A State of the Region Report commissioned by Norfolk & Norwich Festival Bridge

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A State of the Region Report commissioned by

Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge).

June 2012

1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Structure of this report ............................................................................................. 5

2. Executive Summary ....................................................................................................... 6

3. Arts Council England and the Bridge organisations ........................................................ 8

3.1 Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) Audit ............................................................... 9

3.2 Background to the Audit Process .......................................................................... 10

3.3 State of the Region Report ................................................................................... 11

4. Background information to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area ...................... 12

4.1 East of England .................................................................................................... 13

4.2 Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area .............................................................. 14

4.3 Greater Cambridge ............................................................................................... 14

4.4 Norwich ................................................................................................................ 14

4.5 Peterborough ........................................................................................................ 15

4.6 Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft ............................................................................. 15

4.7 Haven Gateway .................................................................................................... 15

4.8 North/West Norfolk and West Suffolk .................................................................... 15

4.9 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP) ..................................................................... 16

4.10 Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough ..................................................... 17

4.11 New Anglia ........................................................................................................... 18

5. Statistical data on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area .................................... 20

5.1 Population ............................................................................................................ 20

5.2 What are the key messages from Table 2? ........................................................... 21

5.3 Poverty and unemployment .................................................................................. 21

5.4 What are the key messages from Table 3? ........................................................... 22

6. County Analysis by local authority areas ....................................................................... 24

7. Cambridgeshire ............................................................................................................. 25

7.1 Statistics ............................................................................................................... 26

7.2 Service Provision .................................................................................................. 26

7.3 Background concerns from audit interviews .......................................................... 28

7.4 Schools ................................................................................................................. 31

7.5 Local authorities and their areas of responsibility .................................................. 32

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7.6 Cambridgeshire County Council ........................................................................... 33

7.7 Cambridge City Council ........................................................................................ 34

7.8 East Cambridgeshire District Council .................................................................... 35

7.9 Fenland District Council ........................................................................................ 35

7.9 Huntingdonshire District Council ........................................................................... 35

7.10 South Cambridgeshire District Council .................................................................. 36

8. Peterborough ................................................................................................................ 37

8.1 Statistics ............................................................................................................... 38



8.4 Schools ................................................................................................................. 40

8.5 Local Authority and its area of responsibility ......................................................... 40

9. Norfolk .......................................................................................................................... 42

9.1 Statistics ............................................................................................................... 42



9.4 Schools ................................................................................................................. 49


9.6 Norfolk County Council ......................................................................................... 51

9.7 Broadland District Council ..................................................................................... 52

9.8 Breckland District Council ..................................................................................... 52

9.9 Great Yarmouth Borough Council ......................................................................... 53

9.10 King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council .................................................... 53

9.11 North Norfolk District Council ................................................................................ 53

9.12 Norwich City Council ............................................................................................. 54

9.13 South Norfolk Council ........................................................................................... 54

10. Suffolk .......................................................................................................................... 55

10.1 Statistics ............................................................................................................... 56

10.2 Service provision .................................................................................................. 57


10.4 Schools ................................................................................................................. 62


10.6 Suffolk County Council ......................................................................................... 64

10.7 Babergh Borough Council ..................................................................................... 65

10.8 Forest Heath District Council ................................................................................ 65

10.9 Ipswich Borough Council ...................................................................................... 65

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10.10 Mid Suffolk District Council .................................................................................. 66

10.11 St Edmundsbury Borough Council ....................................................................... 66

10.12 Suffolk Coastal District Council ............................................................................ 66

10.13 Waveney District Council ..................................................................................... 67

11. Education, Schools and Children and Young People .................................................. 68

11.1 Education ............................................................................................................ 68

11.2 Early Years .......................................................................................................... 68

11.3 Primary and secondary education ........................................................................ 69

11.4 Primary schools and education 5-11 .................................................................... 70

11.5 Secondary schools and education 11-16 ............................................................. 70

11.6 Post – 16 education ............................................................................................. 70

11.7 Information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit .................................. 72

11.8 Arts and cultural education .................................................................................. 74

11.9 Henley – Music Education in England .................................................................. 74

11.10 Henley – Review of Cultural Education ................................................................ 76

11.11 Artsmark .............................................................................................................. 76

11.12 Artsmark information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit ................... 77

11.13 Arts Award ........................................................................................................... 78

11.14 Arts Award information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit ................ 79

11.15 Children and Young People ................................................................................. 80

11.16 Rural issues: information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit ............. 81

11.17 Opportunities for Children and Young People ...................................................... 83

11.18 Youth Services .................................................................................................... 83

12. Cultural sector – arts, museums and libraries .............................................................. 85

12.1 Arts Council England ........................................................................................... 85

12.2 National Portfolio Organisations and the bridge ................................................... 86

12.3 ACE Funding in the bridge area ........................................................................... 88

12.4 Arts organisations and provision evidence from audit .......................................... 91

12.5 Local authority funding ......................................................................................... 92

12.6 Local authority culture/arts development information from the audit ..................... 93

12.7 Museums and Libraries........................................................................................ 95

12.8 Museums ............................................................................................................. 96

12.9 Museums information from the audit .................................................................... 96

12.10 Libraries ............................................................................................................... 97

12.11 Libraries information from the audit ...................................................................... 98

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12.12 Concerns of the cultural sector as a whole in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge) area ................................................................................................................... 99

12.13 Communications ................................................................................................ 100

12.14 Sustainability of activity ...................................................................................... 101

12.15 Partnerships and networks ................................................................................ 102

12.16 Training ............................................................................................................. 103

12.17 Volunteers ......................................................................................................... 105

12.18 Disability ............................................................................................................ 105

12.19 Diversity ............................................................................................................. 106

12.20 Future activity, projects and delivery .................................................................. 107

12.21 Funding and commissioning .............................................................................. 108

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1. Introduction

This State of the Region Report has been commissioned by the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge).

Its purpose is to make information, related to its responsibilities, publicly available. The

subjects covered include:

• The cultural sector

• Local authorities

• Children, young people and their families

• Education

• Opportunities

• Needs and threats

• Facilities

The report will support the future planning and work of the bridge and will act as a

benchmark for similar reports in the future. The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) is one of

ten (and four associate) bridges across England established by Arts Council England (ACE)

as part of its National portfolio. The bridge organisations have been set up for an initial three

years.

The report was compiled during June 2012 for the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) by

Catherine M Davis.

Data in this report is historic (typically from 2009-2011). While the data will have changed in

2012 the report proceeds on the basis that the recent data has value, not least in setting out

relative values and relationships.

1.1 Structure of this report

This report is in 12 parts. Following this Introduction and the executive summary in part 2

below, the main body of the report falls into ten parts:

• Section 3 discusses the background to establishment of the Norfolk & Norwich

Festival (Bridge) and the process by which this report was prepared;

• Sections 4, 5, 6,7,8 ,9 & 10 cover background information to the Norfolk & Norwich

Festival (Bridge) area, Statistical data and County Area Analysis, Cambridgeshire,

Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk respectively

• Section 11 deals with Education, schools and children and young people; and

• Section 12 discusses the Cultural sector – arts, museums and libraries.

Appendix 1 contains detailed individual responses which contain practical information,

further contacts, opportunities and potential concerns.

Appendix 2 contains an area analysis of background concerns in relation to children and

young people and cultural opportunities or provision.

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Appendix 3 lists the names of those who contributed to the research and the organisations

they represent. It also lists the organisations who were approached during the research but

who were unable to contribute.

Appendix 4 contains tables of schools, museums, libraries, venues and festivals across the

Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area. It also includes information about museums

outside the immediate bridge area which may be of interest to schools, and others working

with children and young people, because of their proximity to some parts of the bridge area

or because of their unique offer.

2. Executive Summary

This State of the Region Report has been commissioned by the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge). The report covers the area in which the bridge operates (Cambridgeshire, Norfolk,

Suffolk and Peterborough).

The report provides information on

• The cultural sector

• Local authorities

• Children, young people and their families

• Education

• Opportunities

• Needs and threats

• Facilities

The purpose of the report is to support the future planning and work of the bridge. It will also

act as a benchmark for similar reports in the future. There are ten (and four associate)

bridges across England established by Arts Council England (ACE) for an initial three years.

The report was compiled during June 2012 by Catherine M Davis.

Data in this report is historic (typically from 2009-2011).

The main body of the report discusses the background to establishment of the Norfolk &

Norwich Festival (Bridge) and the process by which this report was prepared; provides

background information to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area, including statistical

data, deals with education, schools and children and young people; and discusses the

cultural sector – arts, museums and libraries

Separate Appendices contains detailed individual responses which contain practical

information, further contacts, opportunities and potential concerns, an area analysis of

background concerns in relation to children and young people and cultural opportunities or

provision, lists the names of those who contributed to the research and the organisations

they represent and tables of schools and cultural venues in the bridge area and beyond.

[The report is intended to provide a body of evidence: it deliberately does not seek to make

recommendations.]

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The overarching themes of the evidence presented in the report are

• Diversity - in several senses. The area contains centres of population which are

prosperous and highly educated, which have rich and varied cultural provision (and

significant support), while other urban areas can present significant challenges

associated with multiple deprivation. The bridge wide area also contains many rural

locations. These are by no means uniform either, in terms of the social and

educational challenges they face. However rural areas do typically present particular

challenges in terms of isolation, poor infrastructure, widespread perceptions that

provision is concentrated in urban centres, limited access to the arts, and poor public

transport provision, therefore making it very difficult for children and young people to

travel to where cultural opportunities are

• Educational aspiration and attainment can be low in significant parts the area

covered by the report. While (with the exception of Peterborough) the area has a

lower than English national average BME population there are still significant minority

populations, and multiple education challenges. The latter was widely commented

upon.

• The long-term sustainability of provision was also widely commented upon; and there

was evidence of some scepticism about the viability of relatively short timeframe

projects.

• Partnership working should be a major objective for the bridge. There are already

significant networks whose work could be supported, and duplication should be

avoided. The bridge needs to support this activity though good communications and

information provision alongside the high visibility and involvement of the bridge staff.

The evidence received suggested there was mixed achievement on partnership

working to date – but with considerable strength and success in some areas. The risk

is that poor networking activity leaves arts bodies, in particular, isolated and robs

them of real opportunities to work with schools or other groups.

• Underpinning all of the above is the financial resources to enable work to be initiated

or continued. For many interviewees their emphasis was how the bridge can help

them by supporting or advising on funding applications. While for ACE, in particular,

commissioning is seen as a key opportunity for the cultural sector in the long term.

The reality of people’s and organisations’ experience does not match this ambition

and much work may need to be done by the bridge working on partnership with local

authorities and others to help the sector develop the necessary expertise to access

and secure such funding.

The area contains examples of world-class quality in cultural provision and

performance, but much of the region is functionally remote from that.

The bridge faces major challenges in building on and spreading existing quality

provision in what is likely to be a very challenging public funding environment in the

foreseeable future.

This report does not provide an answer to those challenges, but it does seek to

provide a body of evidence about the area to help the bridge in its work going

forward.

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3. Arts Council England and the Bridge organisations

“Arts Council England has long supported art and arts organisations that work

with children and young people in order to improve access and increase

participation. In November 2010 Arts Council published its 10-year strategic

framework, *Achieving Great Art for Everyone, which included the goal that

‘Every child and young person should experience the richness of the arts’. This

goal has two priorities: to improve the delivery of art opportunities in a more

coherent way; and to raise the standard of art being produced for, with and by

children and young people”. (Arts Council England [ACE] website).

ACE has funded the bridges from the 1st April 2012 to help achieve the above goal. The

bridge organisations will use their ‘experience and expertise to connect children and young

people, schools and communities with art and culture’. Their activity will be supported by

bringing together a range of organisations including National portfolio organisations (NPOs),

arts organisations, museums, libraries and other cultural partners.

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) will work in the geographic area that includes the

county or unitary local authorities of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Peterborough and Suffolk.

(The other half of the East of England will be covered by the Royal Opera House (Bridge))

which will work in the geographic area that includes county or unitary local authorities of

Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Borough of Luton, Borough

of Southend on Sea, Borough of Thurrock and parts of North Kent).

The Arts Council1 has laid down the following objectives for the Bridge organisations:

• To build on the good practice already happening but also to establish a sound

evidence base. They will build and facilitate networks across the arts, culture and

education to make sure that there's an ongoing dialogue.

• To be the first point of contact for schools that are developing their arts and

cultural offer. They will help schools identify and access the right arts and cultural

opportunities, and help them bring their views into local cultural planning.

• To help National portfolio organisations and other arts and cultural

organisations, including museums and libraries, bring the cultural experiences that

they offer to more children and young people. Bridge organisations will help them to

connect with schools and to identify opportunities for new commissions.

• To help National portfolio organisations and other arts and cultural organisations to

identify investment opportunities from local authorities, local businesses, trusts

and foundations, so that they can enhance the offer they make to children,

young people and families.

1 www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/briefing_bridge_organisations_180711.pdf

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• To develop the reach of arts and cultural experiences and the numbers of

people engaging with them through Artsmark and Arts Award. They will help to

balance the need for universal access to Artsmark and Arts Award with the targeted

development of both schemes.

• To support the Arts Council's ambition to raise the quality of work for by and

with children and young people. Arts Council England will play a facilitation role,

consulting and working through National portfolio organisations and the wider sector

to develop a shared understanding of how the quality of experience for children and

young people and families can be judged.

• To support the work of the new music education hubs and National Plan for Music

Education.

The Arts Council has also said that it is not “expecting bridge organisations to directly deliver

arts and cultural opportunities for children and young people as part of their role. Bridge

funding relates just to bridge activities. Bridge organisations also receive National portfolio

funding to produce and present art. Some bridge organisations will continue to deliver arts

opportunities to children and young people as part of their core business, distinct from their

bridge role. Bridge organisations may help to deliver opportunities for children and young

people with other agencies and organisations (for example by modelling or piloting ways of

working that directly benefit other arts and cultural organisations) in order to increase the

capacity and long-term sustainability of the sector”.2

3.1 Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) Audit

To support the initial establishment of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge), and gain

understanding of the area’s activity and needs, an audit was commissioned between March

and April 2012. This research into arts and cultural provision, in relation to Children and

Young People (CYP) and their families, was also to enable the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge) to take forward its planning and work programme. The work was principally

intended to be an intelligence gathering exercise and involved potential partners from arts

organisations, local authorities, museums, library services, third sector and youth

organisations from across the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area.

That research followed part of the model developed for the Royal Opera House (Bridge) so

that the two bridge organisations, that together cover the East of England, could directly

compare their findings and pattern of activity if they chose to. The audit was a confidential

document that provided Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) with details of partners’ activity,

resources, opportunities, concerns and ambitions to help provide the bridge staff with a

starting point for their own orientation, research and planning. Opportunities and suggestions

for where the early work of the bridge might focus were also contained in the report.

Consultees were told that the bridge staff would use the findings as a basis for further

conversations, research and joint working.

2 www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/our-priorities-2011-15/children-and-young-people/bridge-

organisations

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3.2 Background to the Audit Process

To provide the platform for the information gathering, a questionnaire was drawn up based

on the information that Nicola Peacock, Director of Participation and Engagement at Norfolk

& Norwich Festival (Bridge) required. The document covered the following subjects:

• People and contacts

• Networks

• Strategic direction

• Research and consultation

• Resources and commissioning

• Children and young people

• Outside agencies

• Key messages to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

Two versions of the form were produced, one for local authorities and one for all other

organisations. These were sent out to a range of contacts in the county areas of

Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and the unitary authority of Peterborough. These

contacts included:

• Local authority arts, libraries and museum services

• National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs)

• Ex-Regularly Funded Organisations (ex-RFOs)

• Independent Museums

• Other professional arts organisations

• Youth organisations

• Cultural and Arts Trusts

• Third sector organisations

• University funded cultural providers

Schools were not directly approached as this was beyond the scope of the research, given

the time available. However, local authority colleagues provided a considerable amount of

schools and education information, which was supplemented by additional information from

websites and elsewhere. Information about schools and the educational picture was also

provided by other respondees who work closely with them, including museums, libraries and

arts organisations.

In all 117 people were approached. 31 were interviewed directly and 23 submitted

completed forms. In one or two cases the same person completed interviews for two

different organisations. Of the remaining 63, some were people who passed the form onto

more appropriate colleagues while others were too busy to respond.

Appendix 1 contains publicly available versions of those interviews. People were asked for

their permission to use them, once any confidential material had been removed. In some

cases those interviewed did not want their information made public, nor did they wish to be

quoted at any point in the State of the Region report.

Since the audit brief was set, the purpose and partners of the bridges have changed

significantly e.g. film and heritage have been added. Moreover at the time the audit was

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undertaken, the Music Education Hubs had not been announced and the applications to

Creative People and Places were being drafted.

3.3 State of the Region Report

Following the completion of the audit, ACE requested that each bridge produce a State of

the Region Report which would be publicly available. This State of the Region Report draws

on information from the audit, but also includes additional statistical information from Arts

Council England’s Cultural Education Profile Tool and LEP profile information produced by

the Office for National Statistics.

The State of the Region Report will attempt to cover the current state of play, but as the

picture in the cultural and educational sectors is a constantly evolving and dynamic process

at the moment, it will inevitably be something of a snapshot as well.

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4. Background information to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area

Unlike the other nine bridge areas which match the regional pattern, the East of England has

been split into two and is covered by two organisations. The Royal Opera House (Bridge)

covers the south of the region (but also includes parts of Kent) while Norfolk & Norwich

Festival (Bridge) covers the northern part of the East of England region.

Source: http://www.eastex.org.uk/east/

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area includes the counties of Cambridgeshire,

Norfolk and Suffolk. The unitary authority of Peterborough is also included, but it sits within

the historical county boundary of Cambridgeshire. So effectively the area covers much of

East Anglia.

However it must also be recognised that organisations and individuals do not operate within

strictly laid out administrative boundaries; instead they work with partners locally, across the

bridge area and much further afield. Schools and other organisations, who sit on the

boundary of any particular area inevitably, make use of the opportunities close to them,

wherever they are. This is particularly so in the case of museums and arts organisations who

have a unique or limited offer. Their interaction will take place with partners, audiences and

organisations from much further afield.

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4.1 East of England

The East of England was described in the Regional Economic Strategy in 2004 in the

following terms:

“The East of England is one of the largest and most diverse regions in the United Kingdom

and comprises the six counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire,

Norfolk and Suffolk. It is the second largest region in England with an area of 19,110 sq km.

Compared with other English regions there are fewer large cities and no obvious regional

capital. The region has a significant rural landscape, and is home to around a fifth of

England’s market towns. On the doorstep is London, a world city. Mainland Europe is only a

short journey away, and the region contains a number of important international gateways

and transport corridors of national significance.

As with elsewhere in the country, the demographic make-up of the region is changing with

an increasingly ageing population, especially in the coastal areas. Although the region

benefits from net in-migration, there is a significant out-migration in the 15-24 age groups.

There is also a steady growth in the region’s black and minority ethnic population, although

this population is distributed unevenly across the region and its size is below the UK

average.

The region has a significant concentration of internationally important businesses engaged in

research and development and houses over 30 of the world’s leading research centres. In

line with the trend in many western countries, there has been a clear structural change in the

UK, away from employment in manufacturing and towards employment in the service sector.

The growth of the knowledge economy is also associated with the emergence of a dual

labour market, with knowledge jobs and lower level jobs created simultaneously.

Globalisation is another major influencing factor on the future economic and social

environment within which the East of England is operating.

Globalisation of the labour market has a direct influence on employment in the region. The

region boasts a number of important transport gateways that link the region to continental

Europe and beyond. The economy of the East of England is also inextricably linked to the

economies of the neighbouring regions, nationally and internationally. The region plays an

important role in complementing and enhancing the position of London.

There is a need to ensure that the gap between wealthy and poor neighbourhoods does not

widen in the region as income inequalities between the rich and poor have tended to

increase in the developed world in the last 20 years”.

www.insighteast.org.uk/WebDocuments/Public/approved/user_9/full%20RES.pdf

While this description covered the whole of the East of England and was written before the

economic downturn, it still largely holds true and is a useful introduction Norfolk & Norwich

Festival (Bridge) area.

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4.2 Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area

More useful background information about the area is available in The East of England

Implementation Plan, which was published in February 2010. This provides additional detail

about some of the local sub-regions within the Bridge area. While this information may seem

far removed from the body of the rest of this report, it serves as a useful background briefing

before examining individual subject areas, such as population, employment, ethnicity, and

data about children and young people (CYP), in more detail later on. Much of what is said in

the East of England Implementation Plan reflects information provided by many of those

interviewed.

www.insighteast.org.uk/WebDocuments/Public/approved/user_9/East_of_England_Impleme

ntation_Plan_WEB.pdf

A full break down of the areas of need, identified in the course of the audit research, is given

in Appendix 2.

4.3 Greater Cambridge

The economic footprint covers parts of nine districts; Cambridge City, South

Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Fenland, St Edmundsbury, Forest

Heath (Uttlesford and North Hertfordshire which fall outside the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge) area). It is a centre of excellence and a world leader in higher education and

research. This has led to the attraction of world-class research institutes and science bases,

globally significant information and communications technologies and biotechnology

clusters, corporate and/or research and development functions of multi-national

corporations, and a strong presence of professional service, legal and consultancy

companies and networks. Taken with the historic character and setting of Cambridge and

the surrounding market towns, this provides an important basis for future development.

There is likely to be focus for growth in and around the built-up area of Cambridge, the new

settlement of Northstowe, market towns and other key centres.

4.4 Norwich

This vibrant city has an extensive cultural, leisure, sports and heritage offer. It has the

largest collection of heritage assets of any UK city outside of London and access to the

Broads and the Norfolk coast. The number of people working in the Norwich area makes it

the largest labour market in the East of England. Norwich is also the fifth most popular retail

centre in England. The area’s economic strengths include a diverse economic base with

existing and emerging sectoral strengths in finance and business services, a significant

cluster of creative industries in the region, food processing, environment and bioscience and

automotive engineering. Norwich supports more than 50 regional or national headquarters

and has an international reputation for research and development and higher education. The

Cities Outlook 2009 report ranked Norwich as having the UK’s fourth highest percentage of

employment in knowledge intensive businesses in the country, after Oxford, Cambridge and

Reading.

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4.5 Peterborough

This major regional centre and gateway has an influence that extends into the East Midlands

region. It has a strategic location on the national road and rail network, allowing easy access

to national and international destinations. More than 6,000 companies are located within

Peterborough, including some with their regional and international headquarters based in the

city. Peterborough and the city has experienced high levels of in-migration in recent years.

There are plans for improvements in the urban fabric and renewal of the city centre, new

housing and investment in new educational and training opportunities, including the

development of a university.

4.6 Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft

The area has significant strengths, including an attractive biodiversity, landscape and

coastline, which provide major tourism opportunities and a unique built heritage and history.

There are emerging economic catalysts in Great Yarmouth. Challenges include inadequate

road and rail connectivity to other areas and a perceived poor image, which reduces the

attractiveness of both towns for new business investment. There are high levels of

deprivation, with average earnings below both county and regional averages, and below

average percentages of the population with NVQ4 or above qualifications. Significant

numbers have no formal qualifications at all.

4.7 Haven Gateway

The sub-region is one of the key international gateways to the UK, containing the

internationally significant Haven Ports, principally Felixstowe, Harwich and Ipswich. Its

growth and infrastructure are therefore of national significance to the well-being of the

regional and national economy. Ipswich is also in the Haven Gateway. The area is also

defined by its market and coastal towns and its high-quality rural hinterland, which includes a

series of nationally and internationally important landscape and ecological designations. Skill

levels are poor. The transport infrastructure is similar to that of Great Yarmouth and

Lowestoft.

4.8 North/West Norfolk and West Suffolk

This area includes the three distinct centres of King's Lynn, Thetford and Bury St Edmunds

and their largely rural hinterlands, including the North Norfolk Coast. The area reflects the

location of a number of smaller market towns each with a rural hinterland that share some

similar challenges (although they are distinctive in their own right, for example the coastal

issues faced by places like King's Lynn or Cromer). Much of the area is rural in nature and

includes a number of high-quality protected landscapes and habitats. Agriculture and tourism

remain important sectors, even though there is a desire to move away from a low-wage

economy to higher-skilled employment.

The area also has strong functional links with the neighbouring settlements of Cambridge,

Norwich, Ipswich and Peterborough and this presents particular opportunities and

challenges.

