Apply by
Sunday 17 August 2025 at 11 PM
The Bradford Way is looking for a Strategic Partnership Consultant to support the delivery of our current ACE Place Partnership-funded work and to develop long-term strategies, partnerships, and funding approaches that secure a strong legacy beyond 2026.
Fee:
Fixed fee of £6,000 to include all expenses and any VAT. We expect this will be around 15 days’ work.
Timescale:
Starting September 2025. We expect much of the work will happen during September and October 2025, though it may go into November 2025 to March 2026, depending on how it develops.
Recruitment timeline:
- Applications close: Sunday 17 August 2025, at 11 PM
- Interviews: Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 August 2025
- Start: Week commencing Monday 1 September 2025. There is a consortium meeting on Tuesday 2 September, at 2 PM
Background
The Bradford Way and the Bradford District
The Bradford Way is a consortium of (currently) four organisations. It was set up to ensure a joined-up support infrastructure for the Bradford District’s creatives, culture-makers, practitioners and producers in the culture, heritage and community sectors. It is closely linked to Bradford 2025 City of Culture.
Bradford has a very specific and diverse cultural and heritage landscape. Despite the size of the city and district (which includes rural villages and towns as well as the inner city), the cultural and heritage sector consists of a small number of large organisations but is mainly made up of independent small organisations and companies, freelancers, communities and individual creatives. Having said this, City of Culture has brought enormous opportunities, and recent information suggests Bradford’s cultural economy growth is one of the fastest in the country.
The Bradford Way is intentionally shaped by the distinct culture and heritage of the Bradford District, reflecting how we operate here. We’ve even explored ‘Bradfordness’ in workshops to define our unique character and persona of the city. However, our vision extends beyond our locale: we want to share our insights with other place-based cultural initiatives and gain valuable knowledge from their experiences.
The Consortium:
The Bradford Way consortium’s current member organisations are:
- Bradford Metropolitan District Council’s Culture, Policy and Events Team: commissions and platforms talent and new work in a calendar of festivals and events with a national and international reach.
- Bradford Cultural Voice Forum: networking and connectivity for everyone, the independent voice of the sector. Celebrating the sector, advocating at every level, and embedding inclusivity. CVF is the inclusive home for all the new people we are encouraging into the sector.
- Bradford Producing Hub: exists to support the development of Bradford’s creative workforce and infrastructure, helping to establish sustainable careers for artists and creative practitioners. BPH provides professional development, commissioning opportunities, and sector support, nurturing a vibrant and resilient creative ecology that reflects the diversity of Bradford’s communities.
- The Leap: Bradford’s Creative People and Places programme, funded by Arts Council England, is dedicated to widening participation in arts and creativity, particularly among communities that face barriers to engagement. The Leap uses community-led, co-creative approaches to develop inclusive cultural activity, empower local voices, and support grassroots innovation across the district.
The Consortium has an independent Chair, Peg Alexander, who was appointed after an open recruitment process and has a long history of leading, working and supporting culture and community strategically in the Bradford District.
The main Consortium holds quarterly strategic meetings, chaired by Peg, attended by both the leads and other staff members from the four partners. There are also monthly project meetings to manage the work plan, which includes actions for each organisation as well as joint and consortium-wide actions to join up and improve support. Ad hoc meetings are held as and when needed.
Current Funding:
The Bradford Way is currently funded through a 2-year grant from Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund, which is due to end in March 2026. These funds support several specific cultural activities as well as actions to improve the strategic joining-up of support between consortium members. The consortium members aim to create a “sustainable, joined-up infrastructure that supports Bradford’s diverse artists and community-led arts and culture.“
The Bradford Way does not employ any staff. All activities are delivered via the four consortium members alongside their other ongoing activities.
The project is, however, supported by some external consultancy contracts:
- A detailed evaluation contract through Nicky Hatton and associates, who are monitoring and evaluating progress and development
- A conference producer, Kathryn Penny, who will manage and deliver the end-of-project conference in March 2026
- We are in the process of appointing a PR consultancy contract
The consultancy specification
Under the current funding, there are two big elements to the programme:
- The delivery of the specific activities and actions contracted by Arts Council England
and
- The strategic partnership development work to ensure that, come April 2026, the infrastructure support available to the creative sector is much better joined up and is more effective for it. Additionally, we need to ensure that there is a future for The Bradford Way after the end of this current Arts Council England funding.
