BSF, Strategic Planning and your Community
Schools and local authorities must consider the strategic context when making plans for BSF. This includes an assessment of existing practice, partnerships and facilities and their geographical location as well as regional and national initiatives and priorities.
A full checklist for local authorities with milestones at every stage of BSF is included in the guidance.
The Cultural Stakeholder Group is a key resource to ensuring that these elements are successfully considered. A diagram suggesting the membership of a cultural stakeholder group is included here.
Schools and BSF teams will need a detailed understanding of their local cultural infrastructure, both in the professional and voluntary sectors, before planning for their new resources, spaces and curriculum delivery. Each authority will be required to undertake a strategic and facilities audit as part of the process. Detailed help for this can be found in the guidance.
Specific guidance on linking BSF cultural planning to Local Area Agreements can be found in this document: BSF, Culture and Local Area Agreement Indicators
Many local authorities have taken innovative approaches to working with cultural professionals, and engaging strategically with the arts and cultural agenda. Some of these are illustrated by the following case study:
Schools are now required to take a leadership role within their community and to engage closely with families, other public services and community groups. Community access to school facilities is now a widespread practice in our schools, and your Local Authority BSF plans should consider the needs of communities of the future as well as thinking about how working with current partners will help them to create a more joined up offer to their current stakeholders. Parents, people who live and work nearby, established community and voluntary groups, feeder primary schools, voluntary clubs and organisations all comprise the local community.
Schools, local authorities and their partners should think about how they will monitor the delivery of their plans for culture and hold the Local Education Partnership to account. They should think about developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for this purpose.
Community Use on Education Sites
'The Win Win Scenario: Community Sport and Arts on Education Sites' has been commissioned by Sport England and the Arts Council and is intended for schools, colleges, local authority officers and a range of extended schools advisors and groups working on programmes such as Building Schools for the Future (BSF).
It aims to highlight the benefits of community use and gives a comprehensive guide as to how to provide it successfully. The document is not meant to be read from cover to cover, rather than as a reference toolkit from which just the relevant sections can be used. The document has been divided into three main sections, covering a number of key areas.
You can download the section you wish to use by clicking on the relevant title headings which can be found on the Sport England website.
