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DCMS Local Government Network Update
Highlights…
Find Your Talent
London 2012 Games – update on the Inspire Programme and ‘City Operations’
Cultural Olympiad
City of Culture
National Indicator Review
Humanitarian Assistance
Establishment of Visit England
Free Swimming
Library Review
Wirral Inquiry
New Regional Arrangements
Click here down download the full update.
MLA Best Practice workshops Feb and March 2010
MLA are running five free ‘Best Practice’ workshops to help preserve and improve culture services in challenging that are being launched in February and March 2010 for sector professions. The interactive workshops will look at new models of working, teams, budgets and collaborations to develop innovative, integrated and sustainable services for all.
The harsh economic climate will test professionals across the culture sector and to help them, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
(MLA) is launching a series of five, free 'Best Practice' workshops throughout February and March 2010. These interactive workshops will look at doing more with less by exploring new models of working, finances, collaborations and communities; to try to preserve and improve the best services. The workshops are designed to inspire sector professionals with examples of how to make the most of their budgets, teams and collections to develop innovative, integrated and sustainable services for all.
MLA Chief Executive Roy Clare said, "The pressures facing cultural services have never been greater. The MLA offers a range of expertise, support networks, resources and ideas to enable funding organisations to work out better ways to maintain an outstanding tailored service for their communities. In these challenging times people right across the country need access to culture, the arts and sport as a refuge from daily life."
Run by Culture Unlimited on behalf of the MLA, the one day workshops are aimed at all Heads of Services and Programme Managers from museums, archives and libraries, with speakers from across the sectors. Sessions will be made up of inspirational talks, group discussions and interactive workshops that will culminate in an in-depth focus on personal planning and daily action for each participant.
Click here for more information and booking.
Partnership working in the arts in Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland
Considerable efficiencies are being achieved through partnership working in the arts by local authorities in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. Rather than a single authority commissioning or ensuring a service, these partnerships are providing:
Better value for money
A specialist professional service
External funding to develop the service
Click here for details.
Governance Now - Latest publication from the Cultural Leadership Programme
This new publication from the Cultural Leadership Programme draws on the knowledge and experience of a variety of industry leaders to review the issue of governance. It is designed to stimulate debate as well as offering practical recommendations.Click here to download the report
Working together in two and three-tier areas
This publication outlines the findings and recommendations from research IDeA commissioned from OPM during 2008 and 2009.
Now, more than ever, it is critical for the different tiers of local government to collaborate with each other. Financial pressures and requirements to deliver seamless customer service mean that councils need to find ways to work together productively.
The publication looks at the barriers to effective two and three tier-working and proposes solutions.
Click here to download the full publication.
The race is on to find UK's first ‘City of Culture’ for 2013
A competition open to the whole of the UK to find the nation’s first ‘City of Culture’ has been launched by Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw. The winning city will become a focus for national attention in 2013 and could host high-profile media events including the Turner Prize, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, The Brits and the RIBA Stirling Prize as part of their year in the spotlight.
Ben Bradshaw said:
“Culture is something that we are incredibly good at in the UK. But excellence and innovation in the arts does not begin and end inside the M25 and I believe we have been too London-centric for too long in our cultural life. So this competition aims to find a city or area outside London that has the wow factor, with exciting and credible plans to make a step change in its cultural life and engage the whole country".
Click here for the full details.
The Leisure Review Summit
In recent months numerous conversations about the state of the sport, leisure and culture sector have revealed a string of common themes and shared concerns. Keen to provide an opportunity for debate, The Leisure Review invited some senior figures from across the leisure industry to take part in a facilitated debate on the future of the leisure sector. The TLR Summit was born.
Click here for the full details.
Comprehensive area assessment (CAA)
Comprehensive area assessment (CAA) will replace comprehensive performance assessment (CPA) from April 2009.
Click here for more information on what it will mean for local authorities and their partners, and the support the IDeA offers.
Improving strategic commissioning in the culture and sport sector - Guidance for practitioners
The sharper focus on outcomes is leading to the reorientation of public services around a ‘commissioning model’. In some services, such as adult social care and health, a commissioning model has been in place for many years. Its arrival in children’s services, learning and skills, offender management, and other public services is more recent.
Culture and sport is striving to respond to this new agenda by:
• improving how culture and sport services are themselves commissioned
• being more proactive in responding to commissioning processes instigated by others.
Click here for more details.
Empty shops revival plan to prevent high street decline
This report outlines recent government publications on steps that Local Authorities can take to prevent high street decline due to empty shops etc.
A Passion for Excellence: One Year On
The improvement strategy ‘A Passion for Excellence’, launched in
March2008, is about supporting local government and its partners to deliver
better outcomes for the culture and sport sectors. The Rt Hon
Andy Burnham MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, launches
‘A Passion for Excellence: One Year On’.
Find out what the publication has to say about the progress of the strategy, what has been achieved and what
further work there is to be done by clicking here.
Forest Schools scheme wins the Youth Initiative award
Congratulations to the Forest Schools scheme, organised by Corby Borough Council and the Corby Learning Partnership, for winning the Youth Initiative award at the Local Government Chronicle and Health Service Journal Sustainable Communities awards. Their focus on the wider cultural & community agenda is definitely delivering results!
Full details and photo attached.
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council Move to Excellent
As a region we have too many ‘fair’ performing local authorities so it is right to take the opportunity to applaud the move from fair to excellent achieved by Hinckley and Bosworth in the last four years.
