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13 SOUTH AYRSHIRE

Project Background and Rationale

Background

13.1 The Creative Nurseries Pathfinder developed an approach to cultural entitlements for pre-5s and their parents/carers in rural, isolated regeneration areas, and coalfields (pockets of deprivation) using cultural planning maps. Through three creative artistic residencies, the Pathfinder aimed to increase cultural participation, empowerment, influence and an overall improvement in participants' lives. The project used creative mediums to open up dialogues where people felt comfortable and knowledgeable about what they would like to see as cultural entitlements. Artists were placed in nurseries and were provided with creative activities to interact with the children, but also with the parents/carers.

13.2 A second element of the Programme involved developing cross-department working by setting up a cultural steering group which consisted of a range of services such as health, Community Planning, libraries, Community Learning and Development, Museums and Galleries, Integrated Children's Services and Economic Development and Culture. The purpose of the steering group was to explore cultural planning, to establish cultural infrastructures and for cultural value and awareness to be promoted amongst a wide range of council departments and services with a view to influencing cultural strategy and Community Planning.

Aims and Objectives

13.3 The primary goal of Creative Nurseries, as set out in the evaluation plan was to investigate cultural entitlements for pre-5s and their parents/carers, through participation in creative activity, resulting in an improvement to participants' lives through engagement with creative activities. More detailed aims were as follows:

• influence target groups' attitudes to culture and creative expression;
• improve their knowledge and understanding about cultural entitlements;
• increase their participation in creative activities;
• enhance creative skills amongst participants;
• deliver greater motivation to learning and attainment amongst pre-5s; and
• develop definitions of cultural entitlement across the Local Authority.

13.4 Consultation with the project managers also identified a range of other aims and objectives, which included: establishing a cultural infrastructure, exploring cultural impact and accessibility and assessing the value of creative activity to nursery learning.

Funding

13.5 The total cost of the project was £35,263 of which 58% (£20,263) was funded by the Cultural Pathfinders programme. Match funding of £15,000 was provided by the Local Authority.

Strategic Fit

13.6 The project was developed in line with national cultural policy. In particular, at the start, the project was developed with a strong focus on cultural entitlements and cultural planning (elements of developing cultural policy at that time ²²). It concentrated on delivering cultural entitlements to the young citizens of South Ayrshire and in investigating the potential of a cultural planning approach to discovering what cultural entitlements might mean for pre-5 children and their parents and carers. However, the shift in policy emphasis to widening access to cultural provision half way through the process resulted in the cultural entitlements element of the Pathfinder being marginalised.

13.7 At the local level, it was intended that the project would feed into the strategy development process rather than respond to a particular strategy. The Pathfinder aimed to explore cultural planning and cultural infrastructures and to develop definitions of cultural entitlements across the Local Authority. It was the aim that the findings and outcomes from the project would establish the need for a cultural strategy and feed into the form that the strategy would take.

13.8 The project aimed to impact on the local Community Planning agenda in South Ayrshire and engage with the Local CPP. A key aim was to assess the value of creative activity in nursery learning and this fits most closely with the aim of Learning and Achieving in the Community Plan, where the objective is for everyone to have access to a wide range of learning opportunities and to develop skills, interests and ability. However, there is currently a lack of focus on culture within the Community Plan.

13.9 The Pathfinder was also well aligned with the objectives of the Cultural Pathfinder Programme. In particular, it targets nurseries in rurally isolated deprived communities who are underrepresented in terms of access to cultural activity. The project steering group comprised a wide range of partners across various council delivery services, and the project aimed to widen their knowledge and understanding of cultural entitlements fitting with the objective of exploring culture's benefits across the Local Authority. It also looked at exploring entitlements as part of Community Planning. The project set out to consult with children and parents/carers in order to articulate key elements of entitlements and influence attitudes to creative expression, fitting with the objective of effective community consultation and giving people real influence in developing the project/entitlements/access opportunities. Fablevision, the delivery agent, has experience of delivering cultural mappings and regeneration projects in disadvantaged communities, and uses high quality artists contributing to the aim of delivering high quality community engagement.

Activities and Processes

13.10 The Creative Nurseries Pathfinder was led by the arts manager in South Ayrshire Council (in post at the time). It was delivered in partnership with Fablevision, who provided the high quality artists and expertise for the workshops in the nurseries and also with the pre-5 development officers and the education department in the Council.

