Background - Culture Funding Inquiry

In August 2024, Culture Counts submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s culture budget for 2024-25.

This blog post sets out the context for the committee’s work and its relationship to the Scottish Government Budget process, as well as our approach and aims in responding to the consultation.  

The consultation:

  • We know the culture sector is significantly “over-consulted” and have sought to design this survey with this in mind.

    All the questions contained in the survey are optional. Please feel free to provide as little or as much information as you like. Similarly, if relevant information exists elsewhere – such as in a funding evaluation document or existing research, please forward this on to us, don’t worry about re-formatting to fit the form of this survey.

    The sector’s current operating context is extremely challenging, and as such, some of the topics and questions addressed by this work are difficult. We encourage you to engage as fully as possible so we can present an accurate picture of the current status and needs of the sector to the parliamentary scrutiny process, backed up with clear and robust evidence. We have included the option to respond anonymously to enable this.

    Responses given anonymously will not be attributed in our response, and the identity of respondents will be held in strictest confidence.

    This survey is primarily for our Core Members and their wider stakeholders to enable Culture Counts to provide a collated overview – please do share this survey as appropriate.

  • This year, the CEEAC Committee are asking 3 questions to help it make recommendations to the Scottish Government ahead of its budget for 2024-25

    1. In our pre-budget report last year, the Committee described the operating environment of the culture sector as facing a “perfect storm” of long-term budget pressures, reduced income generation, and increased operating costs. How has this evolved over the last 12 months? What impact has the Budget for 2023- 24 had on the culture sector?

    2. Our report also concluded that that this crisis provides an opportunity to accelerate innovative solutions to the budgetary pressures within the sector. What progress has been made on this in the last 12 months? And at a time of limited resources, what other innovative approaches could the Scottish Government take forward to support the culture sector?

    3. The Committee called for the forthcoming refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan to provide a clear and strategic sense of how the Scottish Government is working to ensure a more sustainable future for the sector. How should the refreshed Culture Strategy Action Plan help to inform future budgetary decisions within the culture sector?

Contextual Information:

  • Pre-budget scrutiny:

    In the lead up to the budget process, many Scottish Parliament Committees undertake pre-budget scrutiny. This process allows for views and evidence to be gathered, surfacing key issues for the Scottish Government’s attention in preparation for the upcoming budget.

    At the start of this parliamentary term, the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture (CEEAC) committee agreed to take a cumulative approach to budget scrutiny, focusing on the Culture Spending Portfolio.

    Last year, this work culminated in the Committee’s report, which highlighted the “perfect storm” of factors causing significant financial pressures for the Culture sector as the Scottish Government set began the process of setting its 23-24 budget.

    (Culture Counts submitted evidence to the report, as well as producing 12 recommendations on funding for culture).

    The recommendations of the report were not reflected in the Scottish Government’s initial draft budget for 23-24, which contained a proposed 10% cut to Creative Scotland, with further cuts or standstill funding for other areas of the culture portfolio.

    A subsequent public campaign caused the Scottish Government to reverse their proposal to cut funding from Creative Scotland. Alongside widespread public and sector participation in the campaign, the evidence base created by the CEEAC’s work has been widely cited as instrumental in reversing the cut.

    Therefore, it is essential that we continue to engage as fully as possible with the process of parliamentary scrutiny through the committee’s work.

  • September/October 2023: The Scottish Government will publish its draft budget for 2024-25. The bill then enters a phase of Parliamentary Scrutiny, where the Finance Committee may propose changes to the budget.

    January/February 2024: The budget bill will be laid before parliament, setting out in detail Ministers' spending plans for the following year and accounting for comments made in the previous stage.

    The bill must pass through three stages in Parliament before becoming law: Stage 1 is a debate in the Parliament, Stage 2 is an evidence session with the Minister for Finance at the Finance Committee and Stage 3 is a further debate in the Parliament. Only Ministers may propose amendments during this process.

Key issues:

Below is a summary of some of the key issues relevant to this evidence submission:

  • Scotland’s overall economic picture is extremely challenging. High inflation and rising interest rates affect all aspects of the economy and daily life. Inflation is acutely impacting the culture sector.

    In times of low inflation, the effect of standstill in investment in many parts of the Culture Portfolio may not have been as noticeable. However, as the real terms value of Government investment sharply decreases, these long-term budget pressures are becoming more and more acute. Recent analysis by the Scottish Parliament’s Information Centre demonstrates those trends.

  • Recent research conducted on behalf of business energy supplier Uswitch found:

    A quarter of music and theatre venues (27%) are concerned they may need to close down, as more than a third (35%) of business expenses go towards energy bills.

