Impact case study database

SCC has delivered impact by embedding arts-based methods in the strategies and engagement practice of environmental and conservation stakeholders in Norfolk, principally: Norfolk Wildlife Trust ( NWT), Norfolk County Council Environment Team ( NCCET), and the Norfolk Coast Partnership ( NCP). SCC works with these organisations as live interventions in management and policy and as practice-based research:

1) Impact on Organisational Practice

SCC impacted future strategy and public engagement for NWT, the UK’s oldest Wildlife Trust with 35,000 members and over 50 nature reserves. NWT’s People and Wildlife Team is responsible for Norfolk’s regional response to the national strategy initiative Towards a Wilder Britain (TWB) (The Wildlife Trusts, 2018). NWT asked SCC to help them incorporate the research-based sonic arts methods [O6] in their delivery of TWB. The Head of NWT People and Wildlife team said: “ This provided opportunities for us to both listen to and engage this audience in new ways” [C1].

SCC provided advice and facilitation, heavily shaping NWT’s new strategy, in terms of the question: “ *What does it mean to speak up for wildlife; to be a voice for nature?*” [C1]. In reporting SCC impact on the NWT, the Head of NWT People and Wildlife Team said this “ has helped shape our thinking around effective ways to engage the wider public with a national Wildlife Trusts’ campaign for A Wilder Future supporting strong environmental protection in a future Environment Bill” [C1]. The strategy event was attended by 10 NWT officers who took away ideas including “ thinking about methods which are actually effective in moving forward and making a change’ and being able to unpick how [TWB] might be implemented and know what messages to communicate” [C1].

NCCET asked the SCC team to collaborate around public engagement relating to coastal environmental management projects and longer-term strategic thinking. In November 2018 SCC ran a day long stakeholder event for the NCC ENDURE project team. ENDURE is a European based initiative which examines the role of coastal sand dune systems for climate change resilience. The event adopted a methodology based on “making things matter” involving publics in co-producing knowledge and managing key sites [O6]. Working with twelve key stakeholders, it identified research sites for the ENDURE project [C2]. The Senior Projects Officer (NCCET) said “We therefore worked together to give the dunes a voice in our project work […] the idea of audiences, speakers and listening was very instructive and helped us reach far better outcomes than expected […]. This has since helped shape our communications campaign which will form the backbone to our physical implementation work at 4 dune sites in Norfolk. […] [SCC] has had a strong impact on the ENDURE project”. In Sept. 2020 SCC received AHRC follow-on funding, working with NCCET and NCP conducting ‘Parliament of Things’ style public engagements to develop public understanding and involvement with the implementation and sustainability of ENDURE’s coastal dune systems.

The above work convinced NCCET they needed to embrace the SCC research as a whole organisation. SCC were invited to work with senior managers in NCCET. SCC ran a strategy event in which senior managers rewrote the NCCET mission statement (“Plan on a Page”) using SCC insights to more fully account for both active public involvement in environmental issues and the complexity and vitality of nature itself. This mission statement now guides everything NCCET does shaping environmental policy and management undertaken by Norfolk County Council. A user pack was created for individual managers to run with their own teams [C5]. The event was rated 4.7/5 for Usefulness and 4.9/5 for Interest and take always included: “ how best to improve our internal and external communications”; and “ Using the Plan on a Page to structure future projects”, “ having an Environment Plan structured web pages, include ‘communication’ as a column on the Plan on a Page” [C5].

The officers attending asked to take the same event to their own teams (five teams totaling 76 staff members) and requested an SCC Resources Pack. The Resources Pack gives detail of the workshop structure and examples used at the event. The Head of Environment (NCC) stated that this work: “ helped us understand how we communicate and how often we communicate’ [C5]. We also explored tools to analyse best practice, [the SCC team] also gave context to how we could use the ‘Plan on a Page’ to tackle a specific issue, applying it to projects or concrete topics and using it when developing new funding bids. […] [this] […] has had a strong and positive impact on our team.” In Nov. 2020: SCC were asked by the Head of Environment (NCC) to run a second strategy event for his Senior Environment Managers team around implementing the NCC 25 Year Environment Plan [C5].

NCP SCC worked with NCP to change public engagement strategy for the quinquennial statutory planning document for the Norfolk Coast AONB. NCP is a forum for relevant statutory authorities, agencies, organisations and local publics, as key stakeholders in coastal management. SCC had the following impact [C3]:

(1) a day strategy event (March 2018) attended by fifteen NCP partner organizations used SCC’s methodologies to devise and set priorities to structure the forthcoming 5-year AONB management plan.

(2) Aug. – Oct. 2018 SCC collaborated with NCP engaging publics with future coastal planning and collect qualitative data to inform the planning process. This included a public event at the Wells Maltings Theatre run by SCC using creative outputs from the project to generate discussion feeding directly into the forthcoming 2019 AONB management plan.

