Our Letter to Neil Gray MSP, Minister for Culture

Culture Counts wrote to Neil Gray MSP on Tuesday 9 February 2022. We congratulated the Minister on his appointment as Minister for Culture, Europe, and International Relations. Our letter was an introduction to the Culture Counts project and brought attention to some of the collective issues facing the sector.

Read the letter in full below. To reduce energy consumption, please only download the PDF if you have to.


Dear Minister,

Congratulations on your appointment as Minster for Culture, Europe, and International Relations. I am writing to you to introduce the Culture Counts project and to bring to your attention some of the major collective issues facing the sector in the short, medium, and long-term. I have attached the mission and values of the Culture Counts project, please refer to Appendix 1.

Culture Counts was set up in 2011 to promote the social, health and economic benefits of the sector. Since its inception, the value of the sector has been better understood by policy makers. Culture now has its own Outcome in the Scottish Governments National Performance Framework; in 2019 Culture was written into the Scottish Planning Bill and the Culture Strategy for Scotland (which helps us to communicate cultural value in policy terms) was published in 2020.

Short to medium-term issues

Covid Recovery

The culture sector provides people with a range of opportunities for connection and belonging. Our sector brings the motivation to get out of the house and connect with others, wither it’s a trip to a local gallery or museum, joining a choir or attending a festival.

Social isolation and loneliness are risk factors for poor mental and physical health1. A study2 highlights isolation as one of the main risk factors that worsen pre-existing conditions, comparable to smoking. Research has found that feeling lonely, being physically isolated or living alone were each associated with a risk of early death.


Investment in recovery

Investment in the wider culture sector during the Covid-19 crises has been significant and the support of Government for this precarious sector has been appreciated. However, the habits of the public have changed and there is going to be serious work required to encourage some people back out of the house.

Across museums, galleries, visitor attractions, cinemas, music venues and theater; audiences are not what they were, and it will take time for the wider public to regain confidence and to get back into normal healthy habits. Future support from the Scottish Government including public campaigns, positive messaging, and the provision of a financial bridge (until audiences are restored) are vital measures towards sector recovery.

The continued free availability of Lateral Flow tests is crucial for safety of those working in the performing arts, including those working in participatory settings were felt to be better mitigation than voluntary mask-wearing. Given the financial circumstances of most performers, budgeting to purchase lateral flow tests would be financially restrictive.


Inflation

The Culture Counts project monitor the budget spend for the sector and there is a worrying decline in real-terms funding for the arts. The Creative Scotland and Other Arts budget line is in 2022/23 showing an 11.8% cut in comparison to 2018/19. This is similar to the National Performing Companies who are showing a 10.2% cut in 2022/23 in comparison to 2018/19. Please refer to Appendix 2.

This is taking place at the same time as local authorities slash culture budgets across Scotland. A 2020 report from Audit Scotland shows that spend on culture and related services has reduced 13.8% since 2013/14, while demand for services has increased. The Audit Scotland Accounts Commission has repeatedly reported on the importance multi-year financial settlements to enable long-term financial planning. Please refer to Appendix 3.

Inflation is rising, which is making everything more expensive, and the remit of the sector continues to expand. For example, The Scottish Government can at any time expand the remit of both Creative Scotland and the National Companies; asking for more outcomes to be achieved, while implementing stand-still budgets, which are a real-terms cut. If we continue this pattern, it is simply a race to the bottom, and targets such as Fair Work will become unattainable.


SNP Manifesto Commitments

The SNP Manifesto committed to agree minimum 3-year funding settlements for Scottish Government core funded cultural organisations.

Three-year (ideally five-year) funding settlements allow cultural organisations to enter into partnership agreements with other funding agencies, bringing more funding into the sector. Anything less than a 3-year agreement minimises significantly the opportunity to secure partnership work, keeping the work of the sector time-limited, less strategic, and more precarious for the workforce.

