Presented by Lucie Stephens at the event 'Commissioning for Culture and Sport, 5th December 2014': http://knowhownonprofit.org/events/commissioning-for-culture-and-sport-5th-december-2014 Part of the Cultural Commissioning Programme http://www.ncvo.org.uk/cultural-commissioning-programme

1. Making Connections
Lucie Stephens
Head of Co-production, nef

2. Making Connections - aims
• Commissioners more aware of arts and cultural providers and their value
in delivering social outcomes
• Stronger relationships built between commissioners and arts and cultural
organisations
• Relationships built with stakeholders and influencers
• Arts and cultural organisations have better skills and understanding to
engage with commissioning
• Arts and cultural organisations better understand how to produce high
quality work in public service context
• Arts and cultural organisations have developed stronger networks and
consortia for commissioning
In our experience, relationships and networks are key to changing the local
commissioning environment. This work is aimed at creating the conditions in
which this can happen.

3. • Need to balance immediate and acute needs with longer
term strategy – as budgets shrink, tendency to retrench
and focus on statutory duties
• Preventative approaches are difficult to evidence
• Voice of arts and cultural sector in public policy is weak.
This does not support commissioners interested in
innovation
• Commissioning approaches and priorities vary and
myths abound. This can place limits on shared learning
Challenges for Commissioners

4. • Social Value Act 2012
• Changing procurement rules – Autumn 2014
• Target for 25% government contracts to be
delivered by SMEs by 2015
• Social Care Act – April 2015
Possible opportunities

5. Making Connections
Factors influencing commissioner behaviour:
• A personal commitment to arts and culture
• Existing arts and cultural commissioning in place when they came into post
• Arts development officers within the same division/ department as them
Messages from commissioners about how to engage them
• This can’t be about new money
• Focus events or topics on solving commissioners perceived problems
• Be aware of peoples time pressures and make things as close to home as possible
• Get senior strategic sign up (directors and elected members crucial)
What we heard from commissioners

6. Making Connections
Making Connections areas of focus
• Social prescribing: arts and cultural offers are a key element in many social prescribing offers. A
number of examples were well established with evaluations such as SROI undertaken.Public health
and CCG commissioners were interested in learning how to develop and implement this.
• Recovery: Recovery Colleges (also known as wellbeing colleges) are a mainstream mental health
intervention supporting people to live well with their mental health diagnosis. The approach moves
away from therapeutic interventions towards a focus on peoples skills, talents and passions. Arts
and Cultural activities feature strongly in some examples.
• Personal budgets and direct payments: The shift towards personalization in social care and personal
health budgets sees a shift in the way in which ‘support’ is identified and purchased. Commissioners
are required to undertake ‘market shaping’ to broaden the types of ‘support’ that people are able to
purchase using their own finances, a personal budget or direct payment.There were several
examples of people using their own budget to access arts and cultural activities that supported
them to live well within their communities. Commissioners and providers interviewed were keen to
develop this activity but were unclear what steps to take. The new Care Act (launching in April 2015)
could increase opportunities for this.
Possible themes

7. • Dementia: Many commissioners highlighted the increased political interest in dementia.
There are a wide range of examples of arts interventions for older people with dementia and
their carers. Such as dementia friendly cities, dance recall, arts interventions in care homes.
• Prevention: Many commissioners talked about the importance of arts and cultural
interventions as ‘preventative’ activities. However the term ‘prevention’ was generally poorly
defined. There were suggestions that the new Care Act will increase the need to invest in
preventative approaches in social care. The newly released 5 Year Forward NHS plan has
highlighted the need for the NHS to focus on community based preventative interventions.
• Dance: Evaluations have shown that dance can have a positive impact on dementia, young
women at risk of obesity and many others. Could a theme be developed to mobilise existing
practitioners and influence commissioners and policy makers?
Possible themes
Making Connections

8. Making Connections
• Sub-contracting: Many arts organisations are small. There is a growing trend for
commissioners to contract fewer but larger contracts. However, there are creative ways in
which arts and culture can be supported to feature within larger contracts and support good
outcomes for people.
• Helping arts officers make the case to commissioner colleagues: Many arts officers are trying
to influence commissioner colleagues but feel that they are doing so in relative isolation with
none feeling that they yet have a real ‘seat at the table’.
• Influencing elected members and senior strategic leaders: many of the people interviewed
emphasized the importance of senior level buy-in. In some positive examples commissioners
spoke about the extent to which senior leadership had enabled them to progress various
projects.
Possible themes

9. Types of Interventions
Types of interventions discussed
• Learning Labs/ Hack events - to bring together a diverse group of participants
to address a local or regional challenge that is holding back cultural
commissioning
• Study days - hosted visits to sites within the region to explore practice and
support learning and innovation
• Networking events - focus on face to face sessions to introduce people
around a common topic
• Webinars and online resources – capture contributions, slides and short films
from various contributors, share materials online and support online
networking
• Workshops/ Training events