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YOUR MAILOUT
Letter from the editors A time of change
When, in the last issue of mailout, we previewed the election we could not have predicted a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition in charge of the UK. As we write, in mid May, Cameron’s first cabinet is sitting and it’s still a bit too early to predict exactly what this means for the Arts. One thing that we do know is that the government is tightening its belt, economising left right and centre and that this will affect the valuable work that the participatory arts sector does. We will have to get used to a whole new language. Mr Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ failed to ignite the election but we can easily predict that devolution of services to the third sector will become an ongoing theme of the next few years. The commissioning agenda – outsourcing national and local government services is something that the Arts Sector needs to engage with. How do we convince the politicians and executives that we can offer solutions to many a pressing issue? To survive we will need to engage with the following from the Tory manifesto: > Promote the delivery of public services by social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups, encouraging them to get involved in running things.
> Introduce a fair deal on grants so charities and voluntary organisations can make a competitive return when providing public services, just as private businesses already do.
> Restore the National Lottery to its original purpose, cut down on administration costs and make sure more money goes to good causes instead of Ministers’ pet projects.
> Introduce a National Citizen Service, a new volunteering programme to help 16 year olds develop their skills, mix with people from different backgrounds and get involved in improving their communities.
> Fund the training of an army of independent community organisers to help people establish and run neighbourhood groups.
> Empower communities to come together to address local issues; including enabling parents to open new schools, letting neighbours take over local amenities like parks and libraries that are under threat.
We don’t know yet what, or if any of these have survived coalition discussions or will survive the forthcoming budget. a
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How to contribute This is your magazine and relies on your contributions to exist. We love to hear from you. For next issue we want to hear about your experiences of working with vulnerable children and adults. Has the CRB system been a help or a hindrance? Also what will George Osborne’s first budget mean for you?
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Looking back It is now five years since the current editors took over pulling this magazine together. June/July 2005 was our first issue. We thought it an opportunity to reflect and have a look at what was in that issue.
In June 2005 we’d just had a general election but Michael Howard had failed to do a Cameron. No-one had realistically predicted an upset so it was business as usual for Tony Blair and New Labour. We introduced David Lammy as the new culture minister but as is the norm at the DCMS he didn’t last long and soon found himself looking after something else.
As Summer approached our cover story featured a project in Essex where artists Mark Storor and Jules Maxwell had converted an ice cream van into a recording studio and were swapping ice creams for songs in a bid to support the conversion of a derelict Martello tower into a community arts centre. Find out how they got on at:
www.jaywickmartellotower.org.
We ran an article on The Point in Eastleigh and featured a young man
called Thom Rackett who was about to go and study dance professionally. Boys and dance seems to be a recurring theme of mailout, (see James Rosental on page 20 of this issue). Thom completed his studies at London Contemporary Dance School and could be seen last Autumn performing a physical duet with Tory East, choreographed by Victoria Fox at The Place’s Robin Howard Dance Theatre in London. The Point’s dance department is still going strong
www.thepoint-online.co.uk
mailout’s first ever ‘clipout’ was on child protection issues in a community arts setting. Still relevant today as we approach a new layer of protection with the Independent Safeguarding Authority register coming on line for new employees or workers in July this year, (mandatory from November). This is something we’ll be returning to at mailout as the new coalition government has pledged to simplify the child protection system. Hopefully things will be clearer in time for us to get you up to speed in the next issue in the meantime you can try and work it out for yourself by going to
www.isa-gov.org.uk a
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