeks to increase awareness of the civic

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role that arts organisations play, or could play, nationally and in their communities. Through research and consultation, they want to develop understanding of what constitutes ‘next practice’ and create a movement of organisations committed to demonstrating it. This involves considering how both the nature of civil society and the context it exists in are changing fast, investigating how to maximise the positive effects of civic action and provide a guide to how to release its potential to drive positive change. The Foundation has recently released interim findings from year one of the three-year Inquiry.

Devolution/localism 40. Reflecting on your own experience or examples in the UK or

abroad, how have local people, businesses, voluntary and community organisations, and decision makers worked together successfully to break down barriers in our communities and build a common sense of shared identity, belonging and purpose?

Culture makes the greatest contribution to civil society when it is rooted in and responsive to places and the people who live, work and visit there.

It can contribute to solving specific challenges relating to civil society that have a place dimension (e.g. integration, wellbeing, loneliness and mental health) as well as supporting other civic institutions such as social housing. Culture can help inclusive growth. E.g. tourism is seen as a low wage, low skill seasonal activity – whereas promoting culture tourism supports the growth of high skill, high wage productive jobs – strengthening opportunity in a local economy and promoting inclusion.

Libraries’ role as a civil society anchor also has a contribution to inclusive growth. The British Library Intellectual Property Centre supports small businesses in communities which find themselves cut off from economic opportunity by making its services available through the public library network.

Increasingly places take place-wide approaches to culture, and use this to revive their civic life. Civil society has benefitted hugely from the European Capital and UK City of Culture competitions. Liverpool 08’s impact is being felt a decade on. In Hull in 2017 a huge volunteering programme was a highlight of the year. Hull’s civil society institutions, like the Goodwin Trust, were as much involved in the 2017 programme as much as the cultural sector. The Goodwin Trust have been vital to spreading cultural opportunity to the city and region as a whole.

Other places have taken this whole place approach. Cultural partnerships are key players in civil society in Bristol (Bristol Cultural Development Partnership), Plymouth (Plymouth Culture Board), and

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Liverpool (LARC). Such partnerships also exist in rural areas, e.g. Create Gloucestershire, who have worked closely with the NHS and have been commissioned to provide health and wellbeing support through arts.

Community hubs provide a vital location for physical, face-to-face social mixing outside workplaces, schools and homes. This helps to address loneliness, break down barriers and improve trust between people from different backgrounds and with different life experiences.

Creative People and PlacesThe Creative People and Places programme suggests that enabling communities to come together around a purpose, and celebrating what they share and have in common, rather than highlighting their differences, empowers the people involved and gives them a greater sense of belonging in their community. Funding for the project is given specifically to consortia, including representatives from community groups, alongside arts and cultural organisations to ensure that the final project is collaborative, and allows local people to shape the art and experiences they want to see in their area. One Creative People and Places project put on a Polish theatre performance to engage the local Polish community. This proved highly successful in encouraging participation among a group that had previously held back from engaging in local arts activities, and led to more Polish people participating alongside people from other communities in other Creative People and Places project events in the area.

Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme is specifically designed to bring together a wide range of partners to deliver arts activity in some of the currently least engaged places in England. Central to the programme is the desire to give the public a voice in shaping the activity and to respond to the priorities identified by the communities themselves. A three-year meta evaluation of the programme shows substantial increases in engagement levels and significant breaking down of barriers in terms of arts and cultural engagement. There is additional evidence of impact with regard to social capital as well as health and wellbeing.

Specific examples include: Work around identity and belonging from the work of Appetite

Stoke (work with refugees, asylum seekers, mental health groups). Creative Black Country with their work around diaspora

communities and the desi pubs programme. BAIT have been doing work around social clubs.

(http://www.creativepeopleplaces.org.uk/our-impact/culture-club) as well as many other of the 21 programmes across the country.

All of the detailed evidence can be found on the Creative People and Places website http://www.creativepeopleplaces.org.uk/.

This think-piece by Chrissie Tiller unearths and explores some of the complexities and challenges of sharing power, drawing on thinking from

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Creative People and Places directors, community managers and other team members, artists and project critical friends http://www.creativepeopleplaces.org.uk/our-learning/power. The network also recently commissioned a piece of social capital which can be found here http://www.creativepeopleplaces.org.uk/our-learning/persistent-encounter.

LibrariesLibraries are a service from the cradle to the grave, free at the point of contact, giving access to all.

Libraries are widely trusted and used by many people. They can be venues for everyday formal and informal social interaction. Many are co-located with job centres, children’s centres and leisure facilities. They are often the location for programmes specifically aimed at supporting more isolated people; for example, welcoming refugees and new migrants, formal and informal English language classes, job-seeking training and giving advice to people. Libraries act as a gateway to cultural experience, allowing people to access literature and, in some cases, a wide range of art forms in a space in which they feel comfortable and safe. They also frequently include either an archive or a strong local studies collection, contributing to a sense of place and history.

