Arts, culture and libraries 2023

The LGA and Arts Council England are offering fully-funded culture and library peer challenges for councils to help inform strategic activity tailored to their local place and communities. Peer challenges are carried out to your specification aimed at improving, not judging, your council.

In response to feedback from councils, this refreshed programme includes options to apply for a limited number online or face to face peer challenges. 

The peer challenges take place across two days (your council will choose the dates) and can cover a range of themes, including:

• heritage initiatives
• tackling health inequalities
• community engagement
• wellbeing
• reducing loneliness and isolation
• income generation
• alternative delivery models
• co-location
• working with partners
• climate change
• contribution to wider strategic outcome.

Working collaboratively with the council, a team of expert peers will identify key questions that they can investigate with internal and external stakeholders, which, combined with good practice examples from the peer team’s own networks, will inform a set of recommendations. Your council can use these recommendations to help inform strategic activity. It is important to note that the peer team acts as a critical friend – the process is designed to be supportive and constructive.

The LGA will draw upon its pool of officer and member peers to create a peer challenge team with the expertise to help the council to address the key issues facing its library or cultural services. The team will spend 1.5 to 2 days either onsite or online with the council, meeting councillors, officers and partners, and understanding the council’s work in both theory and practice. 

Following the two-day delivery of the peer challenge, your council will receive a confidential report that sets out the key findings, provides some recommendations on the way forward and practical advice and signposting to help the council on its journey.

• You will be a council with responsibility for library services or culture depending on which challenge you bid for.
• You are at the point of considering significant change, or evaluating significant change.
• You will have commitment to change from senior councillors and leaders.
• Please note: when considering applications, priority will be given to councils that have not recently had a culture or library peer challenge.
• If you applied previously, but were unsuccessful, please do apply again, as your council’s needs or activity may have developed since your previous application.
• This is a popular programme and although not every application may be successful, we will try to work with every council to identify if there is appropriate support that the LGA and ACE can offer.

To apply in either a culture or a library peer challenge, please complete this application form, including what issues you would like the peer challenge to address and how you believe the peer challenge will assist your council, along with confirmation of support from the cultural services portfolio holder and senior officer responsible for library services or cultural services. Please also highlight any innovation and new ways of working that you think the peer challenge will help to support.

We welcome applications from individual or groups of councils, but for the latter please bear in mind the scale of the support that we are able to offer. We will then follow-up with you and may request some additional information.

When putting together your application think realistically about what insights can be gathered within the timescale, and ensure that the scope is sufficiently targeted to ensure the information will be useful to your council.

Bids will be shortlisted and successful applicants will be notified shortly after their application. If successful, we will ask you to indicate the dates your council would like to take part. These must be two consecutive working days.

For more information:
If you would like to informally discuss the scope of your bid, or what is entailed in a peer challenge, please email [email protected]

• To raise the ambitions of culture portfolio holders to be exceptional leaders of arts and culture in their places in the context of economic pressures and rebuilding from COVID-19.
• To support culture portfolio holders to identify ways in which to leverage culture to engage with communities and support work to reduce health inequalities and developing sustainable approaches to levelling up
• To share a wide range of inspiring case studies presented by councillor peers and external speakers. 
• To encourage attendees to network, share information, knowledge and expertise. 
• To ensure that culture portfolio holders are aware of the strategic work of ACE and the opportunities to work more closely with ACE including their area contacts. 
• To ensure that culture portfolio holders are aware of the key role of councils in arts and culture and the importance of strategically embedding culture to deliver across council agendas. 
• To encourage innovation around process and practice, for example, data, procurement and programme approaches

This programme aims to support lead/senior officers for culture and libraries to:

• Develop a greater understanding of the role of cultural and library services in the future economic growth of the local area.
• Develop skills to lead entrepreneurial thinking within their services and the confidence to apply those skills.
• Build and strengthen their peer networks, share information, knowledge and expertise. The pilot will be attended by both library and culture senior staff supporting a unique opportunity for peer to peer learning across these specialisms.
• Develop a vision about how their services can contribute to tackling social challenges in the post-COVID context, for example, mental health challenges and social isolation.
• Develop an understanding of change theory and how to apply it.
• Refresh the tools and knowledge officers have to be cultural and library leaders through peer to peer learning.
• Learn from a wide range of inspiring case studies presented by LA peers and external speakers.
• Be more aware of the strategic work of the LGA and Arts Council England and the opportunities to work more closely.
• Explore the potential for arts, culture and libraries to work with officer and political stakeholders to deliver across council agendas.
• Access a learning pathway through the LGA (for officers who have taken part in a Peer Challenge or Recovery and Renewal Panel).
• Identify how to share learning within their organisation and with partners.

The programme will consist of a cohort of up to 20 delegates who will be taken on the leadership journey, over the course of six facilitated sessions, plus an icebreaker and closing session. 

Each member of the cohort will identify a specific challenge they are facing in their locality at the beginning of the programme and will have the opportunity to work through this challenge along with other colleagues across the sector.

These challenges will be submitted ahead of the programme in an agreed format and circulated among other participants ahead of the course. All responses will be treated anonymously when circulated to the cohort, as the programme is designed to create an honest and open space for delegates to discuss challenges and share knowledge.

The participants will be supported by access and signposting to a wide range of relevant LGA and Arts Council England resources. 

This is not an in-person event. All sessions, plus the icebreaker and closing session will be delivered via Zoom, due to the online nature of the programme.

Applications for the 2023 programme have now closed. To register an interest in future programmes please email [email protected]