Confirming a three to five-year funding settlement for the sector would be a significant step in the right direction for enabling sector sustainability, though it must include inflation. Inflation over the past five years has been recorded as anywhere between 0.8% and 4.8% (an average of 2.4% annually). To ensure an agreement provides sustainability as well as affordability the final figures should factor in no less than a 2% increase each year annually from 2022 to 2027. This would secure the future for the sector and protect it from falling behand again.

Another manifesto commitment from the 2021 manifesto was to introduce a Percentage for the Arts scheme which will create a requirement for a percentage of the overall cost of a construction project for new public buildings, places, or spaces to be spent on community art commissions. The manifesto outlined that the new Government would consult on initial percentages of 0.5% for projects under  5 million and 1% for those over  5 million capped at  1 million for any individual project; and estimated this would raise  150 million per year for the arts once fully up and running.

As I understand it, initially the hope was to establish the percentage for the arts scheme as part of the National Planning Framework Four secondary legislation; however, it transpired that this route would not be compatible with existing planning laws. As such the scheme may have to be brought into being by another route.

There are percentage for arts schemes, drawn from public infrastructure projects across the world, including Jersey, Ireland, and Finland. Culture Counts are working on a short study into how the schemes where established and we will share our findings with you as soon as we can. It is important to note that Culture Counts supports a percentage for arts scheme for the purpose of arts activity and not specially for the commissioning of public art, which would be too narrow a focus.


Culture Strategy for Scotland

The Culture Strategy for Scotland was published in February 2020; Over the past twelve months I’ve heard that there was consideration of a re-fresh of the Culture Strategy, due to Covid-19. Having discussed the idea of a refresh with members, the consensus is that this would stall progress.

Due to Brexit and Covid-19 the sector has been dealing with the impact of uncertainty for over five full years. That’s five years of constant hurdles, strategic, legal and operational changes. Many are suffering from burnout. Few people can remember what working in the culture sector was even like pre-2016!

Large institutions make strategic decisions based on the Culture Strategy for Scotland; if there is uncertainty about the strategy, work across the sector will likely stall until a definitive decision has been made around direction. The Culture Counts position is that the Government should continue

with the strategy in its current form. No strategy is or will be perfect. This however does not stop us from taking stalk of what Covid-19 has done to our sector and consulting on the steps that we need to take to recover and rebuild.

Furthermore, there are key actions within the Culture Strategy for Scotland, that if prioritised, could support the process of sector recovery, including:

  • Cross-government policy compacts embedding culture at the centre of policymaking

  • Partnerships with other government agencies and public bodies to support economic growth

  • Ways to show how heritage and culture can transform public thinking to transition to a net zero society and economy in tackling the climate emergency


Community Access to Community Spaces

Prior to Covid-19 many community groups regularly hired rooms within school buildings. Schools have become available only to students and teachers, which is forcing the third sector to hire hotel conference rooms and privately owned sports facilities. This does not work for the small margin budget that community groups must work with, and people are keen to know when schools access will open again. This issue is particularly difficult for those living in rural areas and in the islands, where the school is often the only space to hire.

In recent years schools have been designed and built as community hubs, to encompass the school, the library, the theatre, and the community centre. Community hubs and schools host a huge variety of creative activity; community music and drama rehearsals, professional performances, film screenings and teaching, that is unable to return and provide the vital role that arts play in these communities.

Culture Counts recently wrote to your predecessor Ms Jenny Gilruth as to the issue of Community Space (enclosed Appendix 4). Omicron delayed action being taken on this issue, though the issue continues to be a problem across Scotland, and I hope we may be able to discuss potential changes to current school guidelines as soon as possible.


Long-term

Consultation and Process

There have been significant changes to Scottish Government consultation timelines, which have happened due to the impact of Covid-19. For example, most Scottish Government consultation periods post-covid would have been around twelve-weeks.

