Seedbed

what is seedbed?

Seedbed provides cutting-edge support, affordable loans and early stage equity designed for social ventures.

While Seedbed is an ongoing programme, we are no longing accepting new applications to the scheme.

history

Seedbed was one of ten projects in the UK funded by the Cabinet Office-backed Social Incubator Fund and was the only project of its kind in the South West at the time of inception.

The programme has been running since 2014 in cooperation with the Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs. It has helped a wide range of socially-conscious businesses, giving them the tools and resources to strengthen their business models, increase financial sustainability, service growing markets and successfully compete for tenders and contracts.

Each social venture recruited to the scheme has benefited from an £8,500 support package and had access to a £750,000 loan fund, providing tens of thousands of pounds in social finance loans and helping them to grow, create sustainable jobs and contribute to the local economy and community.

about the programme

Seedbed delivers a range tailor-made activities to help social ventures to grow.

One-to-one sessions with business coaches; small and large group activities; a variety of workshops; masterclasses; business review panels and more: all resources designed to help social ventures reach the next level.

The programme is delivered in two distinct stages, and includes:

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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.

Coaching

Everyone on the programme is assigned a skilled business coach for personal advice and guidance, coaching and information, support and contacts.

Workshops

Using a ‘learning by doing’ methodology, the whole group will come together to explore topics with our experts in interactive sessions. These are professionals, able to make complex business and development topics relevant and applicable. Participants also hear from other social entrepreneurs, who share their wealth of knowledge and experience. These are highly interactive sessions offering insights and advice from people who are further along in their entrepreneurial journey. In addition, we explore the knowledge and experience from within the group. Uncovering the wealth and capacity of everyone in the cohort and learning from each other is a hugely valuable aspect of the learning experience of Seedbed.

Action Learning Sets

Our Action Learning Sets involve working in smaller peer support groups. They offer those involved the opportunity to bring forward an issue that they are facing for reflection and clarification with the group and to review it with their peers in a confidential and safe space.

Our Action Learning Sets are professionally facilitated. Using specific questioning techniques with other members of the group, you can find a way forward and set actions to complete for the next meeting. ALS sessions are offered only to those participants who feel the sets would be of benefit.

One-to-one

In addition to the scheduled workshops and panels, you will be assigned an individual business coach who can provide guidance, reflection and support. Sessions are arranged at mutually convenient times.

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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.

Business Review Panels

Participants will be joined by a panel of entrepreneurs, business leaders and experts, who provide in-depth feedback and reflections on their venture’s business model and growth strategy.

Masterclasses

Using the principles that emerge from our witness and expert sessions, our masterclasses provide the opportunity to deepen participants’ understanding of the qualities and ingredients that help them drive their business from good to great!

Online Resources

To help ventures ready to apply to the Seedbed Funds specialist support with preparing for and completing the applications was offered as necessary. (Please note: we are no longer accepting applications to the programme.)

Following each workshop and masterclass participants have access to presentations, resources and useful links.

Cohorts

A wonderful mix of social ventures have passed through the Seedbed growth programme.

Read more about their ideas, services and products below.

year 1

Battling On CIC

Entering civilian life after being in the armed forces can be a traumatic experience moving from a highly regulated environment to the freedom of civilian life. For many this transition is a difficult and painful experience with many reporting feelings of frustration, isolation and anger. Based in Callington, Battling On CIC offers wrap around support and education and training packages.

www.battling-on.com

Battling On CIC

www.battling-on.com

Bread and Roses Community Arts Hub CIC

Bread and Roses Arts Hub focusses on the arts, music and community. Based in an historic public house in Plymouth, Bread and Roses Arts Hub is at the heart of a culturally diverse and vibrant, if challenged, community. Bread and Roses has a lively, active diverse arts and music background which aims to represent the cultural diversity of the community they serve. Their arts programme is eclectic but accessible. They continually seek to promote and introduce visual art, performance, poetry, film and original music to the community beyond the gallery scene and academy.

