On Tuesday afternoon Daniel and I were at the offices of Children England in London for the latest Running Your Group LIVE online event – an introduction to child protection and safeguarding. I interviewed Kevin Garrod, the National Partnerships Manager for Safe Network – the National Third Sector Safeguarding Unit – live on www.runningyourgroup.org. The interview included basic information about where to start if you are running a local amateur group that wants to undertake some activities involving children, dispelling some of the myths about criminal records disclosures, an update on forthcoming changes to the statutory guidance and the development of a vetting and barring scheme, the growing importance of taking measures to ensure online safety and much more. Kevin urged those involved in amateur groups working with children, young people or vulnerable adults to undertake at least Level One training which you can do online (free of charge) via the Safe Network website at http://www.safenetwork.org.uk or through your Local Safeguarding Children Board (which you can find at http://www.safechild.co.uk). Our interview was webcast live as streaming video, with text chat allowing Running Your Group subscribers to put their questions directly to Kevin (many thanks to those of you who did). The video recording will be available shortly to watch in full on the Online Events page at http://www.runningyourgroup.org. In the meantime you can watch a short extract at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhJuMvfh-Cw. This was our second Running Your Group LIVE online event and we managed to get the technology working much better this time. Kevin Garrod was a great interviewee – well-informed, clear and open. He helped us to present a simple, straightforward overview of a subject that can appear confusing and daunting to many amateur groups. If you were not able to join us live on Tuesday please do watch the video recording at http://www.runningyourgroup.org.
Robin Simpson.
On Thursday I was in Newcastle to take part in an orientation day for re.volution – a new Peer Learning Network for small and medium sized arts and cultural organisations in England and Scotland, established by Mission Models Money (MMM). re.volution is designed to help the leaders of arts organisations solve the problems of trying to do too much, with too little, too often on your own. Designed to be very practical, re.volution has so far brought together around 50 Peers across England and Scotland physically and through on line space, so that we can receive and give advice, practical assistance and critical thinking on issues and challenges that we need help with or about which we have relevant expertise.?? On Thursday I met a small group of fellow Peers from organisations and networks including the visual arts, theatre and museums. The day was facilitated by Mark Robinson from Thinking Practice and was a very enjoyable opportunity for mutual support and networking.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, drama, excellence, olympics, training, UK, volarts
I was in Stratford-upon-Avon on Thursday to meet Geraldine Collinge and Ian Wainwright at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Our RSC Open Stages project is progressing well: the first of the 263 amateur productions within the project took place in February 2011 on the Isle of Skye and there will be Open Stages productions across the UK through to the end of 2012.
RSC Open Stages map
We have now completed the programme of skills sharing sessions across the country. The RSC Open Stages Skills Exchange team has travelled 5,047 miles this year, running sessions from Glasgow to Southampton, working with 2,320 amateurs. The learning from these sessions has been immense and, as well as the ways in which amateur theatre groups have benefited from the knowledge and experience of the professionals, it was fascinating to hear how much the RSC has learned about the nature and state of amateur theatre in the UK. On Thursday we discussed how we might use this learning to help to plan further work together after the Open Stages project finishes at the end of 2012. We also discussed details of the regional (and national) Open Stages showcase events being organised by our 10 partner theatres in Spring 2012 and the World Shakespeare Festival/Open Stages performances in July 2012. On 14, 15, 21 and 22 July 2012 at least 10 amateur productions, selected from the Open Stages programme across the UK, will perform in Stratford-upon-Avon as guests of the Royal Shakespeare Company as part of the official World Shakespeare Festival (which is part of London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad). It’s going to be a fantastic opportunity for the chosen groups and a great chance for us to demonstrate the excellent standards achieved by UK amateur theatre groups.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday I went to Stratford-upon-Avon looking forward to a peak behind the scenes at the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre but came back buzzing with excitement about our RSC Open Stages project. (And the theatre was quite exciting too!) Open Stages grew out of discussions between Voluntary Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Company about how best to involve amateur theatre in the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival (part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad). After a planning weekend involving 65 representatives of voluntary arts umbrella bodies, in Stratford in November 2009, Open Stages began to take shape as stand-alone project, funded by The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Ian Wainwright was appointed as the RSC’s Open Stages Producer in August 2010 and Ian has been working closely with Voluntary Arts and the amateur theatre umbrella bodies to develop the project. At the end of 2010 we invited applications from amateur groups and I can now reveal that 300 amateur productions across the UK have been chosen to be part of RSC Open Stages. These 300 amateur groups, who are creating productions of Shakespeare plays or Shakespeare-related performances, will be branded and marketed by the RSC and will be invited to take-part in a series of 10 regional and national skills-sharing weekends run by the RSC and 10 partner professional theatres. Within each region and nation, several amateur productions will be chosen to be showcased at the partner theatres in Spring 2012 and 10 of these will go forward to perform in Stratford in July 2012 as part of the official World Shakespeare Festival, alongside the RSC’s own productions and professional companies from across the world. The 300 amateur RSC Open Stages productions include performances in forests, castles and stately homes, performances by the John Lewis Partnership amateur dramatics group and by a RAF theatre group involving service personnel just returned from Afghanistan. The response to our call for applications was far in excess of our expectations and Open Stages looks like being a wonderful national celebration of amateur Shakespeare. Ian and I were joined on Tuesday by Tabitha Allum, the Chief Executive of Stagetext, to discuss the use of captioning for the hard of hearing by amateur theatre groups. We agreed to offer all the groups involved in Open Stages the opportunity to receive training from Stagetext in how to introduce live captioning to their performances.
