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Minutes of the meeting: 25 September 2012

Minutes taken by Lindsey West

Attendees

Arts organisation representatives

Mandy Precious – Burnley Youth Theatre

Rob Howell – Culturapedia

Sara Domville – Blaze, Lancashire County Council

David Smith – Mid Pennine Arts

Library representative

Julie Bell – Lancashire County Library Service

Local authority representative

Graham Whalley – Young Lancashire and Lancashire Children’s Trust

Heather Pitman – Lancashire County Council, Children’s Services

Museums and heritage sector representative

Steven Irwin – Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Music hub representatives

Andy White – Blackpool Music Hub

Tim Rogers – Lancashire Music Hub

Paul Rigby – Blackburn with Darwen Music Hub

Jayne Perrott – Blackburn with Darwen Music Hub

Bridge Development Group: Lancashire

Schools representative

None present

Third sector representative

None present

Youth service representative

Kathy Ashworth - Lancashire Young People’s Service

Curious Minds

Derri Burdon, Chief Executive

Katy May, Director of Programmes

Kelly Allen, Bridge Coordinator: Engagement

Linda Drury, Director of Finance & Resources

Arts Council England, North West

Claire Eddleston-Rose, Relationship Manager: Learning

Apologies

Paul Kelly – Lancashire County Council

Celine Wyatt – Blackpool Council

Pete Moser – More Music

Di Cuming – Ludus Dance

Sian Davies – Barnardos

Andy O’Brien – Accrington Academy

Carol Murphy – The Loyne School

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Introduction

The group were welcomed by Katy May, Director of Programmes at Curious Minds. She thanked the group for agreeing to participate in the Bridge Development Group for Lancashire and confirmed that this meeting is the first to take place across the North West; over the course of the bridge programme Bridge Development Group meetings will occur in each of the five sub-regions. The group were asked to introduce themselves to each other, sharing what inspired them creatively and culturally as a young person.

Bridge programme 2012/13

Following those introductions, Katy presented to the group the vision and purpose of Curious Minds as Arts Council England’s Bridge Organisation for the North West. As one of ten nationally, the Bridge is tasked with:

• facilitating networks and making sure that there is an on-going dialogue across the arts, culture, heritage and education sectors

• helping educational settings, both formal and informal, identify and access arts, heritage and cultural opportunities for children and young people

• helping arts, heritage and cultural organisations to bring the cultural experiences that they offer to more children and young people

Katy informed the group of the key performance indicators that Curious Minds, as Bridge, will be monitored against which include the requirement to annually complete an audit of the arts, heritage and cultural provision available for children and young people in the region. Earlier in 2012 Curious Minds spoke with over 450 people through a range of one-to-one meetings and focus groups; speaking with representatives from a range of sectors including educational settings, arts organisations, museums and libraries. This work culminated in the production of an online resource ‘The State of the Region’ report: http://www.curiousminds.org.uk/sornw and a concise summary report which is available by calling 01282 435835.

Alongside this audit Curious Minds also consulted directly with children and young people in each sub-region and produced a video which captures what arts and culture means to them, how and why they engage with it and what they see as barriers to engagement. To view the video: http://vimeo.com/42569988

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Katy shared with the group the themes from the audit and how the Bridge programme is being developed in the North West as a result:

Information, communication and advocacy led by Glen Meskell, Bridge Coordinator: Communication

Children, young people and schools need to access information quickly and clearly and arts organisations want to be more joined up in how they share their offer to these groups. Curious Minds is:

developing a web portal profiling the arts, heritage and cultural offer in the North West

developing a tool that connects young people to culture through social media

commissioning research to take place through a survey of every 11 – 15 year old on what strands of arts and culture they engage with, how they engage with it, where they do it and when they do it

developing ways to help arts, heritage and cultural organisations to market to schools directly

producing monthly e-bulletins that are sent to over 2,500 individuals across the country, sharing what is happening around the region

Action to BDG: share your news with Curious Minds to be profiled in the e-bulletin

creating resources for schools which include; a new publication that profiles the Arts Council England initiatives that are of interest to them and the National Portfolio Organisations that they fund; and a monthly newsletter that profiles arts, heritage and cultural opportunities alongside the web portal