www.breadandrosespub.com

Community Energy Plus

Community Energy Plus (CEP) is seeking support through the Seedbed programme to set up a new social venture called Building Brighter Futures. Building Brighter Futures will take empty and dilapidated homes and renovate them to a high energy efficiency specification, creating homes that are affordable to live in. Through this venture they will work with key partners in the skills and construction sectors to offer apprenticeships, up-skilling local residents and providing routes into employment, for ex-offenders and people not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs).

www.cep.org.uk

Dontsendmeacard.com

DontSendMeACard.com is an exciting new web start up that aims to disrupt the £1.4bn greeting card industry here in the UK. The idea is to raise donations for charity by redirecting the combined cost of your greeting cards on special occasions. This is facilitated by their custom-built crowdfunding system that enables users to request that friends and family donate the equivalent cost of sending a card in lieu of sending physical cards. Alex is an Exeter based graphic designer operating under the name Future Imaging.

www.dontsendmeacard.com

Eat That Frog CIC

Eat That Frog is about motivation, in the words of Mark Twain “Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day” – apply this to life and consider all those hard tasks as frogs, once completed or “eaten” then everything else seems easy. They work with people of all ages facing barriers in their life, enabling them to overcome or cope with these. At the heart of their work is a belief in a good work ethic, for which they focus their effort in helping people to gain and sustain paid employment.

www.eatthatfrog.org

Exeter Community Initiatives

Family Resource provides high quality family support to children and families that are identified by schools and social services as needing additional support to improve behaviour and school attendance. Working in a holistic, child centred way, the service is able to tackle the underlying issues impacting on the children’s behaviour, wellbeing and school performance. Because of the approach they take and the quality of the service, they have been highly involved in the Troubled Families work in Exeter and Devon. Using the same skill base, they also deliver a weight management contract for Devon County Council as part of a consortium of local partners. Lastly, they deliver a range of evidence based parenting courses and teacher training around positive behaviour management.

www.eci.org.uk

Family Advice Support Team CIC

www.familyadvicesupportteam.org.uk.

Grocycle

Grocycle is a social enterprise with an innovative solution to the problem of coffee waste. They operate one of the world’s first urban mushroom farms, where they collect tons of waste coffee grounds each year and use it to grow gourmet Oyster mushrooms. Their aim is to spread this sustainable method of food production to cities all over the world.

grocycle.com

Grow Bristol

Grow Bristol CIC is a new urban farming venture developing and demonstrating innovative and sustainable ways of growing food in the city for the benefit of all its inhabitants and the wider world. They are bringing together techniques of vertical farming, controlled-environment agriculture and aquaponics to realise integrated vegetable and fish production in city spaces not normally suited to agriculture.

www.growbristol.co.uk

Helen Clare Yoga

Helen Clare yoga provides yoga classes to children, teenagers and adults to help improve their physical health and their emotional and mental wellbeing. Based in Cornwall, Helen currently teaches yoga in primary and secondary schools where the young people not only benefit from exercise but also get time to relax.

www.helenclareyoga.com

My Care Directory

My Care Directory is a not-for-profit web based company formed for the purpose of meeting the needs of community members in need of care and those working in the care industry. Their services offer more choice and control, whilst decreasing the risks associated with the legislative and administrative processes of employing and certifying carers.

www.mycaredirectory.co.uk

One Million Steps

Ranjit has spent the last 12 years in the fields of social housing, homelessness and social justice at both front line and strategic levels. He has spent the last year volunteering for a charity at a retail and management level and spent two weeks in Belarus refurbishing parts of an orphanage for abandoned three to six year olds. Observing some of the barriers to fundraising, One Million Steps: Building a Healthier World for Giving is a platform that integrates health and fundraising as a simple package that allows users to take up challenges in a more flexible way, but importantly allows smaller community groups and charities to harness the power of community action to support their causes.

www.millionsteps.com

Plymouth Energy Community

Plymouth Energy Community seeks to develop strong partnerships with local suppliers of energy efficiency, renewable energy and heat technologies and to establish a business case for offering these to local domestic, commercial and public sector customers. This venture will increase installations of renewable technology in Plymouth whilst generating income for PEC and growing the portfolio of technologies that reputable local suppliers can offer.

