Weeknotes 37

Hi everyone. Sorry for the hiatus in updates - it's been incredibly busy and I have, frankly, been knackered. The backlog of info is too long to do in my usual fashion, so this is a bit of a list of what's been going on, and normal service will resume once I've recharged after a bit of a break.

Despite the busyness, I did however manage to put some of our policy lines into practice when I joined almost 4000 people in walking in support of Diabetes UK. Diabetes is one of the diseases that responds really well to increased movement and activity, so it was great to be part of this activity to walk 10 miles across 11 of London's bridges last Sunday. It also coincided with CSSC's Autumn wellbeing week, which is a great teambuilding opportunity to boost physical activity in your organisations.

Things that have happened

• The Culture, Tourism and Sport Board has had the first meeting of this cycle, which included a presentation from Julie Russell on CLOA and the perspective from Directors of culture and leisure; and agreed the Board's workplan for the forthcoming year. We'll now be reaching out to partners to help us deliver on the various workstreams.
• We have published with Arts Council England a refreshed version of the Joint Cultural Needs Assessment (scroll down) to help areas understand their assets and help prioritise activity and resources. This sits alongside their new Culture and Place Data Explorer, which the LGA also inputted into.
• Continuing with data, I attended a very constructive data meeting convened by Thorsten D. and CLOA, with Harman Sagger and other data-focused DCMS and ACE colleagues to compare notes on what is happening and how we can all move to an integrated approach on data capture and presentation [after agreeing why we need the data in the first place].
• I contributed to a VisitEngland meeting to help develop a new visitor economy strategy for England, and it was good to see the role of councils and importance of placemaking already recognised at this early stage.
• Samantha Ramanah and Zahraa S. briefed Parliamentarians on sport following the Team GB Olympic and Paralympic success.
• I contributed to early conversations on the refresh of Archives Unlocked and a discussion on how archives contribute to the new government's missions, with thanks to Tina Morton and Isabel Churcher FRSA for a great set of slides.
• I presented to the Heritage Alliance Finance and Advocacy meeting on our infographics and the state of council finances.
• We've contributed some culture, tourism and sport lines and experience to our thinking on the upcoming module 10 of the Covid inquiry, looking at community impact. It was quite amazing to see how much work took place during that period to keep communities safe and well.
• Cllr Tracey Dixon spoke at the Theatres Trust conference on the contribution that theatres can make to placemaking and communities; and how to work most effectively with their local council.
• Cllr Peter Golds spoke at a Conservative Party conference fringe event on 'Wha next for Conservative sport policy', convened by StreetGames.
• I had a fantastic presentation from Phillip Wright MCIMSPA (chartered) on CIMSPA's data mapping of the workforce, which is a really positive tool and will be invaluable as we support the transition to an active wellbeing service, which is going to require a lot of new skill sets among our workforce.
• I met Paula Orrell of CVAN to talk about collaboration between councils and grassroots cultural organisations.
• Helen Hull and I met with ACE colleagues to discuss our improvement programme for culture and libraries over the next year. Some really exciting programmes and speakers coming up.
• Emily Bennett has joined us as our new IMPACT placement, taking over from the excellent Isobel Parkes , and will be leading on the second round of our visitor economy training for officers.
• We had our first inquiry from a national paper on whether Christmas light switch ons are being cancelled this year.
• The LGA response to the National Planning Policy Framework consultation has been published, complete with our lines recommending strengtheing sections on the creative industries (studio space) and better integrating physical activity lines with other parts of the Framework. This was not our lead, with most of the hard work being done by Georgina Brightwell in the LGA housing and planning team.
• I attended the Creative Industries Council Place Forum, with yet another great set of speakers, including Susan Wills MBE talking about the Staines library project I was privileged to see last month (see earlier weeknotes).
• I took part in Sport England research with partners on the impact of Uniting the Movement.
• I also met with colleagues at the British Library and ACE to talk through LibraryOn, Business and Intellectual Property Centres, and other opportunities to collaborate and advocate.

I'm taking a break for the next two weeks, but leaving you in the capable hands of Samantha Ramanah (policy) and Helen Hull (improvement). Those weeks include the many culture and sport sessions at LGA annual conference, at least two ministerial meetings, and a couple of parliamentary debates, by my count - so they'll be kept busy.

Ciao.