Together (1) and (2) form a major component of the NCP public engagement strategy in relation to the 2019 AONB plan and feed into developing concern with hidden and unheard voices as a primary theme for their engagement over the next 5-year cycle of implementation and review [C5]. The Manager, NCP said:

“[…] [SCC] facilitation of the extensive community engagement work has been invaluable, enabling us to explore a totally different approach to involving the community in developing the [AONB] management plan and at a much earlier stage in the process. Whereas in the past we have consulted the community late in the process, […] SCC has enabled the community to be much more engaged in coming up with the ideas that feed into the revisions of the management plan. This increased ownership has been hugely valuable, and we look forward to assessing its role in supporting increased community commitment to the management plan and closer community working in the future” [C3].

2) Impact on National Policy

SCC speaks directly to current UK Government concerns regarding public trust and participation in issues of coastal change flooding related to climate change. Insights from this work formed three submissions of evidence (two invited as requests) to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Coastal Flooding and Climate Change 2019. Dr Revill was quoted in the interim report (Oct. 2019) [C6] and SCC evidence argued that; “ respect, transparency, understanding, mutual knowledge and ultimately trust will best be built if such public and stakeholder engagement is: Early, Appropriate, Specific, Responsive, Constructive, Transformative and Facilitated.” The Select Committee responded by recommending under point (1) in their conclusions and recommendations that:

“In their response, the Government and Environment Agency should explain:

How to ensure meaningful long-term engagement with the communities affected by coastal change is at the centre of local strategies so that wherever possible local approaches to adaptation have the consent and support of the people affected” [C6].

The Government Response was received 9/03/2020. Points 3 and 8 under the overall heading Future Policy and Strategy show that the Government has taken on board the SCC-guided recommendations as follows:

“3. Our strategies are most effective when government, local authorities, communities and the private sector, work together to ensure there is a shared understanding of future risks and who is best placed to manage them. […]

8. We recognise that meaningful long-term engagement with communities affected by coastal change can have significant and positive impacts in encouraging local communities to consider possible approaches which are right for their place. The government’s future policies will consider ways to promote the benefits of long-term engagement to support coastal communities in the development of local strategies” [C6].

3) Impact on Cultural Practice

SCC produced over thirty outputs working with creative practitioners and publics of all ages. SCC shaped nature of creative practice and created a regional legacy. Work with the four primary schools in Norfolk’s Pilgrim Federation provided students with new media and music skills in addition to an interdisciplinary educational experience. Their work featured in public performances at Blakeney Parish Church, Norwich Science Festival and the 24-Hour Radio Broadcast. The Executive Headteacher of the Federation said: “The children used equipment and had experiences that as a school we would not have been able to offer them. […] It was a privilege for us all to work with professionals who we could not have afforded to pay ourselves for the experience” [C7].

Regional legacy is ensured through the ‘sonic postcards’ commissioned by NWT for their visitors centre at Cley and by Wells Maltings Heritage Centre as a contribution to a new Coastal Futures public environmental forum in the region [C1, C4]. The Director of Wells Maltings Cultural and Heritage Centre said: “ *the presence of the [sonic postcards] as part of your visit to us at the end of last year, and the supporting information, caught the imagination of visitors to the centre, promoted the evening showing and debate, […] [adding] value to our existing cultural heritage offer within our new building.*’ They provide: ‘ an accessible platform for local people to explore and reflect upon the huge changes that are in play along the North Norfolk Coast, environmentally, economically and socially, and gives further opportunity for awareness raising and action planning, which in turn empower local communities to take control of the issues that affect their own lives” [C4].

NWT hosted the travelling SCC exhibition (Soundings film and Blakeney sonic postcards) at their Cley Marshes Visitor Centre (Feb. 2019) (110,000 visitors pa.) this became a model for their sound-art installation ‘With the Birds’ (Oct. – Dec. 2019). The Engagement Officer NWT said: “ working alongside digital artist Saffron Summerfield, we created an audio-visual exhibition using the structure of the Sounding Coastal Change exhibition. We even bought the exact same plinths to house our sound recordings! [...] We were incredibly pleased with the results and look forward to working in this medium in the future” [C1]. Sonic postcard methodology is currently being trialed with the Chilterns AONB.

SCC also worked with creative practitioners influencing and changing their practice. This led to national recognition. The 24-Hour Radio Broadcast from Blakeney was featured on BBC Radio 4 Today Programme. Sonic works were featured on BBC Radio 6 Cerys Matthews Programme and PI Revill was the subject of a documentary about sound and politics on the arts radio station Resonance FM (09/08/20). The project film ‘Soundings’ was shortlisted for the AHRC Film Prize 2019. Award winning filmmaker Gair Dunlop said: “A film led by sound, rather than the usual process of assembling visuals to be complemented by the soundtrack, has meant adaptability, inventiveness and willingness to slow the pace […]” [C7].

In summary, national policy impact is based on Norfolk as a bellwether laboratory for UK future adaptation to coastal change. Our sustained user engagement in Norfolk, has built impact on organizational and cultural practice at local and regional levels. Key to such impact has been building long term trust with regional project partners. Testimony to that trust, SCC has gained four further tranches of follow-on funding during 2020 to engage with existing partners and partners in other regions. Together these further develop creative imagining of environmental futures and involve publics in deliberative environmental management.