13.11 Three individual creative artist residencies were put in place (a dramatist, a visual artist and a musician) over a period of nine months. A total of 88 workshops were delivered across nine nurseries in South Ayrshire. Some 288 children were involved in these workshops. This was slightly less than the targeted number of workshops due to operational issues on the nurseries behalf such as in-service days and voting. The creative team/artists were fully trained and prepared before undertaking the project. Fablevision organised four half-day training sessions for the creative teams before the project started, followed by weekly de-brief sessions.

13.12 The children's imaginations were explored using arts such as drama and music and other creative approaches in teaching the curriculum itself. The artists took an approach to creative learning which sought to influence teachers' approaches to learning.

13.13 In addition, throughout the process, consultations with parents/carers were carried out and they were invited to get involved in some of the creative sessions. These consultations were carried out in an informal basis as the demands of the curriculum did not allow time for more detailed discussions

13.14 Qualitative research with regards to perceptions and views on culture and its meaning (particularly relevant to pre-5 children) was carried out throughout the project. The artist worked with young children, parents and nursery staff to engage and discuss what culture means to them in a creative and innovative manner (specific to their art form). This was a form of cultural planning mapping methodology, recognising all local cultural resources and seeking to utilise these in a positive manner. Qualitative evidence of the outcomes from the project was gathered through artists completing record sheets as well as responses to their sessions in creative workshops.

13.15 A further key element of the project involved establishing a project steering group, comprising key representatives from the Council across a range of sectors including Health, Community Planning, Libraries, Community Learning and Development, Museums and Galleries, Integrated Children's Services, early years, Quality Improvement and Economic Development and Culture. The original intention was for the steering group to guide the project and its delivery at the Local Authority level. However, their role became wider and they became involved in promoting and raising awareness of the value of culture across council departments and services as well as Community Planning. The meetings also became discussion and information sharing sessions, providing a potential route by which information could be fed back into the Community Planning process through attendance of the acting Community Planning manager at the meetings. The steering group meetings involved talking about how they could be involved in culture, what it means for them and exploring how it could be used to explore their goals. What worked well in this respect was asking individuals to join the group who were at a level where they could have strategic influence.

13.16 There was a public display of the work created by the children at the main council office which elected members, council officers, parents, staff, carers and other stakeholders attended. It was anticipated that the final presentation would be a large scale event bringing together nursery staff, participants, carers, Local Authority, education representatives and other stakeholders. The plan was for young people to present their work and open up a discussion on policy looking at the potential of integrating cultural planning within education in South Ayrshire.

13.17 The final stage of the process involved reviewing the project through the evaluation and producing recommendations with regards to future planning for cultural provision. The intention was to influence and contribute to cultural plans within the Council.

13.18 A key activity of the project involved engaging with the Local CPP. Consultation evidence would suggest that this was achieved to a very limited extent. At the time of the Pathfinder, there was only an acting Community Planning manager in place who attended some of the steering group meetings and was not involved in the project planning phase. Therefore, there was limited means in place by which the results and recommendations could be fed back into Community Planning structures and processes.

Achievements and Impacts

Activities

13.19 In general, the project was delivered as set out in the evaluation plan and most of the following target activities were delivered:

• convene project steering group;
• organise in-house training / de-brief;
• appoint three artists to lead sessions;
• consultation with parents / carers / staff; and
• gather qualitative evidence.

13.20 The steering group, which consisted of various officers within the council such as lifelong learning, community health, social work, early years and lifelong learning met frequently to discuss their notion of cultural entitlements, resulting in awareness of the notion being raised across the Local Authority. The steering groups were initially set up to guide the project but actually became wider and more important and turned into guidance/information sharing sessions.

13.21 Four half day training sessions for the creative team were organised prior to commencement of the project, this was followed by weekly de-brief sessions and separate weekly planning sessions. On completion of the work a full de-brief session was undertaken.

13.22 Three artists - a dramatist, a visual artist and a musician - were appointed to deliver the nursery workshops.

13.23 Parental participation in the creative sessions became a smaller element of the programme than anticipated due to space and time restrictions. The large scale event planned to present the young people's work did not go ahead as it was found to be logistically impossible. It took the form of an exhibition at council headquarters rather than being performance based as originally planned and parents, staff, carers and other stakeholders were invited to attend.

