The Family Factor

By Catherine Rose (East England Arts 2002, ISBN 0-9523278-5-6 £12.50 [£15.34 inc p&p])

The Family Factor offers a guide for venues who wish to improve their family friendliness by reporting on a pilot initiative conducted across six performing and visual arts venues in East England. It is full of valuable practical hints and tips, particularly in the section on “improving the physical environment of your venue” and the appendices that point you in the direction of further reading and funding sources. Whether it’s getting to grips with children’s potties (yes, literally) or re-thinking your health and safety policy (”are there scissors around they can pick up?”), the guide shares a wide range of issues identified by the pilot, saving the uninitiated from having to start from scratch.

The primary downside to this publication is that the pilot focuses on venues and therefore it offers less of relevance for non building-based companies, where many of the issues identified will be outside their control. At just 54 pages, however, it is an easy cover-to-cover read, with clear sections that also make it easy to dip in and out.

And if you’re not convinced about the significance of family friendliness, Mark Hazell sums it up: “25% of households are one-person households, and there is a growing level of people over 60. That doesn’t alter the fact the family make up the bulk of the UK population. In looking for marketing opportunities, we are in danger of overlooking the one that’s staring us in the face.”

Review by Debbie Richards, freelance consultant

SAM's Books compiles the Bookshop section of Arts Professional magazine, and used to compile Bookshop in its predecessor, Arts Business. This review has appeared in Arts Professional or Arts Business. It gives a longer and more personal description of the book than appears in the booklists.