The Theatre Peckham Manifesto

The Theatre Peckham Manifesto: Building Belonging

What hyperlocal theatres can contribute to young people’s confidence, creativity and opportunity

The proposition: Young people need somewhere to go, something meaningful to do and routes that allow their talent to grow.

Executive summary

For forty years, Theatre Peckham has worked with children, young people, early-career artists and families in Peckham and the surrounding area. That experience shows what a trusted, locally rooted theatre can contribute to creativity, confidence, belonging and opportunity.

In 2025/26, we defined the Theatre Peckham Model. It is our distinctive approach to developing talent, guiding children, young people and early-career artists from first participation to professional opportunity. Through a connected model of training, development and new work, we champion new voices and help shape a more inclusive creative sector.

The model is one part of a wider case. Hyperlocal theatres provide accessible places where young people can spend time, form relationships, encounter trusted adults, develop their interests and participate in the life of their community. Some will progress towards creative careers. Many will take the confidence, communication, collaboration and resilience developed through creative participation into other parts of their lives including in developing vital skills that will help them later in the world of work.

This contribution is often made with limited resources. The impact of hyperlocal theatres is not always fully understood, so they can fall between cultural, youth, education and skills policy. Funding can support buildings, productions or short projects while overlooking the people, relationships and organisational capacity that sustain participation and progression over time.

We ask Government to take three practical steps:

Apply a ‘Somewhere to Go’ test, with progression built in. Every local youth offer should provide affordable, high-quality places beyond the school day and show how young people can develop their interests over time.
Fund trusted local cultural organisations for the long term. Multi-year revenue funding should support the people, programmes, access costs and capacity that make consistent participation possible.
Recognise creative talent pathways. Youth, skills and cultural policy should connect first participation, training, development and new work to further education, employment and professional opportunity.

A place to belong

The hours beyond the school day matter. They are where young people form friendships, encounter trusted adults, discover interests and learn how to contribute to a group. Yet affordable, welcoming places have become harder to find and, in some communities, harder to reach.

The growth of digital life is only part of the story. When accessible alternatives are scarce, the online world naturally occupies more space. Protecting children online is essential, but it cannot by itself create confidence, aspiration or belonging. Those qualities grow through repeated face-to-face experiences in which young people are known, challenged and supported.

A place to go is therefore essential, but it is not the whole answer. What happens in that place matters. High-quality activity can help a young person discover an interest, develop a discipline, take creative risks and, where they choose, follow a route into further opportunity. Public policy should value both access and progression.

The Theatre Peckham Model

The Theatre Peckham Model is our distinctive approach to developing talent. It guides children, young people and early-career artists from first participation to professional opportunity through three connected elements: training, development and new work.

Training

Accessible, high-quality creative training gives children and young people the chance to discover and develop their abilities. Sustained participation allows skills, confidence and relationships to deepen over months and years rather than ending with a single project. Collaborations develop communication, leadership and problem-solving skills, essential strengths which young people can take into their education and the world of work.

Development

As participants grow, development opportunities help them extend their practice, understand the creative sector and take increasing responsibility. The pathway continues into support for young people and early-career artists who want to pursue further training, employment or leadership.

New work

New work gives developing talent a serious artistic context. It creates opportunities for new voices to be heard, for participants to learn within a working theatre and for audiences to encounter stories that better reflect the communities the theatre serves.

The value lies in the connection between these elements. Theatre Peckham is not only somewhere to go. It can be a route to somewhere. Not every participant will seek a career in the creative industries, but the presence of a visible pathway raises expectations and makes professional opportunity more accessible to those who do.

This model is rooted in Theatre Peckham’s particular history, community and artistic practice. It is not presented as a single blueprint for every organisation. Its wider relevance lies in showing why sustained local institutions, clear progression and professional opportunity need to be considered together.

Why hyperlocal theatres matter

Hyperlocal theatres are close enough to communities to build trust over time. Families return, participants grow with the organisation and emerging artists can remain connected to the place where their talent was first recognised. That continuity helps organisations see potential that more distant institutions may miss.

Their contribution extends beyond access to the arts. They create regular opportunities for young people to collaborate, communicate, practise, recover from setbacks and take responsibility for a shared result. They connect families, artists, audiences, schools and community partners. They can also widen the range of people who see the creative sector as a place in which they can participate, work and lead.

The central point is simple: theatres such as Theatre Peckham already provide part of the solution to challenges the Government wants to address. They contribute to youth opportunity, skills, confidence, community connection and a more inclusive creative economy. They should be understood and funded as both cultural organisations and part of the social infrastructure of their communities.

Where current policy can help

Government policy now recognises the importance of trusted adults, places to go, enriching activity and decisions shaped closer to communities. And, following the interim report of Alan Milburn’s Young People and Work review, Andy Burnham has highlighted his commitment to making sure young people develop skills to enhance their employability in the changing workplace. The Youth Matters Fund provides up to £416.8 million for long-term change in youth provision in around 60 places, including revenue funding for expanded or new youth work and enriching activities. Its guidance includes youth-work-led arts and cultural interventions.

Every Child Can adds £132.5 million for enrichment in schools and communities, including weekend and holiday activity. These commitments create an opportunity to make sure independent community cultural organisations are not treated only as occasional suppliers or expected to sustain long-term relationships through short-term project funding.

