by Flying Geese Consultant, Beckie Smith
Introduction
Harlow Creates is a Local Education Partnership. We worked with Harlow Creates to tell the story of change that the organisation, and their multiple partners have made to date. We provided governance consultancy for the future operation and sustainability once the initial core funding comes to a natural end.
The partners included the Harlow Cultural Leaders Groups, they key partner of The Royal Opera House, 95 partner organisations across Harlow, 30 educational settings, 1 alternative education provision, 18 independent artists, and the District Council to whom we reported.
What are we doing?
Our approach took the following milestones: Facilitating collaborative working to agree a shared theory of change across the partnership and evaluation work to understand the impact of the work to date complete with a series of recommendations to improve delivery tactics. The learning from the evaluation influenced an updates project plan with revised mission and objectives which was then supported by a series of scenario plans for governance models (which include role review, processes, responsibilities, priorities, and policy) and resourcing. Workshops were delivered with project partners to work through scenario plans with process mapping and tactics, and discussions were held to determine which project partner would be best aligned to take a lead on certain aspects.
Legacy and Impact
As a result of our work Harlow Creates now better understand the effectiveness of delivery to achieve short-, mid- and long-term goals. They are clearer on the appropriateness of the priorities and understand the value of the partnership. We helped them to ready themselves for a time with less funding by reviewing their governance, ensuring that their project management was optimised, and facilitated use of the combined skills of the partnership where everyone was clear of their own role to play. We offered a more resilient future by identifying new income streams which would replace and diversify their income.