Did You Know?

Living in the past

The South East is demonstrating the value of heritage- led regeneration with projects such as the Oxford Castle Heritage Project and the conversion of Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport to provide housing in the region.

A SEE-IN partner

Culture and Sport Toolkit for Local Area Agreements

 in development

We know the positive impact that cultural activity has on local authority objectives. Because we know that culture works, we want to ensure that culture is embedded in local area agreements as outcomes, or as indicators, or in any other way that will maximise culture's positive effect.

We've created a team who have put manpower and money behind the creation of the Culture and Sport Toolkit for Local Area Agreements. The toolkit is intended to help local authorities increase the cultural content of their 2008/09 LAAs.

The team are people from

  • Government Office for the South East
  • SEEDA
  • Culture South East
  • MLA South East
  • Sport England, South East
  • Tourism South East
  • Arts Council England, South East
  • Southeast Cultural Observatory

All of us recognise the power of culture and want to help those who recognise it too.

Who's the Culture and Sport Toolkit for Local Area Agreements for?

  • cultural officers : to help them influence the local area agreement process within their own organisation.
  • members who recognise the value of culture: to help them champion culture as a means of helping their community
  • LAA project officers: to show them some innovative and cross-cutting methods for hitting several objectives at once.
  • Government Office locality officers (the people who negotiate the LAAs with local authorities): to help them also understand how culture can contribute across the LAA.

What's in it?

Modular in approach,  the modules will inform users about the contribution of culture
to communities and to local and national priorities, demonstrate clearly
what this might mean within an LAA and how it can be practically
delivered and measured. The toolkit will include:

  • key drivers and accountablilites
  • how culture contributes to regional and local priorities
  • "how to do it" checklists
  • performance management: indicators and data collection
  • other sources of advice and information
  • how other local authorities have done it: case studies and what's worked before.

How do I get my hands on it?

The toolkit will be available as a subsite of the Southeast Cultural Observatory.

Will it cost me anything?

No. The toolkit will be free to access.

Timescale

The Culture and Sport Toolkit for Local Area Agreements is being developed over the summer and we expect completion in November  07. We're also planning a campaign to raise awareness of the toolkit and of culture's contribution to LAAs to take place over the next few months.

Case Studies

As part of the development of a toolkit for the South East region we are looking for case studies that demonstrate:
 

  • the value and contribution of culture (in its widest sense)
  • the contribution of culture to key local strategic priorities as set out in Sustainable Community Strategies and Corporate Plans
  • how culture has been incorporated within Local Area Agreements, including the outcomes it is seen as contributing to and the performance measures used to measure this, plus any measured impact to date.

Please use the guidance and template  here to submit your case study information for possible inclusion within the toolkit for the South East. If you do not feel that some of the sections are relevant or necessary to enable the reader to understand what was achieved, please leave them blank. Please try to keep the length of your case study to a maximum of two pages.

All case studies should be returned to info@yewconsulting.co.uk.

For further information about the LAA Cultural Toolkit please contact Clare Marett at clare.marett@gose.gsi.gov.uk.