More details of RSC Open Stages at http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/projects/open-stages/ and lots of discussion at http://www.facebook.com/rscopenstages.
Robin Simpson.
The RSC Open Stages map
I was back in London on Thursday to attend the NCVO Value of Infrastructure Programme Evidencing Impact course. The Value of Infrastructure Programme (VIP) has developed a set of tools to help voluntary sector infrastructure organisations (including umbrella bodies, membership organisations and support networks) to measure the impact of their work. As well as providing a standardised approach to describe the activities and impacts of infrastructure bodies, VIP will provide opportunities for infrastructure bodies to benchmark their performance against aggregate scores for the sector as a whole. The Evidencing Impact course introduced us to the tools and enabled us to think through how we might apply them to our own organisations. A further course, in May, will provide training on the online versions of the tools. The VIP tools look fantastic and I could immediately see how they will be useful in helping Voluntary Arts to measure impact in relation to the objectives of our new 3-year Strategic Plan.
Robin Simpson.
I was in Cardiff on Tuesday to meet Nick Beasley, Chief Executive of Audiences Wales. We discussed a variety of ways in which we might be able to work together: to help voluntary arts organisations develop their audiences; to provide support with the business of running a voluntary arts group; and to increase arts participation. We talked about the two highly successful audience development training sessions that took place in the summer, jointly run by Voluntary Arts Wales and Audiences Wales, and agreed that we would develop a series of similar events across Wales next year.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: DIUS, education, England, politics, training, vcs, volarts
On Tuesday evening I was at the RSA to hear the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes, deliver a speech titled ‘The craft so long to lerne: Skills and their Place in Modern Britain’. John Hayes wanted to stress the importance of practical skills and the need for greater parity of esteem between academic learning and practical craft. This was not just about the economic need for a better skilled nation. The Minister said “there’s plenty of evidence to show that raising skills levels brings social as well as economic benefits, like better public health, lower crime-rates and more intensive engagement by individuals in the sorts of voluntary and community activities that improve everyone’s quality of life”. He spoke passionately about the “power of learning for the common good” and said he was proud that the Adult & Community Learning budget had been protected in the Comprehensive Spending Review. The Minister said “we must not forget the role that informal learning also plays in teaching skills. Acquiring skills make our lives, not necessarily wealthier, but definitely fuller. It raises our self-esteem and often also the esteem in which others hold us”. He finished by saying “skills, craft and dexterity give our lives meaning and value. They are at the heart of our society. Craft should be honoured and those who master it revered. So while we work to encourage the learning of practical skills, we must also work to build demand for and recognition of them.” John Hayes is a passionate advocate of learning for learning’s sake. He was even more eloquent once he departed from his script and started answering questions from the floor, stressing the effect that informal learning has on health, mental health, civic engagement and much more. Though ‘craft’ in the context of this speech encompassed a broad range of practical skills, from carpenter to software engineer, it was clear that developing skills in the arts and crafts is very definitely something that the Minister is keen to encourage.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday afternoon I met Kevin Garrod, the National Partnerships Manager for Safe Network – the National Voluntary and Community Sector Safeguarding Unit (in England). Safe Network is a partnership between Children England and the NSPCC which provides information, toolkits, learning materials, training and an enquiry service to help voluntary and community sector organisations keep children safe. On 18 November they will be launching the ‘Safe Network Standards’ – an online interactive assessment for organisations. We talked about how Voluntary Arts might work more closely with Safe Network to provide information and advice on child protection and related issues to the voluntary arts sector.
Robin Simpson.
Filed under: meetings | Tags: DIUS, education, England, politics, training, volarts
On Thursday I was back in London to take part in a consultation event at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills as part of the Department’s ‘Skills for Sustainable growth’ consultation. This gave me a first chance to see John Hayes, the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, speak. He is a passionate and entertaining performer and seems genuinely enthusiastic about his responsibilities and the importance of learning in its broadest sense. It was great, in the context of a discussion about vocational skills, to hear the Minister stress that “adult and community learning is incredibly important and something the Secretary of State [Vince Cable] and I care about”. He also spoke about the need to make the “social and cultural case for skills” in terms of “the effect they have in communities”. We then broke into groups to discuss a number of key questions from the ‘Skills for Sustainable growth’ consultation paper. Coincidentally, the group I joined consisted almost entirely of third sector organisations and we had a useful discussion about the role of the third sector in skills development and I stressed the need to recognise that many people develop vocational skills through their participation in voluntary arts groups and other community activities, rather than through formal training. Following the completion of the consultation, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is considering producing a white paper on skills towards the end of this year.
Robin Simpson.