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The past designation of King’s Lynn, Thetford and Haverhill as London over-spill towns has

left a legacy of concentrations of deprivation and a reliance on larger employers that have

been vulnerable to global economic pressures. Provision of transport is a key priority while

power supply is also a significant constraint to growth in all areas. The area has significant

natural resources important for biodiversity, recreation and tourism. The Brecks, Thetford

Forest, the Fens, the Wash and the North Norfolk Coast are regionally and internationally

important areas for wildlife conservation. Whilst small firms are prevalent in North Norfolk,

King’s Lynn has suffered from the loss of employment in larger firms.

4.9 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEP)

“Local enterprise partnerships are led by local authorities and businesses across natural

economic areas. They provide the vision, knowledge and strategic leadership needed to

drive sustainable private sector growth and job creation in their area”. Source:www.bis.gov.uk/policies/economic-development/leps

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area is covered by two LEP’s, Greater Cambridge

and Greater Peterborough and New Anglia. The bridge area borders the Hertfordshire and

South East LEPS in Royal Opera House (Bridge) area, and the Greater Lincolnshire,

Northamptonshire and South East Midlands LEP’s outside the East of England.

Table 1

Local authority LEP membership in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (bridge) area

The breakdown of LEP membership is shown below:

LEP LA (District/ Unitary) covered (spatially)

In multiple LEPs

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Cambridge 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Peterborough 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Huntingdonshire 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Fenland 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough East Cambridgeshire 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Rutland 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough South Cambridgeshire 0

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough King's Lynn and West Norfolk

1

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Forest Heath 1

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough North Hertfordshire 1

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough St Edmundsbury 1

Greater Cambridge & Greater Peterborough Uttlesford 1

New Anglia Babergh 0

New Anglia Broadland 0

New Anglia Great Yarmouth 0

New Anglia King's Lynn and West Norfolk 1

New Anglia North Norfolk 0

New Anglia St Edmundsbury 1

New Anglia Suffolk Coastal 0

New Anglia Waveney 0

17 | P a g e

LEP LA (District/ Unitary) covered (spatially)

In multiple LEPs

New Anglia Breckland 0

New Anglia Forest Heath 1

New Anglia Ipswich 0

New Anglia Mid Suffolk 0

New Anglia South Norfolk 0

New Anglia Norwich 0 1. For a LA (District/ Unitary) to be covered by a LEP either the LA (District/ Unitary) or the LA (County/ Unitary), in which the

LA (District/ Unitary) sits, must be full members of the LEP. If the LA (County/ Unitary) is a full member only the LA (District/

Unitary) stated in the LEP application are included (not the necessarily the entirety of the LA (County/ Unitary)). Therefore a list

of LA (District/ Unitary) covered by LEPs does not necessarily align with membership.

2. Those Local Authorities which are coloured in pink overlap with another LEP.

3. 37 local authorities (11 per cent) are covered by two LEPs and in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area these include:

Forest Heath, King's Lynn and West Norfolk and St Edmundsbury. Care should be taken when trying to calculate an all LEPs

total to ensure no double counting is involved. Local authorities in more than one LEP should only be included once.

www.bis.gov.uk/policies/economic-development/leps/statistics

4.10 Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough

This LEP is focused on helping to drive forward sustainable economic growth with local

business, education providers, the third sector and the public sector working together to

achieve this. The goal is to create an economy with 100,000 major businesses and create

160,000 new jobs by 2025, in an internationally significant low carbon, knowledge-based

economy balanced wherever possible with advanced manufacturing and services. The

strategic areas of focus are:

• Skills and employment

• Strategic economic vision, infrastructure, housing and planning

• Economic development and support for high growth business

• Funding, including EU funding, regional growth funding and private sector funding

The area currently has a population of 1.3 million people, which is estimated to grow to 1.5

million by 2031. The area boasts 700,000 jobs, 60,000 enterprises and generates £30 billion

per annum. However there is no mention of arts, culture, tourism, libraries, museums,

schools or education on the LEP website.

18 | P a g e

Source: www.yourlocalenterprisepartnership.co.uk

Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough includes a wide range of partners from the

following sectors:

• Local business including small business through to multi-national corporations

• Public sector which is represented by local authorities listed above and central

government departments

• Education providers from both the Further and Higher education sectors

• Third sector from volunteer groups through to social enterprises

Unfortunately the Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough LEP does not list its

members, so it is not possible to provide a list of those organisations in membership who

might be of interest to the bridge to compare with those on the New Anglia LEP list.

4.11 New Anglia

The New Anglia LEP is developing an approach to grow the Norfolk and Suffolk economy by

encouraging businesses to create jobs for the future. The two counties have similar

strengths and challenges. There are 60,000 enterprises in Suffolk and Norfolk and a

population of 1.5 million, Tourism and Energy are just two examples of major sectors which

employ significant numbers of people, bring wealth to the local economy and have the

potential to grow. However, Suffolk and Norfolk have below national average skills, poor

infrastructure and deprivation in urban, rural and coastal areas.

19 | P a g e

The LEP’s priorities are tourism, energy and business support. These offer real and

immediate potential for growth and job creation, especially for small and medium sized

enterprises.

Source: www.newanglia.co.uk

New Anglia Members, of particular interest to the bridge, include:

• Bressingham Steam Museum www.bressingham.co.uk

• City College Norwich www.ccn.ac.uk

• College of West Anglia www.cwa.ac.uk

• DanceEast www.danceeast.co.uk

• East Norfolk Sixth Form College www.enorf.ac.uk

• Easton College http://www.easton-college.ac.uk

• Lowestoft Sixth Form College www.l6fc.org

• Norfolk & Norwich Festival www.nnfestival.org.uk

• Norwich Theatre Royal www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk

• Norwich University College of the Arts www.nuca.ac.uk

• Otley College www.otleycollege.ac.uk

• Paston Sixth Form College http://www.paston.ac.uk

• University Campus Suffolk www.ucs.ac.uk/home.aspx

• University of East Anglia www.uea.ac.uk

• West Suffolk College www.westsuffolk-ac.co.uk

20 | P a g e

5. Statistical data on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area

5.1 Population

Table 2

Total 0-19 male & female population and 20+ (m&f) population by area + population

density + ethnicity + SEN, 2010

AREA 0-19 M

(,000s)

0-19 F

(,000s)

20+

M&F

(,000s)

Total

%0-19

of

total

Pop

Dens

Ethnicity-

BME

@KS4%

SEN%

Cambridgeshire 74.8 70.2 455.2 600.2 24.16% n/a 8.1 23.9

Cambridge City 13.6 13.1 92.3 119 22.44% 3089

East Cambs 10.3 9.7 62.2 82.2 24.33% 130

Fenland 10.5 10.2 68.3 89 23.26% 168

Huntingdonshire 21.9 19.7 126.1 167.7 24.81% 185

South Cambs 18.5 17.5 106.3 142.3 25.30% 162

Peterborough 23 21.9 130 174.9 25.67% 505 22.5 25.9

Norfolk 94.2 89.5 663.3 847 21.69% n/a 5.6 21.0

Broadland 13.6 12.8 95.7 122.1 21.62% 224

Breckland 14.8 14 101.2 130 22.15% 100

Great Yarmouth 10.8 10.5 76.4 97.7 21.80% 559

King’s Lynn &

West Norfolk

16.2 15.2 107.5 138.9 22.61% 101

North Norfolk 10 9.3 81.1 100.4 19.22% 105

Norwich City 14.3 14.1 110.6 139 20.43% 3677

South Norfolk 14.5 13.6 90.8 118.9 23.63% 134

Suffolk 85.9 80.7 540.8 707.4 23.55% n/a 5.3 19.8

Babergh 10.4 9.8 66.3 86.5 23.35% 144

Forest Heath 8.5 8 46.2 62.7 26.32% 170

Ipswich 15.8 14.7 95.1 125.6 24.28% 3254

Mid Suffolk 11.2 10.3 66.5 88 24.43% 109

St Edmundsbury 12.6 11.6 79.6 103.8 23.31% 159

Suffolk Coastal 14.2 13.6 96 123.8 22.46% 139

21 | P a g e

AREA 0-19 M

(,000s)

0-19 F

(,000s)

20+

M&F

(,000s)

Total

%0-19

of

total

Pop

Dens

Ethnicity-

BME

@KS4%

SEN%

Waveney 13.2 12.7 91.1 117 22.14% 317

ENGLAND 401 17.3 21.3

Notes to Table 2

Population density = persons per square kilometre; source ONS LEP Profiles

5.2 What are the key messages from Table 2?

Table 2 provides detailed population data (for males and female groups aged 0-19, all

person aged 20+, and all population) for all areas. The three county areas number between

600,000 and 850,000 people (Peterborough 175,000). The highest proportion of young

people (nearly 26%) is in Peterborough. North Norfolk has the lowest share of young people

and anecdotally (interview evidence) this is at least partly attributed to high numbers of

retirees.

The population density varies very significantly. As would be expected the County ‘towns’

have high densities; all over 3,000 per sq kilometre, and Great Yarmouth and Peterborough

are in an intermediary position at about 500. The whole area is otherwise marked by a low

population density, substantially below the English average of 401. The lowest densities are

about 100, in Breckland, King’s Lynn, North Norfolk and Mid Suffolk.

Ethnicity (BME) data shows that areas across the region have substantially lower BME

population shares than the English average of 17.3% (NB this is data sampled at KS4).

Peterborough is a strong exception, at 22.5%.

Special education needs assessment data varies marginally across the areas covered but is

broadly consistent with the English average.

5.3 Poverty and unemployment

Table 3

Youth unemployment + Poverty + unemployment + Index of Multiple Deprivation data

+ educational attainment.

Area Youth

unemployed

% Children

in poverty

%

Unemployment

Index of

mult. dep.

NVQ4+

%

Cambridgeshire

Cambridge City 23.6 16.8 5.6 15.50 50.7

East Cambs 27.7 10.9 8.8 10.41 35.8

Fenland 30.9 19.8 6.3 22.27 14.9

Huntingdonshire 26.9 11.0 6.4 10.55 28.4

South Cambs 22.8 8.0 5.1 7.11 45.3

Peterborough 27.4 24.0 9.2 25.63 22.9

22 | P a g e

Area Youth

unemployed

% Children

in poverty

%

Unemployment

Index of

mult. dep.

NVQ4+

%

Norfolk

Broadland 29.5 9.8 3.0 10.41 26.0

Breckland 29.3 14.8 7.1 15.91 17.4

Great Yarmouth 28.1 24.3 7.8 27.66 14.1

King’s Lynn &

West Norfolk

27.8 17.9 9.4 21.05 23.9

North Norfolk 27.3 16.2 3.2 19.28 24.6

Norwich City 29.9 29.6 7.7 25.65 39.1

South Norfolk 28.4 11.1 8.8 13.31 30.6

Suffolk

Babergh 27.0 11.6 3.6 12.59 23.7

Forest Heath 28.6 14.5 3.7 13.28 24.7

Ipswich 28.0 21.7 9.0 24.82 28.9

Mid Suffolk 29.0 9.2 4.8 10.23 29.0

St Edmundsbury 28.6 11.4 8.4 13.49 27.6

Suffolk Coastal 29.3 10.5 5.2 11.41 35.2

Waveney 32.4 21.2 4.4 22.08 18.8

England 26.6 20.9 7.5 19.15 31.3

Notes to table 3

Data not shown at County level.

Youth unemployment = share of JSA claimants aged 24 and under as percentage of all JSA

claimants

Children in poverty = under 16’s in low income households as percentage of all households

NVQ4+ shows percentage of persons 16-64 with NVQ level 4 and above educational

attainment.

People are counted as being qualified to level 4 or above if they have achieved a first or higher degree, National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 4 or 5, a recognised degree-level professional qualification an Higher National Certificate(HNC)/Higher National Diploma (HND) or other higher-level vocational or management qualification, a teaching or nursing qualification; or a diploma in Higher Education (HE).

5.4 What are the key messages from Table 3?

Table 3 demonstrates the diverse challenges across the areas in terms of poverty,

unemployment, deprivation and educational achievement.

Outside Cambridge and South Cambs youth unemployment rates are above the English

average of 26.6%.

Norwich City has the highest recorded relative concentration of child poverty, but Great

Yarmouth is also significantly above the national English average.

Unemployment rates vary substantially across the areas covered and can be above the

English average at the time of the survey, of 7.5%. Similarly the index of multiple deprivation

data shows significant variations above and below the English average; Great Yarmouth is,

23 | P a g e

on this count, the most deprived area in the East of England, followed by Norwich,

Peterborough, Ipswich, Fenland and Waveney.

Great Yarmouth also shows the poorest educational achievement at NVQ level 4; at 14.1%

under half the English average of 31%, closely followed by Fenland, Breckland and

Waveney. The City of Cambridge, by contrast, along with South Cambs, do exceptionally

well at 51% and 45%.

24 | P a g e

6. County Analysis by local authority areas

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) will work across four top tier local authorities. These

are the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk and the unitary authority of

Peterborough. In addition the bridge will work with five borough or district authorities in

Cambridgeshire, seven in Norfolk and seven in Suffolk. The county areas are served by two

tier local authority delivery that between them provide the full range of local authority

services. In the unitary authority of Peterborough, all the local authority services are provided

by the city council.

Increasingly what were thought of as public services in the past are now being delivered by a

wide range of providers. Examples of these include trusts (delivering cultural services) and

third sector organisations (youth services). At the same time many schools are becoming

academies and so opting out of local education authority control. In some places free

schools are being established which have no formal relationship with the local education

authority. The latter was always the case for independent schools.

This change in delivery providers and structures will continue, which will make partnership

working, in the cultural sector and beyond, increasing complex. The pattern will accelerate

over the next few years if more local authorities seek to become commissioning rather than

delivery organisations. Such trends will be further encouraged by the next Comprehensive

Spending Review in two years time, which is expected to see further reductions in local

authority budgets.

Much of this commissioned work is likely to be with non-cultural services and providers, who

want to include arts or culture in their provision. They may wish to do so because of the body

of evidence which points to the benefits of this type of engagement which other approaches

cannot match. Working with children’s services or adult services groups is already part of the

experience of many of those working in the cultural sector and has been the case a number

of years. Many of the NPOs, arts organisations, libraries and museums interviewed in the

bridge area discussed examples of this type of work. Between them they had experience of

working with, amongst others, young offenders, young prisoners, young carers, Looked After

Children and children with special needs.

Localism too may offer opportunities as budgets, decision making and services are devolved

to much more local levels. This is already apparent in the approach some library services

are taking and in South Cambridgeshire, for example, where a Parish Council is employing a

youth worker.

While complicated, this picture may offer additional opportunities to cultural organisations

across the spectrum of arts, libraries, museums and (although not part of the ACE remit)

archive services as well. However it is likely that the greatest success will be for those who

are aware of such trends and who work in partnership with a range of cultural partners both

locally and possibly further afield.

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) in its strategic lead role should be well placed to

support the sector to take advantage of these changes.

25 | P a g e

7. Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire borders Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the

east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the

west. Five District or Borough councils are included within the administrative county of

Cambridgeshire. These are Cambridge City Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council,

Fenland District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, and South Cambridgeshire

District Council. The unitary authority of Peterborough sits within the historical county

boundary as well. Peterborough will be dealt with separately in a section 8.0.

Source: www.recap.co.uk/business-waste/recycling-services-directory

Cambridgeshire is a county of contrasts. It is very rich in cultural provision in Cambridge and

South Cambridgeshire, but other areas of the county are less well served, particularly the

further north one goes. The City of Cambridge is particularly rich in opportunities as six of

the county’s seven NPOs, as well as other high quality arts organisations, are based there

alongside the Universities of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin. Cambridge University is not only

a world leader in higher education and research, but offers a wealth of cultural opportunities,

including eight museums, which are open to the public. These all have strong education and

learning programmes associated with them.

26 | P a g e

7.1 Statistics

The split described above, which is based on audit interviews, is supported by the statistical

data. For example in table 3 Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire and East Cambridgeshire

have the first, second and fourth highest levels of NVQ4+ in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge) at 50.7% , 45.3% and 35.8%. This is against an English average of 31.3 and

perhaps not terribly surprising when one considers that the University of Cambridge, its

science and research parks and associated staff and their families are in those local

authority areas. However Cambridgeshire also has the second lowest figure on this measure

in Fenland’s 14.9%. Huntingdonshire too is below the English average at 28.4%, although

this is more in line with the majority of the bridge local authority areas.

The same split can be seen in the index of multiple deprivation figures with South

Cambridgeshire’s figure of 7.11 and East Cambridgeshire’s 10.55 against Fenland’s of

22.27. The English average is 19.15. Interestingly Cambridge City is 15.50 on this measure,

and its ‘children in poverty’ figure of 16.8% is second only to Fenland’s, the highest in the

area, at 19.8% (although both of these are below the English average of 20.9%).

These figures pick up an important point and that is how people feel relatively to their local

area rather than to the much wider picture. Interviewees highlighted parts of Cambridge City

as areas of concern which had little on offer for CYP and their families. This was set against

the richness of what Cambridge has for those who are confident or affluent enough to

access it. However when compared to the lack of opportunity, infrastructure or provision

elsewhere in the bridge area it does not look so bad. For an organisation which has to take a

wider view trying to balance those demands will be a challenge for the bridge.

Fenland also has the highest youth unemployment figure at 30.9%, the second highest in the

bridge area. The figures for Cambridge City and South Cambs are 23.6% and 22.8% against

an English average of 26.6%. However in terms of adult unemployment East

Cambridgeshire has the highest figure of 8.8%, the fourth highest across the bridge area.

7.2 Service Provision

The County Council offices in Cambridge provide a base for the County Arts Development

Officer and the County Museums Development Officer. The County Music Service

successfully led on the Cambridgeshire Music Hub bid. The County Library Service had

been exploring the option of trust status, alongside other cultural providers. However this

process was halted by the Leader of the Council. The Library Service is now exploring the

option of community hubs. In the longer term, the future of some libraries may be under

threat and one possibility might be that the parishes will take them over and run them with

volunteers. Currently there are 45 static libraries while 244 villages, hamlets or other areas

are covered by mobile library service stops.

The City of Cambridge has an Arts and Events team which manages events (many of them

large scale) and venues, as well as supporting arts development. South Cambridgeshire has

an arts service partially based at the district council and partially in the village colleges

through stART’s network of five Arts Development Manger posts. This group delivers within

27 | P a g e

the village colleges and to the local community and their role includes arts development as

well.

East Cambridgeshire’s arts provision is delivered through ADEC, an independent company

limited by guarantee and a registered charity with funding from East Cambridgeshire District

Council. The quality of ADEC’s offer is very high, although the district suffers from some of

the cultural infrastructure and other problems identified in the remainder of the county

outside Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

The remainder of Cambridgeshire is much less well served in both arts services and arts

infrastructure. Fenland and Huntingdonshire districts have no arts team and apart from

museums and libraries, there is little other cultural infrastructure. These two districts were

identified as areas of great need by others in the county, as there are few opportunities for

CYP and what exists is often not of high quality. The anecdotal evidence from the interviews

is backed up for Fenland by the statistics in tables 2 and 3.

There are a range of museums across the county which include 8 University museums, 10

small museums and 10 voluntary (5 of which have education officers). They all work closely

with the County Museum Development Officer. The county has 27 accredited museums.

There are a range of cultural networks in Cambridgeshire which include Cambridge

Museums Advisory Partnership, Cultural Task Group, Cambridge Arts Network and

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Arts Development Officers Group. There is also the

Regional Learning Network for museums which is East of England wide. Unfortunately some

of those in the arts who could benefit from being part of wider networks do not seem to be

part of these. Which brings one back to the point at the beginning of the area analysis that

the county is only partially joined up and cultural provision remains partial.

In the well resourced areas the arts teams regard the bridge as someone to work with but

find it more difficult to see what the bridge can offer that is not already provided for in

Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire (although they do envisage a role for the bridge in

offering support and opportunities in Fenland and Huntingdonshire). There is some cross

border working amongst this group notably the stART Arts Development Managers (ADMs)

some of whom have links to Peterborough. ADEC works outside East Cambs (although not

in the City of Cambridge) if appropriate funding is secured, but the organisation is not in the

same position as the two local authority arts services to take on projects or partnership

working. The lack of district arts or cultural structure to link to in some areas makes is more

difficult for the County Arts Officer to work there, although of course the officer has good

links with schools and education. The latter is a key driver of the County Arts Development

Officer’s work.

Several of the arts organisations and museums are keen to widen their remit to work with

partners in Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk, but this is dependent on funding being

secured. However there are parts of Cambridgeshire that could benefit from their expertise

and high quality offer. In the long term helping these organisations embed opportunities and

provision in such areas could have a very beneficial effect on sustainability of provision.

Although Peterborough is a unitary authority, which sits outside Cambridgeshire, it too would

benefit from a similar approach in accessing others expertise. This would both be for the city

itself, which appears to need support in developing its cultural provision, and for the

28 | P a g e

residents in areas such as Fenland, as they are more likely to visit Peterborough than

Cambridge.

Key meetings in Cambridgeshire are: Cambridge Museums Advisory Partnership, Cultural

Task Group, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Arts Development Officers Group and

museums Regional Learning Network.

7.3 Background concerns from audit interviews

Table 4

Lack of provision by geographic area and factors affecting CYP and their families in

Cambridgeshire

The table below draws together comments from interviewees about the geographic areas in

Cambridgeshire where they feel there are deprivation issues or concerns about cultural

provision for CYP and their families. It also lists other factors that they felt negatively affect

CYP’s quality of life, including their engagement with cultural opportunities and problems

affecting their educational opportunities.

Area Geographical Areas and their

challenges

Factors affecting CYP and their

families

Cambridgeshire Places in need

• Fenland both the district and

the geographical area as these

are both very rural.

• North Huntingdonshire.

• East Cambridgeshire.

• Parts of Cambridge including

Chesterton and Arbury.

• Area to the east of north

Cambridge.

• Wisbech, in Fenland is one of

the most deprived bits of the

county.

• Fens.

• East Cambridge.

North Cambridge.

• Need to address lack of dance

provision in Fenland and South

Cambridgeshire.

City of Cambridge Places in need

• Wards to the north of

Cambridge are the most

deprived.

• Arbury, King’s Hedges,

Chesterton have some degree

of deprivation.

• Cherry Hinton falls into the

same category.

Concerns and challenges

• There is a lot of (housing and

population) growth in and

around Cambridge and there

is a mismatch in (service)

• Need to help CYP and their

families to feel connected to the

area that they have come to live

in.

• For young people, much provision

is available in the city centre and

not where they live, so they are

not able to access it.

• Much of the predominant art or

types of art forms in Cambridge

are not very accessible to young

people so they don’t engage with

them.

• In Cambridge a cluster of schools

29 | P a g e


challenges


families

provision between the new

neighbourhoods and the

historic centre.

• Some of the council estates

including some of the newer

estates on the outskirts of the

city and which may develop

problems in the longer term as

they do not have much in the

way of infrastructure.

• Cambridge is more than just

the university and for some

city residents the central area,

dominated by the University of

Cambridge and slightly further

out by Anglia Ruskin, can

make them feel ill at ease.

• Community centres in the

neighbourhoods are not well

geared up for the arts.

lack the resources to afford the

educational offer of the museums.

East

Cambridgeshire

Places in need

• North Huntingdonshire around

Yaxley and Ramsey.


• Rural isolation is a problem.

• Local bus services have had

another cut recently.

• This area is very rural with little

cultural provision.

• There are multiple problems of

access, experience, and

aspiration for young people in the

area.

Fenland Places in need

• Rural Fenland.

• Waterlees in Wisbech is a

notable area of deprivation

that has had considerable

resource devoted to it;

however this seems to

produce few results.


• Lacks much high quality arts

provision

• There are not many

professional artists and the

nearest open studios are

Lincolnshire and

Peterborough.

• Poor transport.

• Low aspiration.

• Poor infrastructure.

• A lot of the population don’t

• Poor education.

• Rurally isolated fenland schools.

• There are low achieving schools,

especially in Wisbech. Wisbech

Grammer is an academy. Many of

those who can afford to send their

children to private schools.

• Many young people are affected

by obesity especially those with

nothing much else to do with their

time.

• There is not enough on offer.

• There is a problem relating to

quality as well as quantity. The

quality of experience for CYP

needs improving. If all you see is

what is available on your doorstep

then you aren’t seeing much. It is

difficult to develop an awareness

of quality, and what that means, if

30 | P a g e


challenges


families

work and reliance on benefits

is high.

• The area lacks culture and not

many people appear to want it

anyway.

• Sparse population.

• There is a large eastern

European population in

Wisbech.

all you see is the local and often

mediocre.

• The unchallenging nature of what

CYP are being involved in doesn’t

help them develop either their

critical faculties or any skills.