13.24 Consultations with parents/carers and nursery staff were carried out in a more ad hoc informal basis to due to time constraints and demands of the nursery timetable.

13.25 Qualitative research was gathered through artist session sheets, nursery evaluation reports, artist evaluation reports and steering group discussion reports. Gathering feedback directly from the young participants was very difficult due to their age.

Participation

13.26 The project broadly met its targets in relation to participation, which included the following:

• deliver a total of 95 hour long workshops in nine nurseries;
• engage 270 young participants;
• parents/carers involvement; and
• present young people's work.

13.27 Some 88 of the targeted 95 sessions were delivered and a greater number of young people were engaged than anticipated (288). A small number of workshops had to be cancelled due to factors such as in- service days and elections. The larger scale performance and discussion based event did not go ahead as planned and instead the children were given the opportunity to present their work at an exhibition to parents/staff and carers and council staff. Parents/carers were involved in informal discussions rather than creative sessions, which did not take place due to time constraints.

Satisfaction

13.28 The evaluation evidence indicated that generally everyone involved with the Pathfinder was satisfied with the range and organisation of the sessions and activities, including children, parents/carers, staff and Local Authority officers. However, there were a number of issues and challenges encountered along the way. Some teachers felt that more information should have been provided on the methodology and rationale for the project beforehand so that they could fully understand the project. It was also the case that some staff felt the sessions were too long and that it was difficult for the children to remain engaged.

Impacts

13.29 The evaluation plan set out to achieve the following impacts from the Pathfinder:

• generate enhanced attitudes to creative activities;
• improve knowledge and understanding of cultural entitlements;
• participation in creative activities increased, particularly outwith the project's operating area but still within its influence;
• enhanced creative skills of participants;
• improved motivation, learning and behaviour of participants; and
• define the provision of cultural activity across the Local Authority.
• The evaluation evidence would suggest that some but not all of the targeted impacts were achieved.

13.30 The Pathfinder was successful in generating commitment and a high level of interest in developing creative learning from pre through to secondary school. However, the problem was that this Pathfinder was an isolated project with no follow-up or back-up support and support for teachers to help them mainstream this way of working. Therefore there was no way to build on the momentum created.

13.31 The project encountered difficulties with changing parents/carers attitudes toward creative learning due to time pressures and difficulties with parents/carers allowing time for out of school learning. Other South Ayrshire education department staff also confirmed teacher observations of low prioritisation of cultural and sporting activities amongst parents/carers.

13.32 The evaluation presented little evidence to suggest that the project successfully contributed toward the target of increased openness to creative approaches amongst steering group members or staff within the council, as it was reported that members were self selected and had a pre-disposed openness to creative approaches. However, the steering group was found to be invaluable in terms of making progress towards introducing cultural planning approaches across the various departments of the council. The group were all of the view that every service area of the council could deliver cultural entitlements if creative approaches to service delivery were adopted. There was also broad agreement that the obligation to deliver cultural entitlements could not be left to individual departments tasked with developing the arts or education. The evaluation suggested that South Ayrshire Council should explore this further but that the steering group (which enhanced scope and remit) may well be the ideal vehicle for taking it forward through looking at how delivery of cultural entitlements might work in practice across the authority.

13.33 Evaluation evidence supports the view that the creative skills of participants were enhanced. Staff, teachers and advisors reported taking inspiration from the sessions with the artists and using their ideas in their own work. Parents reported their children taking part in more imaginative play at home. Steering group members felt that their creative skills were not being fully utilised beforehand and the Pathfinder had developed their enthusiasm for future cultural planning projects and helped them to develop their creative skills.

13.34 Teachers reported that the project had resulted in some of the children having improved memory, increased confidence, enhanced creativity, more patience and greater ability to express ideas. This demonstrates the impact of the Pathfinder on the motivation, learning and behaviour of participants.

13.35 A further important impact was teachers' reporting young people's progress with language and communication skills, particular those who were particularly shy, starting to blossom. It was also found that attitudes to creative learning activities were held in high regard by parents/carers and teachers.

