The Cultural Coordinator in Scottish Schools Programme Under Serious Threat

Please sign this petition if you do not want the Cultural Coordinator programme to end and let us know why.

The Cultural Coordinator in Scottish Schools Programme (an initiative developed by Scottish Arts Council) came into existence in 2002 with the aim of developing creative learning opportunities both in and outwith schools for children, young people and their teachers in Scotland involving creative practitioners and cultural organisations across all genres – dance, drama, visual arts, crafts, music, film, animation, literature, heritage etc. In each local authority there are between one and four Cultural Coordinators and the programme costs around £2.6 million each year.

The programme since 2002 has grown from strength to strength with tens of thousands of children, young people and their teachers from across Scotland benefiting from the opportunities organised through the programme and millions of pounds of funding being raised by the Coordinators to fund the work they develop, in turn increasing work for creative practitioners and cultural organisations. This programme and the opportunities it creates for schools and for creative practitioners and cultural organisations are now under serious threat.

The funding has gradually been cut over the past three years and will end completely in March 2010 with many Coordinators already aware that their jobs will end in July 2010.

We are concerned that this decision was made without knowledge of the programmes achievements. At the time of the decision 3 years ago there had been little evaluation of the programme.

A recent evaluation of the programme by ERS commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council (Arts and Cultural Learning: Learning from the Cultural Coordinators in Scottish Schools Programme) has proven the programmes success alongside the many positive evaluations from teachers, parents and children. Schools, creative practioners and cultural organisations are concerned about the cut of the programme and the effect it will have on them.

The evaluation states between August 2007 and March 2009 (a period of 17 months):

· Over 670 participatory arts activities (an average of 21.6 per local authority) were created and managed by Cultural Coordinators involving over 113,000 children and young people (an average of 3531 per local authority).

· In the same period 1693 artists were employed directly through the programme (which equates to an average of 55 artists per local authority), alongside over 50 arts organisations.

· 2,187 visits were organised across the arts and heritage with a total of 82,345 children (an average of 2573 per local authority) being involved.

· Over 705 CPD opportunities were developed for teachers to then use in class.

· In 2007/08 the average value of additional funding brought in by Cultural Coordinators was £84,423 (£2,617,113 across Scotland). The experiences range from one off workshops, long term residencies and festivals across the arts, performances, after-school workshops, community based projects, visits to arts and heritage centres and venues, support for schools creating their own projects, projects and workshops with local arts venues, museums and heritage centres and support for artists and cultural organisations to work in schools. These opportunities will not happen without Cultural Coordinators in post.

A summary of concerns (facts and figures from ERS Evaluation):

· Without Cultural Coordinators, Education Services will struggle to create, develop and manage cultural projects, raise funds or develop relationships with creative practitioners and cultural organisations.

· The 670 activities and 113,000 children (Aug 07 – Mar 09) will not take place without Cultural Coordinators.

· Schools will struggle to deliver key elements of the Curriculum for Excellence Expressive Arts outcomes without Cultural Coordinators to raise funds and develop these opportunities – schools and Local Authorities cannot afford these opportunities on current budgets.

· There will be a dramatic imbalance of provision of cultural activities with only 8 out of 32 Local Authorities having mainstreamed posts. · Cultural Coordinators are a crucial link between cultural, creative and heritage organisations and schools. Without Cultural Coordinators this vital link will be lost incurring loss of earnings to a vast number of creative practitioners and cultural organisations and a dramatic decline in activity in schools.

· Large amounts of potential funding will be lost as no one else within Local Authorities has the education and arts experience, the remit or time to undertake complex applications to trusts and funders, again incurring loss of earnings to a vast number of creative practitioners and cultural organisations and a dramatic decline in activity in schools.

· Vital knowledge on the quality and safety of creative practitioners and cultural organisations that work with schools will be lost – this could have major implications to risk management and the confidence of schools to work with practioners and organisations themselves.

· The loss of Cultural Coordinators and their impact on the promotion of the arts and creative industries will have a significant detrimental affect on the arts and creative industries in the future just as sport would be affected if you were to take away Active Schools Coordinators.

· The Cultural Coordinator programme is the only programme in Scotland that offers experiences in the arts across the genres to children and young people in and out of school and without it these opportunities will be lost.

The programme does not only support creativity in schools but also supports artists and cultural organisations. The programme took time to establish as any new programme does but is now blooming as the ERS evaluation suggest. A fear is that Scotland will lose the vast skills, knowledge and relationships that have been developed with schools, creative practioners, cultural organisations and funders over the past 7 years.

The Scottish Government is asking Creative Scotland to prioritise creative links with schools and wants to support artists, arts organisations and culture in Scotland and to do this we would urge them to reconsider the end of the Cultural Coordinator in Scottish Schools programme or put an equivalent programme (not Cultural Champions) in place before Cultural Coordinators start losing their jobs after June 2010.

Please sign this petition if you do not want the Cultural Coordinator programme to end and let us know why.

This petition will be forwarded onto key MSP’s locally and nationally and the Governments Petition’s Committee.

Many thanks for your support

The Cultural Coordinator Network

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