The 2024 Youth Theatre Census gives a sense of both scale and constraint: 414 youth theatres working with 100,883 young people, with an estimated combined annual turnover of £23.3 million. The organisations are not interchangeable, but the figures suggest a substantial body of local experience operating with limited resources.

A gap remains between access, enrichment and progression. Youth policy can create places to go without ensuring that interests can be developed over time. Cultural policy can support artistic work without meeting the full cost of access, pastoral support and sustained local relationships. Skills policy can focus on employment without investing in the early experiences through which talent is discovered. Better coordination would allow existing organisations to contribute more effectively.

Three practical asks

1. Apply a ‘Somewhere to Go’ test, with progression built in

DCMS and the Department for Education should require youth and enrichment investment to answer two connected questions: can young people in each funded place access at least one affordable, high-quality and sustained opportunity beyond the school day, and can those who want to develop their interests see a credible next step?

Local plans should:

map existing provision and identify gaps by neighbourhood and by groups facing barriers;
address fees, travel, food, disability access and other practical costs of participation;
value regular participation and trusted relationships, not only one-off reach;
identify routes into further training, volunteering, leadership and employment where relevant; and
involve young people in judging whether the local offer is accessible, worthwhile and connected.

2. Fund trusted local cultural organisations for the long term

The Youth Matters Fund, Every Child Can, Arts Council England investment and related local commissioning should provide explicit routes to multi-year revenue funding for community-based cultural organisations with strong artistic practice, safeguarding, local relationships and meaningful youth voice.

Funding should support the real costs of continuity:

skilled practitioners, artist development and the creation of new work;
safeguarding, pastoral support and organisational capacity;
free and subsidised places, travel and other access costs;
partnerships with schools, youth services, local authorities and community organisations; and
proportionate learning and evaluation.

Strategic Authorities, Combined Authorities and local authorities should also recognise trusted cultural organisations within youth, skills, prevention, employment and place strategies. Capital creates spaces, but skilled people, artistic work and reliable programmes turn those spaces into opportunities.

3. Recognise creative talent pathways

Government guidance should recognise that creative opportunity develops through a pathway. First participation, sustained training, artist development, new work and professional opportunity are connected stages, not separate policy concerns.

DCMS, the Department for Education and Arts Council England should fund clear routes from local participation into further training and paid creative work. This should include partnerships between locally rooted theatres, colleges, drama schools, larger cultural organisations and creative employers, offering mentoring, placements, commissions and jobs.

Government should also fund a simple, shared approach to measuring whether these routes work. It should track who participates, who progresses and what young people and artists say has changed. Small organisations should contribute to this evidence but should not have to design or fund the system themselves.

Part of the solution

Theatre Peckham believes strongly in the case set out in this manifesto. Our current resources are fully committed to delivering for children, young people, early-career artists and families in our local community. However, our funding is already so stretched we simply do not presently have the capacity to develop these proposals further or build a wider programme around them.

We would welcome conversations with government, funding bodies and sector partners about investment that would allow us to increase our capacity, develop and test the ideas, strengthen the evidence and explore appropriate partnerships. Any further role would need to be clearly defined and properly resourced so that it strengthens, rather than displaces, Theatre Peckham’s local work.

The wider case does not depend on Theatre Peckham leading a national campaign. It asks policymakers and funders to recognise what organisations of this kind already contribute, invest in their capacity and connect locally developed talent to wider opportunity.

Conclusion

Young people need places where they can belong, create and be taken seriously. They also need routes that allow interests and abilities to develop over time. Somewhere to go is the starting point. The possibility of going somewhere is what turns access into opportunity.

Theatre Peckham’s experience offers a practical example. Its distinctive model connects training, development and new work to professional opportunity, while its wider role as a hyperlocal theatre supports confidence, relationships and community life. These are related contributions, but they are not the same thing.

Government does not need to impose one national model. It should invest in trusted local organisations, make progression visible within youth and enrichment policy, and ensure that talent developed in communities can connect to professional opportunity. That would help more young people find somewhere to belong and a route towards what comes next.

WHAT THEATRE PECKHAM OFFERS

TP Academy: weekly training for ages 3 to 16 in acting, acting for screen, musical theatre, ballet, tap, street dance, hip-hop theatre, acro, songwriting and music production.
Performance opportunities through Academy showcases and Theatre Peckham’s annual Festive Show, where young people work alongside professional artists.
Young Peckham: free training and career development for ages 17 to 29 through Originate, REP Company, Illuminate, Young Producers, Young Ambassadors and Cultural Leaders.
Professional productions and platforms for early-stage career and underrepresented artists across our Peckham and Canada Water stages, including Peckham Fringe and Young, Gifted & Black.
Creative programmes for families, schools and communities, including Imagine & Play, WE MOVE, Futureland and Positive Transitions.
Artist development through Incubate and free rehearsal space.

Together, these programmes build creativity, confidence and connection for every young person, while opening clear pathways into further training and careers in the creative industries.

Theatre Peckham: where talent meets opportunity

Learn more about our work in our Impact Report 2025/26

The Theatre Peckham Manifesto