www.plymouthenergycommunity.com

Soundart Radio

Lucina is artistic director of Soundart Radio, the licensed community radio station for the Totnes area, broadcasting continuously on 102.5FM and online. The station does not dictate to programme makers or listeners what radio should be, but trusts people to bring their unique selves to its mix of styles and ideas, facilitating over 100 volunteers to broadcast each week, and providing training and support. They work in partnership with other local organisations, and with other radio art projects around the world.

www.soundartradio.org.uk

South West Family Support (SWFS)

South West Family Support (SWFS) is a social enterprise and registered charity providing family support services to schools, social care and health agencies across Devon. They have existing contracts with 35 schools and worked with 214 beneficiaries over the last year. They have an existing model of family support with 3 years of outcomes evidence and strong qualitative evaluation. They also deliver evidence based programmes in parenting and overcoming anxiety and have a strong profile on local authority strategic groups, including the Early Help Board for Devon. They wish to scale up the family support service so we are working with 15 new schools and investigate the potential to expand into neighbouring areas within Cornwall and Somerset.

www.swfamilysupport.org.uk

SurfHouse St Ives

SurfHouse St Ives is a surf education centre (rather than a surf school) which focuses on the multiple benefits inherent in the surfing lifestyle, and which seeks to provide catalyst support and education to individuals, families and groups who are interested in personal development, environmental education, social enterprise, sports development, the creative industries, exchange and exploration. This includes Tassy’s SurfRATZ.

The Tanglewood Project

The Tanglewood Project engages Schools, Colleges and Community groups in the construction of individually crafted reciprocal roofed roundhouse shelters, providing outside education venues. Each group participates in gathering locally sourced natural materials, which they then process into useable and sustainable building resources.

These learning opportunities are delivered alongside an implicit agenda of; personal development, self-awareness and peer support, through facilitating; nature connection, teaching traditional rural skills and curriculum linked programmes.

www.tanglewoodproject.co.uk

Unique Voice CIC

Unique Voice CIC aims to improve children and young people’s confidence and self-esteem through drama and other creative mediums. They help to explore many complicated topics such as healthy and unhealthy relationships, the role of young carers, the different types of bullying, domestic violence and internet safety. Krystal and the team at Unique Voice believe that understanding emotions, developing social skills and having a strong awareness of potential challenges are all invaluable lessons to learn and to build strong, respectful communities.

www.uniquevoice.org

Wild Country TV

Wild Country TV is setting up the first national broadcasting service devoted exclusively to rural life. Their mission is to use the power of digital new media to raise the profile of rural affairs and give a voice to the millions of people who live and work in the British countryside. They are Britain’s biggest minority, marginalised by existing broadcasters and political leaders. Wild Country TV aims to change all that – to revolutionise British broadcasting by devoting all its output to the story of rural Britain: its environment, wildlife, economy and the communities that keep the countryside alive.

year 2

Battling On CIC

www.battling-on.com

Almond Thief Bakery

The Almond Thief Bakery specialises in slow-fermented, hearth baked sourdough loaves sold from their café in Dartington and wholesale to a range of local shops, cafes and restaurants, plus their own open and welcome café. In addition, they provide employment and training opportunities (including to disadvantaged people), but also a strong environmental conscience sourcing organic ingredients from local producers where possible, they limit waste and take surplus bread to charities.

www.thealmondthief.com

Authentis Vocational Support LLP

Authentis work in the public and private sectors delivering a bespoke holistic service focusing on all aspects of vocational, developmental and social support, tailored to the individual requirements of each customer. Authentis provide information, advice and guidance also, practical support to help individuals overcome barriers that impact on their lives and prevent them from moving forward.

www.authentis.co.uk

Bunch and Blossom

Bunch and Blossom will offer employment skills and support to vulnerable members of the community. They already produce commercial cut flowers and hold workshops in floristry, but wish to now develop a community hub where vulnerable members of the community are trained and supported back into employment.

www.thecuttinggardencompany.co.uk

Counsellors South West CIC

Contracted by the NHS to deliver psychotherapy (counselling) services across Devon since 2010, Counsellors Southwest CIC now wishes to broaden their remit to develop commercial training programmes for both individuals and organisations.
www.counsellorssouthwest.org