• Commissioning and competition

are affecting the county Youth

Service.

• CYP would benefit from more

dance opportunities.

Huntingdonshire Places in need

• Huntingdon, which has some

serious indices of deprivation.

• South Huntingdonshire has

urban issues, although there is

isolation there as well.

South

Cambridgeshire

Places in need

• Long Stanton is quite industrial

with a lot of young families

passing through on the way to

somewhere else.

• The area around Melbourn, in

common with much of rural

Cambridgeshire, suffers from

isolation where there are no

trains. The bus service is poor

and getting worse.


• Bassingbourn, the Mordens

(several local villages have

Morden in the name) and into

Meldreth have high Traveller

populations.

• Venues can be problem as

they are either 244 seats in

one of the village colleges or a

room in a pub.

• Another issue is the loss of

mobile libraries locally.

• A lot of YP are rurally isolated and

have nothing to do other than

hang about in their local

communities due to the youth

club closures. In some areas the

parish councils are buying in a

youth worker or supporting a local

youth club.

• Relatively high number of split

families. Some of this appears to

be linked to the pressures of the

recent economic problems. This

affects Melbourn, Bassingbourn,

Comberton and Gamlingay.

• Hatton Park School in Long

Stanton is in special measures.

• There are a lot of Traveller

Families in the area and in South

Cambs generally.

• There are a lot of young carers in

Papworth.

• The loss of the Youth Service, or

its narrower targeting on

vulnerable young people. One

result of this narrow focus is the

loss of prevention work with

young people more generally.

• The lack of youth workers

combined with rural isolation and

poor transport infrastructure.

• Poor transport can lead to

exclusion for some groups of

31 | P a g e


challenges


families

young people. For example even

with the Guided Bus which is now

operating into Cambridge a young

person faces at least £5 in fares

and £5 to attend an event. This

excludes a lot of young people

especially in the current economic

climate.

• Those areas in South Cambs

which don’t have the Village

Colleges get missed out of the

cultural provision offered by

stART because they are not in

partnership.

• There is youth disengagement.

7.4 Schools

Cambridgeshire has:

• 7 Local authority nursery schools

• 203 Primary schools

• 30 Secondary schools

• 23 Further education/sixth form colleges

• 9 Special Schools

• 24 Independent schools

Table 5

Schools by sector in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire Nursery Primary Secondary FE/Sixth

Form

Special Independent Total

Cambridge City 5 26 6 3 0 17 57

East Cambs 0 27 4 1 2 1 35

Fenland 0 33 4 6 2 2 47

Huntingdonshire 1 60 7 8 2 2 80

South Cambs 1 57 7 5 3 2 75

Total 7 203 30 23 9 24 294

Source: www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/CMSWebsite/Apps/Schools/SchoolSearch.aspx

By March 2012 six primary schools, twenty four secondary schools and one special school

had converted to academies. A further two primaries and four secondary’s had indicated

their intention to convert to academies.

32 | P a g e

7.5 Local authorities and their areas of responsibility

Table 6

Local authority division of responsibility for cultural service delivery

The table below shows the division of responsibility for delivering local authority services in a

two tier structure. It also lists the names and titles of those who contributed to the Norfolk &

Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit and whose information supports this report. An appendix of

the interviews that contributors agreed to make public are contained in Appendix 1.

Local Authority

area

Local authority responsibilities

and contacts from research

Other organisations in the

area and contacts from

research

Cambridgeshire

County Council

Education, libraries, museums

development, heritage, youth

service and music service

Joanne Gray , County Arts

Development Officer

Kate Brown, County Museum

Development Officer

Matthew Gunn, Partnership

Manager, Cambridgeshire Music

Partnership

Cambridge City

Council

Arts and events

Elaine Midgley, Arts & Events

Manager

Michael Garvey, Chief

Executive, Academy of Ancient

Music

Isobel Timms, Creative

Learning Director, Britten

Sinfonia

Sarah Campbell, Education

Officer, Kettle’s Yard

Tamsin Wimhurst, Learning

Officer, Cambridge & County

Folk Museum

Ruth Sapsed, Director,

Cambridge Curiosity and

Imagination

Cat Moore, Producer/ General

Manager, New International

Encounter (NIE)

East

Cambridgeshire

District Council

No arts service The arts service is delivered by

ADEC, a independent company

Jane Wilson, Director, ADEC

33 | P a g e

Local Authority

area





research

Sally Austin, Education Officer,

Ely Museum

Fenland District

Council

There is no arts service.

Karen Harvey, Artistic Director,

Atelier East

Huntingdonshire

District Council

No arts service.

Viv Peters, Director, Natural

High

South

Cambridgeshire

District Council

Arts Development which includes

the 5 stART Arts Development

Mangers based in the South

Cambs Village Colleges.

Museums.

Andy O’Hanlon, Lead Officer Arts &

Culture

Kirstin Bicknell, Education

Development Manager, Wysing

Arts

Kirstin Bicknell, ADM Melbourn

Village College

Karen Thomas, ADM Swavesey

Village College

7.6 Cambridgeshire County Council

This is the top tier authority in Cambridgeshire and has responsibility for many of the key

services that the bridge is interested in, including education, libraries, music education,

museum development and arts development. www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Cambridge Culture is the council’s official means of working with CYP and is directed at

schools. The Cambridge Culture Steering Group is keen to work with the bridge and this

contact would identify, in more depth, the strategic concerns the County Council has in

relation to CYP and their families.

In common with other parts of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area the Youth

Service, another county council service, has been cut. This was mentioned with concern by

a number of other Cambridge interviewees because these service reductions will impact on

arts and cultural delivery, particularly to the more deprived or targeted young people.

Cambridgeshire County Council directly operates one museum, the Cromwell Museum in

Huntingdon. This is part of Libraries, Archives & Information rather than sitting with the

Museums Development Officer. The County Museum Development Officer supports four

learning officers based at St Neots, Fenland, Ely and Cambridge Folk and County museums.

34 | P a g e

Concern about a possible loss of these posts due to funding changes, related to the demise

of MLA, was expressed by a number of interviewees.

Recently ACE offered libraries the chance to bid for Libraries Development Initiative funding.

Cambridgeshire has been successful in its bid which was led by the countywide Cultural

Task Group rather than the Library Service. Four libraries in Fenland working with local

groups will have the option to say if they would like the funding spent on CYP or older

people. This outcome has yet to be finally decided.

7.7 Cambridge City Council

The well established Arts and Events team in the City Council is part of Arts and Recreation,

the department responsible for sport, recreational and cultural services including the Corn

Exchange and events in open spaces. The Arts Officer manages the Cambridge Arts

Network which has a membership of 700. There are grant funding agreements with a range

of organisations. www.cambridge.gov.uk/ccm/portal

The council’s current policy is to devolve power from the centre of Cambridge to the

neighbourhoods. Area committees have been established to make decisions and the system

is currently being tested. Some of the work the arts team is doing reflects that strategic drive

although community centres in the neighbourhoods are not well geared up for the arts and

this is an aspect that might benefit from the bridge’s involvement.

Several areas of the city were mentioned by interviewees as areas of deprivation, to a

greater or lesser degree, and included wards to the north of Cambridge, Arbury, King’s

Hedges, Chesterton and Cherry Hinton. Although the consensus was that other areas of the

county were possibly in greater need, as they had little on offer and access problems.

However the view was also expressed that for some CYP living outside the central city area,

the dominance of the Cambridge University made them feel ill at ease and so they and their

families may not access the cultural opportunities on offer.

The City is home to six of the seven Cambridgeshire NPOs and these are:

• Academy of Ancient Music

• Britten Sinfonia

• Hoipolloi Theatre Company

• Junction CDC

• Kettle’s Yard (part of the University of Cambridge)

• New International Encounter

Cambridge has eight university museums including the Fitzwilliam. This University of

Cambridge Museums cluster is one of the two ACE Renaissance major partner museums in

the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area. The other is Norfolk Archaeology and Museum

Service. Both will receive three year funding.

The City is also host to two universities with rich cultural provisions of their own, which the

public can access. This report does not discuss university provision in detail.

35 | P a g e

7.8 East Cambridgeshire District Council

The council does not have arts service and arts development work is contracted out ADEC.

www.eastcambs.gov.uk

ADEC has a strong focus on working with CYP supported by a clear strategy for youth

development work. The organisation works closely with the county youth service particularly

the Huntingdon and East Cambridgeshire area managers. ADEC also work with independent

youth services. Other partners include museums, adult and family learning and the stART

team. As well as working in East Cambridgeshire, ADEC does a small amount of work in the

city of Cambridge, and works in partnership with Cambridge City Council where appropriate.

In addition to youth work the organisation work with a range of community groups on areas

of specific interest to those groups, bringing in expertise around working with young people,

Arts Award, and project management.

The ADEC Director is also part of CS3 the culture and sport consortium for Cambridgeshire

and Suffolk which is just about to be launched. This is a special purpose vehicle designed to

enable the diverse range of culture and sport organisations in the two counties work together

in relation to strategic commissioning, community budgeting and other shared services.

The district is home to Ely Museum, the Stained Glass Museum in Ely and the Prickwillow

Engine Museum.

7.9 Fenland District Council

Fenland has no arts service and very little cultural infrastructure. Wisbech, one of the most

deprived parts of the county, is in Fenland. This Fenland District Council area and the wider

area of Fenland is currently the subject of a Creative People and Places bid.

www.fenland.gov.uk/home

The district is home to Wisbech and Fenland Museum which has one of the Learning Officer

posts which may be under threat. The district borders with Peterborough and those residents

living on that side of the district look towards the city. Wisbech is only thirty miles from

Cambridge but poor transport and a host of other factors mean there is little contact for many

residents so they are unable to access the range of opportunities the city might offer them.

There are two art organisations in the district, Fenland Arts and Atelier East who are trying to

develop work in the area for CYP but on tiny resources. There is a history in Fenland (a

cause of complaint across the whole Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area) of short term

projects which lack sustainability.

7.9 Huntingdonshire District Council

There is no arts service as the previous arts officer was made redundant (Viv Peters, who

held the post, now works for Natural High). www.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

The area was identified by a number of contacts in Cambridgeshire as one that lacked

cultural provision and where activity was sparse.

36 | P a g e

There are a number of museums in the district, including St Neots Museum which has the

fourth of the Learning Officer posts that could be vulnerable to museum funding changes.

7.10 South Cambridgeshire District Council

Arts development is well supported in South Cambridgeshire through the Lead Officer Arts &

Culture and the stART team of Arts Development Managers.

www.scambs.gov.uk/default.htm

The ADM posts are partly supported by the council and partially by the five individual Village

Colleges in which they are based. Other village colleges in the district do not have such

posts as they do not contribute financial support. However like many arts development

posts, the ADMs are vulnerable to budget changes or reductions.

The ADMs fill a role both within the schools and as arts development officers. They have

small ADM development grants which help to start and support the development of arts

projects in the community. Much of their work focuses around CYP. They would be able to

inform and support some of the bridge’s aims, especially in Peterborough and on other

partnership projects within the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area.

The district council supports the Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey. The Imperial War

Museum Duxford is also in South Cambridgeshire.

The district is home to Wysing Arts, one of the seven Cambridgeshire NPOs.

37 | P a g e

8. Peterborough

Peterborough borders Lincolnshire to the North, Northamptonshire to the west and

Cambridgeshire to the east and south. The City of Peterborough is a unitary authority and is

divided up into neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood committees are made up of elected city

council members, representatives from parish councils, the police authority, fire authority

members of local community groups and ordinary members of the public. As well as a

means of consultation and discussion, the neighbourhood committees offer the chance for

committee members and residents to put forward their views on how funding could be used

to help shape what happens in the neighbourhood. www.peterborough.gov.uk

Source: www.cambs-pa.gov.uk/consultation_district-detail.cfm?sectorid=42

The 2008 Sustainable Communities Strategy highlights that many of the city’s challenges

are about inequalities. “There is a continuing gap between life expectancy rates at the local

level and nationally and lower than average attainment at schools and skills levels in the

workforce. There has been some progress in increasing the qualifications of children leaving

Peterborough’s schools but there is still a need for improvement. The skills levels of the

working age population, which lag considerably behind the national and regional level need

improving. The city also needs to recognise and accommodate the changes to

Peterborough’s demography brought about by inward migration and by the changing age

profile of the population. At least 100 separate languages are spoken and 93 different

nationalities live in Peterborough. The age profile of Peterborough will change significantly,

with a projected 21 per cent increase in children aged 0 to 14 and a 57 per cent increase in

those aged over 65”. Source: www.gpp-peterborough.org.uk/documents/SustainableCommunityStrategy_002.pdf

38 | P a g e

8.1 Statistics

This above view of Peterborough was supported in Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

research. Peterborough was described by one interviewee as a ‘city of need’. One thing

which particularly stood out on the statistics in table 2 in section 5 of this report is the

percentage of BME young people which is nearly three times higher than the next highest

figure for Cambridgeshire at 8.1%. At 22.5% Peterborough is higher than the English

average of 17.3%. The proportion of 0-19s is the highest in the bridge area but this is not

hugely out of line with the other figures.

Table 3 shows Peterborough is third only to Norwich City and Great Yarmouth for

percentage of children in poverty and is second to Great Yarmouth on the index of multiple

deprivation. While youth unemployment is broadly similar across the bridge area, there are

much greater variations is adult unemployment, with Peterborough showing the highest

figure on this measure i.e. at 9.2%, that is around three times higher than some other areas

such as Broadland in Norfolk or Babergh in Suffolk.

Other information obtained about Peterborough seems to agree with that interviewee’s

analysis and, like Great Yarmouth; Peterborough has been a focus of ACE’s attentions for

some years. Interestingly their approach seems to be paying off in some respects as a

number of NPOs and other arts organisations mentioned working in the city, notably Britten

Sinfonia and New International Encounter. However there still seems a lot more to be done

and it is likely that the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) will be heavily involved in

supporting and brokering some of the cultural development in the city.


Cultural services in Peterborough are delivered by Vivacity an independent, not-for-profit

organisation with charitable status that manages many of Peterborough’s culture and leisure

facilities on behalf of Peterborough City Council. Arts, heritage, learning and sport form the

mainstay of the services and have the specific purpose of helping people. The Arts Services

Manager recently led on a Creative People and Places bid for Peterborough.

Peterborough City Council Music Education Hub was awarded funding in May 2012. This is

being delivered by the city council and is not part of Vivacity. The City Council is also

responsible for youth services.

The Museum service has three sites: Peterborough Museum, Flag Fen Archaeology Park

and Longthorpe Tower. Peterborough Museum has just re-opened after an eighteen month

closure. However, throughout the closure period, the Museum Learning Officer was involved

in a range of learning and community projects. The museum’s schools market covers

primary, secondary, special and independent. As well as Peterborough schools, the museum

attracts schools from south Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and north Cambridgeshire. The

museum also contains a gallery which will be programmed by the Vivacity arts team. The

city has three accredited museums.

39 | P a g e

The Library Service has ten static libraries across the city and has a 103 mobile library

stops. It offers a wide range of services and activities to CYP and their families as well as

working with schools.

There are no NPOs in Peterborough.

Key meetings for Peterborough include Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Arts

Development Officers Group and the museums Regional Learning Network.


Table 7


Peterborough


Peterborough where they feel there are deprivation issues or concerns about cultural

provision for CYP and their families. It also lists other factors that they felt negatively affect

CYP’s quality of life, including their engagement with cultural opportunities and problems

affecting their educational opportunities.

Area Geographical areas and their

challenges


families

Peterborough Places in need

• Hampton ward has lack of

facilities for CYP.

• A number of areas of

deprivation including Central

Ward, Dogsthorpe.

• Peterborough City has

significant areas of deprivation

and lack of cultural activity.


• The ethnicity of the city is very

mixed including substantial

Asian, Eastern European and

Traveller communities.

• Community projects have

been successful but the work

needs sustaining.

• Although things are happening

in Peterborough there is not

really the quality of cultural

opportunity and experience

that one might expect in a city.

For example the theatre has a

lot of tribute band type events

but these are not balanced

with high quality music or

performance.

• The city is one of the lowest

achieving areas in England in

education.

• There are high second language

needs in many of the schools and

can be 40-90% in some schools.

• Low aspiration.

• Low numbers progress to higher

education.

• Poor language skills in both

English and other languages.

• The primary schools are fantastic.

40 | P a g e

8.4 Schools

Peterborough has:





• 10 Special Schools and Pupil referral Units

• 2 Independent schools. (Most privately educated CYP go to schools in

Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire)

Table 8

Schools by sector in Peterborough

Peterborough Nursery Primary Secondary FE/Sixth

Form

Special Independent Total

7 56 11 1 10 2 87

Total 7 56 11 1 10 2 87

Cambridgeshire

Cambridge City 5 26 6 3 0 18 58

East Cambs 0 27 4 1 2 1 35

Fenland 0 33 4 6 2 1 46

Huntingdonshire 1 60 7 8 2 2 80

South Cambs 1 57 7 5 3 2 75

Total 7 203 30 23 9 24 294

Source: www.peterborough.gov.uk/children_and_families/schools.aspx

8.5 Local Authority and its area of responsibility

Table 9

Division of responsibility for cultural service delivery in Peterborough

The table below shows the division of responsibility for delivering cultural services in

Peterborough, a unitary authority which has contracted out much of the cultural delivery to a

trust. It lists the names and titles of those who contributed to the Norfolk & Norwich Festival

(Bridge) audit and whose information supports this report. An appendix of the interviews that

contributors agreed to make public are contained in Appendix 1.

41 | P a g e

Local Authority

area





research

Peterborough City

Council

Education, Youth Service, Music

Education Hub.

Cultural services are delivered

by a Trust, Vivacity.

John Green, Music Adviser,

Peterborough City Council Music

Education Hub

Greer Roberts, Arts Services

Manager, Vivacity

Pam Russell, Museum

Learning Officer, Vivacity

Heather Walton, Library and

Customer Services Manager,

Vivacity

42 | P a g e

9. Norfolk

Norfolk borders Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and

Suffolk to the east. Seven District or Borough councils are included within the administrative

county of Norfolk. These are Breckland District Council, Broadland District Council, Great

Yarmouth Borough Council, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council, North Norfolk

District Council, Norwich City Council and South Norfolk Council.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council and Breckland District Council were due to share services.

This would have affected officers but not councillors. However, since the May 2012

elections, when there was a change of administration, this plan has been halted. Breckland

already shares services with South Holland District Council in Lincolnshire and will explore

additional other options.

Source: http://www.jbsv.co.uk/links.htm

The county gives the impression of having a very well joined up arts infrastructure which has

a clear view of what the problems are facing the county both generally and in relation to

CYP. Many of those working in the county have been there for a long time and are highly

experienced both professionally and in the way that Norfolk functions.

There are also a range of challenges that were universally identified by interviewees. These

included rural isolation, poor transport, poor education, low aspiration and isolated

communities. In addition deprivation was mentioned in relation to urban settlements

including Norwich and Great Yarmouth. This anecdotal evidence is backed up by the

statistical evidence in tables 2 and 3 in section 5 of this report. .

9.1 Statistics

In terms of population density, Table 2, in section 5, shows that some areas in Norfolk are

amongst the lowest in the bridge area. Breckland is the lowest at 100 persons per square

kilometre, followed by King’s Lynn and West Norfolk on 101. In contrast Great Yarmouth’s

43 | P a g e

figure on this measure is 559 and Norwich City’s is 3677, the highest in the bridge area. The

English average is 401.

On the ethnicity measure Norfolk and Suffolk are broadly comparable at 5.6% and 5.3%

respectively which contrast sharply with that of Peterborough at 22.5%. However this lack of

diversity was not something that was often referred to directly in the interviews, although lack

of wider influences and opportunities for many young people was.

Table 3 shows that the two highest areas on the index of multiple deprivation for the bridge

area are in Norfolk. These are Great Yarmouth on 27.66 and Norwich City on 25.65.

However King’s Lynn and West Norfolk is not far behind on 21.05. The English average is

19.15. All contrast markedly with South Cambridgeshire on 7.11 and Mid Suffolk on 10.23.

Interestingly while Breckland has the lowest population density its unemployment rate at

7.1% is close to the English average of 7.5%. However it is third lowest at 17.4% for the

percentage of NVQ4+, behind Great Yarmouth and Fenland in Cambridgeshire, whose

figures are 14.1% and 14.9%. This is in marked contrast to Norwich City on 39.1%, third only

to Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire on 50.7% and 45.3% respectively.

Broadland has the lowest rate of adult unemployment in the bridge area at 3.0%, but its

youth unemployment is the third highest at 29.5% after Fenland on 30.9% and Norwich City

on 29.9%. The English average for youth unemployment was 26.6% and adult

unemployment was 7.5%.


Norwich is the focus of much cultural provision and opportunity. The County Council is

based in the city and it is here that the county arts and events service, museum and

archaeology service, library service (including Schools Library Service), music service and

children’s services are all based. The music service led on the successful application for

Music Education Hub status.

The city is home to the University of East Anglia, including the Sainsbury Centre for Visual

Arts, and the Norwich University College of the Arts. The city is home to all five of Norfolk’s

NPOs:

• British Centre for Literary Translation

• Norfolk and Norwich Festival

• Norwich Arts Centre

• Tilted Productions

• Writer’s Centre Norwich

In addition there are a number of other high quality arts providers including the Norwich

Theatre Royal and The Garage. Norfolk Dance is also based in Norwich at The Garage.

The concentration of offer and opportunity in Norwich contrasts with the rest of the county.

This raises a point which a number of interviewees mentioned, that there are levels of

resentment towards Norwich by the rest of Norfolk. In particular it was reported by a number

44 | P a g e

of people that the West Norfolk area often feels that it receives little resource in comparison

to Norwich. However the city is not without its problems as the statistics relating to the City of

Norwich demonstrate.

Much of the Breckland’s arts officer’s work is with older people or communities, as the

district has a lot of rural isolation and older people affected by this are a focus for the

council’s attention. There is much less focus on CYP and their families. Broadland, like

Breckland and North Norfolk does not have a large amount of cultural infrastructure.

However the authority runs a Tots2Teens programme and works with local schools. North

Norfolk has a high concentration of professional artists and a thriving festival offer. The latter

is one way the arts officer is able to develop and support opportunities for CYP and their

families. There are varying degrees of engagement with the arts by schools but it was a

cause of concern to many Norfolk interviewees that the schools often failed to take up

opportunities or that the quality of some of what they offered in terms of arts was poor or

dated.

Great Yarmouth, Norwich City and South Norfolk do not have arts services. King’s Lynn Arts

Centre (KLAC) became a trust (replacing the local authority provision) on the 1st April 2012.

KLAC works closely with some local schools and its community and provides a high quality

offer in an area with considerable challenges. In Great Yarmouth, Seachange Arts works

closely with schools and local communities.

Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service, manages museums across the county, is one of

the two ACE Renaissance major partner museums in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

area. The other is the University of Cambridge Museums. In the city itself are a number of

museums including Norwich Castle. Most of the museums in the county have an education

or learning offer for CYP and schools. The county has 32 accredited museums.

The Library Service has 46 static libraries and 610 villages, hamlets and areas are served by

mobile libraries. There is also a Schools Library Service.

There was widespread concern about the loss of the county youth service which is being

replaced by Youth Action Boards at district level. It seemed to be unclear, at the moment,

how these were going to work.

Key meetings in Norfolk are: Regional Learning Network for museums and Norfolk Arts

Forum. There are a number of other specialist groups such as Norfolk Youth Arts

Consortium and Cultural Communities Consortium.


Table 10


Norfolk


Norfolk where they feel there are deprivation issues or concerns about cultural provision for

CYP and their families. It also lists other factors that they felt negatively affect CYP’s quality

45 | P a g e

of life, including their engagement with cultural opportunities and problems affecting their

educational opportunities.


challenges


families

Norfolk Places in need

• All parts of the county need

focussing on, but for different

reasons.

• Greater Norwich, Great

Yarmouth and Kings Lynn all

have deprived wards.

• South and North Norfolk are

affected by rural isolation, poor

services that come with a high

cost, coastal areas affected by

isolation and seasonal

employment.

• North Norfolk is very rural.

• Many urban areas, especially

in King’s Lynn, Norwich and

Great Yarmouth, are seriously

deprived.

• West Norfolk especially, an

area in a ring around

Derehem.

• South Breckland.

• An arch from Great Yarmouth

to King’s Lynn and Thetford

with only small pockets of

activity in this area.


• There are now 77 languages

spoken in Norfolk which is

partly due to the numbers of

overseas rural migrant

workers. Included are the new

communities from Latvia,

Lithuania and Russia amongst

others.

