National Indicators – friend or foe?

I’m sure you don’t need me to explain what National Indicators (NIs) are all about, but as a quick reminder: in the cultural sector we now have four indicators – sport, libraries, arts and museums. All are concerned with adult participation and engagement, and collected via the Active People telephone survey conducted by Ipsos Mori. I know, from colleagues who have been involved in local authority arts for much longer than I have, how difficult the struggle was to get a specific indicator for the arts agreed and accepted. I’d often bemoaned the lack of longitudinal research in the arts, looked enviously at my colleagues in sports and libraries who could use data and do benchmarking with relative ease, and was tired of standing on my soapbox trying to explain the value of the arts. Interestingly, since the introduction of the indicator there has been lots of heated debate about the value of the data, how accurate and appropriate it is – with questions about how it is collected, and what it tells us. 

LOCAL THINKING
Swindon is one of the ‘pickers’, a new term meaning picked by the Local Strategic Partnership to be a priority in their Local Area Agreement (LAA). In Swindon we have both NI 8 Engagement in Sport and NI 11 Engagement in the Arts. In December we received the first interim report, and engagement has gone up by 5.1%. But, being honest, I cannot say with any accuracy whether there really are more people engaged in the arts. What I can say, with absolute certainty, is that our local arts community has rallied together for the first time in recent history, under a single vision, to raise the profile of the arts. As a result, the entire sector is now working more strategically, more collaboratively, and with renewed energy and a sense of purpose. I think the public of Swindon are far more aware of what we mean by ‘the arts’ and what is on offer in Swindon. The key in all of this is that they may be National Indicators, but they need to be driven locally and be about local issues. Although the local authority arts team needed to take a strong lead, if we were serious about wanting to deliver the prescribed 3% increase we needed to get the entire local arts infrastructure on board. For me, it was about using this as a catalyst for change, a chance to do something I’d long believed in but found almost impossible to achieve: to bring the professional, commercial, voluntary and community arts sectors together.
DRAWING TOGETHER
Trying to understand what the indicator was actually about, how data was collected, and what it meant was a challenge for all of us, but we decided that instead of sitting about debating the validity of the measuring tool we could use this as a moment to join up and raise our profile. I tweaked some budgets to find some additional funding and collectively we agreed this was best spent on a profile raising campaign. For the first time I had poets, graphic designers, choreographers, musicians, technicians, designers, sculptors, venues, professional and amateur organisations all wanting to take part and all willing to carry the Swindon Does Arts brand on their marketing and promotional tools. Setting up regular cross-sector gatherings to monitor our progress has also brought many additional benefits. The network has expanded and the traditional art form silos are breaking down. We have started to look at how we can prioritise work that meets other key LAA targets and share good practice. We have stimulating debates about audience development and the notion of community arts, and we have been able to remember and celebrate our artistic heritage. We are milking our increase for all it is worth. It feels as if the sector now owns the target and the responsibility is shared.
How would I feel if we hadn’t seen an increase this year? I’d probably be pointing out that the data is only interim, and that it comes with a significant health warning about tolerance and sample size, and I’d carry on working with all those who share my conviction that the arts do matter to local communities.