ETE Live Learning

Education Through Expeditions Live learning is a digital EdTech company which uses a web platform to link case study careers into primary schools. School children gain access to video podcasts from on-line mentors and can ask questions about their chosen careers.

www.ETElivelearning.org

Hestia Care at Home CIC

Hestia Care at Home CIC is a unique care provider that provides attentive, loving care and support to those who wish to remain in their homes, but who require assistance to do so. The support on offer can range from personal care, help with medication, meals, companionship, end of life care and assistance with mobility and transfers. Running alongside the actual provision of care is an intention to change the way care is viewed and to emphasise the importance of staff, the help develop pride in the care role itself.

www.hestiacareathome.co.uk

IfEveryoneCares CIC

There are nearly 200,000 Charities in the UK—yet there is nowhere that brings them together in one place so that they can be searched for by location. If Everyone Cares CIC is ready to launch Ododow™ – The Interactive Community Map which will pin-point those charities.

www.ifeveryonecares.org

Inspire Cornwall CIC

Inspire Cornwall CIC specialises in working with vulnerable adults, engaging and motivating groups of individuals so that they can develop their aspirations and reach their full potential. They do this by providing information, activities, products and services that build self-confidence, awareness and knowledge.

www.inspirecornwallcic.org.uk

Living Memories

There are over 850,000 patients in the UK with dementia. Using footage from the film archive of Greenpark Productions Ltd, Living Memories creates reminiscent resources for Dementia patients using UK social and industrial history programmes from the 1940s and 1970s.

www.living-memories.net

MBS Farming Ltd

MBS Farming Ltd will be developing a CIC to provide a care farm as part of the overall agricultural business currently being undertaken at Old Parsonage Farm on the Dartington Hall Estate. The Care Farm would closely integrate with and work alongside the farm business activities to provide therapy for depression and minor mental illness through Green Exercise, Animal Assisted therapy and Mindfulness techniques.

Moving Conflicts

Moving Conflicts offers opportunities for individuals, groups and communities to recognise, face, embody and transform conflict from being a block, to a productive relationship.

www.movingconflicts.org

Nature Workshops

Established to be part of the wakeup call on climate change and social justice, our ‘nature workshops’ project takes people out into the natural world in woods, on beaches and at sea. We help to build skills and learning about the great outdoors from ecology to woodworking, den and fire making and we do this to improve confidence and self-esteem.

www.natureworkshops.co.uk

North East Dartmoor Care

NED Care was established in 2015 to address a market failure in adult social care provision. NED care delivers flexible, responsive and person centred services of the highest quality; focus on the employment of local carers under the best possible terms and conditions; and build an engage and committed workforce to deliver excellent care services.

www.nedcare.org

Powerwood Project CIC

Powerwood CIC is the UK’s leading social venture committed to raising awareness and supporting and improving the emotional wellbeing of families and individuals living with intensity, hyper-sensitivity and super reactivity. Powerwood provides support, tools, strategies and opportunities for families and children including the brilliant Powerwood Camps.

www.powerwood.org.uk

RJWorking CIC

RJWorking provides and develops mediation and communication services in response to conflict, anti-social behaviour, disputes and crime. Their service was one of the first nationally to be awarded the Restorative Justice Council Quality Mark.

www.rjworking.co.uk

South West Intervention Services

South West Intervention Services provide alternative education for students at risk of exclusion and those that are excluded from mainstream schooling provision. They also work with children and young people who are in need of support with their social and emotional needs and who may be in, or about to leave care.

www.southwestinterventionservices.com

The Bristol Fish Project

The Bristol Fish Project is a sustainable hi-tech urban food growing project with a plan to make urban food growing accessible to all communities. Using Aquaponics, The Bristol Fish Project cultivates fish and plants together in a constructed recirculating ecosystem.

www.bristolfish.org

The Family Law Panel

The Family Law Panel provides initial free mediation and family law support. Working with only resolution members, their non-confrontational approach to family law fits in with their core ethic of parents working together to best support their children.

www.thefamilylawpanel.org

The Kings Arms

The Kings Arms is a small public house based in the fishing community of Mevagissey. In addition to the public house, The Kings Arms will develop an educational kitchen, capitalising on the local produce and traditional skills, plan to open their own brewery and are hoping to take on the local post office that closed in January and was a much needed part of the local community.