• The central area of the county

has very little cultural offer.

• The transport infrastructure is

poor and there are no

motorways in the county.

• There is a need for more artist

training to freshen those who

have worked in the county for

a long time.

• There is also a need for some

new young practitioners.

However there is difficulty in

• Public transport is a big issue for

young people in Norfolk and

especially in the rural areas.

• Transport and communications

are a real concern for many

young people. There is little public

transport and for those on lower

incomes it is difficult to afford.

One way round this is to make

sure opportunities are more easily

accessed by those in the rural

areas.

• In some isolated rural areas such

as north Norfolk, young people

have access to cultural outreach

opportunities delivered by

organisations such as

Sheringham Little Theatre.

• Gap in cultural provision for

young people outside school.

• Need to offer young people the

opportunity to access provision

outside their communities. As well

as the actual participation

opportunities, young people meet

a wider range of people which

helps build confidence. However

there are costs associated with

this approach which the Bridge

will need to consider when

thinking about benefits versus

costs.

• It can often take time to find the

right place and venue and get

participants to travel there.

• The library service has put in

some extra support put in around

teenagers. Three temporary posts

have been created which will run

until March 2013 and the post

holders will develop engagement

and the offer for teenagers in four

areas; Thetford, King’s Lynn,

Wymondham and Norwich

(Millennium Library).

• The worker at the Millennium

Library came about as a result of

46 | P a g e


challenges


families

recruiting people to come and

work in the county because it

is seen as rural and slightly cut

off.

• Rural counties have specific

problems of transport and

communication and these are

particularly pronounced in

Breckland and West Norfolk.

• There are no NPOs in great

swathes of Norfolk.

• Need for investment to get into

this hinterland to extend

opportunities to those places

currently lacking many.

• Local authority boundaries do

not matter to the public so new

work should not duplicate

current provision but add to a

greater offer overall.

• Working in rural areas is not

the same as working in larger

towns. There can be a

suspicion or dislike of

outsiders who appear to come

in, create a brief flare of

activity and then disappear.

consultation because the library is

very popular with CYP, especially

at weekends.

• South Norfolk has a lot of small

rural schools with low aspirations

and poor financial resources.

• The low level of aspiration and

sameness of what is on offer in

some of the rural areas.

• There is low engagement in CPD

because people are not being

pushed or challenged. In turn this

leads to a lack of energy.

• Over the years a range of really

good projects have been

implemented. However it has

become increasingly apparent

that sustainability of provision is a

real concern. Things happen for a

short time, because much activity

is based on up to three year

funding which can’t then be

repeated. This pattern can be

harmful as young people are

conscious that their needs attract

funding which can understandably

lead to youthful cynicism.

Breckland Places in need

• Thetford is an area of concern.


• The district is geographically

large with five towns and 108

parishes.

• Much of the arts work is done

with older people or

communities.

• Breckland is quite a working

class district with a lot of rural

isolation which affects many

groups, including older people.

• Rural deprivation.

• High illiteracy levels.

• Transport is very difficult.

• Lowest council tax take in the

county.

• Very few venues.

• Sparse resources.

• Disparate district.

• The area lacks much in the

• Opportunities for young people

are a concern as they are not

used to having anything much

provided for them.

• The loss of the Youth Service has

also meant the loss of contact

with young people on a close or

one to one basis.

• Poor means of communication

with Young People.

• Holiday activities are not targeted

enough so consequently they

don’t always reach those who

need the activity most. Due to the

size of the district the money is

spread equally, but thinly, so

there isn’t a great deal of depth

for anyone.

47 | P a g e


challenges


families

way of arts organisation or

infrastructure.

Broadland Places in need

• No information.


• No information.

Great Yarmouth Places in need

• There are incredibly deprived

areas of Great Yarmouth

(South and Central wards)

which still do not have regular

access to high quality arts

provision.


• ACE ‘Cold Spots’ mapping

shows Great Yarmouth in the

lowest 20% of Local

authorities in terms of

percentage of the population

not engaging with the arts (the

lowest in Norfolk).

• Residents perception studies

highlight desire for arts

activities generally and for and

young people specifically.

• The variety of different

nationalities (a significant

proportion of south and central

Yarmouth are migrant

communities, especially

Portuguese).

• There are high levels of non-

school attendance in parts of the

borough and it is important to

work with youth agencies in

addition to schools.

King’s Lynn and

West Norfolk

Places in need

• King’s Lynn


• Large number of migrant

workers, many of whom are

Eastern European.

• High unemployment.

• Pockets of multiple deprivation

• 25% fewer professionals than

elsewhere in Norfolk.

• A number of retired

professionals who come to the

area.

• West Norfolk, apart from

King’s Lynn is very rural and

transport is poor, particularly

inland.

• West Norfolk has no NPO but

• Low educational aspirations and

attainments.

• There is a need for more outreach

work and working offsite which

needs more resources to do

effectively.

• There is little opportunity for YPs

who want to work in the cultural or

creative industries.

48 | P a g e


challenges


families

has a population of 200,000.

• West Norfolk can be very

marginalised in the Norfolk

cultural offer overall.

North Norfolk Places in need

• Towns of Stalham, Wells and

Fakenham.

• Fakenham has a lack of

venues for and the community

centre is old and very booked

up.

• There are 150 rural villages.

• Some of the most deprived

include Mundesley and Melton

Constable.

• Opportunities are patchy in

Sheringham and Cromer

despite having more provision

than in other areas because

there are more partners

available to work with.


• Deprivation and access to

opportunities is limited and

patchy across the district.

• Access to arts is often quite

limited. North Norfolk has 7

market towns and 150 villages

so provision is patchy and

access to public transport very

limited.

• Rurality and the associated

lack of opportunities are a big

problem. There is also an

issue of hidden poverty related

to the rurality of the district.

• Transport is causes

considerable problems. The

bus service is poor or non-

existent away from the coast.

Trains are very limited and

only stop at three towns.

• Apart from issues around CYP

the area attracts a lot of early

retirees. On the positive side

this means there are a lot of

people who want to become

involved in voluntary work so

that drama and choral

societies particularly flourish.

• Fakenham School has proved

difficult to work with, even when

arts opportunities were offered.

However a new head teacher has

since been appointed.

• There are a lot of festivals in the

North Norfolk area which do offer

CYP some opportunities.

• Wells-next-the-Sea suffers from

limited opportunities for CYP, due

to the geography and small size

of the community. As does

Stalham and surrounding villages.

49 | P a g e


challenges


families

However on the other side this

population can become

increasingly resource heavy

over time and dementia is a

noticeable issue.

Norwich City Places in need

• Norwich.


• No information.

• Norwich has one of the lowest

GCSE achievement rates in the

country (bottom 10% for last 10

years, 3rd

from bottom nationally

in 2010/11).

• Most Norwich-based arts

organisations provide outreach

opportunities but not necessarily

year round.

South Norfolk Places in need

• No Information.


• No information.

9.4 Schools

Norfolk has:






• 1 all-through school

• 1 short stay school


Source: www.norfolk.gov.uk/Childrens_services/Schools/index.htm

It was not possible to provide a further breakdown as no easy to access list appears to be

available. The list of schools on the county council website is only accessible by postcode

and there is no district breakdown available.

There are 17 academies (6 phase one and 11 converters) and 1 free school.


Table 11




50 | P a g e



Local Authority

area





research

Norfolk County

Council


development, heritage and music

service. The staff in local authority

museums across Norfolk are part

of Norfolk Museums and

Archaeology Service (NMAS) run

by Norfolk CC.

Mary Muir, Arts Officer

Anna McCarthy, Creative Projects

Officer

Hazel Courtley, Museum

Development Projects Manager

Jo Warr, Programme Manager

(NMAS)

Katrina Siliprandi, Head of

Learning Development

Lorna Payne, Assistant Head of

Service – Development (Libraries)

Kirsten Francis, Manager for

Schools and Young People's

Services (Libraries)

Maureen Hanke, Head of Music

Service/Music Advisor

Breckland District

Council

Arts officer

Sam Dawson, Arts Development

Officer

Broadland District

Council

Arts officer

Nicola Pye, Leisure Services Co-

ordinator

Great Yarmouth

Borough Council

No arts service

Joe Mackintosh, Chief

Executive, Seachange Arts

Wendy Ellis, Youth Work

Manager, MAP

King's Lynn and

West Norfolk

Borough Council

No arts service

51 | P a g e

Liz Falconbridge, Director,

King’s Lynn Arts Centre Trust

North Norfolk

District Council

Arts service

Brenda Seymour, Arts Officer

Norwich City

Council

Culture and events but no arts

officer

Helen Selleck, Culture and Events

Manager

Mitchell Albert, Programme

Director, Norwich Writers

Centre

Derek Purnell, General

Manager, Tilted Productions

Derek Purnell, Director, Norfolk

Dance

Darren Grice, Executive

Director , The Garage

Veronica Sekules, Deputy

Director and Head of Education

and Research, Sainsbury

Centre for the Visual Arts

Peter Wilson MBE, Chief

Executive, Theatre Royal

Wendy Ellis, Youth Work

Manager , MAP

Kaja Holloway, Manager,

NEAD (Norfolk Education &

Action for Development)

Marcus Patteson, Director & In

Harmony Norwich Director,

NORCA (Norwich & Norfolk

Community Arts)

South Norfolk

Council

No arts officer.

9.6 Norfolk County Council

The County Council, and top tier authority, is well resourced with experienced cultural staff

and a good reputation for innovation. The authority has responsibility for many of the key

services that the bridge is interested in including education, libraries (including schools

library service), music education, museum development and arts development. However the

county council has divested itself of youth service delivery which is now the responsibility of

the newly established Youth Action Boards (YAB). These have not begun to fully function in

all areas and both the future working of the YABs and changes to youth services were of

considerable concern to many interviewees. www.norfolk.gov.uk

52 | P a g e

The Norfolk Arts Forum which is administered by Mary Muir, Arts Officer, is a model of good

practice. The Arts Officer and the Creative Projects Officer sit in different, geographically

separated departments. Mary Muir, Arts Officer is part of Community Services while Anna

McCarthy, Creative Projects Officer is part of Children’s Services. There seems to be good

cross working involving arts, libraries and museums both internally and externally. The Music

Service and Archives also work in partnership with a range of cultural colleagues across the

council. The Music Service led on the successful Music Hub bid for Norfolk.

Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service is unique in bridge area in that it runs a

countywide museum service. It is one of the two ACE Renaissance major partner museums

in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area.

The county council financially supports nineteen arts organisations, including three of the

NPOs, and through them direct work with communities. Norfolk School Libraries Better

Libraries Project supports schools to make a difference to the reading environment in their

school. The scheme offers school libraries the chance to do more than upgrade the physical

aspect of a library or its stock, by providing an opportunity to combine such work with an arts

or cultural dimension as well.

9.7 Broadland District Council

Provision for CYP falls into three areas; Tots2Teens holiday activities for children aged five

years upwards, workshops in schools and training courses at Broadland Council Training

Services. The latter incorporates Arts Award at the Foundation stage. The council offers

small grants. www.broadland.gov.uk

Many of the arts organisations working in Broadland are based in Norwich. Like Breckland

the area seems to have a poor cultural infrastructure. However there are still a range of

ESCOs (Extended school coordinators) working in the area. There are also some festivals

which offer arts and cultural provision

9.8 Breckland District Council

The arts officer currently sits in the Communities department which is being restructured, but

the arts post is included in the new structure. The district is geographically large with five

towns and 108 parishes. Breckland currently shares services with South Holland District

Council in Lincolnshire. Much of the arts officer’s focus is older people.

www.breckland.gov.uk

The area lacks much in the way of arts organisation or cultural infrastructure. However the

library service is a good partner and supports the annual Breckland Book Festival. Due to

poor financial resources for the arts there is little opportunity to develop partnerships or bring

in freelancers to run activities. Opportunities for young people are a concern to the arts

officer because historically young people are not used to having much provision available to

them. Moreover what resource there is for CYP is spread thinly over the whole district which

is sparsely populated. The sense of a large, rather empty area is borne out in statistics.

53 | P a g e

9.9 Great Yarmouth Borough Council

Great Yarmouth has a Culture, Leisure and Sport Manager but unfortunately they were not

able to contribute to the report. Looking at the council’s website it seems to direct the

enquirer to non council sources for museums and arts and is otherwise unclear about how

the council supports culture. The arts contact link is Seachange Arts who have responded to

the research and have led on a Creative People and Places bid recently. www.great-

yarmouth.gov.uk/culture-leisure/arts-and-culture.htm

Great Yarmouth has considerable deprivation and has been a focus of ACE’s attention for

some years. The need for this focus is backed both by the statistics in tables 2 and 3 in

section 5 of this report and the residents’ surveys. Like many other parts of Norfolk, outside

Norwich, there are few arts organisations locally. Seachange Arts is a major presence and

the St Georges Theatre is due to re-open later in 2012. The library service recently

completed a lottery funded refurbishment of Great Yarmouth Library which involved

considerable community engagement and some of the lessons learnt here are being applied

elsewhere in the county.

The town is home to the Time and Tide Museum which is part of NMAS. It is supported by

NMAS Learning Team who offers learning opportunities in museums and schools.

9.10 King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council

King’s Lynn and West Norfolk no longer has an arts service, having transferred it to a trust

structure from the 1st April 2012. www.west-norfolk.gov.uk

The King’s Lynn Arts Centre Trust includes the Arts Centre, a cinema and a theatre and has

three years of diminishing funding. Liz Falconbridge the Trust Director (and previously

managed arts development in the council) hopes to pull together the heritage and cultural

sectors to work as one. The KLAC works with local schools and a range of young people. It

can be difficult to persuade some local schools to engage, or appreciate the quality of the

centre’s offer. Most of the work is with primary heads who want to help improve their pupils’

confidence and self-esteem.

West Norfolk has no NPO and few other arts or cultural organisations, but has a population

of 200,000. It is one of the areas that many other Norfolk respondees highlighted as needing

additional resource, both to support the good work already happening, as well as additional

provision. Several of those who expressed a view said this needed to be a long term

commitment, as short term projects can do more harm than good.

9.11 North Norfolk District Council

A new administration was elected in May 2011 which saw the council change from Liberal

Democrat control to Conservative. There were 22 new councillors out of a total of 48.

Currently they are keen to retain existing services. The Arts and Heritage strategy is due to

be refreshed as it was last endorsed in 2010. www.northnorfolk.org

54 | P a g e

North Norfolk, although affected by many of the rural problems which are common in much

of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area, is better served than many of the other

districts. There is a large community of professional artists and a strong voluntary sector.

The Arts Officer is part time and the department she sits in is currently being restructured.

Unlike some of the other district councils, North Norfolk is providing financial sources to

support arts organisations. There are SLA’s with Sheringham Little Theatre, Creative Arts

East, Community Music East), Norfolk Dance, North Norfolk Exhibition Project, Belfry Arts

Centre and Orchestras Live. The remainder of the budget of is used as project partnership

funding and promotion.

Despite this positive picture, access to the arts is often quite patchy and affects CYP and

their families. One way of providing opportunities to CYP is through the festival programme

of which there are 20 in the district.

9.12 Norwich City Council

There is no arts officer at Norwich City Council, the post having been deleted in 2011.

www.norwich.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

One problem identified about the City by another interviewee was that Norwich City Council

has relatively low revenues because the richer parts of Norwich sit in other districts. It is an

area which is high in child poverty, and on multiple deprivation index.

It was unclear how much partnership working the council is involved in, but the bridge will

not be short of partners in Norwich as it is rich in arts organisations, libraries, museums and

higher education. The City is home to all five of Norfolk’s NPOs:

• British Centre for Literary Translation

• Norfolk and Norwich Festival

• Norwich Arts Centre

• Tilted Productions

• Writer’s Centre Norwich

9.13 South Norfolk Council

There is no arts service. The council website has a number of references to the arts and a

public art policy is available. However the officer mentioned in that document left the council

about two years ago and some of the other arts references look to date from that time.

www.south-norfolk.gov.uk/index.asp

55 | P a g e

10. Suffolk

Suffolk borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south.

Seven District or Borough councils are included within the administrative county of Suffolk.

These are Babergh District Council, Forest Heath District Council, Ipswich Borough Council,

Mid Suffolk District Council, St Edmundsbury Borough Council, Suffolk Coastal District

Council and Waveney District Council.

Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury are due to share services in the near

future. This will affect officers rather than councillors, and it is currently unclear how this will

affect the two councils’ services that cover arts and heritage.

Source: www.csduk.com/CSD/Contact+details+for+other+district+and+borough+councils+in+Suffolk.htm

Suffolk, compared to Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, is historically under resourced. Ipswich is

the closest place to being a cultural centre which has an intensive amount of provision.

However much of this is a more recent development and has been something of a conscious

effort in order to provide the sort of focus that exists in other county towns and elsewhere

within the bridge area. This strategy includes the development of the Ipswich Waterfront

which houses DanceEast’s new home and the main centre of University Campus Suffolk.

Ipswich is also home to four of seven Suffolk’s NPOs which are:

• Dance East

• Eastern Angles

• Gecko Theatre

• New Wolsey Theatre

56 | P a g e

Colchester and Ipswich Museums had been a Renaissance Hub museum but failed to gain

ACE Renaissance major partner museum funding so their immediate future is unclear at the

moment.

Nevertheless there is excellent work in Suffolk and those that are there work well in

partnership. However a combination of some key organisations not being able to contribute

to the audit research and some strong individuals and organisations that have, gives the

impression of hotspots of innovation and provision set against a more hazy background.

10.1 Statistics

Ipswich, as well as being the county town of Suffolk, is the place with the third highest score

on index of multiple deprivation in the bridge area. The figure is 24.82 after Peterborough’s

25.63 and Norwich’s 25.65. Cambridge by contrast is 15.50. The next worst district in Suffolk

is Waveney with 22.08 while the rest of the districts are all under 13.50 against an English

average of 19.15.

Ipswich is also notable for its population density of 3254 per sq. Km. in a county where the

next highest figure is Waveney on 317 and the rest of the districts are 170 or lower against

an English average of 401. Waveney contains Lowestoft and anecdotally it is likely that it is

this town which will have a concentration of problems, rather than the district as a whole.

The lowest population density in Suffolk is 109 per square kilometre in Mid Suffolk, which is

the fourth lowest in the bridge area. So like much of the rest of the bridge area, Suffolk has

scattered populations which makes identifying places to concentrate the arts and cultural

offer difficult. As a result Ipswich is the one place where a critical mass of activity has been

built, which the bridge could build on. However for those outside the immediate area

transport and its associated cost provides a barrier to access as it does across much of the

bridge area, something which will particularly affect CYP and their families.

Ipswich and Waveney both score highly in the bridge area on the percentage of children in

poverty at 21.7 and 21.2 respectively. This follows Norwich on 29.6 and Peterborough on

24.0 against the average for England of 20.9. So the Suffolk figures while high for the bridge

area are only just above the English average.

There was a lot of comment in the interviews about the poor standard of CYP’s education

and results in Suffolk but this does not show up at NVQ4+ in quite the same dramatic way

that it does in some parts of Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. The worst area is Waveney on

18.8%, the fourth worst. The rest of the districts all fall into the 23.7 – 29.0 range (with the

exception of Suffolk Coastal on 35.2) against an English average of 31.3.

Youth unemployment in the bridge area ranges from 22.8 – 32.4 against an average for

England of 26.6. However Waveney is the highest, followed by Fenland in Cambridgeshire

on 30.9. However while Ipswich has the highest adult unemployment figure of 9%, the next

highest is St Edmundsbury on 8.4% against an English average of 7.5%. Waveney on this

measure has a score of 4.4%, but without further research it is unclear if this is concentrated

in Lowestoft or spread across the district more widely.

57 | P a g e

Information from the interviews supports the statistical picture above and the picture that

emerged was that Suffolk, like parts of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, is affected by rural

issues, poor transport, low aspiration and poor progression to training and higher education

in many parts of the county. Like Norfolk it suffers from complacency because it is regarded

as a nice place to live and the average is acceptable.

For more information and an excellent insight into the challenges facing Suffolk it is worth

reading the Hidden Needs report commissioned from University of Cambridge.

www.suffolkfoundation.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=75:needs-

assessment&catid=6:latest-news

10.2 Service provision

Suffolk is akin to Cambridgeshire in terms of the quantity of cultural resource at county level.

Both the Arts Development Manager and the Museums Development Manager work closely

with related colleagues across Suffolk and these partnerships seem strong. Some of the arts

organisations such as Dance East, Aldeburgh and Eastern Angles have a remit to work

outside the county boundary and would like to do more cross border working. The Suffolk

CC Arts Development Manager works closely with the county’s arts organisations and

provides funding to a number of them including several of the seven NPOs.

The Museums Development Manager works closely with the museums, many of which are

volunteer run to a very high standard. The Library Service was unavailable to contribute to

the research as the service is currently in the final stages of becoming an independent

cooperative organisation. However there currently 47 static libraries and 200 villages and

hamlets served by mobile libraries. There is also a Schools Library Service. The Music

Service successfully led on the Suffolk Music Education Hub bid.

Suffolk County Council has closed about 17 youth clubs out of 40, but many of these had not

offered a good service as only very small numbers of young people were being served. The

service is now targeted to NEETS, or other deprived and underachieving young people.

Some youth workers will work in a community centred way, while others while be based on

the ground in areas where inclusion is a concern. While the service has been quite severely

cut, those who remain are beginning to find their feet again.

The number of arts officers is small, with only three of the possible contacts really focussing

on arts development work. There are a number of other officers who have arts in their titles

but their roles may be more limited in relation to the bridge.

One of the noticeable, and perhaps surprising, features of Suffolk is the high levels of poor

education. This had partly been tackled at a higher education level by the creation several

years ago of the University Campus Suffolk (UCS). There are six UCS centres; Ipswich,

Bury St Edmunds, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Otley and Suffolk New College This

institution will see its first graduates in 2012; however it is currently difficult to tell what the

long term impact may be. www.ucs.ac.uk/About/Abouthomepage.aspx

Education is poor at KS2, so school improvement has been an overriding issue for Suffolk

County Council since the time of the Labour Government. Suffolk’s attainment at KS2 is

poor; it is third from the bottom in England. This has had a knock on effect on curriculum

58 | P a g e

areas and other subjects which are not related to literacy and numeracy. Literacy and

numeracy levels are not as high as they ought to be and the related GCSE results are

accordingly lower than they should be.

Currently the LEA is not interested in anything which doesn’t relate to driving those

standards up. The Advisory Team has been severely restructured, but those who are left

have been working very closely with the Arts Development Manager. Networks for teachers

are much weaker than they used to be.

Key meetings for Suffolk are: Suffolk Creative Learning Collaborative, Arts Development

Officers, Association of Suffolk Museums and the museums’ Regional Learning Forum.


Table 12


Norfolk


Suffolk where they feel there are deprivation issues or concerns about cultural provision for

CYP and their families. It also lists other factors that they felt negatively affect CYP’s quality

of life, including their engagement with cultural opportunities and problems affecting their

educational opportunities.


challenges


families

Suffolk

Some of the

information came

from Suffolk

Hidden Needs

www.suffolkfoundat

ion.org.uk/index.ph

p?option=com_con

tent&view=article&i

d=75:needs-

assessment&catid

=6:latest-news

Places in need

• Lowestoft, Mildenhall,

Newmarket, Brandon and

parts of Ipswich are all areas

for concern in terms of

deprivation.


• Nearly 78,000 people in the

county live in income

deprivation at the most

minimal living standard

provided by welfare benefits,

and well below the ‘poverty

line’. This number represents

11 per cent of the total

population, and includes

19,000 children aged under

16.

• Having a job does not always

raise household income much

above the poverty threshold.

There is evidence of in-work

poverty and under-counting of

deprivation by standard

measures in some parts of the

• Income deprivation affecting

children is particularly

concentrated in the larger towns

in Suffolk.

• Across the county, less than half

of five year-olds have reached a

‘good’ level of development. This

is one of the worst outcomes in

England, and is comparable to

highly deprived urban areas.

• Childhood poverty affects

educational attainment: only 43%

of low-income pupils claiming

free school meals achieved 5

GCSEs at grades A*-C,

compared to 69% of pupils

overall.

• More than 7 per cent of young

people aged 16 to 18 in Suffolk

are not in education, training or

employment. This is higher than

the national average, and one of

the highest rates for rural areas in

England.

• The recession has hit youth

59 | P a g e


challenges


families

county, particularly Forest

Heath.

