Joint agreement

Introduction

1. Culture and sport¹ are integral to the success of communities. They bring activity, creativity and character to places and are essential for living life to the full.

2. The aim of this agreement is to ensure all communities particularly those experiencing housing-led growth and regeneration can benefit from cultural and sporting opportunities. We will do this by working together to ensure culture is embedded in the development of our villages, towns and cities alongside other key areas of provision such as health care and transport.

3. We believe cultural assets and opportunities have a greater part to play in the business of creating new places. With greater strategic focus, collective ambition and creative leadership we can reach more people and more places, creating a step change for integration and quality of culture in achieving sustainable communities.

About the agreement

4. The agreement is between five of the leading national cultural agencies: Arts Council England, CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment), English Heritage, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), and Sport England; their sponsoring department the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Regional Cultural Consortia (RCCs) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). This is the first time the five cultural agencies, CLG, DCMS the RCCs and HCA have come together formally to work together on supporting the role of culture in communities.

5. This is a national document that sets out our collective vision, ambition, working practices and priorities for action.

Our vision for culture within communities

6. Strong communities require two things: identity – self knowledge and a sense of shared purpose; and agency – the ability to act. Our vision is of a country where all communities have the capacity to be culturally vibrant and reflect their distinctive identities. Diverse and tolerant places are essential to a strong community. Every community, including the most disadvantaged, should expect to have access to cultural activities, opportunities for learning and self-expression, attractive and safe open spaces and a well-designed built environment that respects and enhances local character.

7. This vision is crucial to realising the government’s aim of building sustainable communities. By supporting its implementation we will help create a fairer, more prosperous and happier Britain where both new and revitalised communities will stand the test of time.

What does culture include?

8. In this document we are, in general, referring to ‘culture’ as the collective term for a range of activities, resources, facilities and expertise that include arts, sport, heritage, museums, libraries and archives, the built environment – and the creative industries including film and media. The culture of a place is the product of people’s sense of pride, identity and connectedness and cultural activity provides a route for harnessing and developing this local distinctiveness.

The value of culture

9. Sustainable communities are places where people want to live, work and socialise because they provide a good quality of life in attractive and distinctive localities, homes and public spaces, set within functional, safe and inclusive neighbourhoods that meet their diverse social and economic aspirations. Sustainable communities are about quality environments - but beyond that they are about people and their individual and collective quality of life. Culture is central to achieving these aspirations.

10. We believe that culture has a number of important benefits for communities;

• Culture brings people together: it provides opportunities for people to come together and get to know each other through shared and complementary interests.
• Culture helps develop identity and a sense of place. It provides enduring and active symbols of a community’s history and interests.
• Culture makes places more attractive. Culture helps create attractive, well-designed environments that incorporate accessible green space and a distinctive public realm.
• Culture makes us healthy and happy. Cultural opportunity encourages people to be active and do the things they enjoy. This increases personal physical and mental wellbeing and helps build healthy communities.
• Culture enhances people’s skills and helps generate prosperity. Creative and cultural businesses, and access to knowledge through libraries and other facilities, unlock potential and stimulate learning and enterprise.
• Culture can provide positive activities for young people. It offers a focus for social interaction and harnesses the energy of young people constructively.

Our ambitions for working together

11. We believe that through working together the DCLG, the DCMS and the national cultural agencies can be more effective in establishing sustainable cultural provision across the country. This in turn will help deliver the Government’s objectives for sustainable communities and the strategic objectives of DCMS and the cultural agencies. Through working in partnership we will be able jointly to plan our approach to cultural provision. This will help to maximise the value of public sector resources and increase the potential for strategic and targeted impact.

We can do this by:

1. Re-focusing current activity within individual agencies.
2. Collaborating within existing resources.
3. Undertaking focussed and specific joint programmes with additional resources.

12. The agreement will encourage greater partnership working, innovation and creativity in the private and voluntary sector by encouraging all parties involved in making sustainable communities to work beyond traditional boundaries.

13. A key outcome of the agreement will be that cultural provision and infrastructure will be more firmly embedded in area based planning frameworks and delivery mechanisms at national, regional and local levels.

The scope of our joint working on sustainable communities

14. The national cultural agencies’ core business extends beyond the needs of places and communities to the development and funding of the respective sectors (sport, arts etc). DCLG leads on the Government’s programme of action for building sustainable communities, working in partnership with local delivery agencies, Regional Development Agencies and a range of other stakeholders. This agreement addresses those areas where these roles interconnect.