The potential for libraries to play a key role in supporting integration is recognised in the Libraries’ Taskforce’s 2016-2021 strategy which sets an aim for libraries to build ‘stronger, more resilient communities’.

Libraries have positioned themselves as Community Hubs, bringing together shared services to support the community in accessing the information and services that they need. This includes things like:

Enabling payment of council tax and other council charges and application for Blue Badges.

Digital access (including Universal Credit and access to secondary school places in some areas). All Libraries now offer free Wi-Fi to members.

Access to on-line learning. Access to health information and initiatives (including Blood

Pressure testing; Healthy Living initiatives). Supporting the key aims and objectives particular to the local

authority’s plan (this could be health or digital expansion). Libraries are the biggest single adopter of the Fun Palaces

initiative (Stella Duffy) where the those in the community with a skill share their expertise with others in the community, including craft, science, music through workshops and shared activity.

Libraries usually programme activity around spike days, weeks, and months such as Black History Month, Stoptober, LGBTQ+ month. This helps to break down barriers and improves access to information, as well as foster tolerance and understanding.

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Public Libraries are centres for business and intellectual property information, advice and guidance. We are supporting the expansion of this core group with an expectation that all public library services will ultimately act as gateways to this information. Another example of libraries work in this field is The Workary, bringing entrepreneurs together in a shared space in the library to support each other and the community (www.theworkary.com).

Public services 44. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are aware

of in the UK or abroad, how have local public services successfully responded to the needs of communities?

As referenced earlier, the Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme works to create local place based partnerships from the bottom up. These partnerships respond to and reflect community needs and aspirations.

LibrariesAs already highlighted, libraries are placemakers; support local economies; and engage hard to reach members of the public. Libraries act as centres which support key groups that need support such as:

Dementia sufferers and carers (many frontline staff in libraries have been trained as Dementia Friends).

The elderly and the lonely, by providing a safe space with free access.

Perinatal Mums (report on impact of Rhyme Times on maternal mental health published April 2018).

Libraries are distributors of packs for new babies and toddlers through the Bookstart project.

Reading Groups and Shared Reading groups (where reading aloud is therapeutic) are growing increasingly popular. Arts Council England supports The Reader organisation in this work.

Those with communication and/or literacy issues. Some library services are collection points for foodbanks and

support schemes such as food in school holidays for disadvantaged members of the community.

Libraries are open to partnership working for the benefit of the community.

Libraries play an important role in facilitating social mobility and community engagement. In St Helens the library service responded to low participation in arts activities by getting the local community involved in coproducing their Arts in Libraries programme.

We invested £6m in Grants for the Arts Libraries fund to support arts and cultural projects in libraries, including the Librarian Theatre tour of Alice in Wonderland in Cambridge, Salford Libraries and Arts, and the Libraries Out Loud: SPINE Festival in Brent.

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47. Reflecting on your own experience or examples you are aware of in the UK or abroad, do you know of any public service mutuals that are unlocking new partnerships and potential? If yes, please tell us how this is different to other types of organisations.

LibrariesIn recent years we have seen a new approach to funding and partnerships for libraries. Many have been removed from direct Local Authority control, and are now part of organisations commissioned by the Local Authority to deliver library services. The libraries that are no longer under direct Local Authority control differ from traditional library services in the following ways:

Governance - they have a Chief Executive and Governing Board model, which is both operationally and fiscally accountable.

They have a much more business orientated and entrepreneurial approach. This is often accompanied by specialist staff in the areas of Business Development and Fundraising.

They more keenly recognise the value of marketing and social media to reach their intended audiences.

They are more flexible, adaptable and fleet of foot, including fewer IT restrictions; a more entrepreneurial approach to procurement; and a more innovative approach to partnership working.

They tend to be early adopters and innovators, rather than followers.

There are currently four library public service mutual models (Suffolk Libraries, Libraries Unlimited in Devon, Explore York and Inspire in Nottinghamshire). Benefits include:

Higher staff engagement and productivity. More freedom to diversify (services offered, income generation

sources and how outcomes were achieved). Freedom to use a wider range of suppliers to provide support

services more economically rather than being tied into council recharges.

Where new organisations have achieved charitable status, there is also the opportunity to unlock new sources of grants and funding which weren’t available to in-house council services.

Arts Development CompanyThe Arts Development Company was the arts development service for Dorset County Council, but spun out to in 2015 be an independent public

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service mutual.  It has successfully delivered a Service Level Agreement on behalf of Dorset County Council for the last three years (the current agreement runs up until March 2019). Within this agreement, it supports Dorset-wide arts and cultural organisations to network and share good practice. The Arts Development Company helps to connect culture to partnerships beyond the sector such as tourism, planning, education, economic development, the environment, and health and wellbeing. It encourages cultural organisations to develop new funding streams to reduce their dependency on public sector grants. In addition, it support them to measure their social and economic impact in the county. We maintain effective working relationships with all directorates in Dorset County Council including elected members, local authorities, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, the Dorset Health and Wellbeing Board and Arts Council England.

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