13.36 The Pathfinder failed to define the definition of cultural activity across the Local Authority. This was mainly due to the fact that there was no structure within the project to carry out a baseline audit of cultural activity. This is now being rectified within the council as they have now commissioned a cultural strategy. A further issue is that there is a low level of understanding of the potential for cultural planning across the various departments of the council (outside the Pathfinder steering group).

13.37 The project proposal identified that the Pathfinder set out to use a form of cultural planning mapping methodology which involved the artists working with the young children, parents and nursery staff to engage and discuss cultural entitlements in a creative and innovative manner. It was anticipated that this process, which recognizes all local cultural resources and seeks to utilise these in a positive manner would contribute to the culture plan for the nurseries. There was no evidence provided within the evaluation or consultations of cultural mapping being undertaken and it was reported that parental involvement in the creative sessions became a smaller element of the project than anticipated due to the restrictions in space and parent/staff time.

13.38 All representatives within the steering group, including regeneration, health promotion, planning and Community Learning and Development were enthusiastic and open to developing pilot projects within their own service areas, which would test the Community Planning model. There was also widespread commitment towards supporting the development of creative approaches to learning in the school system.

Value for Money

13.39 Evaluators found it difficult to demonstrate progress against the following value for money targets:

• impact on nursery staff/costs etc. (through changes in motivation/behaviour);
• increased use of Local Authority facilities;
• impact on local authority cross-departmental working and on Community Planning; and
• commitment by local authority to deliver sustainable cultural entitlements.
• The average cost of each workshop was estimated at £323; it is unclear whether this is good or bad as there were no benchmarks provided to compare.

13.40 It proved too difficult for the evaluators to quantify whether the results had an impact on nursery spending so soon after the project finished. There were also no systems introduced to measure the impact of the project on the use of South Ayrshire's facilities and income at various venues. However, the evaluation did report that the main value for money of the Pathfinder has been the spin-off outcomes that have arisen as a result including the following:

• the broader education aspects from the implications of implementing creative learning at nursery;
• the emergence of the cultural planning steering group which if developed and strengthened could in time potentially inform the Community Planning process; and
• the realisation by the council of the need for a cultural strategy and the commissioning of a cultural strategy to look at the potential of cultural planning.

Contribution to Strategic Objectives

13.41 We have identified a number of key strategic objectives to which each of the projects would be expected to contribute. Here we provide an assessment of the extent to which the Creative Nurseries project has successfully:

• engaged under-represented groups in arts/cultural activities;
• encouraged collaborative working within and/or across authorities;
• engaged CPPs and other partners/stakeholders;
• delivered effective consultation with communities;
• delivered something that is truly new and additional; and
• considered and ensures the sustainability and impacts.

Engaging Under-Represented Groups

13.42 The project has succeeded in engaging under-represented groups through consultation and participatory methods. In doing so some challenges were encountered and it would seem that there is limited scope for building on some of the momentum created. Pre-5 children, parents/carers and staff within nurseries in rural regeneration communities who often face barriers to participation in culture were engaged in the following ways:

• parents/carers were asked informally the nurseries what culture meant to them and also asked to explore the issue at the exhibition which took place at the end of the project;
• conversations with staff before and after the sessions were undertaken on an informal basis and the artists introduced them to and taught them new creative approaches to teaching; and
• creative approaches such as music, dance and drama were used as a way for the young people to learn. They were applied across the whole curriculum from maths, science and technology to social/political/moral and religious studies.

13.43 Feedback from this process and qualitative evidence on the outcomes and impacts on the young people from the parents/carers was gathered on an informal basis and reported formally in the evaluation document. In total some 233 parents/carers were questioned and their views recorded, 88 artist sessions record sheets were completed as well as 6 nursery evaluation reports.

13.44 The project was an effective and easy way of engaging the children as the artist took the young people out of their daily routine to explore culture and gave them the time to embrace it enthusiastically. It did not require any additional time or commitment from the parents or the young people.

13.45 Although the Pathfinder satisfied project objectives in terms of the number of workshops delivered and participation achieved, evaluation evidence and discussions with the project manager would suggest that the project perhaps did not achieve significant depth of engagement with these underrepresented groups. Each nursery received an average of 9 sessions each and there was no resource available for the project to be continued through nursery and onwards into primary and high school with a consistent set of young people, so as to have a sustained impact or influence on the young people.

