Core members event: Panel discussion on Scottish Budget
On 9 December 2024, Culture Counts hosted an online event for core members, which included a panel discussion titled: ‘Now’ - insight into the Scotland budget announcement, and its implications for culture.
The note below captures key themes from the discussion, which was chaired by Moira Jeffrey (Director, SCAN) with Kirsten Hogg (Head of Policy and Research, SCVO) and Graeme Cumming (Chief Operating Officer, V&A Dundee).
The complex and interlinked nature of Scotland’s cultural ecosystem (and wider third sector) means that the impacts of the budget, both positive and negative, are extremely nuanced, and are being felt differently by different parts of the sector.
The headline funding uplift is a clear step forward, following a number of challenging years. Specifically, it brings:
£20mil uplift to Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding Budget,
£4.5 million for Scotland’s National Collections,
£1 million for National Performing Companies,
An increase of £4 million funding for Festivals - doubling the EXPO Festival Fund,
£2 million for Screen Scotland,
£4 million to restart the Culture Collective program,
£270,000 to enable the creation of a single digital library interface,
£4 million for a new Scottish Culture & Heritage Capacity Fund.
This nuance is especially true for the wider third/voluntary sector
The broad direction of travel in terms of policy, particularly in terms of social security policy and aspirations has been well received, and was better than many expected.
Material changes, in terms of funding and policy often happen at a departmental level, therefore many impacts of the budget remain to be seen or understood.
While this budget contained a headline uplift for culture, much remains unclear in terms of the detail of subsequent policy and spending decisions. For example, there is not yet sufficient detail to provide clarity on a number of SCVO asks in relation to fair funding:
Longer-term funding of three years or more;
Flexible, unrestricted core funding, which enables organisations to provide security, plan effectively, and fulfil good governance requirements;
Sustainable funding that includes inflation-based uplifts and full costs, including core operating costs;
Funding that accommodates paying staff at least the Real Living Wage and pay uplifts for voluntary sector staff on par with those offered in the public sector;
Accessible, streamlined, proportionate, and consistent approaches to applications and reporting, timely processing and payments, and partnership between the grant-maker and grant-holder; and
A comprehensive and proportionate approach to financial transparency around grant funding to support organisations and the public to understand spending decisions.
That nuanced picture is compounded by ongoing cost pressures
For some, the impact of changes to Employer National Insurance Rates will be a source of new cost pressures.
Changes to employer NICS in the Westminster budget this year will impact the overall payroll costs of many, including cultural organisations:
Most organisations with between 6 and 10 paid staff will likely see their total payroll costs increase by around 1-2%;
Organisations with more than 10 paid staff will likely see their total payroll costs increase by 2-4%;
An SCVO briefing finds that: There will be a disproportionate impact on sector employers with a large part-time workforce on lower wages.
Local Authorities continue to face significant financial pressures. Dundee City Council, for example, are consulting on potential cuts, which could pose serious risk to some of the city’s cultural institutions.
The influence of macroeconomic factors continues to be felt, such as:
Changes to household spending habits;
The Real Living Wage has risen by 5%;
Increasing focus on the Living Pension Standard may cause a rise in pension costs.
Cultural organisations fulfil a broad role within society, the value of which is multi-faceted and can be difficult to capture and articulate. But recent years have seen improvements; both in understanding of the culture sector at a political level, and in members of the public demonstrating their support for culture, and its importance in national life.
The V&A has welcomed over 2m visitors since opening its doors. In a city of 150,000, its role includes a clear visitor, tourism and cultural element.
In addition, delivering targeted work with groups including, those with Alzheimer's, refugees, those who’ve experienced adverse childhood experiences and those excluded from employment,
This activity all forms part of a role driving economic regeneration and opportunities for success in an area with a history of deprivation.
Many third sector organisations, (including cultural organisations) find that demand for their services can fluctuate depending of levels of need, with those levels of need often being driven by external factors, such as (un)availability of public services and factors posing challenges to individuals/households and their living standards.
There is a low level of understanding of the voluntary sector as an employer, which therefore makes improving aspects such as Fair Work more challenging.
18,000 members of the public backed a petition calling for a funding uplift for culture this year. Public support and engagement with this issue has grown in the last three years.
Through ongoing efforts, such as Holyrood Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee’s annual pre-budget scrutiny, political understanding of arts and culture – its value, operating context and challenges – has never been higher.
Links shared:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2025-2026/documents
https://scvo.scot/p/95554/2024/12/05/scottish-budget-glimmers-of-hope-amid-financial-hopelessness
https://www.gov.scot/news/increased-funding-for-arts-and-culture
https://scvo.scot/policy/fair-funding-procurement/fair-funding
https://scvo.scot/policy/transforming-the-economy/ni-changes
https://scvo.scot/policy/transforming-the-economy/fair-work