    Three in five (60%) music venues say that energy bills are their top concern for the next year, above inflation rates and staff costs.

  • Last year, the Committee’s report reflected reduced income generation due to challenges in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic compounded by the cost-of-living crisis.

    The Audience Agency’s Spring 2023 Cultural Participation Monitor found:

    Respondents reported that overall, they are attending arts and culture less than before the pandemic

    Over 60% of respondents citing cost-of-living as slashing their ability to attend culture events, with even higher numbers expecting this to still be the case in 6-24 months' time.

  • Organisations currently in receipt of regular funding from Creative Scotland face uncertainty as the organisation moves to its new, Multi-Year Funding programme, replacing its Regular Fund, Open Fund and Targeted Fund from 2025 onwards.

    Through these funds, Creative Scotland currently supports around 350 organisations on a year-on-year basis.

    Creative Scotland have acknowledged the impact of pressures outlined above and indicated that they intend to fund recipients of the new fund on a sustainable basis.

    However, they have also indicated that due to standstill budgets and rising costs for organisations, that they anticipate funding a smaller number of organisations, making it inevitable that some of those organisations currently supported, and some new applicants, will not receive funding under the new framework.

  • Investment in culture by Local Governments is severely constrained. In the run up to last year’s budget, COSLA reported:

    If current spending plans don’t change and culture and sport services take their ‘fair share’ of the financial pressures for 2023/24, they could have to find savings of around £40m – that equates to:

    1,400 fewer library assistants

    40% reduction in library provision

    90% of spend on museums and galleries

    20% of spend on sports facilities

    Local Authority run Howden Park Centre was recently at the centre of a campaign to save the venue from closure. The campaign was ultimately successful, but funding has only been guaranteed for a further year.

    Protests have been announced in Glasgow against plans to significantly cut numbers of museum staff.

  • Freelancers are facing a number of challenges including a reduction in paid work opportunities.

    Freelancers Make Theatre Work and University of Essex’s 2023 Big Freelancer Report found:

    Financial uncertainty and underpayment were the most widely reported concerns across all career stages, regions, and sectors.

    A skills shortage in specific roles and sectors is having an impact on workplace fairness, safety, and workloads.

    The Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre Good Work Review found that:

    No Creative sub-sector performs well across all measures of good work.

    Particular challenges included the need to work for free to get a foothold into the industry; the toll of long hours in challenging work environments; a lack of agency in influencing decisions that impact working life; and a lack of time and money to participate in training that would upgrade skills and enable career progression.

  • The culture sector’s operating context has contained significant and rapidly developing issues since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Three years on, we know anecdotally that the continuing and evolving pressures and uncertainties have had significant impacts on culture workers: Health, mental health, wellbeing, and resilience.

    Similarly, widespread, and evolving challenges may have impacted confidence in the sector: Among workforce, stakeholders such as funders and partners, and audiences.

  • The Scottish Government and Creative Scotland are committed to progressing equalities, fair work and sustainability. Further implementation of these may be hindered by challenging financial circumstances – i.e:

    Lack of additional budget to provide wage rises in line with required fair work commitments and inflation, or a contraction in opportunity in order to provide wage rises.

    Lower appetite for risk in the development and commissioning of new work.

    Contraction in opportunity increasing barriers to entry or progression for those from under-represented backgrounds or with protected characteristics.

    Increased time and cash cost of green operations/activity – i.e. slow touring, retrofitting etc.

  • Cross policy applications of culture – i.e. in health, education, social justice and climate are frequently discussed by both sector and Government and cited as having widespread potential benefit, as well as being a new potential source of investment.

    In the recent SNP leadership campaign, the now-First Minister committed to:

    Recognise the value of culture and the arts across a range of policy areas – including economic growth, education, climate change and social justice.

    There is a need to identify ways to improve cross-policy connections and working and to access and secure cross-portfolio funding.

  • At the last election, the current Scottish Government’s manifesto recognised the value of culture and contained two key commitments:

    1) To agree 3-year funding settlements for Scottish Government core funded cultural organisations.

    2) To establish 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 estimates that this would raise £150million per year once fully up and running).

    The full SNP manifesto for Culture and Creativity can be found here

    Subsequent policy development, such as the International Culture Strategy and Culture Strategy Action Plan Refresh has focused on the creation of new policies without additional resource as yet being identified. With the sector already so lean, there is a risk that these policies will not have the desired impact.

Evidence

It is key that our submission is informed by relevant and credible evidence. Below we’ve included some examples of sources we may draw from. If you are aware of other research or have your own evidence to share please get in touch.

Policy PositionsJoseph PeachScottish Government, Scottish Parliament