The Bradford Way is central to our vision for the City of Culture 2025 legacy. We’re actively shaping the cultural landscape for the District from 2026 onwards, and to inform those crucial discussions, we’ve developed a ‘Legacy Position Statement‘. This statement makes the case for The Bradford Way as the infrastructure support for the future of arts and culture engagement in Bradford.
Time is tight and we have much to do. And so, we need additional strategic partnership development support to help us plan for our future from April 2026 onwards and to get really clear about the future of The Bradford Way, what we could achieve, with whom, and how to get there.
The consultant will work with the Independent Chair and Consortium members to help develop the partnership arrangements and to crystallise plans for April 2026 onwards. Including:
- Facilitating the “Legacy Position Statement” Implementation: Working closely with the consortium to translate the “Legacy Position Statement” into actionable partnership development strategies
- Scoping the Ecosystem: Working with the consortium to review the cultural ecosystem in Bradford and West Yorkshire, identifying current partners and potential new partners
- Developing Partnership Strategies for Sustainability: Exploring diverse funding models, shared resource agreements, and joint programming initiatives
- Training and Mentoring: Providing guidance and potentially informal training to consortium members and their teams on effective partnership development
The final consultancy outline will be agreed with the appointed consultant. At this stage, we expect that the work and outcomes will be to:
- Lead, plan, facilitate, record and write up three away days (or shorter equivalent events as agreed) so that consortium members co-design and firm up The Bradford Way future vision, aims, strategy, scope, purpose, membership and remit in the light of District decisions on 2025 legacy and other strategic plans and activities happening in the Bradford District.
- Use the evaluation work and activity to further support the consortium in developing its ways of working and processes around joining up the infrastructure support available. This will be through ad-hoc meetings, attendance at Consortium strategic meetings (2 September, 2 December, 3 March 2 – 4 PM in person in Bradford), individual discussions and producing some written support information or recommendations as agreed and discussed.
- Identify and outline other potential partnership development activity to strengthen The Bradford Way concept and joint working.
- Support in fundraising development by identifying potential future funding sources and opportunities linked to the strategy and vision (not just arts and cultural funding, but including trusts and foundations) and working with the Consortium partners to look at what needs to happen/change to meet them. We expect this to include preparing some relevant resources and materials to support applications and proposals as agreed. We are currently being supported by the team at Bradford 2025 around identifying potential trusts and foundations.
The consultant will work closely with Peg Alexander as well as the lead representatives from the four Consortium members. Peg herself works as a consultant doing similar work to this, so it will very much be seen as a co-working consultancy with Peg and the consortium members.
Your experience
We are looking for an experienced consultant who has led and delivered similar types of consultancies, and has worked in/across the cultural/heritage sectors and/or community-led sectors.
You will also have:
- Proven experience in partnership development and management. A track record of successfully initiating, nurturing, and sustaining effective partnerships across diverse organisations.
- Strong facilitation skills for complex multi-stakeholder environments: Adept at guiding discussions, ensuring equitable participation, managing diverse perspectives, and driving consensus among these varied partners.
- Expertise in strategic alignment and shared visioning. Able to help partners identify common goals, align their individual objectives with The Bradford Way.
- Understanding of place– based strategy and strategic planning and how this relates to the cultural/heritage sector and freelancers
- Experience of identifying strategic and funding opportunities and supporting organisations to prepare for / access them
- Strong interpersonal skills and a willingness and ability to work flexibly and creatively with us throughout the consultancy as partnership development needs become clearer and arise
- Understanding of City of Culture 2025 legacy planning. The consultant needs to grasp how The Bradford Way contributes to the long-term impact of the City of Culture, specifically in preparing for the cultural landscape from 2026 onwards.
Additionally:
- Familiarity with the Arts Council England Place Partnership Fund
- A detailed knowledge of Bradford, its communities and its cultural workforce
- Strategic bid writing experience
How to apply
Please send your CV and a short 2-page supporting statement to hello@bdproducinghub.co.uk by 11 PM on Sunday 17 August 2025.
Alternatively, you can submit a video or audio recording, which should be no longer than 5 minutes.
We are actively seeking proposals from diverse and underrepresented communities. We strongly encourage those from the global majority, D/deaf and disabled backgrounds to apply.
