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Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee 11 March 2021

11 Mar 2021 · S5 · Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee

Item of business

Cultural Sector (Impact of Covid-19)

Iain Munro Watch on SPTV

Your question about the unions is an important one. Part of the change that was under way for Creative Scotland pre-pandemic was about how we move to open ourselves up and engage differently and much more collaboratively with people, organisations, partners and stakeholders right across our remit. Right from the off and throughout the pandemic, we have made sure that we continue to cultivate our relationships with sector development bodies and unions, and we meet them regularly through various programmes. It is important that we have kept those channels open so that we understand what people are thinking and feeling, and what they want to feedback on and ask us about. That dialogue has been on-going. Understandably, we have had very clear feedback and engagement with the unions on concerns about the protection of jobs. We recognise that the funding makes a contribution towards an organisation’s costs, but we have not been under any illusion that, despite the scale of investment that is available, it is not able to address 100 per cent of the needs of many of the organisations that will benefit from that support. That is particularly the case in the performing arts, where the fragility of the business model has been exposed in terms of its heavy reliance on earned income as a major component. That was good pre-pandemic or outwith pandemic times but, when the pandemic hit, the challenge—the cliff edge that has been referred to—for many organisations was revealed. In our regular funding of 121 organisations, we are a contributor to the overall costs of those organisations. Our regular funding on average—it varies by organisation, of course—is about 25 per cent of an organisation’s overall turnover. In running the hardship funds, we are doing our very best to make meaningful contributions that will explicitly enable the protection of jobs and the prevention of insolvency, particularly in the performing arts venues relief fund. The third dimension of that fund was that it invited organisations to provide ways of sustaining opportunities for freelancers and the commissioning of work. The performing arts venues relief fund was rolled out from last August and September. We built into it reporting from the organisations. We had some interim results in January; the full results will come in April, as the value of that investment runs out at the end of March. We will also get results from the culture organisations and venues recovery fund in April. I can tell you the interim results and what the projected results are, but it is important to understand that, in channelling that funding, we have done our best to be clear about its purposes and its requirements, but also to say that we are not shadow directors for any of the organisations. The organisations themselves take decisions independently for the businesses that they run in order to ensure that they have a viable long-term future. We have tried to afford organisations as much opportunity as possible to protect jobs and prevent insolvency with the support we have provided—and it is only a contribution—but, because of business decisions, that support will not necessarily ensure that every single job is protected. So far, insolvency has been prevented but, as the pandemic goes on longer and unless there is further support, a number of organisations are ultimately at risk. For completeness, the interim results that we got back show that, up until January, nearly 1,000 jobs have been saved and just over 2,000 freelance commissions have been made available through the performing arts venues relief fund of £12.5 million. We will get the first returns from the culture organisations and venues recovery fund in April, but the value of that funding runs out at the end of March. In the organisations that have been supported through that fund, the projection is that nearly 2,500 jobs will have been protected. The figure for freelance commissions is projected to be 2,400. Significant numbers of jobs and commissions are in play here, but I do not underestimate at all that, on an individual level, some people working in those organisations feel at risk in some way. We are trying to protect every single job, but we cannot guarantee that we can do that.

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Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee 11 March 2021

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