ENGLISH HERITAGE FUNDING AGREEMENT

Half Year Progress Against Targets 1 April – 30 September 2007

This delivery plan takes as its starting point English Heritage’s strategic aims and objectives for the next five years as set out in Making the Past Part of our Future. The Strategy is underpinned by a comprehensive set of activities and targets which will be used to prioritise the organisation’s resources over the period 2005-10. This delivery plan highlights only the most critical activities for the period of this Funding Agreement and those which make a major contribution to Government objectives.


Aim 5: Stimulate and harness enthusiasm for England’s historic environment

Strategic Objectives

A. Increase public awareness of the historic environment

B. Broaden access to the historic environment and engagement with diverse communities

C. Stimulate access, interest and enjoyment through the sites and collections in our care

Primary activities / Outcomes/deliverables / Performance measures/targets / Progress
19 Increase visits from priority groups to EH sites
20 Support the rest of the historic environment sector to increase visits from priority groups to historic sites
Primary activities / Contribute to DCMS PSA3 target to increase the take-up of cultural events and sporting opportunities by adults and young people aged 16 and above from priority groups (defined as people aged 16 or above with a physical or mental disability, from black or minority ethnic groups, or people in socio-economic categories C2, D and E), by increasing the number visiting designated historic environment sites by 3% by 2008
Outcomes/deliverables / o  Deliver a minimum of 40 outreach projects per year which engage a minimum of 30,000 people from DCMS priority groups per year (5B3)
Performance measures/targets / At 30 September:
o  15 projects completed
o  19 projects ongoing
o  10 projects in development
44 outreach projects will have taken place by 31 March. While actual numbers of people taking part will not be known till the year end, the projects are on track to engage at least 30,000.
Example projects for this period include - Wellbeing Project: In partnership with the Newcastle Primary Care Trust, visits to heritage sites in the north east were run for a group of black and minority ethnic women and children. Their memories of the trips were used to create a children’s book in four community languages to support literacy.
Interwoven Freedom: In collaboration with Sparkbrook Caribbean and African Women
Development Institute, this project
Progress
21 Support DCMS participation survey / o  Deliver a minimum of 25 Heritage Open Days outreach projects per year aimed at broadening participation in the scheme, in partnership with the Civic Trust (5B7)
o  Performance measure is DCMS participation survey / commemorated the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. Working with a textile artist and writer, the women created work for a book and touring exhibition.
Springline: Developed in partnership with Local Youth Services, The Sustainability Centre and The Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, young people took part in a series of workshops exploring their local environment and learning heritage craft skills traditional to the South Downs.
39 projects delivered for the biggest year of Heritage Open Days yet. All projects ran by the Outreach team focused on engaging new audiences with HODs, for example, a community heritage day involvingall the local faith organisations in Bradford, and a partnership project with the National Youth Theatre at Furness Abbey which attracted 600 visitors.
Participation Survey is now in its third year and is achieving desired response rates. The first annual report of the survey was published in May 2007 and the first monitoring report on progress in achieving PSA targets was published in June. English Heritage also sponsored quantitative research using data from the survey which is now on the Heritage Counts website. The next official publication from the survey will be in December 2007.

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English Heritage Half Year Performance Against Funding Agreement Targets – 1 April-30 September 2007