13.46 The success of engaging with the groups was found to be highly dependent on the nursery staff and in occasional cases staff showed a lack of understanding of the importance of the methodology and approach and nervousness about participating in cultural activity. This impacted significantly on the engagement and enjoyment of the sessions by the children. Fablevision attempted to overcome this issue by using their expertise and knowledge to explain the purpose and benefits to the staff, hence sharing knowledge and attempting to influence opinions on the benefits of creative learning.

13.47 The fact that the target group were very young was an important aspect of the Pathfinder, it provided an opportunity to influence the children at an early stage and also their parents at a time when adults take a strong interest in what their children are doing and how they are learning. There was a level of responsiveness there that could be built on and a means by which parents could encourage their children to continue to participate in cultural activities. However, there were a small number of parents who had no interest whatsoever in creative learning methods and it would not appear that the project succeeded in challenging these views. Although the project had good intentions and a good process in place for creating impact on these under-represented groups, there is a limited sustained impact on them.

Collaborative Working

13.48 The South Ayrshire Pathfinder did not seek to work with other Local Authorities or (extensively) with partners in other areas. It did, however, develop strong links across different service areas within the Council through establishing the Steering group structure.

13.49 The project was delivered by the arts department in collaboration with pre-5 education. The steering group was responsible for supporting the smooth delivery of the Pathfinder as well as exploring the concept of cultural planning.

13.50 Evaluation evidence suggested that there was limited evidence to suggest that the project significantly increased openness to creative activities as the members were self-selected and they already had a pre-disposed openness to creative approaches. There was also an issue in that there were difficulties in making progress towards cultural planning approaches due to budget constraints.

13.51 The steering group ensured that the project had greater scope and impact. The structure was also a crucial starting point for making progress towards introducing cultural planning approaches across the council, where previously there has been no focus on the issue. Most of those chosen realised the potential value of culture and how it can work within services and having suitable champions with the ability to influence resources was very important. Therefore, there is now a structure in place for taking on the remit and promoting the agenda and there was a high level of commitment on the steering group. However, this was not reflected in the council and there was no immediate process in place for it to be followed through. As a result, the project just stopped and is not being rolled out. The discussion also highlighted that the steering group also did not engage any cultural groups to promote the principle of creative nurseries and this affected the extent to which it was embedded in the local community. The steering group is established but at the moment its future role is unclear and much of its future position will be determined by the cultural strategy.

Engaging Community Planning and Other Partners

13.52 Consultation and evaluation evidence would suggest that the Pathfinder failed to engage CPPs or influence Community Planning structures to any significant degree. There were a number of reasons for this:

• a key contact from Community Planning did not get involved in the project until after the project planning stage;
• the representative from the CPP on the steering group was at the time acting Community Planning manager on a part time basis therefore there were limited means by which Community Planning processes and structures could be influenced. In fact this key contact was only made aware of the evaluation several months after it became available;
• at the time of the project, Community Planning was undergoing considerable restructuring. On one hand this could be viewed as an opportunity to influence new structures. However, it would not seem that this has been achieved as it was reported that the project did not achieve a significant level of status or awareness in Community Planning circles;
• South Ayrshire has a strong focus on sports development in their agenda, whilst culture is lower down the scale in terms of priority; and
• it is difficult to encourage mainstream services to adopt arts/culture related methods as at the moment there are no individuals with an incentive or willingness to discuss the potential.

13.53 The project did not have any fit with Community Planning structures, funding, management arrangements or funding streams. Other than targeting regeneration areas in South Ayrshire, it did not have any strong links with the regeneration outcome agreement targets. Community Planning was very much on the periphery during the whole process of the Pathfinder and there was no real link between the project and the Community Planning process.

13.54 The Local Authority of South Ayrshire faces significant challenges in terms of integrating culture into the Community Planning processes, the most significant of which is resources and funding. As there has typically and consistently been no resource available, there has been a lack of commitment or focus on arts/cultural activity amongst key CPPs. There are also no projects with arts as a priority and no arts/culture theme groups on the CPP. If the steering group is not formalised and taken forward, as discussed above, there exists no other champions for promoting the agenda in South Ayrshire, making it difficult to get culture on the agenda and influence key decision makers.

13.55 A further difficulty in South Ayrshire, is that there is less of a focus on arts/cultural activity and more on physical activity, which is viewed as being in direct competition. Where there is cross-over between the two and partners have a common set of objectives, a cultural project is more likely to work. However, the problem is again that there are no key individuals, resources or policy drivers pushing the agenda.