Managing Covid-19 required a fast turn-around of information and so civil servants were forced to build networks quickly, and to send out draft proposals, which sometimes required feedback on the same day. This created a situation where in order to influence the decision-making to ensure accuracy, stakeholders would have to have been able to drop all other work commitments and prioritise the consultation (with no time to check-in with further stakeholders to confirm views). All this was taking place against a background of closed schools, and no access to furlough, education, or childcare for

most in the sector. This created a very high stakes and stressful situation and created polices that are ultimately not fit for purpose, which we’re still dealing with legacy of today.

For example:

  • Different rules across the four nations

  • Different and sometimes conflicting with national rules across 32 local authorities

  • Continuation of fast-policymaking with short-deadlines and minimal stakeholders

  • Public and audience confusion about what the rules are

  • Some public fear of attending cultural events

  • The view that involvement in art, heritage, screen, and creative industries are not a necessary part of life (generally viewed as optional, additional).

  • Private company and third-sector fears of being sued for mis-interpreting the rules (mostly related to those who operate third sector buildings)

  • Closed spaces for culture including community centers, and access to school and community halls outside of school hours

*This list doesn’t include all of the issues related to Brexit that the sector is also dealing with*

Those working in the culture sector continue to be very aware that they may be targeted for closure at any-time, with no information about support at the time closure, or clear evidence to back up decision-making.

Scottish Government are currently consulting on a revised strategic framework. Consultation questions were communicated on the 17th of January with responses due back on the 21st of January. Five days! As outlined above it is understandable that timescales are short in an emergency, though why does the Scottish Government Strategic Framework need to be completed at this speed? Given that many decisions may be made using the framework for the future, should we not take the time to get this right?

It is my view that we will not be able to rebuild the culture sector in Scotland, if we are asking people to consider big questions, consult their own stakeholders and have it all packaged up and delivered back to the government within five days. I do not see the need for the Scottish Governments revised strategic framework to have this tight a turn-around.

It is my view that we desperately need to slow down and take due time to consider the impact of policy and to ensure the principles of good policy design. All consultations should have a minimum consultation period of twelve-weeks unless it is a genuine emergency.

Culture Counts are members of the Design Justice Network and are signed up to the Principles of Design Justice. Appendix 5.


Practicalities of Social and Economic Value Recognition

Although the understanding of the value of the sector has improved in recent years there is still a long way to go, particularly to re-balance the instances where the sector has been overlooked in the past, which have been written into legislation or guidance. For example:

  • Community Empowerment Act 2015, Page 120

Schedule 1 Community Planning Partners. Arts and creative industries are omitted. Sports Scotland are listed, Creative Scotland are not. This has an impact on what people view relevant consultees to look like.

  • NHS Five Ways to Wellbeing

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/five-steps-to-mental-wellbeing/ The NHS Five Steps to Wellbeing manages to almost omit the arts, heritage, and creative industries entirely, while encouraging people to ‘connect with other people’. This is frustrating as our sector is essentially one huge opportunity for connection and belonging! And there is a vast amount of clear evidence of the impact of the arts on health and wellbeing.4

There is unfortunately no shortage of examples of where culture and the benefits and value of the sector have been overlooked, however this problem is recognised within the Culture Strategy for Scotland, and there are actions within the strategy including policy compacts which seek to address this challenge.

The Culture Counts project will continue to communicate the value of the sector and to raise awareness as to the benefits of cultural participation and we look forward to working with you and your team.

If you would like to arrange to meet the project Steering Group and I, we would be happy to discuss any of the issues in this letter, at a time that suits you.

Yours sincerely,

Jennifer Hunter

Director
Culture Counts

  1. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30230-0/fulltext

  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3625264/

  3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25910392/

  4. https://www.euro.who.int/en/publications/abstracts/what-is-the-evidence-on-the-role-of-the-arts-in-improving-health-and-well-being-a-scoping-review-2019