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DTAP Receives New Funding and Appoints Consultants to Forward its Work

The Dance Training Accreditation Partnership (DTAP) is pleased to announce it has been successful in securing additional funds from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Alongside this it has recently appointed a team of consultants who will undertake broad-reaching research in order to recommend a suitable mechanism for regulating the teaching of dance outside the formal education sector within the UK.

The funding will enable it to support the development of a number of registered centres who will act as training providers for the new qualification ‘Teaching Dance to Children and Young People’. The qualification, which sits at level 6 on the national qualifications framework, is currently undergoing formal accreditation, and is due to be launched to the first cohort of candidates in September.

The team of consultants will be headed by Rachel Gibson, working with Jeanette Siddall and Jonathan Singleton. Between them they have a breadth of experience, contacts and perspectives which will enable the research to cover the widest possible ground. Rachel Gibson is former Strategy Officer for Dance at Arts Council England (ACE) National office and a freelance consultant with a wide-ranging portfolio including Development Management for the London Thames Gateway Dance Partnership; Jeanette Siddall is former Director of Dance for ACE and a freelance consultant who has undertaken development work for Youth Dance England and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF); Jonathan Singleton is former CEO of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), and a freelance management consultant with clients across the UK dance sector.

The first phase of the research begins immediately and ends in May, and will consult broadly within the UK dance profession in order to establish consistent cross-industry benchmarks for regulating good practice. In addition it will seek to understand existing models of regulation within a range of other industries in order to recommend the most suitable elements of a framework for the dance industry. Consultation begins with the DTAP partner organisations, and from there will broaden out across the UK dance industry. Findings will be reported back to the DTAP Consortium on a regular basis, with final recommendations to be presented to delegates at the DTAP Conference, to be held in May.

The Paul Hamlyn funds will contribute towards the development of four organisations across the UK to test out what is needed to deliver the roles of Registered Centres and / or Training Providers for the DTAP qualification in ‘Teaching Dance to Children and Young People’. The organisations are: Yorkshire Dance (Yorkshire), De Montfort University with Dance 4 (East Midlands), LABAN (London) and Swindon Dance (South West).

The activity undertaken by the four organisations will include testing course content, delivery patterns, training personnel and creating resource materials. The funds will be essential in ‘pump priming’ the organisations to help them to refine practices and create business models to provide long term sustainability for the delivery of the qualification.

Linda Jasper, Director of Youth Dance England, (one of DTAP’s two lead delivery organisations), says "We are delighted that these two significant developments in DTAP’s plans have come to fruition. Paul Hamlyn Foundation has recognised the importance of what we are trying to achieve, and their support will be invaluable in future-proofing the rollout of the new qualification. We are also confident that the team of consultants we have appointed will allow us to simultaneously make progress with another significant aspect of DTAP’s work. Our aspiration is that those who teach and learn dance will enjoy higher standards and greater quality assurance in the not too distant future. We are now two big steps closer to achieving this".