13.56 The main outcome of the evaluation report was that it assessed and demonstrated the achievements of the Pathfinder. However, it also provided hard evidence demonstrating the benefits and the process of how such a cultural project could be delivered in practice, thus providing a starting point or stimulus for exploring cultural planning through the Community Planning process.

Effective Consultation with Communities

13.57 The project consulted with parents/carers, nursery staff and pre-5 children in terms of their attitude to culture and creative expression to an extent. The project made initial steps in considering what culture means to parents/carers and nursery staff through informal conversations and did go some way towards influencing attitudes. However, it did not succeed in going much further.

13.58 Informal consultations on what culture means to parents/carers and staff were carried out. Parents were spoken to at the end of the project and staff, before and after the sessions in the classroom. This part of the project was given less emphasis than was originally intended due to the change in government priorities half way through the project. The main focus of the Pathfinder became mainly an investigation of the potential of cultural planning methodology in early year education. There were also restrictions in parent/staff time which prevented them from taking part in creative sessions, again making the consultation side smaller than first anticipated. Again , although qualitative evidence was collected on an informal basis, responses were formally recorded on questionnaires, record sheets and evaluation reports and reported in the evaluation

13.59 Prior to the project taking place, there was evidence of a low level of understanding and confidence amongst teaching staff in delivering creative leaning. Artists working directly with the nurseries successfully raised awareness of pre-5 creative learning within the curriculum and influenced them to think more strategically in this area.

13.60 A large participatory event was planned for the end of the project which aimed to engage parents, participants, council representatives, councillors and other key stakeholders in a discussion of cultural planning and presentation of the findings. It was envisaged that this would have a major impact on policy. However, this was not achieved due to logistical problems and the final event took the form of an exhibition with lower levels of attendance than originally planned.

13.61 Key lessons in engaging with the various groups were that:

• engaging with and influencing parents on the benefits of creative learning, when their children are at an early stage of their development can be effective as they have a high level of involvement and interest in the child's progress and development. This gives the project more potential to influence future decisions;
• support for the project amongst staff was mixed and in cases they showed a lack of understanding of the importance of the methodology and approach, suggesting that more information and time needed to be allocated to explaining these benefits in the initial stages.
• the nursery setting was an easy way of getting the groups engaged as it involved taking the young children out of their daily routine to explore culture and gave them time to embrace it enthusiastically; and
• the young age of the participants made it very difficult to measure impacts, which was mainly done through talking to the teachers and parents.

Additionality

13.62 The feedback from consultees suggests that without Pathfinder support, the Creative Nurseries project would not have gone ahead as there are no resources at the disposal of South Ayrshire Council to carry out such a project. The funding was a vehicle for encouraging key individuals and strategic decision makers to take notice of the benefits of culture and to discuss the issue.

13.63 In addition, had it not been for the project and the fact that it put culture on the agenda in the area, it is very unlikely that the commissioning of the culture strategy would have gone ahead. In this respect, the Cultural Strategy Development can be seen as a important legacy of the Pathfinder.

13.64 The funding that was provided by the council for this particular project would have alternatively been used for carrying out smaller individual projects, perhaps in a community setting. Pathfinder funding allowed South Ayrshire Council to experiment with a larger, more strategic project involving a wider range of council departments.

13.65 The steering group infrastructure would not have been set up and the benefits of integrated working demonstrated. The evaluation and consultation process has demonstrated the benefits of cultural planning, which would not have happened in the area without Pathfinder funding.

13.66 In our opinion, this project is new to South Ayrshire Council in that cultural planning has never had any strong priority on the agenda in the area. National funding has given the project profile backing and status within the authority. It offered a chance to explore the potential of taking a cultural planning approach to pre-5 education; it would not seem that the potential of cultural planning in the area has been looked at on such a scale before.

13.67 At the time of implementing the Pathfinder there was no structure through which to carry out an audit of existing cultural provision, venues, facilities and artists. As a result of the Pathfinder, this is being rectified by the commissioning of a cultural strategy.

13.68 However, there is an issue in that the project existed in a vacuum with no plans to continue or mainstream any of the activities. In addition, outside the members of the steering group, there was limited understanding of the potential of cultural planning across all departments in the council.