Engagement led by Kelly Allen, Bridge Coordinator: Engagement

More children and young people should be enabled to access a wide variety of opportunities, addressing issues of inclusion, class divides, elitism and poverty. Curious Minds is:

working with Criminal Justice settings to develop high quality arts and cultural provision

delivering sub-regional Bridge Development Groups that bring people who are working on the ground in different sectors together to make a positive difference to children and young people in their area

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connecting existing networks across the North West; providing a virtual platform for sharing minutes and documents; enabling conversations and shared learning so that thinking and planning is joined up and not duplicated

Achievement and accreditation led by Hannah Baldwin, Bridge Coordinator: Achievement

Children and young people should be encouraged to develop their creative talent and have the opportunities to achieve and progress if they desire to. Curious Minds is:

creating ways to signpost children and young people to relevant development and progression opportunities in the North West

looking at how children and young people can showcase their talent in the region

advocating for the increase in successful Arts Awards in the region – with a target from ACE of a 33% year on year increase – encouraging schools to play a more significant role in this achievement

supporting the Arts Award workforce through; hosting regular Arts Award trainer meetings; offering CPD to Advisors to up skill them to confidently deliver the Silver Arts Award and build their skills in creative documentation; offering mentoring support to new Advisors; and build Arts Award Gold clubs where different organisations can work together collaboratively to help young people achieve Arts Award Gold

Quality led by Alice Demba, Bridge Coordinator: Quality

Children and young people have the right to experience high quality arts and cultural provision. Curious Minds is:

contracting seven Arts & Cultural Advocates to engage with schools and have one ‘cultural conversation’ promoting Arts Award and Artsmark - The Arts Council England target is that 50% of schools in the North West will achieve Artsmark status by 2015

Action: Curious Minds will share the names of the Arts & Cultural Advocates with the group

making strategic links with local authorities to bring Artsmark to schools, colleges and youth justice settings

awaiting a report commissioned that shows case studies from Artsmark Gold schools in the region to share best practice and the impact that Artsmark has on whole school change

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developing a model of training for young people aged 16 to 25 to become evaluators and mystery shoppers, they will ensure what is being delivered in the sector for children and young people is addressing their needs

Following this Katy also presented the other strands of work within Curious Minds that link to the Bridge programme:

• Curious Agents are being contracted to investigate and uncover the offer to schools from the museums, libraries and wider cultural and heritage sectors in the region following additional funding from the Department for Education –Glen Meskell is leading this work

• Partnership Investment funding is available from Curious Minds to be used to lever new money from across the wide variety of sectors working with and for children and young people for projects that involve their engagement with arts and culture – Alice Birdwood, Director of Development and Innovation is leading this work

• A capacity building programme is under development for arts, heritage and cultural grass roots organisations who work with children and young people; they will be able to access mentoring, action learning, one to one support and coaching – Tina Taylor, Development and Partnerships Manager is leading this work

• A new programme connecting with Teaching Schools and their Systems Leadership Model – which trains and deploys specialist leaders of education – is in development. Curious Minds hopes to connect with all Teaching Schools Alliances, ensuring they have representation from the arts, heritage and culture sectors on them, and hopes to develop a role for a Specialist Leader of Cultural Education that works with Teaching Schools and their networks to promote the value and power that cultural education can have on the lives of children and young people.

In conclusion of presenting the current position of Curious Minds as Bridge Organisation, Katy emphasised that this programme is to develop and grow in partnership with the Bridge Development Groups, Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations and other strategic partners. This presentation has outlined some of the plans for this year, but there is still scope for further development work and the Bridge Development Group was encouraged to contribute to these plans, addressing needs to their local areas. This current year’s focus has been with schools as a starting point but future years could include early years, informal education and family engagement.

