In 2003, Arts Council England established partnership agreements as a mechanism for working with local authorities. Tony Witton looks at how they are shaping up.
When I sat down to write this article the first thing I did was pick up the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary, looking for a definition of the word ?partner?; ?One who dances or goes into dinner with another? is one description. In the current climate, where the public sector is suffering from partnership overload, I think this is quite a refreshing definition because it reminds me of some of the merits of not doing things by myself. Aside from not dining alone, partnerships promise other well-documented benefits ? namely, pooling the knowledge, skills and resources of a number of different stakeholders to deliver shared objectives.
Since these are well-established principles of good practice, it is appropriate that Arts Council England (ACE) chose partnership working to develop its relationship with one of its key strategic partners: local authorities. The decision to follow the partnership working framework was taken in 2002, a period of major change when ACE and the ten countrywide Regional Arts Boards underwent reorganisation to become a single, national organisation with nine regional offices. Throughout this reorganisation, ACE knew it was vital to maintain our close contact with local authorities, so clear proposals were made for how the new organisation could build on our already positive working relationship to ensure an even stronger alliance in the future.
Two to tango
Why go to all that effort? Put quite simply, local authorities invest significant sums of money directly into arts development (almost three-quarters of a million pounds in the South East alone), as well as funding venues that provide arts activities. Local authorities serve the people in their communities and, by working with them to support and develop the work of artists, arts organisations and venues, we can jointly create and shape work that will improve and enrich the physical and social environment. This might be achieved by adding interest to a town square with a challenging piece of public art, or it may be through a more complex process of using a piece of theatre to encourage a better understanding of a social issue that is affecting a community. In either scenario, the position of local authorities as the gateway to communities, coupled with their commitment to investing in the arts, makes them an ideal partner to help us deliver our central belief ? that the arts have the power to transform lives.
Since the Arts Council reorganisation in 2002, the organisation has been working closely with local authorities using a national framework for partnership agreements. The agreements are managed by each regional office and develop mutual interests through four shared priorities: the creative economy, healthy communities, vital neighbourhoods and engaging young people. ACE has drawn up a national framework for partnership agreements to be managed by each regional office.
The idea behind these agreements was for ACE to work with groups of local authorities to:
? share our resources through joint planning to understand how to best meet priorities
? achieve growth in the arts by developing projects that could attract additional funding from non arts sources
? raise the awareness of the arts nationally, regionally and locally by clearly demonstrating how effective they are at delivering across the range of environmental and social agendas that had been identified.
It?s a simple concept of using joined-up thinking to generate ideas that are more ambitious and more innovative. Pooling financial resources means the partnership can afford some of the best talent in the arts industry and is an ideal catalyst for raising the quality threshold.
Come together
Some local authorities were, of course, already used to working together and in these cases, the development of the partnership agreements has proved instrumental in formalising and strengthening their relationship. For others, it has been a completely new way of working and often a positive experience that is now beginning to generate some very exciting projects. In the South East, the 74 local authorities came together in 12 partnership groups, defined mainly by county or geographic boundaries.
One of the key principles of the partnership agreements is the ability of the arts to deliver on the agendas of other agencies and local authority departments outside the arts, such as planning, youth services, education and health. In Brighton & Hove ?Say Ahh? was an arts and health initiative that brought together the work of the arts development and social services staff. Funded by the local authority, ACE and the Health Development Agency, ?Say Ahh? provided a networking event for arts and healthcare professionals. It culminated in the award of ten bursaries to develop arts projects in healthcare settings. Eastleigh Borough Council is leading a public art project group in the largest partnership agreement in the region made up of local authorities from Southampton, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth. This group is shaping ideas around skills development for officers and councillors across the disciplines of arts, planning and urban design. The work is progressing through a series of residencies that will explore issues around placing art in the public realm in a local authority context and that will also incorporate a mentoring process to provide development for artists developing their work in this sector.
Staying alive
What is important now is ensuring that the partnership agreements are maintained as live documents and continue to deliver what they were set up to do. It?s vital that they are flexible enough to respond to shifts in shared priorities and the priorities of other potential partners. ACE is now setting about evaluating the partnership agreements, looking at these issues as part of assessing how the agreements are working across the country. The evaluation will provide a full and frank assessment of the working in partnership concept and how it fits in the context of a national organisation. Only then will we be able to judge whether it is the best tool for us to engage with local authorities. Anyone fancy dinner?
To contact Tony Witton,
t: 01273 763034;
e: tony.witton@artscouncil.org.uk