(Image: OCP) In 2006 Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council and its Cultural Partnership (OCP) achieved a national first. They were the first bodies in the country to agree a Local Area Agreement Stretch Target for increasing participation in the arts and creative activities. As a national first it is of particular importance to the Arts Council England (ACE) and the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).

KKP was commissioned by OCP to establish a new baseline for participation in the borough and is currently developing a performance management system to monitor the results of the Partnership's various participation initiatives. The whole approach has been endorsed by DCMS and ACE.

The first element of this multi stage project was to conduct a survey to establish a baseline for the new performance management system. The survey gathered arts participation data from 1,000 adult residents in the borough of Oldham and found that:

• Only 5.3% of adults actively took part in arts or creative activities in the previous 12 months
• More than 40% of adults took part in activities passively (watching, listening etc)
• 30% of adults attended a theatre, art gallery, festival or other arts facility in the past 12 months
• Almost one in five adults feel out of place in an art gallery

The data enabled KKP to identify a number of issues to be addressed and challenges to be overcome in order to improve participation. These included the need to identify:

• Alternative routes to engagement.
• Initiatives to improve visibility and perception of arts institutions.
• Ways to increase participant retention.
• Better targeting of under-represented groups.
• Activities such as keep fit, dance and other cross over areas between sport and the arts.

Having presented these findings to the Cultural partnership work is about to commence on the second stage of the project.

In stage 2 of the project KKP will develop a performance management system, which gathers participation data on an ongoing basis as a by-product of service delivery.

The approach will see a small, yet critically important, amount of data being gathered on all adults attending arts, music, drama and other such classes from 2007 onwards.

This systematic approach will enable the local authority and Oldham's Cultural Partnership to better understand ongoing changes as they occur. And to monitor the impact and effectiveness of the programmes they offer, in terms of increasing adult participation in the arts, drama, music and creative activities. .

The Cultural Partnership will be provided with a true picture of who does and, in some ways more importantly, who does not take part in the arts. It will then be able to tailor its services accordingly and improve delivery for everyone in the area.

The project is seen as a major step forward in developing a long-term strategy to influence future participation in the arts across Oldham, and in some ways just as importantly, an initiative that could establish a new approach to monitoring arts participation across the country.