www.thekingsarmsmeva.com

The Ocean Corner

The Ocean Corner is an international social enterprise connecting people and knowledge to help protect ocean communities. They want to change the way that people see waste. Currently developing local projects in Plymouth for exhibition around the world, they work with eco-friendly materials with ocean debris to create a new range of exciting produce.

www.theoceancorner.org

Weheartfamily

Passionate about supporting new mothers, weheartfamily combines information about breastfeeding with a new product line, designed by mums for mums, allowing women to wear their own clothes and breastfeed with confidence.

www.thebshirt.clothing

Case Studies

Discover how we have helped others to grow and thrive, through a series of interview with social ventures who graduated from the Seedbed programme.

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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.

Family Advice Support Team (FAST) CIC – James Highet, Managing Director

Background

Family Advice Support Team (FAST) CIC is a social venture that offers bespoke support to meet families’ needs. They are three professionals with years of experience working in children’s services who look to share their skills in managing family challenges including behaviour support, routines, respite and more.

The founders, having spent six years working within the constraints of the Local Authority, wanted to start our own service without the constraints of government structure to work flexibly with families and partners.

Why did you join Seedbed?

“We wanted to draw upon the skills and experiences of people who had made their social venture a success. Seedbed enables both facilitators and delegates to socialise together throughout the programme.”

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

“Seedbed has helped us to gain the confidence we needed in running a business. However, more importantly, it has provided tools to help measure that we’re on the right track and that will support our decisions going forward. We would certainly recommend Seedbed to others in the future.”

What are your next steps?

“We have seen the demand for our services increase exponentially since we started. To maintain our high level of service for families, we need to recruit more staff to help us manage the current rate of referrals and we’re also looking to expand into other areas of the county.

“We are currently in the final stages of completing a lease on new, larger premises, where we intend to provide much needed support to community.”

Would you recommend Seedbed to other ventures?

“Yes, we would recommend Seedbed to other ventures.”

Dontsendmeacard.com – Alex Furness

Background

Dontsendmeacard.com allows people to send an e-card on special occasions and donate the cost of sending the card to a cause that they care about. They invited charity partners on-board, from whom users can donate to directly via the website. The core of their concept is to make better use of the millions of pounds that are spent on greeting cards annually.

Why did you join Seedbed?

“The reason behind joining Seedbed was to accelerate the business at a faster rate than we could do alone. There are a number of paths that can be taken and having this kind of support helps clarify which routes will be beneficial. It’s also a great opportunity to meet with other businesses who have been or are currently in the same position.”

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

“Seedbed has helped us to present and discuss what we are working on behind the scenes with likeminded businesses. This has helped in terms of feedback but also to have a range of input on how to further progress the venture. As an example, we are now looking for corporate partners, as it was established that large companies could utilise our system for an employee engagement initiative, which came about through Seedbed coaching and workshops.”

What are your next steps?

“We are about to launch our third iteration of the website in the run up to Christmas. The next steps will involve offering our e-card service alongside our charity partners to invite their supporters to send out Christmas e-cards, so they can give to a cause they care about.

“The focus will be on the lead up to Christmas and then we are planning to offer a solution for other occasions in 2016. Hopefully this will lead to a ‘viral engine of growth’ – asking senders of our e-cards to ask their friends to do the same, creating a follow-on effect.”

Would you recommend Seedbed to other ventures?

“Yes we would, especially if you may struggle to commit time to other accelerator programmes. The schedule fits in with operating a business and they are a pleasure to work with.”

Plymouth Learning Partnership

Background

The Plymouth Learning Partnership (formerly Plymouth Association of Primary Head Teachers (PAPH), after being in existence for 15 years, was at an exciting point in its development in 2012. Having formalised its legal status and becoming a Co-operative CIC in 2011, it is now well placed to take advantage of its social enterprise status and make the most of the opportunities through changes to education and the funding that can be accessed through new channels.

Their aim is to protect education budgets by ensuring best value for money, whilst using the profits we generate for the purposes of education. Their vision is to help to achieve the best possible education for children by ensuring that the needs and entitlements of those children are secured.