• Much of the county remains

highly rural, and access to key

services has steadily

worsened in rural areas over

the past two decades. The

distances that residents of

many parts of the county must

travel to buy groceries, see a

GP or post a parcel are

amongst the highest in

England.

• Poverty of aspiration.

• The issues associated with the

rural nature of the county are

massive.

employment hard, and recovery

is slow. Many parts of Suffolk

have limited opportunities for

young people. Demand and

supply of employment

opportunities do not always

match geographically. In

Waveney, for example, there are

seven job-seekers for every

vacancy advertised in Job

Centres.

• There are 364 schools in Suffolk

and education is poor at KS2.

Literacy and numeracy levels are

not as high as they should be and

GCSE are lower than they should

be as well.

• The numbers going into higher

education are low against national

figures.

• The new University of Suffolk will

see its first graduates in 2012 but

it is too early to say what long

term effect this establishment will

have on higher education

aspiration in the county.

• Isolated children.

• NEETS.

• Lack of aspiration is a big

problem.

• Many Suffolk schools suffer from

a lack of engagement with the

wider world and are reluctant to

take their pupils out of the school

environment or engage with

external providers.

• There are concerns about under

achievement in Suffolk but some

schools and groups have the view

that they don’t want people

coming into rural Suffolk telling

them what to do.

Babergh Places in need

• No information.


• No information.

Forest Heath Places in need

• Newmarket is poor and is

surrounded by

Cambridgeshire. The town

• There are poor education

standards across the district.

• Young people do not, on the

60 | P a g e


challenges


families

lacks a middle class which has

an impact on the demand for

provision. This may change as

more middle earners are

moving in as Cambridgeshire

becomes too expensive.

• Mildenhall. The population

includes a lot of London

overspill. The Americans on

the Air Base don’t leave it very

much.

• Brandon.


• Forest Heath is on the margins

of Suffolk .

• Newmarket has a number of

East European workers,

mostly Poles and a Muslim

Arabic population associated

with the horse racing industry.

Brandon also has a Polish

community.

• The district has the highest

percentage of unskilled

workforce members in the east

of England and is amongst

some of the lowest qualified

nationally.

• No professional arts

organisations.

• Very few visual artists.

• No cinema.

• No arts centre.

• No recognised venues.

• The village halls, of which

Mildenhall has a larger one,

are old fashioned and poorly

equipped.

• A Creative People and Places

application to cover Fenland

and Forest Heath has been

submitted.

• A successful bid would make a

huge difference to Forest

Heath on the arts side while

both heritage and arts would

benefit in Fenland.

• It would also support more

strategic planning as Forest

whole, reach their potential as

there are narrow life choices

available to them.

• The district has some of the

lowest educational achievement

nationally. Newmarket College

has a 38% A*- C rate.

• Suffolk is not high on the

deprivation indices but it does

have poor education in the state

schools. They also have low

aspirations for their pupils and are

affected by the rurality of the

area. One contributory problem is

that many staff are still recruited

locally and they are used to the

history of low standards.

• Educational standards suffer from

complacency linked to Suffolk

being regarded as a nice place to

live.

• There are high levels of free

school meals which point to

hidden deprivation.

• Even the best schools when

advising their pupils about

university applications do not

push them towards the top

universities or the Russell Group.

• The best schools are the catholic

ones.

• On the positive side both upper

schools in Forest Heath now have

new head teachers and positive

changes are beginning to become

apparent.

61 | P a g e


challenges


families

Heath requires more provision

and opportunities in the poorer

areas.

• Ultimately more money is

needed to make a difference

as the district is starting from a

low base of infrastructure and

provision.

Ipswich Places in need

• Parts of Ipswich.


• No information.

Mid Suffolk Places in need

• Stowmarket is often quoted as

an area for concern however

provision is improving there.


• No information.

St Edmundsbury Places in need

• Although there are pockets of

identified deprivation in West

Suffolk (Haverhill, Forest

Heath) the rural isolation can

be as difficult to overcome as

financial isolation.

• There are a couple of areas

within Bury.

• Two estates in Haverhill have

the highest need.


• No information.

• Transport is one of the biggest

problems for young people.

• The role of dance delivery is

currently being re-examined.

Suffolk Coastal Places in need

• No information.


• No information.

Waveney Places in need

• Lowestoft has areas of

deprivation.

• Waveney.


• The rural areas of the district

are better off and the

deprivation is not so high.

Those in rural areas will travel

to events and activities but not

vice versa so people from

Beccles will travel to Lowestoft

but not the other way.

• Halesworth and surrounding

• Active Waveney and its

programmes are the result of a lot

of consultation. Obesity, health

and well being were identified as

needs. The outcomes include a

lot of voluntary young people’s

programmes that work with

schools. Dance is part of this mix,

including dance days run by

Dance East.

• Distance and lack of engagement

make these challenging and

costly areas in which to deliver

work.

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challenges


families

areas has very few

opportunities to work with

professional practitioners,

particularly in relation to new

writing and work.

10.4 Schools

Source: www.suffolk.gov.uk/education-and-careers/schools-and-support-in-education/applying-for-a-school-place#A6

Suffolk schools are divided into three areas: western, northern and southern. Education is

delivered on a primary, middle, upper model, in different parts of the county, so educationally

Suffolk is different from other parts of the bridge area. In 2006 Suffolk County Council began

a review of its school system. This review found that children in the three-tier system made

less progress than similar children in the two-tier system. The review recommended that the

Council began a review of school organisation in Suffolk with a preferred option of a two- tier

system of Primary and Secondary School education. This was approved by the County

Council in 2007 and the county schools are moving towards converting to a two tier

education system.

It is difficult to give a precise figure for the number of Suffolk schools because due to the

structural changes schools numbers are in a state of flux. In the course of the interviews a

figure of 364 was quoted. However looking at the admissions material for 2011-2012 the

figures seemed to be as follows:



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• 28 Middle schools

• 43 Upper/high schools


• 13 Pupil Referral Units (PRU)


Table 13

Schools by sector in Suffolk

Suffolk Nursery Primary Middle Upper/High Special PRU Ind. Total

Northern 74 6 12 2 3 97

Southern 1 88 0 17 3 5 114

Western 92 22 14 3 5 136

Countywide 31 31

Total 1 254 28 43 8 13 31 378


Table 14






Local Authority

area





research

Suffolk County

Council


development, heritage, youth

services and music service.

Jayne Knight, Arts Development

Manager

Lyn Gash, Museum Development

Manager

Babergh District

Council

Arts Service

Forest Heath

District Council

Arts and Heritage

Lizzi Cocker, Arts & Heritage

Officer

Ipswich Borough

Council

Cultural development but does not

include an arts officer. The

Museums service is run by

Colchester and Ipswich Museums.

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Lucy Bayliss, Head of Learning

& Participation, Dance East

Michael Linge, Assistant

Producer, Red Rose Chain

Mid Suffolk District

Council

Arts officer

St Edmundsbury

Borough Council

No arts officer but runs a venue

(the apex) and a festival.

Museums.

Nick Wells, Festival, Arts &

Entertainment Manager

Lynn Whitehead, Head of

Creative Learning, Theatre

Royal Bury St Edmunds

Suffolk Coastal

District Council

No arts officer

Phillipa Reive, Head of

Education, Aldeburgh Music

Waveney District

Council

Service Manager - Sports & Arts.

Museums

Claire Henwood, Service Manager

- Sports & Arts

Philippa Wilkinson, Projects

Producer, High Tide Festival

Theatre

Alex Casey, Co-Director,

Suffolk Artlink

10.6 Suffolk County Council

There is little more to say specifically about Suffolk County Council, the top tier authority in

the county, which hasn’t already been highlighted in the section about the county as a

whole.

One other interesting aspect of the county council is that it was an early and leading

advocate of localism and the ‘Big Society’ approach. Until about a year ago was moving

towards becoming an enabling authority. This would have meant most services being

delivered through a commissioning arrangement and in time a very small staff of about 500

would have been left, mostly of commissioners. After a change of council leadership, the

CEO left, and these plans were halted. However there is a strong likelihood that much of this

approach will continue, but more slowly.

One service that will change fairly soon is the library service. The original plans for the

change in the management and delivery of libraries were so well advanced that these will

continue. In future the library service will be delivered through an independent cooperative

structure. www.suffolk.gov.uk

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10.7 Babergh Borough Council

Babergh has two officers who job share the community/arts post, however neither had time

to contribute to the audit research. The council website states “The Arts and Community

development service is aimed at encouraging and nurturing the arts in the Babergh area and

recognises the value that cultural activity can have on communities, individuals and

businesses”. www.babergh.gov.uk/Babergh/Home/Leisure+-+Be+Active+-+Tourism+-

+Arts/Arts+and+Culture/Arts+Welcome+Page.htm

10.8 Forest Heath District Council

The Arts & Heritage Officer sits in a very strong community services team that works closely

together and has done so for a long time. Services in future will be shared with St

Edmundsbury Council although the councillors will not be affected by this change, only

officers. There is concern about how the two council’s cultural services teams will fit together

as the services sit in different departments and have different approaches and

responsibilities. www.forest-heath.gov.uk

The Arts & Heritage Officer is the sole officer covering both arts and heritage but with the

emphasis mostly on the heritage side. Her current work is heavily involved with the three

museums in the district, National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket, the redevelopment

of Mildenhall Museum and Brandon Heritage Centre. Her heritage role includes supporting

the museums and heritage open days so that the value of the museums is clear to the

community and to visitors.

The Cultural Services team work closely together using a cross disciplinary approach.

Examples of this include the Equalities team working with Suffolk County Council on an

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) funded Young Roots project and Health Improvement staff

cooking in schools.

10.9 Ipswich Borough Council

There is no Arts Development Officer in Ipswich although the town is culturally rich and has

four of the seven Suffolk NPOs, as well as many other arts organisations.

www.ipswich.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200006 .

The museum service is part of Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. This Essex/Suffolk

cross border museum service was a Museum Hub but failed to obtain funding in the latest

ACE managed round of funding. Unfortunately there was no response from the museum

service to a request for information. www.cimuseums.org.uk/home.html

Ipswich is home to four of Suffolk’s NPOs and these are:

• Dance East

• Eastern Angles

• Gecko Theatre


The University Campus Suffolk has a large campus development in Ipswich.

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10.10 Mid Suffolk District Council

Mid Suffolk has an Arts Service which appears, from the Rural Arts Suffolk website, to work

in partnership with Babergh Arts and Suffolk Coastal. There is an Arts Officer but they were

not able to respond to the request for information during the audit.

www.ruralartssuffolk.org.uk

10.11 St Edmundsbury Borough Council

The Festival, Arts & Entertainment Manager, manages the Festival (which has run for 27

years) and programmes the apex, a new concert hall and music venue. The Festival is an

eleven day music event in May which has national and international links and includes a

wide range of music which encompasses classical, jazz, world and folk. Community

engagement work is done through projects and discussions have recently been taking place

with Aldeburgh about possible collaborations.

The council also supports Moyse’s Hall Museum and West Stow Anglo Saxon Village. Both

of these offer sessions for schools and events for CYP and their families. The council does

not have an arts development office, so no arts development work is undertaken across the

district. St Edmundsbury and Forest Heath District Council are due to share services, the

impact of which is not yet known. www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk

Bury St Edmunds is home to the Theatre Royal one of Suffolk’s seven NPOs. The theatre

has a strong learning offer and is keen to develop this further develop including skills

development and experience for those leaving school. A key organisational aim is to ensure

that both participation and professional work reaches the rural community. Smith’s Row, an

ex- RFO, is also in the town.

Elsewhere in the district is an arts centre at Haverhill which serves that town.

10.12 Suffolk Coastal District Council

There is no arts officer in Suffolk Coastal although the district is one of the partners on the

Rural Arts Suffolk website. www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk and www.ruralartssuffolk.org.uk .

The district is home to Aldeburgh Music, one of the seven Suffolk NPOs. Aldeburgh is a lead

partner with Suffolk County Music Service on the Suffolk Music Education Hub. It is also

quoted as a delivery partner in the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Music Education Hub

applications. The Suffolk County Council brief for Aldeburgh includes running large projects.

One of these is the schools festival which is aimed at all the county’s state schools. In over

25 years only two or three schools have not taken part, so this has a widespread effect in the

county. Amongst a range of very interesting work for CYP is their Arts Award work with

young prisoners at the nearby prison, HMYOI Warren Hill, and with young people with

complex needs.

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10.13 Waveney District Council

The council has a strong involvement with sport and museums. Lowestoft, a notable area of

deprivation for the bridge, is in this district and a focus of much council supported sporting

activity, including dance.

There are quite a number of museums in the area which are financially supported by the

council, as they are seen to add to the economic/tourism offer. Lowestoft has six museums,

however only three of these are accredited. The arts are missing from this picture because

the council was given a very strong steer, by the local arts community, that they did not want

the council to lead in this area of cultural provision. There is a strong local play partnership

which is very active. www.waveney.gov.uk

The arts are managed locally by Waveney & Blyth Arts.

Waveney is home to one of seven Suffolk NPOs, the High Tide Festival Theatre. The

organisation runs an annual festival theatre and helps discover and develop new

playwrights. It already works with schools and this work will develop further.

Suffolk Artlink is a participatory arts charity delivering high quality creative activities to a

range of people including young people, people with learning disabilities, children in

hospitals and older people. Suffolk Artlink also plays a developmental role in the county by

creating partnerships with other organisations in order to deliver innovative projects. One

major aim, running though all the projects, is to add sustainability so they can deliver long

term high quality activities, rather than always having to buy expertise in.

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11. Education, Schools and Children and Young People

The national and bridge area educational context continues to rapidly evolve but the arts and

cultural sector is well placed to respond, having built up considerable expertise over the

years, despite the sometimes frustrating experience of trying to engage with schools.

There is plenty of evidence of the benefits to schools of working with museums, libraries and

the arts. However the difficulty of communicating with schools, often with those who would

most benefit, due to the multiple challenges they face, cannot be underestimated.

Engagement with such schools, as well as the rest of the education sector, at a time of rapid

change, will be major challenge for the bridge and its partners.

11.1 Education

There is currently a considerable rate of change affecting all stages of education from early

years through to higher education. This will continue to be the case for the foreseeable

future. The following paragraphs highlight some of these developments but they are not

comprehensive and may look dated in a short time as new initiatives and developments

emerge in the coming months.

11.2 Early Years

The Early Years Foundation Stage is defined as 0-5 in the 2006 Childcare Act. This area of

provision has recently been the subject of a review led by Dame Clare Tickell and the

recommendations, published on the 30th March 2012 were:

• Significantly reducing the number of early learning goals children are assessed

against at age five from 69 to 17.

• Parents to get a summary of their child’s development, alongside the health visitor

check at age two, to help identify any early problems or special educational needs.

• A new focus on three prime areas which are the foundations for children’s ability to

learn and develop healthily: personal, social and emotional development;

communication and language; and physical development.

• Beneath these should be four areas of learning where these skills are applied:

literacy, mathematics, expressive arts and design and understanding the world.

• With the three new prime areas of learning, a greater emphasis on making sure

children have the basic social, emotional communication and language skills they

need to learn and thrive at school – things like being able to make friends and listen

effectively. There should also be a stronger link between the EYFS and what is

expected of children in KS1.

• Freeing the workforce from unnecessary bureaucracy so they can spend more time

interacting with children – including scrapping written risk assessments for nursery

trips and outings.

• All early years practitioners to have at least a level 3 qualification (which is equivalent

to A level) and the Government should consider applying the ‘teaching schools’

model to the early years.

• Ofsted should be clearer on what is required of settings when they are inspected to

help reduce high levels of paperwork.

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• Independent schools should be allowed to apply to opt out of the learning and

development part of the EYFS, and the exemptions process should be made easier. Source www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/earlylearningandchildcare/a0076193/early-years-foundation-

stage-to-be-radically-slimmed-down

The government plans to respond to the recommendations in the summer of 2012. Any

changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage will begin in September 2012 at the earliest.

At the same time the Early Years training and qualifications of the associated work force has

been reviewed by Professor Cathy Nutbrown. Her interim recommendations published on

the 13th March 2012 were:

• An effective qualifications structure that motivates people working in the early years

and tells employers what skills and knowledge they have.

• Courses that prepare people for working in the early years, raise the standards of

those choosing to enter the profession, give them the right skills in literacy and

numeracy and include the latest cutting edge detail about child development.

• The case for expanding the role of teachers in the early years, creating new teaching

pathways with an early years specialism, linking more closely the education worlds of

the school and the early years. Source: www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00205061/nutbrowninterim

For those working in the cultural sectors two of the areas of learning ‘expressive arts and

design’ and ‘understanding the world’ should hopefully provide some promising opportunities

to work with this education sector.

The final report of the Nutbrown Review is expected in the summer of 2012.

11.3 Primary and secondary education

These sectors both face a number of common challenges, quite apart from those that they

face separately. These include:

• The increasing likelihood of schools converting to academy status. Among other

things this will mean independence from the local education authority and control, by

a school, of all its budgets.

• The new OFSTED inspection regime which is due to be tougher than the current

model.

• The introduction of Teaching Schools, a network of schools funded to lead on

training, sharing good practise and research.

• The Pupil Premium which is allocated to schools for pupils who are on free school

meals. This money is intended to ‘narrow the gap’ between this group and their better

off peers. This is an ambition that those in the cultural sector could practically help to

deliver.

• The potential competition for resources with Free Schools.

• Concern over budgets and the effect reducing these will have on school provision.

The latter is of particular concern to those from the cultural sector working with

schools, as there is already evidence that this is the type of provision is being lost

due to reduced budgets.

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• The schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, sets out a radical reform

programme for the schools system, with schools freed from the constraints of central

Government direction and teachers placed firmly at the heart of school improvement.

Amongst other things it includes powers for teachers to improve discipline; a vision

for a transformed school curriculum; changes to school performance tables, Ofsted

inspections; and governance and school-led school improvement replacing top-down

initiatives. Source: www.education.gov.uk/schools/toolsandinitiatives/schoolswhitepaper/b0068570/the-

importance-of-teaching/

• Henley reviews of music education and cultural education in England

11.4 Primary schools and education 5-11

In addition to the joint factors identified above, there are others which only affect this sector:

• Review of the National Curriculum. A full consultation on English, maths and science

will begin late 2012.

• The recent suggestion by the Secretary of State for Education concerning primary

age children learning another language, other than English, from age 7.

11.5 Secondary schools and education 11-16

In addition to the joint factors identified above, there are others which only affect this sector:

• The move to the English Baccalaureate which is made up of English, mathematics,

history or geography, the sciences and a language. There has been concern at how

this will impact on arts subjects and whether numbers taking them will reduce. There

were some early indications that this might indeed be the case amongst some of

those interviewed.

• Changes to the National Curriculum which will be introduced in 2013.

• Changes to GCSE’s from September 2012 which was already due to happen.

However this development may be overtaken by their possible abolition and

replacement by a new exam as announced to the House of Commons by the

Secretary of State for Education on the 21st June 2012.

• The review of ‘A’ levels which, although it will affect post 16 education, may have an

effect on the curriculum or teaching for this younger age group as well.

• Raising of the Participation in Education to 17 in 2013 and 18 by 2015.

11.6 Post – 16 education

Factors to be noted in this area of education and learning include

• Review of ‘A’ levels.

• Changes to the school leaving age which will go up to 18 by 2015.

• Increase in university tuition fees to £9,000 a year which may have an effect on the

choices of this younger age group.

• Wolf Review of Vocational Education.

• Apprenticeships.

The Wolf Review of Vocational Education was asked to consider how vocational education

for 14 to 19 year-olds can be improved in order to promote successful progression into the

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labour market and into higher level education and training routes. Key recommendations in

the report include:

• Incentivising young people to take the most valuable vocational qualifications pre-16,

while removing incentives to take large numbers of vocational qualifications to the

detriment of core academic study.

• Introducing principles to guide study programmes for young people on vocational

routes post-16 to ensure they are gaining skills which will lead to progression into a

variety of jobs or further learning, in particular, to ensure that those who have not

secured a good pass in English and mathematics GCSE continue to study those

subjects.

• Evaluating the delivery structure and content of apprenticeships to ensure they

deliver the right skills for the workplace.

• Removing the requirement that all qualifications offered to 14 to 19 year-olds fit within

the Qualifications and Credit Framework.

• Enabling FE lecturers and professionals to teach in schools, ensuring young people

are being taught by those best suited.

In response, the government will take action on all the individual recommendations and will

deliver on three key themes:

• “Ensure that all young people study and achieve in English and mathematics, ideally

to GCSE A*-C, by the age of 19. For those young people who are not immediately

able to achieve these qualifications, we will identify high quality English and maths

qualifications that will enable them to progress to GCSE later. We will also reform

GCSE to ensure that they are a more reliable indicator of achievement in the basics,

in particular by ensuring that GCSEs are reformed alongside our current review of

the National Curriculum.

• Reform performance tables and funding rules to remove the perverse incentives

which have served only to devalue vocational education, while pushing young people

into qualification routes that do not allow them to move into work or further learning.

Those vocational qualifications that attract performance points will be the very best

for young people – in terms of their content, assessment and progression.

• Look at the experience of other countries to simplify Apprenticeships, remove

bureaucracy and make them easier for employers to offer.” Source: www.education.gov.uk/16to19/qualificationsandlearning/a0074953/review-of-vocational-education-the-wolf-report

Apprenticeships are also seen as of key importance to young people to acquire the training

and skills they need to enter and progress in work, move into higher-level skills development

and build fulfilling careers. Apprenticeships provide new opportunities and life chances for

young people and adults. Source www.education.gov.uk/a0064398/increasing-and-improving-apprenticeships-

opportunities

The sector skills council, Creative and Cultural Skills works through the National Skills

Academy to develop progression routes into creative careers. The National Skills Academy

is a membership network of 20 colleges and 220 theatre and live music employers

nationwide. The organisation recognises, develops and improves skills opportunities to

provide pathways into the creative and cultural industries. City College Norwich is a member

of the NSA and the only one in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area. Source: http://nsa-ccskills.co.uk/

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11.7 Information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit

Although education and schools were beyond the direct scope of the audit research and

report due to time constraints, a considerable amount of information was obtained about

schools and their networks. All three disciplines, arts, libraries and museums work with

schools and in education. As CYP are at the core of Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)’s

mission, developing successful partnerships with schools and education will be one of three

key relationships alongside those with the cultural sector and local authorities.

This focus on working with schools is needed. Those interviewed will welcome it as there

was widespread concern about the education offer and extracurricular activities provision

across much of the area. Added to this were concerns about the current speed of change in

education and the ability of other sectors, which have a stake in working with CYP and

schools, to keep up with them. For example museums in the east of England did a lot of

work on engaging with schools through learning how to develop a relationship with the Local

Education Authority (LEA). However as the academy programme accelerates and the LEAs

become less important, in the much more fragmented picture that is emerging, museums will

need to find ways of establishing new relationships. Such work takes time and it can feel like

the long term investments of energy are lost very quickly.

While there is excellent provision in some parts of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

area, such as South Cambridgeshire, the overall impression is of a sector that is

underachieving. The same evidence came up often; complacency, low aspiration, poor exam

results and schools that won’t encourage their pupils to participate in experiences outside

the immediate area. In Norfolk and Suffolk there is difficulty in recruiting staff from outside

the county so the problems remain entrenched. In Suffolk the LEA has been experiencing

difficulties. Added to what is already a worrying picture, is the concern that schools are

becoming worse off financially and are increasingly unable to afford the trips or activities that

could help counteract some of these problems.

Many of those working in the arts (both local authority officers and arts organisations) have

considerable experience of working with education. Libraries and museums are usually good

at identifying the problems affecting young people in their area and developing work to try

and counteract these. What is also interesting about this is the local nature of the solutions,

which, in the case of museums, is often based on the local collection or heritage. However

these solutions can also be adapted by others for use in their own local circumstances.

Museums, in particular, benefitted from MLA funded posts that supported cross regional

projects to test ideas and approaches. Libraries, too, develop such projects, but being large,

usually countywide authorities, their aim is to develop an approach that can be adapted

across the whole service area. In both cases however, such work may be delivered by staff

or volunteers who do not have a particular learning or CYP remit, or experience. This not a

criticism because the work is often of a very high standard, more a note of advice to those

not so well acquainted with those sectors.

Concern was expressed several times that schools do not realise what is on offer to them

locally nor do they realise the quality of the offer. Many schools still look to London or

opportunities outside their county or regional area. This is not because arts and museums, in

particular, are not communicating their offer. Two or three interviewees mentioned

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contacting local schools to offer, free or at low cost, an opportunity involving performances or

workshops for which the take up was low or non-existent. However this touches on a whole

other area of concern about how schools can be communicated and worked with. This is a

long standing problem but with the current changes in education, and in poorer times, it

appears to be getting worse. This is something the bridge needs to be fully aware of both for

its own programme involving schools, as well as being the strategic lead for work in this field.

