A conclusive evaluation of Creative Partnerships (CP) is set to reveal the scheme’s economic impact. It will also look at the effect the work has had in schools, including on attainment at GCSE level. PricewaterhouseCoopers was commissioned to evaluate CP, focusing on the costs of delivering the programme and the benefits to learners and their parents, and to schools. Its report looks at impacts on learners, in terms of how lifetime earnings might be affected by improved educational attainment; on wider society, through reductions in exclusion and the social implications that this has; and on teachers and schools, through improved teacher morale, and reduced recruitment and retention costs. CP is now managed by Creativity, Culture and Education, an arts education quango largely funded by Arts Council England, with additional funding from the Department for Education.
Catherine Rose, Acting Director of Arts Inform (an agency which creates projects in arts education) told AP: “I think CP is good, but I do have reservations about the way it has changed the economy of the arts and schools. If a school hosts a maths project with a dancer, it will probably spend its arts budget rather than its maths budget. This has put the squeeze on other work with visiting artists.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: AP will be commenting on the report’s findings when it is published on 14 September. Check out the website to get the latest.
Published: 13-09-2010