Liverpool was one of the first cities in England to develop a
Local Cultural Education Partnership. A well established group of arts organisations brought wider partners together to create greater access to culture for children and young people. In their work for Looked After Children, they have demonstrated the power of collaboration in cultural education.
By 2020, before the onset of the pandemic, Liverpool's LCEP was working on 3 priorities:
- Safeguarding and inclusion
- Schools and cultural education, and
- Employment and skills
The organisations represented on the steering group serves as an illustration of the breadth of its work; arts organisations, museums, school improvement, schools, music education, universities and mental health leads all coming together to identify the way forward for children and young people in culture.
Like many cities, Liverpool has arts organisations that are passionate about reaching those least likely to engage (or - historically - easy to ignore). Prior to the development of the partnership, a number of organisations were already seeking out opportunities to work with Looked After Children. In particular,
Collective Encounters,
Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and
20 Stories High.
Discussing this with Rebecca Ross-Williams, Creativity & Social Change Director at Everyman & Playhouse, it becomes clear just how essential the LCEP has been in making this work.