None of the people interviewed, with the exception of the Arts Development Managers in

South Cambridgeshire, work in schools. The views expressed below are from people who

work with schools or who are working with those who are having particular problems with

schools and the educational sector.

As direct consultation with schools was not part of the brief for the audit research, Norfolk &

Norwich Festival (Bridge) may want to consider how it can contact those working in schools

and education directly to establish their views and needs. The information and networks

already suggested in this report could act as a basis for planning further engagement with

the education and schools sector.

Comments included:

• Less available money for school trips.

• In Cambridge there is a cluster of schools that lack the resources to afford the

educational offer of the museums.

• Teachers also need to have the confidence to value what there is in their

communities and locally rather than feeling the need to go elsewhere to provide high

quality opportunities for their CYP.

• In the districts there is a strong network in secondary and primary schools (dance

related).

• There is no dance teachers’ network. Norfolk Dance and the Theatre Royal are trying

to revive a network following the loss of the Schools’ Coordinator post.

• There are high levels of non-school attendance in parts of Yarmouth and it is

important to work with youth agencies in addition to schools.

• One concern is that the Borough Council has not fully embraced the value of the arts

and this attitude can be picked up by others, including the local schools.

• It is hard to engage with the high schools due to curriculum restrictions and several of

these including King’s Lynn and West Norfolk are dealing with social challenges.

• Norwich has one of the lowest GCSE achievement rates in the country (bottom 10%

for last 10 years, third from bottom nationally in 2010/11).

• South Norfolk has a lot of small rural schools with low aspirations and poor financial

resources

• Often the low level of aspiration and sameness of what is on offer in some of the rural

areas. The ‘not very exciting’ isn’t challenged and many of those running sessions

have become stale. There is low engagement in CPD because people are not being

pushed or challenged. In turn this leads to a lack of energy.

• In education, Peterborough is one of the lowest achieving areas in England.

• Low aspiration with low numbers progress to higher education.

• Poor language skills in both English and other languages.

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• At a recent celebration of music for schools at Snape Maltings a school from

Stowmarket would not attend because it regarded the 23 mile journey as too far

away.

• There are problems related to teacher CPD in that schools will not release teachers

due to the cost of cover and associated disruption. The Music Service offered free

Sing Up training in schools but teachers were not released to attend.

• In other cases attendance by teachers hasn’t happened because the costs of

engaging were regarded as too high.

• Schools are losing the access to activities as funding begins to disappear; for

example it is increasingly uneconomical to bring in a TIE organisation.

• In Suffolk school improvement has been a big issue since the time of the Labour

Government. KS2 (7-11) is third from the bottom in England.

• Poverty of aspiration.

• The numbers going into higher education are low against national figures.

• London is still important for school visits, which means Suffolk organisations are

competing with those in London.

• There is also a tendency amongst the local schools not to be very interested in the

cultural offer.

• There are poor education standards across the district.

• Young people do not, on the whole, reach their potential as there are narrow life

choices available to them.

• The district has some of the lowest educational achievement nationally. Newmarket

College has a 38% A*- C rate.

• Suffolk is not high on the deprivation indices but it does have poor education in the

state schools. They also have low aspirations for their pupils and are affected by the

rurality of the area. One contributory problem is that many staff are still recruited

locally and they are used to the history of low standards. Educational standards

suffer from complacency linked to Suffolk being regarded as a nice place to live.

11.8 Arts and cultural education

There are several arts and cultural initiatives that affect both education and the future of

Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge). These are the two Henley reviews, Artsmark and Arts

Award.

11.9 Henley – Music Education in England

The Music Education in England report by Darren Henley, published in 2011, has already

had an important outcome with the setting up of the Music Education Hubs. These will be

overseen by ACE and will be expected to work closely with the bridge. The summary of the

report concluded that:

• Many children in England benefit from excellent music teaching from excellent

teachers. In some parts of the country, the opportunities for children to take part in

musical activities are immense. However, some children in England do not currently

receive an adequate, let alone good, Music Education.

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• The Review lays down recommendations for minimum expectations of what any child

going through the English school system should receive in terms of an education in

music.

• It also outlines a national plan, which describes the expectations of how Music

Education should develop over the coming years - this section of recommendations

is designed to ensure that patchiness is replaced by consistency, so that children are

able to enjoy the same level of Music Education, no matter where in England they

happen to live. • Source: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/AllPublications/Page11/DFE-00011-2011

This review was followed by the ‘The Importance of Music’, the first national plan for music

education. It sets out the Government’s vision for music education; to enable children from

all backgrounds and every part of England to have the opportunity to learn a musical

instrument; to make music with others; to learn to sing; and to have the opportunity to

progress to the next level of excellence.

This is part of the Government’s aim to ensure that all pupils have rich cultural opportunities alongside their academic and vocational studies.

Amongst other things the plan will:

• Provide a new national funding formula to make sure all parts of the country get fair

funding for music on a per pupil basis, with a weighting for deprivation.

• A new music teaching module will be developed for trainee primary teachers, to give

them extra skills to teach music.

• Continued funding of £500,000 per year to the National Youth Music Organisations

fund, matched by the Arts Council England currently via Youth Music.

• Continued support for the internationally recognised Music and Dance Scheme –

which provides money for exceptionally gifted young people to attend the highly

specialist music and dance schools.

• Continued funding for In Harmony, Sistema England, augmented by matched funding

from Arts Council England so that the programme can expand.

From August 2012, music education hubs will be funded to bring together local authorities

and local music organisations, like orchestras, choirs and other music groups. They will work

in partnership to make sure every child has a high quality music education, including the

opportunity to learn to sing, to play an instrument and to make music with others. The hubs

will be fully operational from September 2012. The hubs, which will be held accountable for

their effectiveness, will also help improve the consistency around the country and make sure

all pupils receive a high quality music education. Source: www.education.gov.uk/schools/teachingandlearning/curriculum/a00200352/national-plan-for-music-education

Four Music Education Hubs have been announced in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

area. These are Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Norfolk and Suffolk. In Peterborough the

service is new and based around the Hub bid. In the other three areas the bids were led by

the county music services but involved a range of partners including Aldeburgh Music and

Britten Sinfonia, two of the NPOs in the bridge area. All will be working closely with the

bridge.

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11.10 Henley – Review of Cultural Education

In 2011, the Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, asked Darren Henley to carry out a review of

cultural education. The review was published in February 2012 and among the

recommendations are:

• There should be a minimum level of Cultural Education that a child should expect to

receive during his or her schooling as a whole.

• The government should develop a single National Cultural Education Plan. This

document should set out its ambitions for children and young people in this area,

while ensuring the development of a framework that enables these ambitions to be

delivered.

• Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the British Film Institute, the Big

Lottery Fund and English Heritage should work together to ensure that their

individual strategies/plans in the area of Cultural Education cohere in a way that adds

up to a single over-arching strategy in line with the government’s stated ambitions.

By coming together as a new Cultural Education Partnership Group (CEPG), this

could ultimately result in a single strategic commissioning fund for Cultural Education

money in England.

• The CEPG should consider establishing a new Cultural Education Passport scheme

for children between the ages of five and nineteen, which records all of their in-school

and out of school cultural activities, enabling parents, carers and teachers to

understand what each child has achieved and to plug any gaps in knowledge and

experience.

• Consideration should be given to rolling a structure out across the rest of the Cultural

Education spectrum, to enable meaningful partnerships on the ground across

different art forms and using all of the expertise and venues that are available in a

given area. This could be achieved through the further development of Arts Council

England’s Bridge Organisations, which currently focus on the arts, to include other

cultural areas.

• Greater priority should be given to the importance of Design as a curriculum subject

within schools.

• Consideration should be given to promoting Dance and Drama to subject areas in

their own right, rather than being seen as junior partners to P.E. and English.

• Most children and young people should be encouraged to take part in the Arts Award

and Junior Arts Award, which should be regarded as a valuable qualification.

• The scope of the Artsmark Award should be widened to include all areas of cultural

education covered by this Review. Source: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/publications/8875.aspx

The government responded positively to the report and the review endorses the role of the

bridge to help support or establish networks for arts, libraries, heritage, museums and film

with schools.

11.11 Artsmark

Artsmark is the national programme that enables schools, further education colleges and

youth justice settings to evaluate, celebrate and strengthen a quality arts offer. The new

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focus of Artsmark is to support Arts Council England’s strategic framework for the arts,

‘Achieving Great Art for Everyone’. It delivers this by, amongst other things, providing:

• A kitemark for quality in provision of the arts

• Rigorous criteria against which applicants can benchmark their provision

• The creation of a network of organisations committed to high quality, broad and

sustainable arts provision. Source: http://www.artsmark.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/how%20to%20apply_0.pdf

Along with Arts Award which is discussed below, Artsmark will provide key KPIs for the

bridge.

11.12 Artsmark information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit

Due to the importance of this scheme to the bridge, those interviewed during the audit

process were asked for their views. As far as Artsmark was concerned the most common

response when asked about it was ‘no idea’. Arts officers and some museums, which work

with schools, were able to give a much clearer picture of their local schools’ involvement.

Some felt that the bridge could help Artsmark expansion by flagging up the cultural

organisations that can help support schools to achieve the award.

There was also considerable concern that lack of knowledge of the award meant teachers

and parents don’t really understand the importance of it, even though the award is

acknowledged by Ofsted. At a time of pressure on budgets and time, Artsmark needs to

have a much clearer identity or schools will withdraw from the scheme.

Comments included:

• There is a concern about schools being pushed towards academy status and the

benefit of Artsmark is not clear.

• As school budgets are tight the benefits of the scheme need to be made clear as

currently Artsmark is not top of anyone’s agenda but instead it becomes lost among

other competing demands.

• Ofsted is now recognising Artsmark which needs shouting about so its value is

realised by those who are sceptical.

• The current deadlines are much too tight and if there are future awkward changes,

more schools will withdraw from the scheme.

• The public understanding of the scheme is poor and it could do with some profile

raising. Again emphasising the Ofsted angle would help.

• Profile raising for Artsmark as there is a lot of work needed on this.

• Beginning to see the impact of the EBac, and its lack of arts inclusion, on the school.

For schools the EBac subjects are the priority so if Artsmark is to improve or have a

higher profile how can it compete against this priority? Is there a way that it can be

included in the EBac process?

• Schools are not approaching Kettles Yard, NPOs or other cultural providers over

Artsmark. Equally those organisations need more encouragement, and possibly

training, to support them to approach schools about involving them in the Artsmark

process.

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• One positive sign recently was the high attendance by schools at Artsmark training

days which saw 33 schools represented, including three head teachers. (Suffolk)

This lack of knowledge or interest is borne out in the statistics below

Table 15

Number of Artsmark Awards by Level in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area

(2010)

Round Segment Norfolk

CC Cambridgeshire

CC Suffolk

CC Peterborou

gh

Current

Artsmark 34 7 6 4 Artsmark Silver 28 8 8 5

Artsmark Gold 21 13 9 5 Total Artsmark Awards

83 28 23 14

Historical

Artsmark 79 25 24 9 Artsmark Silver 39 33 32 10

Artsmark Gold 78 30 29 11 Total Artsmark Awards

196 88 85 30

Source: Arts Council England, Year: 2010 Measure: Number of Artsmark awards achieved by schools

As can be seen in the last round of the award in 2010, less than half the number of awards

were made compared to historical levels. Currently 148 institutions have Artsmark in the

bridge area as compared to 399 historically. Even if one just thinks of this in terms of schools

rather than FE or youth justice settings the number is small compared to the 1121 schools

across the bridge area, excluding independent schools. The current holders represent about

13% of the total number of schools. This would suggest that the bridge and it partners will

have quite a challenge to raise the numbers although, widening the scope to include all

areas of cultural education as recommended in Henley, may possibly help once the

partnerships across the cultural spectrum are in place.

11.13 Arts Award

Arts Award is a national qualification that supports young people who want to deepen their

engagement with the arts, helping them to develop as artists and arts leaders. It is open to

7–25 year olds and managed by Trinity College London in association with Arts Council

England.

Since its launch in 2005, the award has grown quickly and is now flourishing in arts centres,

colleges and schools, community projects, libraries, galleries, local authorities, theatres,

youth clubs and youth justice settings. Source: www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/arts-council-initiatives/arts-award/

The award can be achieved at five levels, four accredited qualifications and an introductory

award. These are Discovery, Explore, Bronze silver and Gold. Participants explore any of art

forms including performing arts, visual arts, literature, media and multimedia. The award

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builds confidence, helps young people to enjoy cultural activities, and prepares them for

further education or employment. Source: www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=0

11.14 Arts Award information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit

Amongst those interviewed, Arts Award has a high profile and has been offered by a wide

range of arts organisations, schools, arts teams and museums. The latter sector ran a

scheme, supported by MLA funding, for five museums across the East of England to have

their staff trained as Arts Award Advisers to deliver the Bronze Award. The work is being

reviewed but the initial outcomes were very positive.

There was considerable interest in knowing more about the scheme from some

interviewees. Others were happy to revisit it, having been put off previously by the expense

or complexity. One other common comment was that people had been trained in Arts Award

but then had too few opportunities to put their training into practice.

There were also some objections to the scheme, partly because it was felt the Children’s

Universities in Suffolk and Norfolk offered better, more appropriate, possibilities to libraries

and museums. While other objections were on the grounds of the consistency of the offer or

pressure on CYP’s time to be take part in assessed activities. There was some enthusiasm

for the new Discover and Explore strand of Arts Award.

Comments included:

• Would like to discuss Arts Award welcome for families and the potential Artsmark

offer for schools as part of Wysing offer.

• There are some young people who are disaffected with Arts Award as there is a lack

of consistency of how it is delivered. Organisations need to know how they can be

confident in the quality of the delivery and assessment. They also need to be clear

about the rigour of the assessors’ training.

• There has been a lack of opportunity in some rural areas for people to be able to

apply their Arts Award training. They need support to able to apply this in their own

communities.

• Arts Award is an area we shall be keen to work with the bridge to develop.

• King’s Lynn Arts Centre ran one of the national Arts Award 7 – 11 pilots via a

Saturday Art Club model and will be championing this following final training when it

launches.

• The bridge could help by flagging up to schools, which are planning Arts Award, what

high quality resources exist locally. This would also help build local awareness and

sustainability.

.

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Table 16

Number of Young Persons with Arts Award (New Awards) (2010-11)

The statistics relating to Arts Award for the bridge area show the following picture

Time Period

Segment Norfolk

CC Cambridgeshire

CC Suffolk

CC Peterboroug

h

October 2010 - March 2011

Bronze 123 86 57 0

Silver 3 15 10 0 Gold 0 0 0 0 Total Arts Awards

126 101 67 0

April 2011 - September 2011

Bronze 126 108 105 9

Silver 5 14 10 3 Gold 2 0 1 0 Total Arts Awards

133 122 116 12

Source: Arts Award data from Trinity College London, Year: 2011 Measure: Number of new Arts Awards achieved by young people

Unlike Artsmark, the figures for Arts Award show the numbers of young people achieving the

award increasing, particularly for Bronze awards. This rise is only marginal in Norfolk but is

more substantial in Cambridgeshire but Suffolk. However the total numbers involved are

very small overall. As the percentage of the total number of young people those achieving

Arts Award is 0.19% in Cambridgeshire, 0.04% in Peterborough, 0.17% in Norfolk and

0.15% in Suffolk. On the current picture it looks as though considerable work will have to be

done to raise these figures to even 1%.

11.15 Children and Young People

Children and Young People of all ages, and the need, or wish, to offer them high quality

cultural and learning opportunities are at the heart of why the bridge exists. One is conscious

that in this report they, and their views, are only represented by adult individuals and

organisations that work with them in so many different ways across the cultural sector. What

those interviewees said is a good starting point for providing some information but, just as

schools and educational representatives need to be consulted in due course, so will children

and young people.

The bridge is in a fortunate position to be able to do this, as there is a good range of ways to

consult with young people across the bridge area. These opportunities range include formal

youth councils, organisations’ youth representatives, mailing lists, virtual groups and groups

of CYP with an activity or organisation in common. There was also a lot of willingness by

interviewees to help with such work.

Despite this major omission it should be noted that there is some excellent work going on in

the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area. Through examples of CYP’s activities and work

and associated evaluations, the bridge has been provided with a good starting point.

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Reading the attached interviews in Appendix 1 is the only way to gain a full flavour of the

provision and ambition to do more. Right across the bridge area there is outstanding

provision and many of those doing it were kind enough to contribute to the audit research.

Although, as was evident in section four of this report, the bridge area faces challenges

linked to geography, infrastructure, resources and low density of population it does have

allies and expertise to draw on, so that through partnerships and networks the offer to CYP

can be broadened and improved.

One thing that this report cannot demonstrate is how young people, and perhaps to a slightly

lesser extent children, feel about cultural activity and whether that is how they want to spend

their free time. In due course the bridge may want to investigate whether all CYP see such

provision as a good thing or not. If some disagree then this too will need further investigation

to see why it so and how it might impact on future planning?

Inextricably linked to education in the audit research were rural issues and opportunities for

children and young people. In many ways the problems created by the rural nature of the

bridge area is an overarching concern and it has already been discussed, perhaps more

obliquely, earlier in the report. However it seems to fit appropriately into this section so it can

be contemplated from the point of view of CYP.

11.16 Rural issues: information from Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) audit

Along with education and opportunities for CYP and their families, the rural nature of the

area with its scattered populations, isolation, poor public transport and communications is a

major issue which affects virtually the whole of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area,

with the exception of the more urban areas such as Peterborough, Norwich, Cambridge,

Ipswich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. However if transport difficulties or expense that

create barriers to participation are considered; then the CYP in the urban areas are often no

better off than their rural counterparts. This view is supported by the figures relating to

children in poverty referred to earlier in the report in section five. There is little point having

more opportunities on your doorstep if you or your family cannot afford to access them either

directly, or because the cost of transport bars you from doing so.

How the bridge can ameliorate these problems will no doubt form a major part if it’s future

planning and discussion with partners and others. The challenge of overcoming this is not to

be underestimated, as it goes to the heart of what the bridge will be able to achieve. Ways

need to be found of offering high quality sustainable opportunities to CYP and their families

in all circumstances.

Another side of this picture is that CYP, in particular, need opportunities to be able to engage

with cultural activity away from their local area to expand their horizons and help them

experience more of the world at large to support their learning and development.

One final point is that in many of the rural areas there are considerable opportunities for

seasonal agricultural work which attract a wide range of migrant workers, many of them from

Eastern Europe. While in one sense this might seem to offer the positive chance of more

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diversity and a less local view in rural areas, this does not always seem to be the case. This

is another aspect of the modern nature of rural living that the bridge may need to note.

Another hint of the area’s increasing diversity is the 77 languages that are now spoken in

Norfolk schools and the diverse make up of Peterborough’s population. While this has long

been the case in London and the south east, not to mention cities and towns in northern

England it is a much more recent development in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)

area.

Comments included:

Negative

• Rural isolation is a problem and the local bus services have had another cut recently.

• The area around Melbourn, in common with much of rural Cambridgeshire, suffers

from isolation where there are no trains. The bus service is poor and getting worse.

• Transport and young people (although transport is very difficult for everyone in

relation to what is a regional facility). If the transport was better more young people

could access Wysing and its facilities.

• Most young people that Wysing work with are too young to drive so are otherwise

dependent on their parents to reach Wysing. This can lead to exclusion for some

groups of young people.

• The rural schools and part of the county often resent Norwich because there is a

perception that everything happens there. So there may need to be an emphasis on

the rural support the bridge offers.

• Access to arts is often quite limited. North Norfolk has 7 market towns and 150

villages so provision is patchy and access to public transport very limited.

• Rurality and the associated lack of opportunities are a big problem. There is also an

issue of hidden poverty related to the rurality of the district.

• Transport is causing considerable problems. The bus service is poor or non-existent

away from the coast. Trains are very limited and only stop at three towns.

• Transport and communications are a real concern for many young people. There is

little public transport and for those on lower incomes it is difficult to afford.

• Working in rural areas is not the same as working in larger towns. There can be a

suspicion or dislike of outsiders who appear to come in, create a brief flare of activity

and then disappear.

• Public transport is a big issue for young people in Norfolk and especially in the rural

areas.

• Rural counties have specific problems of transport and communication and these are

particularly pronounced in Breckland and West Norfolk.

Positive

• In such a rural and dispersed area the more that can be done by the community the

better, but they need skills and resources to achieve this.

• As in many other parts of the bridge area, the rural nature of the area means that

particular ways of working have been built up over time. The isolation, small

communities, poor infrastructure and narrow range of opportunities have meant

organisations have developed a way of working which is successful. This means a

gradual approach and a long term commitment to the communities and young people

within in them.

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• Work in local communities to help they take ownership so that in ten years time

culture is embedded at a local level across the county.

11.17 Opportunities for Children and Young People

This section complements those on formal learning and rural issues. The challenges have

already been laid out in the local authority areas of need information. This section provides a

clear indication of the commitment by those who have worked in the bridge area over a long

time and are dedicated to trying to find solutions to improve the choices and lives of CYP.

Comments include:

• Young Promoters in which young people are trained to run their own events e.g.

Death Metal event in March (Cambs).

• CYP provision should be informed by listening to and working democratically with

children and families, rather than being designed and created by outside adults.

• I would like to see opportunities created for CYP to access and experience high

impact, high quality arts events (especially within the Visual Arts and Cross Art

Forms) which local voluntary sector isn’t able to provide.

• The bridge could play an important role by bringing in high quality top notch

opportunities and services for CYP. These need to have long term networking

inherent in them as well. The bridge needs to support the current infrastructure, but

also look at ways of making it stronger and to raise the profile of this work.

• Young People need opportunities to travel elsewhere to take part in the arts.

Geographic need is a real issue and the company would like to work further afield,

especially towards the west.

• Suffolk will have My Place Centre in Stowmarket called The Mix which is due to open

in January 2013. This is the only My Place in a rural market town. The original aim

had been for a slant towards sport and activity but the young people consulted

wanted to do creative things.

11.18 Youth Services

Finally in this section is a brief note about youth services across the bridge area. This is not

because the subject is unimportant, but more a reflection of the current state of the sector.

Youth Services are in disarray, due to cuts, all over the bridge area which meant it was very

difficult to find many contacts available to talk about such work. Disquiet about the effects of

these cuts was widely expressed across all three sectors of museums, libraries and arts.

Suffolk appears to be settling down after the changes there, Youth Advisory Boards are

being set up in Norfolk at district level and in Cambridgeshire the picture was unclear but

cuts were referred to by non county council contacts. One other aspect that emerged, and

may need monitoring, is the possible future involvement of parish councils or third sector

providers in youth service provision. Parish Council provision is happening in one place in

South Cambridgeshire and the Norfolk Youth Advisory Board providers were tendered for.

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The bridge will need to monitor developments and the effect they may be having on cultural

access and provision for young people. This may be an area where the Bridge needs to

develop some strategic leadership so that it can make representation about the role that

youth services play in helping deprived young people and others to have access to ‘high

quality artistic and creative experiences’.

Comments included:

• In some areas the parish councils are buying in a youth worker or supporting a local

youth club.

• One project related to the scheme involved training officers, who work with young

people, in Arts Award as well as with artists to train them to work with young people.

This initiative was partly as response to the loss of the Youth Service or its narrower

targeting on vulnerable young people. One of the results of this narrow focus is the

loss of prevention work with young people more generally.

• The Youth Service has been heavily cut by Norfolk County Council. In North Norfolk

Holt Youth Project is now a major facility following the demise of the Youth Service.

• The Youth Advisory Board is being organised by West Norfolk although the delivery

organisation is unclear at the moment.

• As in other parts of Norfolk the Youth Service has been replaced by a Youth Advisory

Board. In Breckland this is due to be run by the Benjamin Foundation, although there

are few details as yet.

• MAP is managing the Youth Advisory Boards (which are replacing the Norfolk CC

Youth Service) in Great Yarmouth and Norwich.

• The loss of the Youth Service is affecting project work because without their support

it is difficult to get some of young people, in most need, to the sessions.

• Suffolk CC has closed about 17 youth clubs out of 40, but many of these had served

small numbers of young people. The service is now targeted to NEETS, or other

deprived and underachieving young people.

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12. Cultural sector – arts, museums and libraries

The Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) has a considerable range of cultural partners and

provision to call on, and work with, across its area. However this provision is patchy and one

challenge will be how to balance the very different needs of various areas for support or

partnership.

In areas where provision is excellent the bridge may be viewed as having little role to play.

However it still will need to develop relationships, so such areas do not feel ignored (and

therefore cut off from a major ACE supported initiative). Moreover those areas which have a

strong cultural infrastructure may be able to work with the bridge to improve the offer in

places which are poorly provided for. Such partnerships may also help lever in more funding.

The bridge will have to identify how such areas or organisations might have a role in the

places that lack cultural infrastructure or provision and what would be the most appropriate

way to develop these.

In some places, without high levels of provision or resource, the challenge is going to be

finding ways in to work with the locality, particularly as this dearth often coincides with

patches of poorer, or less forward looking education, or local authority support. However in

other comparable places good provision and hard working, innovative individuals exist, but

they may need additional support and resource to increase the impact of their work. This is

made more necessary if where they are working is in the face of local indifference or an

unhelpful local administration.

New sources of funding also need to be identified, as the traditional patterns of delivery and

funding support change. There will also be a challenge around helping arts organisations

and museums key into relevant local authority commissioning opportunities, including health.

This aspect of the bridge’s work will, as always, need to be considered in the light of

sustainability, something that was universally raised across the bridge area in all the audit

interviews.

12.1 Arts Council England

Arts Council England is the Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) which ‘champions,

develops and invests in artistic and cultural experiences that enrich people's lives’. Since

taking over responsibility for libraries and museums from the Museums Libraries and

Archives Council (MLA) in 2011, the organisation supports ‘a range of activities across the

arts, museums and libraries, from theatre to digital art, reading to dance, music to literature,

and crafts to collections’.

‘Achieving great art for everyone’, is Arts Council England’s strategic framework for the arts

over the next 10 years. This plan lays out five goals to be achieved by 2021. These are:

• Goal 1: Talent and artistic excellence are thriving and celebrated

• Goal 2: More people experience and are inspired by the arts

• Goal 3: The arts are sustainable, resilient and innovative

• Goal 4: The arts leadership and workforce are diverse and highly skilled

• Goal 5: Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness

of the arts

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While all these goals will impact on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) it is Goal 5 which

is a particular driver for an organisation established to work with children and young people

and their families. The two aims of Goal 5 are:

• Improving the delivery of arts opportunities for children and young people. • Raising the standard of art being produced for, with and by children and young

people. Source: www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/our-priorities-2011-15/

Since ‘Achieving great art for everyone was published’, ACE has taken over the lead

responsibility for museums and libraries. To support this work ACE has published ‘Culture,

knowledge and understanding: great museums and libraries for everyone’ to integrate

museums and libraries into their framework. This will be touched on again in the section

below that deals with museums and libraries

12.2 National Portfolio Organisations and the bridge

From April 2012 ACE is funding nineteen National Portfolio Organisations in the bridge area

for the next three years.

Table 17

NPOs in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area arranged by local authority area

Area NPO Place Artform

Cambridgeshire 7 NPOs

Cambridge City

Academy Of Ancient Music Cambridge Music

Britten Sinfonia Cambridge Music

Hoipolloi Theatre Company Cambridge Theatre

Junction CDC Limited Cambridge Combined arts

Kettle's Yard Gallery Cambridge Visual arts

New International Encounter Cambridge Theatre

East Cambridgeshire

Fenland

Huntingdonshire

South Cambridgeshire

Wysing Arts Centre Wysing Visual arts

Peterborough 0 NPOs

Norfolk 5 NPOs

Breckland

Broadland

Great Yarmouth

King’s Lynn & West

Norfolk

North Norfolk

Norwich City

British Centre For Literary

Translation

Norwich Literature

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Area NPO Place Artform

Norfolk & Norwich Festival Norwich Combined arts

Norwich Arts Centre Norwich Combined arts

Tilted Productions Norwich Dance

Writers' Centre Norwich Norwich Literature

South Norfolk

Suffolk 7 NPOs

Babergh

Forest Heath

Ipswich

DanceEast Ipswich Dance

Eastern Angles Theatre

Company

Ipswich Theatre

Gecko Theatre Ltd Ipswich Theatre

New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich Theatre

Mid Suffolk

St Edmundsbury

Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds Theatre

Suffolk Coastal

Aldeburgh Music Aldeburgh Music

Waveney

HighTide Festival Theatre Halesworth Theatre

As can be seen from the above table, the location of the NPOs tends to reflect the pattern in

provision already discussed previously in the report and there are large parts of the bridge

area without arts provision at this level. Of course this is not the whole picture of provision,

as the majority of arts organisations and providers sit outside the directly funded ACE sector.

The table also shows the clustering which occurs in the county towns of Cambridge, Norwich

and Ipswich that between them account for 15 out of 19 NPOs. There are advantages to an

area of such clusters of provision, or activity, because the whole is usually greater than the

sum of the parts. Clusters of any sort tend to attract other associated providers so they

become a focus for people to access a wide range of options in a relatively small geographic

area. However this may be of little consolation to those for whom access is difficult due to

transport barriers or other types of difficulties that have already been highlighted.

One way the bridge could help NPOs and others, is through providing brokering or support

for their work with places and organisations outside their immediate locality. Many cultural

organisations are already working across borders and plan an expansion of such work. Set

against the paucity of cultural provision in some parts of the bridge area, such support

seems a worthwhile approach.

This type of working is already happening in Peterborough, a unitary authority without an

NPO currently. Britten Sinfonia, New International Encounter and Wysing all discussed their

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work in the city. Metal, a Southend on Sea based NPO, will soon be expanding its

organisation by moving into Chauffeurs Cottage, new artspace in Peterborough.

12.3 ACE Funding in the bridge area

In 2011-12 ACE provided £5,806,543 to the Regularly Funded Organisations (RFO) in the

bridge area. (This system of funding predated the NPO approach, although some RFOs

became NPOs in the new arrangement).

In the first year of NPO (2012/13) funding this figure will rise to £8,148,995. At the end of the

three year funding, which coincides with the term of the current Comprehensive Spending

Review, that annual figure will be £8,335,417. Under their agreements with ACE, NPOs will

not be able to apply for Grants for the arts.

In addition to the NPOs, ACE also funds a range of arts activity through Grants for the arts

and Lottery investment.

Table 18

Grant awards by Arts Council England East in 2010/11 in the Norfolk & Norwich

Festival (Bridge) area

The table below is for the year 2010/11 shows the direct RPO funding. Some of the Grants

for the arts funding and the lottery investment may also have been made to RFOs in addition

to this.

Total Grant Amount (£k) by each programme in 2010/11

Funding Type / Body Norfolk CC Cambridgeshire CC Suffolk CC Peterborough

RFO Funding £990.8 £1,542.9 £3,345.8 £0.0

Grants for the arts £4,000.0 £1,100.0 £0.0 £0.0 Lottery Investment £1,737.1 £1,077.3 £1,118.2 £75.7

Sources: RFO Funding - Arts Council; Grants for the arts - Arts Council; Lottery Investment - DCMS; LA Investment (incl. Assets) - DCLG; Youth Music - Youth Music

Year: 2010/11, Measure: Total Grant amount (£k) under each programme

Table 19

Distribution of Grants for the arts awards by local authority area

In the period January 2011 – 13th March 2012 there were 77 Grants for the arts awards in

the Norfolk & Norwich (Bridge) area. Six of these awards refer to working with children and

young people in some form. Others may have included this group in their planned activity,

but this was not specified in the project summary.

Area Grants for

the arts

/Nos

Artform

Cambridgeshire

Cambridge City 23

• 12 Theatre

• 3 Dance

• 6 Visual Arts

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Area Grants for

the arts

/Nos

Artform

• 2 Music

East Cambridgeshire

Fenland

Huntingdonshire 1 • 1 Literature

South Cambridgeshire 3 • 2 Theatre

• 1 Visual Arts

Peterborough 2

• 1 Theatre

• 1 Combined Arts

Norfolk

Breckland

Broadland 1 • 1 Literature

Great Yarmouth 4

• 3 Theatre

• 1 Combined Arts


Norfolk

North Norfolk 2 • 2 Visual Arts

Norwich City

12

• 5 Combined Arts

• 1 Theatre

• 2 Literature

• 2 Music

• 1 Visual Arts

• 1 Not art form specific

South Norfolk 1 • 1 Theatre

Suffolk

Babergh

Forest Heath

Ipswich

7

• 1 Dance

• 5 Theatre

• 1 Combined Arts

Mid Suffolk 1 • 1 Music

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Area Grants for

the arts

/Nos

Artform

St Edmundsbury 3

• 2 Visual Arts

• 1 Theatre

Suffolk Coastal

5

• 1 Dance

• 2 Combined Arts

• 2 Music

Waveney

10

• 1 Visual Arts

• 6 Theatre

• 1 Literature

• 1 Music

• 1 Combined Arts

Some of the above awards were to RFOs, while others were to range of other organisations

including:

• Oblique Arts (filmmaking opportunities to young adults which aimed to take a group

of participants through the Arts Awards scheme).

• Gomito Productions (research and development of a new piece of theatre for 2-4

year olds).

• Garlic Theatre (develop and tour a performance for younger audiences that will

initially tour 11 schools in the region, 6 theatres and a residential home).

• Suffolk Artlink (work with young adult family carers, looked after children and young

people in Suffolk, bringing them together with the highest quality artists).

This table again highlights areas where there is no ACE funded activity currently. Affected

districts include East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Breckland, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk,

Babergh and Forest Heath. Many of these areas have already been highlighted as places

that could benefit from more cultural activity allied to poor indicators across a number of

measures. The bridge may want to focus some of its attention on helping such places to

develop projects and secure funding in pursuit of its principle aims connected to CYP and

their families. Although funding will be covered in a later section it is worth saying that all

those interviewed in such areas were very keen to work with the bridge to achieve more

resources and a richer offer for the CYP in their area.

Table 19 also shows that those areas that are rich in provision come out top in this table as

well. Once again this demonstrates how a cluster of provision can support the breadth and

depth of the cultural offer. Cambridge and Norwich are first and second, with Ipswich in third

place. The odd one out in this table is Waveney, which scored badly compared to some

areas, in other parts of the statistical analysis. However the district is home to High Tide

Festival Theatre (three awards) as well as the Poetry Trust, Suffolk Artlink, Beccles Music

Festival, Lombik, Utter and Waveney and Blyth Arts. Not all of these work with CYP and their

families, but it may be that a cluster of a different sort is developing here as well which might

offer the bridge some useful partnership development opportunities.

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12.4 Arts organisations and provision evidence from audit

In addition to the NPOs and ex-RFOs consulted during the research, there are a vast range

of arts organisations doing very interesting work with CYP across the whole bridge area. A

flavour of this diversity is apparent throughout the response forms, all of whom mention

contacts that are worth exploring further. It was not possible within the timeframe of this

research to do more than provide these additional organisations’ website or contact details,

but many merit further investigation.

Another striking feature was the range of national and international arts organisations the

bridge might have access to through the NPOs and others such as Norwich Theatre Royal .

Orchestras Live, in particular, seem to work with majority of local authorities in the bridge

area.

Arts organisations were very clear about the possibilities that they thought the bridge offered

them and individual artists working in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area. They saw

the bridge as a strategic lead, the possible means to helping publicise and place their work,

a potential project partner, an advisor on funding bids and the route to training provision.

They were also interested in the opportunities offered by Arts Award and Artsmark and the

chance to work with CYP and schools, although the latter was acknowledged as being quite

problematic at times and something the bridge could help make easier.

Comments included:

• Support is needed for artists and community arts organisations including looking at

the way artists work, and how that might relate to the bridge’s aims and future

provision.

• There is little arts/cultural activity outside the amateur scene.

• There are not enough young artists and the county needs a fresh injection of new

talent. For example those involved in whole peer group learning involving the under

25s need artist of their age that they can relate to. The arts could benefit from more

youth and its associated vitality.

• It will be useful for all the appropriate arts organisations to know how to secure work

with schools and how that work might be bought in by schools, particularly in the

current state of change.

• There are 22 professional arts organisations in Norfolk, but in addition there are lots

of other organisations. The bridge needs to be aware of this delivery picture and that

it represents a very diverse and organic sector.

• There is also a need for some new young practitioners. However there is difficulty in

recruiting people to come and work in the county because it is seen as rural and

slightly cut off.

• Quite a number of the NPOs bring external organisations into Suffolk through their

relationships. For example Aldeburgh has a relationship with the Guildhall and the

New Wolsey has one with Punch Drunk.

• Arts organisations build relationships with a few schools, how can this be widened?

Schools are not always connected with the best of the arts but it can be very difficult

to get schools to engage.

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• With very few NPOs delivering dance in the region there is a concern that provision

and access to good quality activity will become ever patchier.

• We have a strong network of professional practitioners, writers and creatives across

the country who are all keen to work with us in the region

12.5 Local authority funding

The other key player supporting art and cultural provision through direct grants, or Service

Level Agreements, has traditionally been local authorities. The amount of funding provided

has always more or less equalled that of the Arts Council nationally, although local levels of

investment vary enormously. In the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area both Norfolk

and Suffolk support a range of organisations. Some smaller authorities such as Cambridge

City and North Norfolk also provide good support.

In many cases local authorities use their money to support the major professional arts

organisations in their area, in partnership with the Arts Council. This is so that local people

benefit from such organisations being resident locally. However local authorities also support

other organisations that they feel produces high quality work, or benefits the residents and

locality. For example Suffolk County Council supports five NPOs and three other

organisations:

• Aldeburgh Music

• DanceEast

• Eastern Angles


• Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds.

• Gainsborough's House

• Smiths Row

• Suffolk Artlink

Norfolk County Council supports 19 organisations of which three are NPOs:

• Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

• Norwich Arts Centre.

• Writers’ Centre Norwich.

• Cinema Plus, a film based education programme operating across the county.

• Community Music East, an organisation that develops music resources for the community.

• Creative Arts East, the arts development agency for the Norfolk area.

• The Garage focuses on providing creative opportunities for young people, particularly

those with fewest opportunities.

• Kings Lynn Arts Centre Trust.

• King's Lynn Festival.

• The Maddermarket Theatre which stages a year-long programme by British and

European playwrights, created and staged by and for community members from

across the region.

• Norfolk Dance, the development agency for dance in the county.

• Norwich Playhouse.

• Norwich Puppet Theatre.

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• SeaChange Arts, a charitable organisation set up to contribute to the social,

economic and cultural regeneration of the Borough of Great Yarmouth through use of

the Arts and Creative Technology.

• Sheringham Little Theatre.

• Thalia, a 'user' led Theatre Company for disabled adults and young people with

physical and sensory impairments and learning difficulties in particular but not

exclusively.

• Norwich Theatre Royal.

• Westacre River Studios which is committed to widening access to high quality drama

and creative activities for the whole community of West Anglia and especially for

young people.

• Writers’ Centre Norwich.

• Wymondham Music Festival.

In contrast North Norfolk District Council supports, through SLAs:

• Sheringham Little Theatre

• Creative Arts East

• Community Music East

• Norfolk Dance

• North Norfolk Exhibition Project

• Belfry Arts Centre

Elsewhere in areas such South Cambridgeshire, the Arts Development Manager have

relatively modest sums to support smaller scale community arts development.

Local Government has also played a vital role instigating or supporting arts development in

their area and without this the picture of provision would be much bleaker. However this role

is likely to change in the future because of a number of factors including reduced budgets,

deleted arts services or alternative service delivery.

12.6 Local authority culture/arts development information from the audit

The major concern expressed by many arts development contacts was the loss of, or cuts

to, posts, budgets and services and the fact that this trend is likely to continue for at least

two more years. On a positive note though, in a couple of districts, which are currently

undergoing restructuring, the arts posts have been retained.

In two areas of Norfolk and Suffolk, councils are sharing of services across local authority

boundaries. What effect this will have on arts or cultural provision is currently unclear. In

three places, East Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and King’s Lynn and West Norfolk the arts

development provision is delivered by non local authority organisations.

During this research arts officers were often the route to other contacts within their own

authority, as well as to external arts organisations, schools or others with a relevant interest

in CYP work. Where arts officers were not in post, finding contacts to approach was much

more difficult. Looking at the contact list, it is clear that a number of districts do not have arts

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development officers, while others have officers with arts in their title but that is one

responsibility among several.

Table 20

Distribution of arts services by local authority area

Area Arts

Service/officer

Cambridgeshire ��

Cambridge City �

East

Cambridgeshire

�

Fenland

Huntingdonshire

South

Cambridgeshire

�

Peterborough �

Norfolk ��

Breckland �

Broadland �

Great Yarmouth


Norfolk �

North Norfolk

Norwich City

South Norfolk

Suffolk

Babergh �

Forest Heath �

Ipswich

Mid Suffolk �

St Edmundsbury *

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Area Arts

Service/officer

Suffolk Coastal

Waveney *

Note: *The St Edmundsbury and Waveney contacts (both of whom were very helpful and

contributed to the research) have their main work focus outside arts development.

Arts officers are very good at working creatively and in partnership. Such skills are often

honed by having a small amount of resource to support their work. Partnership working

offers a way of both increasing resources and, for solo officers, the chance to work as part of

a project team. This group should offer the bridge staff good partnership development

opportunities. They may also welcome the chance to work in cross area groups if the

opportunities arise. Such groups could also help raise the profile of the bridge’s work as it

would also help increase Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge)’s capacity and visibility.

Comments included:

• There will be a corporate restructure in the next two years and there are likely to be

cuts in future as a result of this.

• Big savings will need to be found in the next three years.

• There is no local authority Arts Service (I know because it had been me and I was

made redundant in July 2010!).

• Suffolk only has three officers who fall into the category of Arts Development Officers

out of seven local authorities.

• Ultimately more money is needed to make a difference as the district is starting from

a low base of infrastructure and provision.

• The ADO post was abolished and I originally covered some of that work, however

this is no longer the case and my current responsibilities means that I focus on Bury

rather than the district as a whole.

12.7 Museums and Libraries

Arts Council England took over national lead responsibility for museums and libraries from

the MLA in 2011. Since then they have produced ‘Culture, knowledge and understanding:

great museums and libraries for everyone: a companion document to Achieving great art for

everyone’. This document states:

“In the long-term, we expect that Arts Council England will not have separate

strategies for museums, libraries and the arts. We will use the same framework to

drive all of our programmes and inform all of our funding decisions. We will evaluate

our success using common goals for museums, libraries and the arts, and will

establish a robust evidence base that can inform our policy-making and demonstrate

public value in what we fund.

In the short-term, however, we believe that we must first reflect on the diversity of our

extended remit to understand fully the specific challenges and opportunities facing

museums and libraries.”

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Source: www.artscouncil.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/browse-advice-and-guidance/developing-great-museums-and-

12.8 Museums

Arts Council England now represents museums, having assumed some of the functions of

the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), on 1 October 2011.

The principle museums responsibilities assumed by the Arts Council are:

• The Renaissance in the Regions programme for regional museums, including

completing the re-design of its content and operation

• Regional museums improvement and development agenda, including the

Accreditation Standard and the Designation Scheme and projects relating to the

2012 Cultural Olympiad

The effect of this in the bridge area is the establishment of two ACE Renaissance major

partner museums in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area: Cambridge University

Museums and Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service. There will be additional

outcomes once the Regional museums improvement and development decisions are

clearer.

12.9 Museums information from the audit

This sector gave the impression of feeling vulnerable due to the change from the MLA to

ACE leadership. Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) staff will need to develop an

understanding of the different types of museum across their area and which can include

national, local authority, university, independent and volunteer museums. They will also

need to develop an understanding of the museums accreditation scheme.

In addition to the museums themselves, some local authorities support Museum

Development Officers (MDO) whose role is not dissimilar to that of Arts Development

Officers. In Norfolk, uniquely, there is a countywide museums and archaeology service run

by Norfolk County Council.

Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) is fortunate that the two Hub Museum Services in

Cambridge and Norwich received funding from ACE. One of the services in the Royal Opera

House (Bridge) area, Colchester and Ipswich Museums Service, failed to win ACE

Renaissance major partner museum funding. This will impact to a degree on the Norfolk &

Norwich Festival (Bridge) area because that was the Hub that the Suffolk museums worked

most closely with.

A major fear of the museum sector is that that ACE does not really understand or know very

much about it and that somehow they will be expected to become more ‘arty’. Some early

contact with ACE has left the museums with the perception that there is little knowledge

about the work of museums, including their Arts Award work.

In fact the museums sector offers the bridge some really fruitful opportunities. Museums are

very well linked up across the east, as well as across the bridge area which, in part, is due to

previous MLA support which encouraged this type of working. They are used to working with

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schools, including the museums in the voluntary sector, and many of the middle sized and

bigger museum services have learning staff. Museums often work closely with the arts,

libraries and archives as well as arts organisations.

A number of museums are either being redeveloped or have plans to be. These include

Newmarket National Horse Racing Museum and Mildenhall Museum.

Museums offer the potential to provide a range of venues based in local communities (often

in areas which have little such provision otherwise). This might be helpful to future bridge

plans. However due to the complex nature of museums it would be advisable to work with

the MDO’s or bigger museum services, in the first instance, to help broker relationships

across the museums sector. Like their arts colleagues, museum staff also noted the time it

takes to establish projects and the need to consider sustainability is paramount.

Comments included:

• Don’t overlook the SHARE network and all the important development and work that

supports.

• While keen to work with partners, including the bridge, it always has to be

remembered that the museum is a small independent and a charity, which only

receives a small grant from the City Council. The rest of the funding has to be

generated so any partnership working has to take this into account.

• The changes to the museum sector brought about by the loss of the MLA and the

shift of responsibility to ACE.

• The effects on the ex Hub Museum services in the region i.e. Luton and Colchester

and Ipswich of the loss of the hub status and funding.

• What will happen to museum development work in the longer term? The current

application to support museum development work is only for three years of funding.

• How will national initiatives be responded to? What will be the response to Henley 2?

Did a very good project with King’s Lynn Museum which was led by Kings Lynn Arts

Centre. This was an education project aimed at all ages and based on domestic

objects. Artists responded to these and worked in a flat in a very deprived part of

King’s Lynn as well as at the museum and the centre.

• There are increasing pressures possibly around charging fees. This hasn’t been

done in the past but there will always be the need for activities and to work in

schools.

• Archives are good partners.

12.10 Libraries

As with museums Arts Council England took over responsibility for libraries in October 2011.

“While we will not be responsible for providing or funding library services, we will play

a significant role in supporting and developing the libraries sector. Continuing

discussions with the libraries sector, new in-house expertise and a national overview

will enable us to draw an accurate picture of the challenges and opportunities for

libraries, and be in a unique position to help drive national cultural policy.

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The Arts Council's vision for libraries is that they inspire and empower people to lead

active lives, enriched through cultural experience. The Arts Council would like to work

with libraries to explore a vision for arts and culture working together. The essential

first stage in this work will be the Libraries Development Initiative which intends to

build on the Museum, Libraries and Archives Council's (MLA) Future Libraries

Programme to look at new approaches to library service delivery”. Source: www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-libraries/

12.11 Libraries information from the audit

Two library services, Norfolk and Peterborough, responded to the request for information

and both were keen to work with the bridge. The other two county services in

Cambridgeshire and Suffolk are both undergoing reviews so were unavailable. Quite a

number of other interviewees across the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area mentioned

working with library services or the wish to do so.

Most library services in the bridge area are still local authority managed, however this will

change. Libraries in Peterborough are part of the Vivacity Trust. In Suffolk an independent

cooperative is due to manage the library service in the very near future. Cambridgeshire is

exploring other forms of management after a move to a cultural trust was halted. The option

of community hubs is now being explored. Changes to library services may be something

that the bridge needs to monitor as they may have implications for how the bridge works with

library services in the longer term.

The bridge needs to be aware that Norfolk and Suffolk county councils provide a Schools

Library Service (although nationally many of these services are under threat or have been

disbanded). Those services that exist have generally worked on a traded basis for some

time, but like many organisations related to education the future is uncertain because of the

change to academies and other educational developments. Some schools may have school

librarians, most usually in secondary schools, and this may be another group that the bridge

will want work with in future to develop opportunities for CYP.

Public library services can be quite self sufficient and this may be because in local authority

cultural service terms, they tend to be by far the biggest service and don’t always have the

same need to work in partnership that other sectors do. However the two library services

who contributed to the audit were keen to work in partnership with others in the cultural

sector.

Individual libraries tend to see themselves as a service with an individual community focus

so a public library service is both a local and universal service within any local authority area.

Libraries will not rely on ACE for funding in the way the arts or museums will because the

bulk of their funding normally comes from a local authority budget. For all these reasons

working with libraries may be very different from working with other cultural partners.

