Working in schools is no easy option for artists wanting to add to their earnings. Only those who are adequately prepared will find such work rewarding or sustainable.

As the national directory of artists and arts organizations offering educational services, artscape will now require that all those listed are committed to - and experienced in - delivering high quality work of the type expected by schools and other educational institutions.

In addition, and in accordance with Arts Council England regulations, artscape requires that all individuals named on the database must provide evidence of a Disclosure check (through the Criminal Records Bureau) that is less than one year old.

Any artist placement funded by Arts Council England demands evidence of a Disclosure check. Increasingly, the evidence is demanded in other situations too. Moreover, neither Arts Council England nor any of its funded arts organizations or agencies is permitted even to give out names of artists to work in education who do not fulfil these requirements.

In view of the above, and in order to help both artists and their prospective employers, we are requiring that all our featured artists sign up as "associates" of artscape, based on a simple "associates agreement". Full details will be published here later this month (and mailed to all members). NAWE will provide full assistance for all associates in fulfilling the requirements (e.g. processing Disclosure checks).

NAWE is grateful to Arts Council England (London office) in providing financial assistance for this new work.