NALGAO / National Cultural Forum (NCF) National Seminar – Keynote Presentations

February 18th, 2010

Outside In: Strategic Commissioning and Alternative Forms of Cultural Service Delivery

17th February 2010 (Camden Centre, London)

The urgent priority at the conference was to emphasise the importance of Strategic Commissioning, encourage a change in perspective from centralised provision to local control, and foster more collaboration within and between Local Authorities, and external agencies.

1. Derrick Anderson CBE: Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth spoke on the “Changing Nature of the Cultural Sector within Local Authorities”.

All major British political parties are moving away from centralisation of services and towards “localism“, meaning local solutions for local people. The core aim for Local Authorities is to ’strengthen local democracy’. Anderson gave Leicestershire County Council as an example of best practice, based on superior data collection and develping evidence base, which sources both local and national data.

2. Martyn Allison: National Advisor for Cultural Services, Improvement and Development Agency (ID&eA) spoke on the “Strategic Commissioning of Cultural Services”.

Strategic Commissioning is based on local priorities and local self-improvement agendas. Allison advised Local Goverment Arts, Culture and Leisure Officers to secure funding by making a case, evidencing it, and delivering it. In Strategic Commissioning, the commissioner and recipient of services is the same person, and investments are made for their contribution to the whole local cultural ecology.

3. Paul Kelly (Cultural Futures) and Rick Bond (The Complete Works) spoke on the nalgao Outside In Case Study Report

The Outside In Case Study Report (Feb 2010) is a work in progress, to be expanded on via the nalgao website and nalgao’s Arts at the Heart magazine. The report grew from the 2009 nalgao conference, and is summarised in issue 49 of Arts research Digest.