Like museums, static libraries are based in communities and offer apparently readymade

venues. The bridge may want to take advantage of these to connect with communities at a

local level to help build sustainable activity. However as a note of caution, although library

services seem well resourced with staff and buildings, compared to other services, their work

tends to be tied to ensuring that libraries are kept open, often from early in the morning until

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mid evening. The smaller libraries may have very limited opening hours and staffing;

sometimes this will be one person on their own. In addition all the library services in the

bridge area run mobile library services which reach out to those who live too far from a static

library. However these stops are often very limited in time and frequency of visit.

Nationally the numbers of CYP Development and Reader Development Librarians have

fallen, along with staff numbers generally, however these are the sort of contacts that the

bridge will want to develop relations with as they are more project, CYP or community

focussed. These tend to be the library staff that organise outreach activities and run (or

manage the volunteers that run) arts events, reading groups, literary festivals or the annual

Summer Reading Challenge.

The librarians who responded were keen to talk to the bridge and they see the organisation

as way to develop more partnership working. However while local projects are developed for

individual libraries, library services are often looking for a scheme that can be applied across

a number of service points, if not the whole service. This too makes libraries different from

some other parts of the cultural sector.

Comments included:

• The Library Service’s core mission and purpose is supporting reading, learning and

information for all. The service to CYP is a reflection of that. There is still a universal

service but this is light touch and the targeted work (involving programmed staff time)

is to CYP who don’t read.

• One of the challenges is for the library service to identify niches where it can make a

difference.

• Libraries have a gateway role for the community and provide a safe public space

which sees them used by many sections of a community.

• It is worth acknowledging by those who work with libraries, that much of the resource

is used in keeping the libraries open and the service functioning.

• Works with the Library Service who is a good partner. (An arts officer).

• Interested in more opportunities to involve young people in developing the offer to

suit their ideas and needs.

• There is no joint work with the Library Service at the moment although they are keen

to explore this option and are supportive. (an arts officer)

12.12 Concerns of the cultural sector as a whole in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area

As well as the individual concerns of the libraries, arts and museums sectors there were, as

one would expect, a number of themes and areas of discussion (apart from the bridge itself)

which came through strongly from all three groups. The evidence presented below results

from the information and views expressed in audit interviews. These common areas of

discussion were:

• Communications

• Sustainability of activity

• Partnerships and networks

• Training

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• Volunteers

• Disability

• Diversity

• Future activity and projects

• Funding and Commissioning

12.13 Communications

This seems to be a key role for the bridge and was something that was mentioned by a

number of respondents. People wanted to know more about what was going on in their

sector elsewhere in the bridge area. There was perhaps less curiosity, especially from the

arts, about what was happening in museums and libraries, but that may be because their

attention has not been drawn to work with or in those sectors before, unless they already

had direct involvement and experience of such partnership working.

There is a lot of very interesting work going on across the bridge which is perhaps only

apparent after doing this type of research exercise. In particular there are a lot of small

organisations working very locally, which in some cases are making the only provision for

CYP at a very local level. They would benefit from being joined up to the much bigger

picture. This would also help with the problem that was identified in some rural areas of

organisations coming into the area to work for a short time without connecting to those who

are already there.

Only a few people stated the need for information sharing and an information lead role

across the bridge area. This potential strand of activity for the bridge was not as clearly

defined as in the Royal Opera House (Bridge) area where it came out very strongly.

Although a number of people did express the wish for a readily accessible and up to date

source of information on recommended artists or other creative providers. Another area that

people would like support with is in advertising or raising the profile of their work. Despite the

lack of a clear call for Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) to lead on this provision the bridge

may still want consider the importance of this role? It could help improve communications

and the likelihood is that if it was well done, colleagues in the cultural sector across the

bridge area would find it very helpful over time. This provision should be given serious

consideration, especially in light of the near universal comment on poor transport and

communications across the Norfolk & Norwich (Bridge) area.

The museums sector is very good at sharing knowledge and experience across the east

through the SHARE network for example. A Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) website

would provide an easy way to provide links for everyone to sites like the SHARE network. It

could also create links to the Royal Opera House (Bridge) information. This would be helpful

to organisations based in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area but who are close to

the Royal Opera House (Bridge) border. It may be that for some of those a connection to the

Royal Opera House (Bridge) may be easier and more convenient and could help provide

cultural resource more easily than from within the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area.

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Comments included:

• It is an odd region that Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) is going to cover, as the

communications are poor.

• There used to be a BENCHES database of artists that the Arts Education Officers

had worked with and recommended. This is no longer functioning because of the

resource that was needed to maintain it but if the bridge was able to institute

something similar it would be very helpful for the sector.

• Marketing and getting the word out about provision and events is hard work in Great

Yarmouth and sometimes results in low recruitment.

• There’s a great deal of waste currently from individual organisations communicating

directly with schools.

• One problem identified was the council’s lack of engagement with social media. So

for example the officer is not able to use Facebook, although Youth Engagement has

limited access to it. School assemblies are not an effective alternative.

• Helping us to offer quality arts provision, and/or sign posts to quality arts provision for

vulnerable young people.

• One area that the bridge could offer support and information is to compile a list of

artists regionally that could be made use of across the bridge area.

• We would love support marketing the HighTide Academy as it’s still very much in its

infancy. Particularly to Norfolk where we’d like to grow our participants.

• An advocacy conference for heads, policy makers, and curriculum leads to be run for

those across the bridge area.

12.14 Sustainability of activity

Alongside education and schools, rural issues and opportunities for CYP the thorny issue of

sustainability came up in every discussion, almost without exception. Again due to the nature

of the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area and the length of experience many people

have, this factor will need to be seriously considered by the bridge in its planning. If it is

seen, or perceived, not to be happening, it may damage the long term credibility of the

bridge organisation.

Comments included:

• However it has become increasingly apparent that sustainability of provision is a real

concern. Things happen for a short time, because much activity is based on up to

three year funding which can’t then be repeated. This pattern can be harmful as

young people are conscious that their needs attract funding which can

understandably lead to youthful cynicism.

• One of the problems of working in rural Norfolk is the need for a much longer 5 -10

year view rather than the 3 year cycle which leaves nothing behind.

• There is continuing need in Norfolk particularly in the arch from Great Yarmouth to

King’s Lynn and Thetford with only small pockets of activity in this area. Work takes

time there and it doesn’t happen quickly. Four or five years are needed on average

and those working there have to be in for the long haul. Grants for the arts is not

sufficient as the three year time available does not support long term commitment.

• Support and work needs to be long term as otherwise short term projects can do

more harm than good.

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• Community projects have been successful, but the work needs sustaining.

• A lot of strategic things in the past have been put in place but there are no resources

to keep them going.

12.15 Partnerships and networks

Linked to communications, partnerships and networks were another key area of discussion.

There was a very clear view that the bridge should be involved with and support the existing

networks before trying to set up any new ones. This was both so that the bridge staff could

use them to meet and work with potential partners, but also so that resource was not wasted

on unnecessary duplication.

Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk seemed to have good networks. The picture in

Cambridge and Suffolk may reflect that there is much less resource, particularly at county

level than in Norfolk, and their networks help provide the support to ensure partnership work

has sufficient density and resource to achieve jointly what cannot be done alone. However

some of those who would benefit from attending meetings of their peers, and so link into

these partnership opportunities, were not able to due to time and/or transport issues.

Much of the resource in Norfolk is focussed in Norwich and there seemed to be very good

knowledge amongst those working there of what else was going on locally in their sector.

Norfolk as a whole has the benefit of the Norfolk Arts Forum but it cannot make up for where

there is little provision to join up with. It was unclear what the networks were like in

Peterborough.

It must also be said that some of the networks have begun to suffer as local authority posts

are lost or staff are unable to travel because of spending restrictions. For many smaller arts

and cultural organisations attending networking meetings has been problematic for a long

time due to cost or limited staff resources. It is unlikely that these factors will improve across

the cultural sector in the foreseeable future and this should be another aspect to consider in

the bridge’s communication role.

The network pattern within school and education wasn’t clear. Very few people mentioned

Extended School, Heads meeting or specialist subject meetings. The isolation of drama

teachers was mentioned in Suffolk and the loss of the county dance teachers meeting in

Norfolk.

Some cross border working is due to happen as councils come together to share services

but the picture relating to this is unclear as yet. On the whole the people keenest to work in

other parts of the area away from where they were based, were arts organisations, both

NPOs and others.

Museums are used to be being part of a much bigger partnership especially through the

Regional Learning Network and through the MLA work which supported pilot projects across

the east such as trial of Arts Award in a range of museums. Libraries have their own internal

networks. All three sectors of arts, museums and libraries are well linked into national

networks.

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Young people too seemed to have access to a range of consultation and decision making

bodies including youth councils or as part of individual organisations.

A number of people expressed enthusiasm for cross border working and this might be a

good place for the bridge to try an initial project, particularly where networking or partnership

is weak. This approach offers focussed a reason for discussion with a number of

organisations and will help develop a sense of the wider locality. There was also an

acknowledgement in some of the discussions that there is likely to be an increase in the

number of shared local authority services and the bridge may have a role in being involved

or supporting such developments.

A lack of networking can also affect arts organisations by leaving them isolated, probably

more so than equivalent museums. If there is no network there is no chance to meet

partners from other parts of a locality, district or county. This lack of contact may mean

missing opportunities in helping to find partners and secure funding.

Comments included:

• Would generally like help in making connections to strengthen bids.

• Opportunities to share how we work with those from a different field would be useful.

• Time pressures, but would like to work more in partnership, however money is a key

consideration to all that is done.

• Norfolk arts activity is well connected. It links a little to Suffolk and has good

communications with Cambridgeshire.

• Joint working with Peterborough would benefit from a concentrated approach by the

bridge and others.

• There are fewer networks than there used to be for example the Children’s Trust

partnership arrangements have gone.

• There are a lot of cross sector partners and the Norfolk Arts Forum includes business

and health representatives amongst others.

• Professional networks in the county are weak and teachers are not brought together.

For example drama teachers across the county don’t know one another and the

subject is not a core subject.

• In the past the Suffolk arts officers had good links and worked well together however

with the loss and change in many posts this has become fractured although there is

still some good communication taking place.

12.16 Training

Training was seen as another key way in which the bridge could lead and support. Training

for teachers, artists, council staff, arts organisations, young people, volunteers and

museums were all raised by various interviewees. People were also looking for new models

of training to be developed that they could take advantage of. As with communications the

bridge is uniquely set up to help do this both by its remit and its area wide view.

Comments included:

General

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• Henley 2. If schools are to offer training I would be keen to be involved in this and if

any funding is available it would be helpful to know about it.

• Cancellation of the CPD take up which is happening all over the county and is mostly

money related.

• It would be useful for the arts and education sectors to pool more resources, offer co-

ordinated CPD arts programmes etc.

• Arts provision is being offered to children and young people who are at

risk/vulnerable, by expert arts facilitators, but who lack specialist knowledge of the

holistic support these young people needs.

• Each event was a whole day’s training so culture/arts/bridge needs to be able to find

out or identify what is important enough to them for them to participate. (This was

about Artsmark, but applies more widely).

• Something for practitioners which involves quality collective training and information

exchange. A new training model is needed as coming out for a day is becoming

increasingly difficult for many. How can this be done at a local level and involve

practitioners working with teachers? Is this something the bridge can help to

develop?

Young People

• Would like to build up local knowledge and offer training to young people in the arts.

Would there be resources to support this?

• Can the bridge do anything to help more YP have the opportunity to work through the

cultural venues?

• The Youth Service changes are impacting in other ways as well. There is a real need

for properly qualified youth workers to support arts projects involving vulnerable

young people. We hadn’t anticipated that their loss would be the problem that it has

turned out to be. An artist’s responsibilities are different to that of a youth worker in

such a situation and the loss of youth workers is having a real effect.

• We’re interested in developing a kind of ‘foundation programme’ as a gap year

preparation/reality check for people interested in drama school. This foundation

course would be the beginnings of ‘Creative TRAIN’ where we hope to offer

performance experience across the range of our work.

Volunteers

• It would be good to develop opportunities and training for volunteers in libraries to

add value and increase provision which the resources don’t otherwise exist. This

could include reading groups led by young people for other groups of young people.

• A programme of volunteer training would be beneficial.

Artists

• Many artists have become complacent and need challenging effectively over the

effectiveness of the learning they offer. More questioning of quality is required.

• There is a need to support artists and internships to increase employability.

• There is a need for more artist training to freshen those who have worked in the

county for a long time.

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12.17 Volunteers

All the cultural sectors, museums, libraries, arts and youth services have considerable

experience over a number of years of working with volunteers across a very wide span of

activity. These range from individuals giving time to arts organisations to museums being

managed and run on a volunteer basis. This contribution, alongside developments such as

the future direction of some services such as libraries, may raise the profile and involvement

of volunteers in delivery to CYP and their families still further.

Some of the interviewees mentioned a need for training, communications and networking in

relation to volunteers. It was also noted that volunteers come with responsibilities for the

host organisations and that volunteers need to gain something from their relationship as

well. However this in turn can increase the demands on the host organisation’s resources. In

a nutshell volunteers do not come for free and the implications for training and resources

need to be considered.

All three disciplines, museums, libraries and arts want to increase the opportunities and

training for young volunteers in particular.

Comments included:

• There is a post to coordinate volunteers at Cambridge Folk Museum which is funded

by the HLF which also works at the Cambridge Museum of Technology.

• Young people need further support to develop their Arts Award portfolio of activities.

This may mean using more volunteers, as there is a limit to the amount of activity

that the museum staff can run.

• Volunteering is a notable aspect of library service work. A scheme has been

developed to offer opportunities to young people including as Summer Reading

Challenge young champions. Could this development support engagement with Arts

Award?

• A lot of volunteers are involved in Vivacity and there is a lead person on volunteering.

So there are training needs that need examining. In addition the volunteers need to

get something out of their involvement.

• What progression paths are there for those who volunteer and is this something that

the bridge could explore so that people can get a cross cultural experience if they

want one. Is this applicable to other organisations or groups of organisations in the

bridge area?

12.18 Disability

A number of arts organisations and third sector groups listed in the responses work with

disabled CYP and their families, while others run integrated provision. There are some

excellent examples of this work in the Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) area and it is

probably something that could benefit from a higher profile.

Although not a concern of the bridge, a number of respondees mentioned working with older

people and the problems that they faced in terms of accessibility to provision. Some of this

mirrors similar concerns in relation to CYP. Intergenerational provision was an area raised

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by a number of interviewees as something they would like to develop or improve and this

might help the needs that were identified at both end of the age spectrum.

Comments included:

• There are a lot of young carers in Papworth.

• SCOPE runs two schools for those with complex disabilities in the Melbourn area.

Both are very keen to work with the community and took part in the Canal Art

project.

• The school cluster project working on the family counselling reflects the high mental

health needs of the area linked to the relatively high number of split families. Some

of this appears to be linked to the pressures of the recent economic problems. This

affects Melbourn, Bassingbourn, Comberton and Gamlingay.

• Norfolk Arts and Events Service is currently working with Children’s Services and

Adult Services to develop a three year initiative to develop pilot activity which

demonstrates the role and value of using the arts in health and social care contexts

and also to build the capacity of the sector with regard to commissioning in health

and social care.

• It worth being aware of the Foundation Degree in Arts and Well Being offered by City

College Norwich. The degree brings together health, social care and arts

practitioners and is the only one of its type.

• There are issues around transport for those with disabilities being able to travel to

take part in things. The aim is to deliver in the rural locations if possible. (This

comment was about older people, but may apply equally to disabled CYP and their

families).

12.19 Diversity

Diversity, like disability was not specifically included in the research but was mentioned often

by those who responded. Some of this comment was around working with Traveller

Education colleagues. There were some good examples of projects, that involved diverse

groups, mentioned in the interviews and which could provide a good basis for further

development and discussion

Others mentioned the increased number of nationalities and languages represented in their

area. This was often linked to rural employment and eastern European populations were

mentioned in Peterborough, Fenland and Norfolk in particular. As was seen earlier in the

report the high levels of BME at KS4 in Peterborough is an indicator of the diversity of that

city.

The final point was around how isolated many rural young people were from external cultural

influences and conversely the positive effects these had on their aspirations and enjoyment

when they had such opportunities. When they had taken part in activity with an international

flavour the positive and longer term impact this tended to have on them was noticeable.

Comments included:

• Traveller population locally (South Cambs).

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• There is currently no diversity focus to the work however a project involving CYP

working with a Caribbean company is still being spoken about several years after the

event. (Dance organisation).

• Residents perception studies highlight desires in terms of arts activities and young

people and also the variety of different nationalities (a significant proportion of south

and central Yarmouth are migrant communities, especially Portuguese).

• We should like to work with Platforma arts and the Refugees network next year.

• There are now 77 languages spoken in Norfolk which is partly due to the numbers of

overseas rural migrant workers. Included are the new communities from Latvia,

Lithuania and Russia amongst others.

• Engaging with children in new immigrant families / non English speaking parents is a

challenge.

12.20 Future activity, projects and delivery

As one would expect, when carrying out research that involves the cultural sector, the scale

of ambitions and plans was impressive and inspiring. Despite the difficult economic

circumstances everyone (despite some concerns) had a positive view about future work they

would like to do in order to have a positive impact on the lives, learning and creativity of

children and young people.

Much more specific detail can be gained from reading the individual responses in the

Appendix 1, but there is plenty that the bridge could consider supporting both now, to help

achieve some immediate results, or strategically in the longer term.

Some of the comments relate to help with identifying to securing funding, but many are more

complex than that and could provide good partnership opportunities over time. The range of

suggestions came equally from libraries, museums and arts and there is potential contained

in these for cross sectoral working as well as cross local authority boundary working.

There are also a range of comments which highlight the need for the bridge to take a lead in

either carrying out research to help increase the knowledge of the sector or to support

research by others to achieve the same result. If the bridge wanted to draw up a list of

possible research to support over the next three years the interview responses provide a

good starting point.

Comments included:

• Literature opportunities are underdeveloped in Cambridge.

• Expand the range of networks that Britten Sinfonia is involved in.

• We would like to build up long term involvement in Suffolk – a Cambridgeshire based

organisation.

• Wysing has a regional remit and it would be good to support the wide Norfolk

audience for education work as well.

• Subject to funding, we hope to work with the Princes Trust on a stained glass project

involving three schools near Ramsey. (A museum)

• Kettle’s Yard would like help reaching communities that do not otherwise engage with

the arts including young people’s / children services, community support.

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• Would like to work with artists more although some imaginative work has been done.

(Museum comment)

• The museum does a lot of reminiscence work but would like to develop this towards

more inter-generational work.

• Coming from my arts admin background, I would love the opportunity to develop a

really exciting, challenging and long-term arts project for the young people of

Huntingdon. They could do with one!

• The Artlandish Programme at Houghton Hall (Norfolk) which includes craft, art and

training. The scheme could do with being much more heavily used and there is even

a free minibus which can be used by schools to bring CYP in form areas with poor

transport.

• Working together to build links between the Garage’s emerging music inclusion role

and the bridge could release value for money and match funding in both directions.

• There may be a useful piece of work to be done in identifying the youth theatres

across the bridge area.

• Would like to see the bridge help support regional artist’s development.

• We are sure there will be partnership projects through the Youth Worker programme

across the county for which Norfolk & Norwich Festival (Bridge) can help us identify

partners, arts practitioners and potential funding sources.

• Work with the third sector to improve services for those with autism.

• We would like to work with the bridge on using the Norfolk & Norwich Festival as a

platform for performance, possibly as part of our partnership with Britten Sinfonia.

• We are keen to use new technologies and live literature (performance) in our work

wherever possible.

• Writers Centre Norwich has a sustainable programme of schools and libraries work

that we are seeking to extend and develop over the next few years.

• The Breckland Book Festival takes place annually in October/November. It includes

local and national authors, children’s authors and creative writing in its programme.

There is a Grants for the arts application currently awaiting a decision which would

provide a further two year funding for the event.

• Help by the bridge to identify ways of getting secondary school teachers to use the

museum would be very welcome.

• We are interested in exploring ways of sharing models of work. A lot of how we work

is by testing ideas in a particular setting then developing and rolling out model to

other settings/locations. This could work across county borders.

• Costume Creators for young adults with mild-moderate learning disabilities. It’s well

loved but un-funded. The Costume Creators has great funding potential. It would be

brilliant to talk funding on a longer term.

• We plan to launch a new writing based schools programme in the autumn; support

here would also be useful as we need to develop stronger links and relationships with

local schools.

12.21 Funding and commissioning

Underpinning all the whole report and discussion above is the funding and resources that

are required to support the cultural sector in its continuing work with children and young

people and their families. At the beginning of this section, information about the current ACE

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and local authority provision and patterns was highlighted. However in common with so

much else this well established pattern is likely to change as public spending reduces and

the delivery of public services changes.

The possibility of accessing financial resources for arts and other cultural organisations

through commissioning has been a concern and ambition of the Arts Council for several

years. The attractions are obvious in that the contracts are often for three years, at a

minimum. This approach also offers funding possibilities which stretch further into the future

than some of the traditional models that the sector has been used to. Moreover by delivering

in areas that have a higher profile with politicians, senior officers and the non-arts or cultural

sector; arts, museums and libraries can raise their profile, demonstrate their effectiveness

with measurable outcomes, and provide a long term positive impact for those they work with.

All of which would help provide a more secure sustainable future for the sector.

There are some very good examples in the bridge area of such funded work, particularly in

the arts and youth sectors including with Looked After Children and young offenders.

However much of the cultural work is still being funded through grants or with lottery support,

rather than through commissioning. In the case of Aldeburgh Music the money they are

awarded to deliver to work with young prisoners requires match funding that has to be raised

from elsewhere to make the work financially viable.

A number of individuals and organisations do have experience of commissioning. Once such

individuals or organisations learn how to secure funding support via commissioning they

tend to be good at winning further work of this type. However despite funding and

commissioning being one of the subjects’ interviewees, and others, were asked about in the

audit research, not a great deal of information was forthcoming.

Commissioning, in particular, was not really mentioned and there seemed to be little general

knowledge or experience of it. This was apparent both amongst those who work in, or for,

local authorities as well as cultural organisations. Another aspect of this gap, which has been

noted elsewhere, is that because few of those outside local authorities have much

knowledge of commissioning it means generally people will be unaware of the opportunities

that might be being advertised which they could take advantage of. This effect is

compounded by the local authority officers’ ignorance of commissioning opportunities which

in turn means they are not alerting cultural organisations or helping them take advantage of

such opportunities. Many arts officers have tried to engage with their commissioning

colleagues, so this lack of knowledge is not due to their lack of interest or attempts to

engage. However it seems to be very difficult to build such relationships and knowledge at

the moment and this may be another reflection of the pace of change in local government at

the moment.

Another problem is the length of time contracts are awarded for so that if people are missing

the tenders it may be several years before they might have chance to bid again. People are

aware that commissioning could be important in the future, particularly as a means to secure

funding long term, but very few really know how to take the next step. Commissioning is

another area that the bridge should take a lead on to help the whole sector help itself in the

longer term.

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There may be more experience and a higher awareness of this in the education sector, but

would need to be investigated further.

There was a lot of expressed need for support with funding applications and the comments

virtually all relate to this rather than anything to do with commissioning. Despite

commissioning been seen as an important future support for culture, many people are still at

the stage that want help with scoping and refining funding applications. The bridge may have

to consider how it might help support this need, perhaps as part of a staged progression in

encouraging people to look at the wider and newer forms of funding support. They

comments also give a flavour of some of the work people want help with and this in turn

should give the bridge another insight into the range and scope of work that its partners are

developing.

Comments included:

• Storytelling project with Primary Schools in Peterborough during 2013/ 14.- would like

bridge help

• Mental Health project with primary schools in the Melbourn area

• Securing a subsidy for primary school visits as Wysing is currently a very expensive

option for them. It would also be helpful to find funding to support sixth form visits so

more can come.

• Would like to develop more work for children and young people facing challenging

circumstances but this would be dependent on securing funding.

• Would like to discuss if a Grants for the arts bid might help with increasing the work

with artists and possibly around an inter-generational theme.

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Report compiled by Catherine M Davis.

[email protected]

01462 458831

22nd June 2012.

The author would like to thank Gemma Cox (Participation and Engagement Administrator

[Bridge], Norfolk & Norwich Festival), and Oliver Payne (Participation and Engagement

Administrator, Norfolk and Norwich Festival) for their help with compiling the lists and the

mapping of museums, schools, libraries, venues and festivals.