Local Cultural Education Partnerships
Place-based connections for community enrichment
These partnerships bring together a diverse range of stakeholders, including cultural organisations, educational institutions, local authorities and community groups. Their active collaboration is key to to creating a more cohesive, accessible and relevant local offer for the children and young people.
Features of LCEPs:
These local partnerships are part of a broader effort to ensure that all young people, regardless of purse or postcode, have access to enriching cultural experiences that can inspire creativity and personal growth.
Done well, they are typified by:
- A place-based approach: LCEPs are tailored to the unique needs and interests of their local communities, ensuring that cultural education is relevant and impactful.
- Collaborative efforts: They involve a wide range of partners from various sectors, including arts, education, heritage, health and youth services, working together to share resources and expertise.
- High-quality cultural experiences: The goal is to provide children and young people with opportunities to engage in high-quality cultural and creative activities where they live, go to school and spend their free time.
- Support and development: LCEPs often include professional development for educators and cultural practitioners to enhance their skills and knowledge.
How Curious Minds supports LCEPs
Curious Minds has been brokering and supporting LCEPs across the North West of England since 2015. In 2023, we widened our geographical offer - particularly focusing on partnerships in Yorkshire and Humber regions.
As a catalyst for change, we provide a connecting and supporting role.
We curate a regular newsletter for LCEP leaders, which showcases success stories from place-based partnerships and shares useful resources. We also convene an LCEP Chairs & Coordinators Network, which comes together quarterly (either virtually or in person), and we advocate for place-based networks as a driver of improvement.
In April 2024, Curious Minds hosted 41 LCEP Chairs, coordinators and partners for a full day of discussions, presentations and advocacy at HOME in Manchester. Young arts ambassadors from SPARK Wakefield shared their experiences of working with cultural venues to improve the visitor experience for young people.
It was great to have the opportunity to come together in-person and talk about where everyone is within their partnerships, and the main themes that each partnership is grappling with.
Best practice case studies
Since September 2023, Curious Minds has been creating a termly newsletter to highlight stories from across the Northern LCEP landscape.
Themed around topics (such as diversity and inclusion or children and young people's voice) these newsletters have featured real-life examples of the work being undertaken by partnerships, to support best practice and inspire other LCEPs.
Click on the topic areas below to view the case studies and find out more.
Finding your local LCEP
LCEPs exist right across England. Because they respond closely to local needs, each LCEP has a unique structure, set of priorities and ways of working.
You can find the full list of LCEPs here on Arts Council England's website.
Not all LCEPs have an online presence, but we have listed those in the North of England that do in the Padlet below:
