Our research on the relationships between organisations in two of Arts Council England’s funding streams has just been published.

In 2018, Arts Council England (ACE) commissioned The Tavistock Institute to explore the ways in which organisations funded through two funding streams might better work together and support each other in achieving ACE objectives around engaging new communities and audiences. 

The research focused on partnerships set up under the Creative People and Places programme (CPP) and those organisations in ACE’s National Portfolio (NPO’s). Our questions were: How and in what ways does CPP interact with the NPO portfolio?; What does successful collaboration look like?; and How can ACE most usefully support future collaborations in order to engage new communities and increase new audiences?

The research team adopted a qualitative approach to the research, comprising: initial national stakeholder interviews; a documentary review; interviews and focus groups concentrating on four CPP areas; and interviews with relevant staff from larger national and regional NPOs.  Once the initial results of the research had been arrived at, the research team undertook a validation workshop with sector colleagues.

The research found complex and varied relationships between different CPPs and NPOs with much existing good practice in terms of inter-organisational collaboration. From listening to the views and experiences of different actors within the sector, the research was able to identify a range of factors that were seen to support or hinder effective collaboration and the team were able to make a number of recommendations for ACE to consider around providing the conditions for collaborations, where appropriate.

Download the full report here.

For further information please contact:

Heather Stradling, TIHR Senior Researcher / Consultant
Matthew Gieve, TIHR Senior Researcher / Consultant