Why did you join Seedbed?

“We have grown significantly since 2012, both in terms of staff and turnover. We decided to join the Seedbed programme to ensure that our organisation is fit for purpose and ready to take on whatever the future holds.”

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

“Seedbed has enabled us to really look at what we are doing and how we work. It is also a great opportunity to learn from the experience of others.”

What are your next steps?

“The next steps are to update the business plan and associated budgets, ensuring the organisation positions itself for future success.”

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Joining fees vary depending on the type of membership you wish to take out.

Eat That Frog CIC

Background

Eat That Frog is about motivation. In the words of Mark Twain, “Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day” – apply this to life and consider all those hard tasks as frogs, once completed or “eaten” then everything else seems easy. Eat That Frog works with people of all ages facing barriers in their life, enabling them to overcome or cope with these. At the heart of their work is a belief in a good work ethic, for which they focus their effort in helping people to gain and sustain paid employment.

Why did you join Seedbed?

“In order to further our social venture, we were looking for a programme that offered a mix of support and loans to help us progress. We were looking for a programme that would help us to focus our business plan and set a direction in which to take our social venture forward. We were also incredibly interested in finding out about different funding options.”

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

“Seedbed has helped us to set out exactly what we needed to do to grow and achieve our goals. The support programme helped us to realise our unique selling points which in turned helped us to create a business proposal to grow our venture.

“Since then, we’ve grown rapidly with the launch of a new ethical recruitment agency and have opened four new centres and recruited 12 new members of staff.”

What are your next steps?

“Next steps for Eat That Frog is to continue our relationship with Seedbed and their partner, SWIG.”

What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?

“It’s a great opportunity for social ventures. If you used everything available from Seedbed, it will help you with important parts of your business.”

Unique Voice CIC

Background

Unique Voice CIC is a growing social venture who use drama and the arts as a medium to make a positive social impact. To do this, they create initiatives that enable people to learn, develop and grow in all aspects of their educational and emotional development whether that is through classroom-based learning or community campaigns.

To date, Unique Voice CIC has helped over 50,000 young people across schools and communities.

Why did you join Seedbed?

“We chose to apply to support our growth and development. We believed it was time to cultivate our business and replicate our success in other geographical areas. Seedbed would help us to consolidate our business, working towards a robust infrastructure that would support our growth.”

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

“Seedbed has helped to unlock a gateway for us to achieve our expansion and plans for growth. It’s also provided the necessary funds to grow our company alongside excellent business support and advice throughout our plans to expand.

“The loan from Seedbed means that we can grow and expand, working towards our goal of helping 100,000 young people in the area over the next three years, which is a challenging yet rewarding path.”

What are your next steps?

“Our next step is to expand our workforce to support our plans for expansion, solidify our business plan and support our growth.”

What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?

“No one knows your business better than you, however, advice and support from those dedicated to enhancing social ventures will only make your business stronger and more prepared for future growth.”

Grow Bristol

Background

Why did you join Seedbed?

We had been involved previously in the School of Social Entrepreneurs with a start-up level programme. However, we need to scale up and grow our business. Seedbed looked like a good opportunity to take on our first loan finance.

How has Seedbed helped your venture?

We felt it was important to have a loan aspect alongside support. The workshops were a huge benefit and the business coach helped us to get a business plan set up before we applied for a loan. The time spent creating a business plan proved invaluable. We certainly felt more secure and comfortable knowing there was a plan in place.

What are your next steps?

The loan aspect of the Seedbed programme helped us to complete our capital investment. Since Seedbed, we’ve been trading with positive results and plan to successfully scale up our business over the next few months. We are also striving to finish our growing system to get into a wider market.

What is your advice to ventures looking to join the Seedbed programme?

Social ventures looking to join Seedbed should assess if they are ready for the loan process. The great thing is that you know before applying through the application process that you’re either ready for the programme or you need to wait. The great thing is that there is no commitment. They help as much as you need.

partners

Contact us

Please note that we are no longer accepting applications to the Seedbed programme.

For general enquiries, please contact trust@dartington.org.