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The group responded to the presentation as follows:

• How have you decided which schools to engage with in the first year? Curious Minds has chosen schools who are passionate about arts and culture – whether a previous Creative Partnerships school, an Artsmark school, or a school who has shown interest in developing their arts provision. All schools are encouraged to share their experience and advocate to their networks on the power of arts in school

• Concern was reiterated on duplication of work and provision; organisations have been known to be funded for activity that already takes place elsewhere

• It was acknowledge, in response to the video consultation, that in some areas there is a lot of provision available and the children and young people are aware of it, yet they do not access it. The group requested that a question feature in the survey to all 11-15 year olds that challenges why they do not access all that they know exists

Action: Curious Minds to include appropriate question in the survey

• A discussion occurred on the power of peer groups and how can the Bridge connect different groups of children and young people together and support them individually in their own personal development within the arts; in particular reference was made to Ken Robinson and his books ‘Tribes’ and ‘Element’

• The group agreed that finding easy and accessible ways to inform teachers of what provision is available locally to the school to be used as a learning resource outside the classroom is valuable

• A discussion occurred on how informal education settings are engaged in this work and the Bridge programme and members of the group agreed that it is important that children and young people are able to access arts and culture in their own time; the Youth Zones were acknowledged as a useful starting point for this type of engagement

• Quality of provision was discussed and the importance of using professional artists and practitioners to deliver sessions; it can be seen to have a positive impact on the experience and engagement of children and young people with arts and culture

• How does the economy and business feature in these plans? The group commented on; the growing creative industries, but that 95% are white middle class; the opportunities of the private sector, namely Media City, and the growth of social enterprises all as opportunities for growth and change

• Is it possible to connect more with smaller community and faith based groups? How can Arts Award be accessible to them, less bureaucracy, keep simple

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Bridge Development Groups

Kelly Allen, Bridge Coordinator: Engagement, then spoke to the group on the role of the Bridge Development Groups. She reiterated that the Bridge was a strategic organisation and not funded to deliver project activity directly, but that the Bridge role is to bring people and organisations together, to share knowledge, share experience and build new ways of delivering together. She acknowledged that the region is expansive hence the reasoning of the sub-regional groups. She confirmed that as members of the group individuals are not just representing themselves or their organisation, but are representing their sectors and the networks in which they are a part. The aim of the Bridge Development Groups is for the members to work together to create solutions and develop new programmes; they are not a talking shop.

Kelly then instigated a discussion on who should also be invited to these meetings, identifying the gaps. The group suggested; youth offending teams; faith groups – the forum of faiths; TIGHS; Lancashire Association of School Head Teachers; Lancashire Schools Forum; youth MPs; pre-school learning alliance; and FE colleges. The group also discussed how this group could engage directly with children and young people and it was requested that the members of the group should connect with their youth groups in consultation on ideas, issues, proposals discussed within this forum. In time a Bridge Development Group of Young People could be established.

Kelly presented the practical running of the group and confirmed that the next meeting will focus specifically on engagement. It will be a whole day event; in the morning there will be a provocation, a debate, to root out the issues that the sectors are facing and to showcase best practice – this will be open to anyone who wishes to come - in the afternoon the Bridge Development Group will then respond, suggesting ways in which the members can work together to address the issues. The subsequent meeting will focus on achievement.

The group discussed how it should run and what they must do:

• Ensure clarity of purpose; why they are meeting, what they are contributing – they acknowledged that time is precious and the meetings must be purposeful

• Don’t reinvent the wheel; they need to know what others are doing and join up projects and work accordingly

Action: Glen to speak with Kathy re portals and apps

• Be clear on timescales, actions and tasks; members need to be proactive and commit to action

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• Make meaningful connections and expand networks; members should build relationships with new colleagues and not just operate with people that they know

• Make information available to the other groups working with children and young people on what this group is doing

• Connect with schools to find ways of quantifying and qualifying the impact of arts and culture and what this group is delivering

All agreed that this group is a good opportunity to join up the range of provision and settings that work for and on behalf of children and young people. The group models the ‘new way forward’ for children and young people’s engagement with arts and culture and will ensure that the most disadvantaged children and young people, and those from the poorest neighbourhoods, are given the opportunity to experience high quality arts and culture.

The draft terms of reference were circulated to the group and Kelly requested that members review them and confirm approval via email to her.

Action: Members to review the terms of reference and confirm approval via email to Kelly.

Conclusion

In conclusion Derri thanked the members for giving their time to the group, recognising that the Bridge Organisation cannot work alone in ensuring that there is a wide cultural offer for children and young people in the region. She requested that members advocate for the Bridge and work with Curious Minds to improve the offer in Lancashire. In closing she encouraged members to share thoughts and ideas for how this change can happen and confirmed that Curious Minds has the resources, through the partnership investment fund, to support these new developments.

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