How we will work together

15. The partners to this agreement will set up a high-level steering group made up of chief executives and senior officials who will oversee the progress of the agreement and be responsible for ensuring it is implemented through their respective organisations.

16. In addition, a task group of senior officers from all the partner bodies will meet on a regular basis to take forward the action associated with the agreement. This group will be empowered to set up smaller sub-groups to take forward areas of work and its memberships will be flexible, with invitees being able to take forward activity.

17. Membership of the group will, in the first instance be limited to the partners in this agreement; this will be reviewed regularly with a view to the broader cultural sector being represented in time. Only national agencies will be represented, or organisations that can clearly demonstrate a practical and significant national role (such as the Regional Cultural Consortia).

18. There will be a six-monthly report to ministers in the DCLG and DCMS on the progress of the agreement.

19. Partners will review this agreement no later than 12 months after it is made.

Commitments

20. The following commitments relate to the individual signatory bodies. These are the minimum commitment of all signatory bodies. The agreement as a whole represents the partners’ joint commitment.

21. Policy and strategy

• To have an action plan for supporting the achievement of the vision and aims of the agreement.
• To involve the other partners, through the mechanisms set up to implement this agreement, in the development of individual policy.
• and strategy as it relates to sustainable communities.

22. Supporting delivery

• The cultural agencies and DCLG will ensure their regional bodies and delivery partnerships have a way of engaging effectively with sustainable communities and are able to support the delivery of this agreement.
• DCLG will facilitate a shared national overview and explicitly encourage the engagement of its agencies and delivery partners in achieving the vision of this agreement.

23. Funding decisions

• Where relevant, all parties will consult on funding decisions as they relate to communities and localities at an early stage and seek the appropriate specialist advice from partners.
• The partners will consider co-investment where it will mean a higher impact outcome than single-party investment and where it takes forward the aims of the agreement.
• The partners will work to lever-in additional resources to support joint programmes of activity.
• This joint agreement does not replace existing funding agreements between DCMS, DCLG and the cultural agencies.

24. Knowledge and Research

• To share knowledge and expertise in order to take forward the agreement.

25. Communications and advocacy

• To champion the role of culture in sustainable communities; seeking out appropriate opportunities to promote the vision and activities that are delivered as a result of this agreement, where appropriate using the branding of living places.
• To involve the partners in any public announcements that could be deemed relevant to the implementation of the agreement, adopting a ‘no surprises’ philosophy.
• To share information about events to explore opportunities to optimise exposure of relevant initiatives relating to culture and sustainable communities.

26. Planning

• Cultural agencies will be informed of new planning policies and statements and involved in the initial formulation of new planning regulation and policy as it relates to culture.

Annex 1: Formal roles and responsibilities of the partners to this agreement

• The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is the central government department responsible for policy on housing, planning, regional and local government and the fire service. It leads the Government’s agenda for creating sustainable communities. It also has responsibility for the Social Exclusion Unit, the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and the Government Offices for the Regions.
• The Department for culture, media and sport (DCMS) is the government department responsible for policy on Sport, Culture and the Media. The national cultural agencies are non-departmental bodies sponsored by the DCMS:
• Arts Council England is the national development agency for the arts in England, distributing public money from Government and the National Lottery. Arts Council England provides the bedrock of arts funding in England and has a major role in brokering local partnerships and building capacity to deliver public access to the arts.
• The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is the Government’s advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. It works directly with architects, planners, designers, developers and clients, offering them guidance on projects that shape the public realm in the form of hands-on advice. It also inspires the public to demand more from buildings and spaces.
• English Heritage is the Government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, protecting England's heritage by promoting awareness, understanding and enjoyment of it. It seeks to unlock the potential of the historic environment through sustainable management of the best of the past in partnership with national and local decision makers.
• The Museums and Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) is the national development agency for museums, libraries and archives, leading the drive to connect people to the wealth of knowledge and information, creativity and inspiration available through museums, libraries and archives.
• Sport England is responsible for promoting and investing in sport, helping the government meet its sporting objectives in this country and distributing both Lottery and Exchequer funds to community sport.

 

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¹‘Culture’ includes sport and leisure, theatre, the visual and performing arts, museums and galleries, archives, libraries, the built environment, architecture and design, public spaces and places of heritage, children’s’ play, tourism, media, film and television, the creative industries. There are several national agencies and non-departmental public bodies overseen by Department for Culture, Media and Sport who develop strategies for the advancement of cultural activity.