Artful Alliance was hosted and run by Blue Cabin (July 2023 to July 2024) on behalf of Arts Council England to explore how arts organisations and Virtual Schools can work together to enhance the creative education of care experienced children and young people.

The programme was developed to explore four key questions:

1. How can cultural and creative partners best serve care-experienced children and young people (CECYP)?
2. How can carers, social workers, designated teachers and the wider community of stakeholders around the child be fully engaged, to support their education and development?
3. What is the relationship between the arts and creativity and social pedagogy? Can this be explored through Virtual Schools?
4. How can Virtual Schools and mainstream schools work better together for the benefit of care-experienced children and young people?

The programme included direct project funding for action research projects, training and capacity building workshops and sessions and regular learning and reflection sessions. It also included buddying, therapeutic supervision and self-care sessions for the funded partnerships.

Find out more about the Artful Alliance project>>

Four partnerships between arts organisations and Virtual Schools were funded:

• Brighton and Hove Virtual School and Creative Learning, Theatre Royal Brighton
• Leicestershire Virtual School and Care to Dance
• Norfolk Virtual School and Norfolk Music Hub
• North Yorkshire County Virtual School and Creative Briefs

• Enabling funded partnerships between arts organisations and Virtual Schools has been an effective way to share learning on all sides, deepen partnership approaches, and engage many of the adult stakeholders around care experienced children and young people. In all cases this led to improved creative and educational outcomes for participants.
• Theories of adverse childhood experiences and recovery, trauma-informed practice, and social pedagogy, have positively influenced practice design, although capacity to engage in all the wrap-around support offered was regularly identified as an issue. The offered therapeutic supervision sessions, and engagement in group learning and reflection sessions were less well attended.
• Developing practice that responds to individual needs and circumstances, embedding Arts Award, and explicitly linking activities to Personal Education Plans were all described as enhancing how arts organisations can support the creative education and learning of CECYP alongside mainstream and Virtual Schools.
• Providing the opportunity for mutually nurturing partnerships alongside capacity building, training, and reflection has had a positive impact on the ability of arts organisations and practitioners to meet the needs of care experienced children and young people. All partnerships have indicated that they intend to develop their work together further as a result of taking part in Artful Alliance.