Cheshire Bridge Dg Oct

7/31/2019 Cheshire Bridge Dg Oct

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Attendees

Arts organisation representatives

Nina Hajiyianni Action Transport Theatre

Amber Knipe Chester Performs

Tina Redford Brighter SoundLibrary representative

None present

Local authority representative

Helen Paton Cheshire East Council

Laura Orchard Cheshire West and Chester Council

Debbie Cottam The Conway Centre

Jocelyn Macmillan Cheshire Council

Museums and heritage sector representative

Helen Evans National Waterways Museum

Kate Harland Grosvenor Museum

Music hub representativesChris BastockCheshire East Music Hub

John Barber Cheshire East Music Hub

Alan Milnes Wirral and Cheshire West Music Hub

Alison Corten - Chester

Carolyn Warburton Wirral and Cheshire West Music Hub

Janet Whittingham Halton Advisory Music Teacher

Schools Education representative

Jodie Gibson Access Arts Centre, Manchester Metropolitan University

Third sector representative

Chris Hindley Cheshire Youth Federation

Youth service representative

None present

Curious Minds

Derri Burdon, Chief Executive

Kelly Allen, Bridge Coordinator: Engagement

Glen Meskell Bridge Coordinator: Communications

Jude Bird Services for Schools Consultant

Arts Council England, North West

None present

Apologies

Adam Holloway Cheshire DanceCaz Brader Director of Programmes, Curious Minds

Bridge Development Group: CheshireMinutes of the meeting: 30th October 2012

Minutes taken b Lindse West


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Claire Bigley Halton Borough CouncilJames Goodison Warrington Council

Lindsay Weaver Cheshire Young Carers Group

Introduction

The group were welcomed by Derri Burdon, Chief Executive of Curious Minds;

she thanked them for attending this group meeting and giving their time to helping

Curious Minds delivery of the Bridge Programme. She confirmed that the Bridge

Development Groups have a clear purpose and are not talking shops however

she also explained that this meeting is largely a presentation to inform the group of

where the Bridge Programme is up to but future meetings will be led much moreby the group.

Derri introduced the Curious Minds team present at the meeting, Kelly Allen, Jude

Bird and Glen Meskell and said that their roles will be explained during the course

of her presentation.

Curious Minds as Bridge Organisation

Derri presented information on the Bridge Programme, funded by Arts Council

England. Many see this programme as a sequel to the Find Your Talent and

Creative Partnerships programmes, whilst they all had the aim of improving

access to high quality arts and culture, members will not see direct project

activity delivered to young people through the Bridge Programme. One of tennationally, the Bridge Programme is strategic, for intelligence gathering and

supporting other organisations to be better at what they do. This programme is not

about doing more of the same, or simply about increasing the amount of provision.

There is also no brand for the Bridge Programme although an Arts Council

England Bridge Organisation logo does exist. The Bridge Programme is lottery

funded and Curious Minds is considered a National Portfolio Organisation.

Curious Minds Business Plan links well to the vision of the Bridge Programme.

The work of the charity focuses on Exploring, Connecting and Celebrating arts and

cultural work with children and young people.

Action: If you would like to see the Curious Minds business plan please just ask.

The beginnings of the Bridge Programme were introduced by Derri, with

clarification that the programme supports Arts Council England in their delivery of

their goal 5 that every child and young person should experience the richness of

the arts. Upon starting the Bridge Programme Curious Minds undertook the

significant audit of children and young peoples provision in the region, speaking to

over 450 people across schools, arts organisations, local authorities and children

and young people themselves. There were four clear areas for development in

conclusion of the audit: communication, engagement, quality and

achievement/progression. Also across all of these money plays a significant roletoo, although within the report some did suggest that lack of money challenged


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them to be more creative and use money more wisely.

Derri passionately spoke about quality provision and what does this look like in the

arts sector. How do we ensure that people delivering arts provision on a shoe

string are still delivering work of high quality?

All of these strands are being addressed in the first year of the Bridge Programme

and will be monitored by Arts Council England across six Key Performance

Indicators. Curious Minds is passionate about the Bridge Programme and are

keen that the activity delivered will be dictated by the region and the Bridge

Development Groups while also aligning to the KPIs.

Further detail of the programme for 2012/13 was given:

Information, Communication and Advocacy

Glen Meskell Bridge Coordinator: Communications

Annual audit of provision will be undertaken; mixture of soft narrative and

hard data

Creation of a web-portal, an online information tool to signpost schools and

youth settings to the providers of arts and cultural provision in the North

West

Digital tool for young people developed in partnership with young people

- which links to their social media usage, allowing them to profile their ownwork and review their experiences

Engagement research; survey of 30,000 young people (years 8,9 and 10)

what culture they engage with, how, why and when?

Monthly e-bulletin; circulation of 3,000

Action: Members to send information to put on the e-bulletin to Dave Muir

at Curious Minds ([email protected])

Resources to schools; hard copy publications and flyer produced for

schools to share the wealth of arts and culture in the region

EngagementKelly Allen Bridge Coordinator: Engagement

Enabling more children and young people to access opportunities, those

who cant or dont choose to engage in culture; working with youth justice

and youth zones to develop models for engagement

Creation and lead of the Bridge Development Group network

Support of wider networks across the region and Curious Minds will

provide a web space for networks to share information, minutes, agendas

so that all members of the sector can contribute

Achievement & ProgressionHannah Baldwin Bridge Coordinator: Achievement


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Achieve 33% year on year increase in Arts Award achievement in theregion

Signposting opportunities for children and young people to showcase their

work on a regional platform

Coordinate and research opportunities for clear progression within the

creative industries

Support of the Arts Award workforce; give opportunities to advisors to meet

and support each other through training and networks

Quality

Alice Demba Bridge Coordinator: Quality

By 2015 50% of schools to have achieved Artsmark status

Arts & Cultural Advocates appointed to build relationships with schools and

have one cultural conversation persuading them to embed arts and

culture into their curriculum promotion of Arts Award and Artsmark in

schools

Support Trinity appointed Artsmark workforce

Development of young people as evaluators/mystery shoppers

Money

Alice Birdwood Director of Development & Innovation

Tina Taylor Development & Partnerships Manager 100% cash match Partnership and Investment fund worth 430,000 is

available to lever in new money to the sector that would not normally be

spent on arts and culture, and to help the Bridge team achieve their KPIs.