Project Sustainability and Legacies

13.69 The main legacy of the Pathfinder is the development of a new Cultural Strategy that is intended to be influenced by the findings, lessons and recommendations of the evaluation report. National backing for a project of this nature, the development of the steering group and the evaluation has highlighted that there is a need for a cultural strategy and for key individuals to take responsibility in the area of cultural planning (not just those tasked with developing the arts or education).

13.70 Pathfinder funding allowed South Ayrshire Council to bring in specialist support and artists from Fablevision and it is unlikely that the council would have the resource and skills in house to be able to carry out similar activities in the future without further support. Ideally the project would have been continued through primary and secondary school with the same cohort of young people engaged to keep the momentum going. However, this has not been possible due to a lack of funding and the fact that young people move schools.

13.71 In addition, the project was established in isolation with no means in place for the activities to be continued following Pathfinder funding or support for teachers in continuing the activities. It took the form of a one off intervention, from which it is difficult to develop a legacy. The steering group did not develop any formal status or remit and so there was limited scope for them to have any real influence on wider planning.

13.72 The consultations revealed scepticism about the extent to which the Pathfinder has had a long lasting impact on the young people and parents' attitudes towards culture and future participation in cultural activities. The intervention was not considered to be sufficiently intensive and long lasting to achieve this.

13.73 South Ayrshire Council has historically had no focus on arts and culture. At the moment, sport is very much on the agenda and culture is in competition with this.

13.74 The project built up momentum, which was dissolved at the end. Despite national level attention and policy support for widening access through Community Planning, the project coincided with the reorganisation of leisure and culture within the Local Authority and where before there was an arts officer, no individual was given a specific remit for culture. The project ended at the exact time when cultural planning was being given less emphasis within the Local Authority, making it difficult to take forward the lessons learned.

13.75 The entire project and its findings have now been entrusted into the arts and culture strategy, and there is some optimism that the aspirations and recommendations will be integrated. At the moment, resources for culture are distributed around different departments, and there remains a need to rationalise them.

13.76 It is a very early stage to assess whether the project will have an influence on Community Planning structures or processes as this is unlikely to happen until the cultural strategy is produced and there are some outcomes from it. There is no evidence that this has occurred as yet.

Overall Assessment and Key Lessons

13.77 The evidence would suggest that overall the South Ayrshire Pathfinder was successful in delivering what it set out to do in terms of targets set in relation to activities, participation and engaging children, parents and nursery staff in cultural activities.

13.78 Despite this, the project was not designed at the outset to be sustainable and the intervention took place on a one off basis. A total of 88 one hour workshops were delivered in 9 nurseries resulting in the intensity of the interaction being low (less than 10 one hour workshops per nursery). In addition, there were no ways by which the activities could be continued on a more permanent basis or with the same cohort of young people. This was due to a number of reasons, firstly the young children would move into various primary schools making it very difficult to track and ensure that the same young children were engaged with more permanently, secondly there were no resources available within the council to employ the high quality artists that the pathfinder funding allowed for.

13.79 In addition, no linkages with the CPP were established at the project design phase, resulting in the partnership remaining on the periphery throughout the duration of the project. Other than attempting to integrate some of the findings into the new cultural strategy, this Pathfinder has failed to put structures or processes in place to take the project forward in any way. Unfortunately adding to this is the fact that the project took place at a time when the Local Authority were actually undertaking measures to reduce their focus on arts and culture making it more difficult to generate a legacy.

13.80 The main achievement of this Pathfinder was the emphasis on cross-service engagement and on the practical demonstration of the value of cultural participation across service areas such as health and education through the steering group structure. The project has made progress towards raising the profile of culture when previously there has never been any strong priority on the agenda in the area. National funding has given the project backing and status within the authority and allowed the region to explore an area that they otherwise would not have. This Pathfinder offers the following lessons:

• the importance of ensuring sustainability at the project outset in order for such a project to be successful in the long term;
• the value of having a structure (i.e. steering group in this case) in place for taking on the remit for promoting the value of culture amongst decision makers and funders; and
• the evaluation process and report was a useful means of demonstrating benefits and practical methods for delivering a cultural project, thus providing a starting point or stimulus for exploring cultural planning through the Community Planning process.

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