Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport First World War Centenary Programme: Legacy Evaluation Authors: Jack Malan, Eugénie Lale-Demoz, Michaela Brady September 2019 Table of Contents Executive Summary i 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... i 2. Methodological Approach ........................................................................................... i 3. Overall Conclusions .................................................................................................... ii 4. The Centenary Programme’s Impact and Legacy ......................................................... iii 6. Lessons for the Future ............................................................................................... iv 1. Introduction 1 1.1 The Centenary Programme’s Origins and Objectives ..................................................... 1 1.2 Evaluation Objectives and Methodology ...................................................................... 4 1.3 Secondary Sources ..................................................................................................... 5 1.4 First World War ‘Theory of Change’ ............................................................................. 7 2. The First World War Centenary ‘Ecology of Organisations’ 9 2.1 Role of DCMS and Other Government Departments ..................................................... 9 2.2 The ‘Ecology of Public and Civil Society Organisations’ ................................................ 11 2.3 Conclusions – ‘Ecology of Public and Civil Society Organisations’ and Partnership ......... 13 3. Centenary Programme Activities and Outcomes 15 3.1 Public attitudes to the First World War Centenary ...................................................... 15 3.2 Role of Media Coverage in the FWWC Programme ..................................................... 17 3.3 Commemoration, Awareness and Remembrance ....................................................... 20 3.4 Culture and Heritage ................................................................................................ 24 3.5 Young people and Education..................................................................................... 28 3.6 Community Engagement .......................................................................................... 32 3.7 Wider UK and International Dimensions .................................................................... 36 3.8 Summary of Centenary Programme Activities and Outputs ......................................... 41 4. Meta Evaluation and Key Issues 43 4.1 Quality of the Evidence on FWWC Outcomes and Impacts .......................................... 43 4.2 Meta Evaluation of FWWC Outcomes and Impacts ..................................................... 44 4.3 Critical Success Factors ............................................................................................. 49 4.4 Legacy of the FWW Centenary Programme ................................................................ 50 5. Conclusions and Lessons for the Future 52 5.1 Overall Conclusions .................................................................................................. 52 5.2 Lessons for the Future .............................................................................................. 52 Appendix A: Bibliography 54 Tables Table 2.1: Summary – HMG Funding for the Centenary Programme ...................................................10 Table 2.2: Role of Government Departments in the Centenary Programme .......................................10 Table 2.3: Summary – Role of Key Public and Civil Society Organisations ............................................12 Figures Figure 1.1: Timeline of FWW National Commemorative Events ............................................................. 1 Figure 3.1: Public views on the tone of the FWWC commemorations .................................................16 Figure 3.2: Number of viewers of major BBC FWW TV programme content from 2014-18 ................18 Figure 3.3: What would have happened to the Centenary projects without support ..........................33 Boxes Box 1.1: Prime Minister David Cameron defines the objectives of the FWWC (11 October 2011) ........ 2 Box 1.2: Summary of FWWC Programme Objectives and Themes ......................................................... 3 Box 3.1: BBC First World War Coverage ................................................................................................18 Box 3.2: Examples of DCMS FWWC Communications Activities (2018)................................................19 Box 3.3: Case study: ‘we’re here because we’re here’ ..........................................................................25 Box 3.4: Case study: ‘Wave’ and ‘Weeping Window’ ............................................................................25 Box 3.5: Case study: Historic England heritage and community engagement challenges ....................27 Box 3.6: Case Study: CWGC Internship Scheme ....................................................................................30 Box 3.7: Case study: ‘Surrey in the Great War: A County Remembers’ ................................................34 Box 3.8: First World War Engagement Centres .....................................................................................35 Box 3.9: ‘The Forgotten Heroes: Africans in the First World War’ ........................................................39 Box 3.10: Wider International Dimension .............................................................................................40 Box 4.1: FWCC Programme ‘Theory of Change’ Outcomes and Impacts ..............................................44 Box 5.1: Summary – Key Lessons from the FWW Centenary Programme for the Future ....................53 Glossary of Terms 14-18 NOW Commemorative Arts/Culture Projects Commissioning Body AHRC Arts and Humanities Research Council BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BME Black and Minority Ethnic individuals CWGC Commonwealth War Graves Commission DCMS Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport DfE Department for Education FCO Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ecology of public Organisations that DCMS worked with during the FWW Centenary. This and civil society included the IWM, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Commonwealth organisations War Graves Commission, 14-18 NOW and Historic England. FWW First World War FWWC First World War Centenary HMG Her Majesty’s Government IoE Institute of Education at University College London IWM Imperial War Museums IWM Centenary Group of organisations that worked in partnership with the IWM to access Partnership branding logos, advice on events, networking, access to IWM archives, etc MHCLG Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government MOD Ministry of Defence NCS National Citizen Service Trust NLHF National Lottery Heritage Fund The Fund National Lottery Heritage Fund UCL University College London WCIA Welsh Centre for International Affairs Executive Summary Executive Summary 1. Introduction The aim of this study, as defined by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), was to provide an overarching evaluation of the First World War Centenary (FWWC) Programme that could help to communicate the vision of the programme and how the range of partner projects worked together to achieve its overall aims. More specifically, the aims of the evaluation were to: • Provide a synthesis of evidence from all major delivery partner project evaluations and research; • Inform the delivery of similar future events, including partnership working across different organisations; • Provide a national picture of awareness, attitudes and engagement from survey data and other evidence; and • To engage with stakeholders and key project leads on the delivery of projects, on the impacts achieved and delivery mechanisms implemented, providing insights and lessons learnt. The First World War (FWW) has been commemorated in the UK over the years in many different ways, ranging from local community activities to major ceremonial events at the national level. However, the FWWC Programme was different in its ambition and scale, and was among the first, if not the first, truly national commemoration programme that went beyond a focus on the armed forces and veterans and sought to engage with the nation as a whole. The FWWC Programme sought to enable all people from across the UK to engage in FWW commemorations through a wide range of events and activities, thereby maximising interest and engagement. 2. Methodological Approach The research for this study involved a review of existing evaluations, reports and monitoring data made available by the organisations described by the DCMS’ Select Committee as a ‘broad ecology of public and civil society organisations’1 that worked alongside the DCMS.2 This information was analysed to extract information on projects and their outcomes, and to obtain views on key issues. In addition, a total of 30 interviews were conducted with Government Departments and organisations making up the ‘broad ecology’, academics and others. In addition, an online survey was undertaken of organisations that subscribed to the IWM Centenary Partnership membership newsletter. Data from the DCMS Taking Part survey and the British Future surveys was analysed to examine public attitudes towards the FWWC Programme and how these attitudes changed