News and Blog

On Thursday 24th September Lucy Marder (SCEP Lead) and I (Philippa Evans, SCEP Communications Assistant) had the opportunity to attend Young Southampton’s launch event at St Mary’s Leisure Centre.

The Young Southampton Launch Event brought together a variety of Southampton’s youth-serving organisations – we were delighted to represent the SCEP in this room. Excitingly, many of SCEP’s Members were able to attend the event, including multiple activities facilitated by SCEP Members.

Whilst the afternoon boasted speeches from two MPs, many SCEP Members took centre-stage: with Zoielogic literally taking to the stage with a dance performance about releasing your inner child from their youth-led group Fuzzy Logic. Alongside this, we heard from Professor Mary Barker (representing Life Lab) discuss Enabling Environments, whilst facilitating consideration of youth voice with the room. This led nicely into Artswork’s presentation about the new Young Southampton branding. Azra Throlby (Artswork Young Consultant) unveiled branding that had been co-created by 8-18-year-olds from around Southampton. Excitingly, we had the opportunity to discuss the co-creation process with Rose who took part in some of Azra’s workshops.

It was a pleasure to learn from our members and we’re looking forward to seeing how Young Southampton continues to connect the city and it’s young people.

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Calling teachers, schools, colleges, youth settings, commissioners:  It’s here! The new SCEP Cultural Education Directory is now live, making it easier than ever for schools, colleges, youth services and alternative provision settings to discover and connect with cultural organisations across Southampton. Developed with input from our education partners at Southampton Education Forum, the directory helps decisionmakers quickly find creative programmes, workshops, projects and experiences that can enrich learning and inspire young people.  

Whether you’re looking for workshops, performances, artist residencies, enrichment activities, careers inspiration, curriculum-linked projects or other creative programmes, the directory brings Southampton’s cultural learning offer together in one place. 

This is more than just a directory. It’s a tool for building new partnerships, creating opportunities for young people and strengthening the connection between education and culture across the city. 

Take a look, discover what’s available, and start making new connections today. 

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Explore the Directory above, or, visit our Resources page.

Join us on Wednesday 21st October from 4-5pm for an Info Burst session with Dan Beck, Head of Strategic SEND at Southampton City Council, exploring the proposed reforms set out in the Government’s new SEND White Paper and what they could mean for children and young people, schools and partner services. 

Alongside the national picture, Dan will provide an update on Southampton 360 Support model, the city’s local SEND transformation model, which aims to strengthen inclusion by bringing specialist expertise closer to children, young people and schools. The session will explore how Southampton 360 supports early intervention, builds workforce confidence and capacity, and helps create a more inclusive and sustainable SEND system. 

Dan will share insights into the key themes emerging from both the national reforms and local developments, including inclusion, accountability and support for children and young people with SEND, as well as the potential implications for education settings and services. 

Whether you work directly with children and young people, lead provision in a school or support strategic planning across education, health or community services, this session will help you understand the direction of travel and Southampton’s local response to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND. 

Lucy Marder (SCEP Lead) provides insight into what an Andy Burnham leadership could look like for cultural education.

With Andy Burnham widely expected to become the UK’s next Prime Minister, many in the education and cultural sectors are considering what this could mean for arts and cultural learning. While it is too early to predict specific policy changes, his record as Mayor of Greater Manchester suggests a strong belief in culture as part of a wider civic agenda, linked to education, wellbeing, skills, regeneration and local identity. 

A recurring theme in Burnham’s work has been the redistribution of power away from Whitehall and towards cities and regions. Recent speeches have reinforced his commitment to devolution and greater local control over public services, skills and economic development. For Southampton, this could create opportunities for cultural education to be shaped more strongly through local partnerships between schools, colleges, universities, cultural organisations and local authorities. A more devolved approach may enable places to align cultural learning more closely with local priorities, creative industries and community needs. A potential challenge for Southampton is that, despite significant social and economic inequalities, it is not always perceived as a place requiring the same level of intervention as areas further from London. 

Commentators also suggest a Burnham government could place greater emphasis on technical and vocational pathways, stronger links between education and employment, and broader measures of success for young people. This may create new opportunities to position arts and cultural learning as contributing not only to creativity and wellbeing, but also to skills development, employability and economic growth.

For SCEP members, the key question is how cultural education can demonstrate its value within wider agendas around opportunity, enrichment, skills and place-making. If decision-making becomes more locally driven, partnerships in Southampton may have greater scope to influence how arts and culture support young people’s learning and development. 

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Further reading:

• The Art Newspaper – What Andy Burnham’s achievements in Manchester tell us about his views on the arts https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/06/26/what-andy-burnhams-achievements-in-manchester-tell-us-about-his-views-on-the-arts
• Schools Week – What would a Burnham government mean for schools? https://schoolsweek.co.uk/what-would-a-burnham-government-would-mean-for-schools/
• Cultural Learning Alliance – Latest News Early July 2026 https://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/latest-news-early-july-26/
• Directory of Social Change – What does a new Labour Prime Minister mean for the voluntary sector?: https://www.dsc.org.uk/content/what-does-a-new-labour-prime-minister-mean-for-the-voluntary-sector/?dm_i=6S7,995GM,9B5Q4X,12UT3U,1,0,0,0

Lucy Marder (SCEP Lead) reflects on the new Department for `Education Enrichment Framework.

The DfE (Department for Education)’s new Enrichment Framework, published in June 2026, is non-statutory guidance designed to help schools and colleges plan and improve enrichment opportunities for all young people. For SCEP members, the framework is particularly significant because it identifies Arts and Culture as a core area of enrichment and places strong emphasis on partnership working, creating new opportunities for collaboration between schools, colleges and cultural organisations. 

The framework is structured around eight benchmarks covering areas such as strategic planning, accessibility, partnerships, impact and continuous improvement, encouraging schools to take a more coordinated approach to enrichment. 

While the framework does not directly introduce dedicated new funding for arts and cultural activity, it is likely to become an important reference point for schools when planning personal development and enrichment provision. In parallel, through the Enrichment Expansion Programme (part of the National Youth Strategy) the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media & Sport) are procuring a delivery partner who can work across the 9 English regions and whose approach can be flexed to ensure its offer of support to schools includes 400 target schools that will be funded to provide an enhanced enrichment offer.

Schools and cultural partners can access the framework, benchmarks, self-assessment tools and supporting resources on GOV.UK through: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-enrichment-framework-for-schools-and-colleges.

The Cultural Learning Alliance have published a handy timeline that puts the Enrichment Framework in the context of the Government’s wider education reforms: https://www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/CLA-Education-Reform-Timeline.pdf.