Urge for the Bridge Development Group to use their contacts to work with

Curious Minds to create some exciting new programmes to

Action: Members to contact Alice Birdwood with ideas and contacts for

Partnerships Investment development

Grass roots organisation support; children and young people in small

localities access provision delivered by small organizations. Curious Minds

is keen to ensure that the quality of their provision is the best it can be by

supporting their organisations to be the best that they can be

In summary, in delivering those KPIs Curious Minds is establishing regional, sub-

regional and local creative hubs so that a coherent offer is available to all children

and young people which will enable them to understand what is on offer in their

locality, sub-region and across the North West; in all, helping them to progress

and develop their experiences and skills.

Following the establishment of the Bridge Programme Curious Minds has now

also been given further funding following the Henley Review of Cultural Education.

Jude Bird is leading this work to connect with teaching schools and Curious Mindshopes that each Teaching School Education Alliance has representation from an


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arts organisation, museum or library in the near future.

The group responded to the presentation as follows:

How are Curious Minds judging quality? Arts Council England

recommends referrals to National Portfolio Organisations as they have

been through a rigorous process. For Curious Minds it needs to be broader

than this to enable all levels of arts and cultural engagement, they use the

Artsmark framework to support their decision on quality, they encourage

schools to engage with credible arts organisations and artists, and develop

their own sense of what quality is.

Badge holder of learning outside the classroom said they are no longer

doing it due to cost implication and schools never used it as criteria for

commissioning work. Another member commented that it does have worth

and understanding of the badge by schools is on the increase.

What is a credible artist? How does this support new and emerging artists?

Whats the role of CPD for artists? How can Curious Minds support

schools understanding of CRBs and regulated activity? Curious Minds has

been told that workforce development is the responsibility of Creative and

Cultural Skills. Curious Minds may be an Umbrella Body for CRB checks.

Kelly informed the group that Curious Minds aims that every school in the

North West will have an Arts and Culture key contact who Curious Minds

and arts organisations, museums and libraries will be able to communicatewith going forward.

What is the Bridge Organisations ongoing strategy for information

gathering? Research in Years 8,9,10; Curious Agents in sub-regional and

sector specific roles; and annual audit were mentioned as steps in this

process.

Following this discussion Derri instigated introductions for the group, inspired by

the book Curious Stories asking who or what inspired you growing up? The

group shared their inspirations with each other.

Bridge Development GroupKelly shared with the group that their purpose was to support and help Curious

Minds deliver an effective Bridge Programme. Through working in partnership with

each other Kelly hoped the group will be able to address the challenges of

Engagement and Achievement in the coming meetings. The group has been

selected because of their influence and experience here in Cheshire, the issues in

each sub-region are different and so this group can shape a programme for

Cheshire. Kelly confirmed that Curious Minds is in a strategic role here, supporting

the members to do things better, they are not in competition with the members.

Kelly has thought hard about who the members of the group should be and

decisions were made based on a fair cross-sector representation. Members havebeen invited here to represent their sector, not just their organisation. Kelly then


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posed the question who else should be in the room? to make this group effective.The group responded; a representative from Boost Education Partnership;

Primary, Secondary and Special School Heads Association; Community & Faith

groups; early years groups; libraries representation; equal representation across

Cheshire West and East.

The group discussed the importance of how the information from the Bridge

Development Group is disseminated to the wider networks to ensure that the

group can be truly representative of the needs within Cheshire. Kelly informed the

group that the next event will be a full day event. In the morning it will be open to

all to come and discuss the issues in Cheshire but in the afternoon this group will

be challenged to devise solutions to those issues raised.

Kelly confirmed that Curious Minds does not have all the answers and will be

drawing upon the expertise of the group. She circulated the draft terms of

reference as a starting point and posed the question How does this group need to

work in order to be effective in Cheshire? The group responded as follows:

Clear strategy and action points; clarity of roles between Curious Minds as

Bridge Organisation and the Bridge Development Group.

The group needs a high profile and clear brand; supporting best practice

and linking to opportunities with strategic commission boards.

Ensure that children and young people are represented well.

Representative of children and young people on this group? Run asanother group or through communication by members with their own

existing CYP groups?

Balance strategic understanding and on the ground knowledge to develop

local offers.

Ensure the group has the right information to be able to advocate on behalf

of Curious Minds.

Support schools in their understanding of CRB requirements and how to

engage arts and cultural providers (this may be a specific piece of work,

rather than the role of the Bridge Development Group).

Commitment to a shared information resource for schools and young

people that does not reinvent the wheel but enables all existing

opportunities to be located.

Quality mark development for levels of accreditation and Arts Award route

for existing networks.

In conclusion, Kelly shared with the group the Children and Young Peoples

consultation video produced earlier in 2012. She then thanked the group for their

time and invited them to stay for lunch.

Documents

Cheshire Bridge Dg Oct