News and Policy brief - April 2010
Policy Briefing from the Crafts Council for April 2010
1. Election campaign
The Labour manifesto has just been published and includes policies to give the national museums operational independence (following the same promise from the Conservatives), and to investigate ways of increasing the support for philanthropy. The section on the Creative Industries begins with an acknowledgement of the breadth of the sector, mentioning fashion and design alongside new media, although the specific policies set out in this section all relate to the media and broadcasting.
We reported on the Conservative and Liberal Democrat cultural policies in the March briefing including the Conservatives’ policy for the arts. The Conservative election manifesto, published this week, reiterates the party’s commitment to returning the National Lottery to its original four good causes, in the context of the idea of the “big society”. It also acknowledges the importance of the creative industries and includes a commitment to extending superfast broadband. And culture also gets a mention under foreign policy – with reference to strengthening relationships beyond those with Europe and the US. But there is no specific section on the arts or culture.
Ahead of the formal announcement of the general election, a number of culture sector campaign groups and other organisations took the opportunity to publish their own policy papers and manifestos, setting out their vision for the sector.
Cultural Capital: A Manifesto for the Future was launched at the British Museum on 25 March. It was endorsed by all the leading arts and heritage organisations including Arts Council England, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the leading museum bodies. It aims to demonstrate how investing in culture and heritage can help the country’s social and economic recovery from recession. It offers a barrage of statistics to demonstrate the scale and reach of cultural activity and the economic role the cultural sector can play by offering work, learning, training and social engagement, as well as sustaining the commercial creative industries. The publication also argues that a vibrant cultural sector is essential to the success of the London Olympics in 2012.
Cultural Capital argues that the arts should be exempt from public spending cuts because they have already suffered from the diversion of National Lottery funds to the Olympics. However, the manifesto – perhaps because it aims to cover the whole of the cultural sector – makes no specific requests of the political parties. You can read the full manifesto here
On 23rd March, Arts & Business (A&B) published a consultation version of a new policy, Private Sector Policy for the Arts, to coincide with the election campaign. A&B intends to publish a final version of the policy document to the new government later this year. The report makes five priority recommendations:
1. A new matching grant scheme to stimulate business sponsorship of the arts, supported by National Lottery investment
2. A new challenge fund scheme to encourage individual giving, to be supported by Alec Reed, the philanthropist behind the Big Give initiative
3. A legacy campaign for the arts, encouraging arts organisations to begin legacy programmes with their members.
4. A campaign to promote giving from financial institutions in the city
5. Tax reforms, starting by encouraging organisations to make better use of existing Gift Aid provisions, and followed by a campaign for changes to the tax regime to further encourage giving. You can read the full report by Arts and Business here
Also in March, the Adam Smith Institute published a briefing paper on arts funding which argued that government funding for the arts should be replaced by a voucher system, which enabled individuals to choose to attend an arts event or institution. While it is easy for anyone who knows the sector to see the flaws in this argument, the paper does offer a reminder that not everyone who works in public policy accepts the arguments for public support for arts and culture. You can read the full paper at the Adam Smith Institute website
2. Legislation update
At the end of the parliamentary session, two pieces of legislation that may be of interest to some in the craft sector made it through their final stages and received Royal Assent. The Digital Economy Act was controversially rushed through the House of Commons, with a number of MPs protesting that it had not received adequate scrutiny. Its provisions include the power to close down websites which have led to copyright infringement, or have the potential to do so – a measure aimed at illegal file-sharing websites, but with potentially greater reach. However, the amendment supported by the museum sector to allow the reproduction of “orphan works” (that is, works whose originator cannot be traced), was not passed.
The Equality Act combines all previous equality legislation and adds some new provisions. It permits positive discrimination to combat existing inequality in a workplace for the first time (so, for example, a primary school with an all-female staff would be able to favour a male applicant over equally well-qualified female applicants for a teaching post). It also places a duty on public sector bodies to have regard to socio-economic inequalities in their strategic decision-making. This has the potential, over time, to shape the way that local authorities and other funding bodies determine the nature of their arts provision.
3. Budget
The Budget statement included an announcement of £60m of efficiency savings from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). These will mostly be achieved by savings in the bodies funded by DCMS, including cutting their back office spending and cutting marketing and communications spending. In a related development, the Treasury has published a consultation document on reform of Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs, which would include Arts Council England). Under the proposals, ALBs would no longer be allowed to spend public money on lobbying or campaigning for increased funding, and would not be allowed to engage PR or marketing consultancy without explicit permission from the Treasury.
The budget also included a measure to allow national museums easier access to their reserve funds (although the reserves come from self-generated income, they are included within overall public expenditure and subject to certain Treasury rules).
4. Higher education and further education
The controversy about the government’s plans for reform of Higher Education continued up to the point when the general election was called. A number of commentators joined the Crafts Council and others in criticising the government’s emphasis on STEM subjects within higher education, including Simon Jenkins in the Guardian who demonstrated that it is a fallacy that science subjects make a unique contribution to economic growth. The full article can be read here. And in a House of Lords debate on the Film and Television industries on 6th April, Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall, argued:
“Recent policy emphasis on the so-called STEM subjects in universities has given the unfortunate impression that less value should attach to the disciplines that come under what we might call the creative umbrella. That is a false and unhelpful distinction. Our creative industries are among our most successful. As has been said, they need science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates to recognise the opportunities that they can offer, along with opportunities for graduates in languages, literature, music, media and business studies. Ensuring that point is reinforced when funding decisions are made by HEFCE, for example, is the Government’s responsibility.”
In a debate on teaching in the House of Lords in March, Baroness Garden of Frognall argued that the tradition of practitioners teaching in further education was being eroded by new regulations that require such practitioner-teachers to take teaching qualifications:
“There have always been inspirational teachers with few orthodox credentials—I am sure that noble Lords remember some of their own; I certainly remember some of mine—who encourage, enthuse and open opportunities to their students. Particularly in FE, there has been an invaluable infusion of practitioners who were masters of their craft or trade. Until recently they could teach without training, but now they have to fulfil a statutory requirement of in-service training. The 2002 strategy Success for All stated the intention that by 2010 all teachers and trainers should be appropriately qualified, but it went on to say: “We recognise that there may be exceptions and have no wish to drive out competent part-time teachers—particularly those combining a small amount of teaching with employment in a relevant occupation—by a heavy-handed approach to regulation”. Will the Minister say what monitoring has taken place to ensure that practitioner teachers in FE have not been driven out by regulation?”
The minister responding to the debate, Baroness Morgan, did not answer her points in her speech.
Meanwhile, a new system for supporting Further Education has come into effect in England, with two new bodies: the Skills Funding Agency to lead on post-19 further education and training, and the Young People’s Learning Agency, which will commission training provision for 16 to 19 year olds.
5. Cultural education
Just before the election campaign began, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) published A place for Culture: Developing a local culture offer for all children and young people. The paper explores how the government’s commitment to offer five hours of engagement with culture each week for children and young people could be made to work in practice. It draws lessons from the pilot projects under the Find Your Talent programme and considers how the approaches used by the pilot projects could be brought into the mainstream. It identifies a key role for local authorities in bringing together schools, extended services and cultural provision and notes: “The role of Government is not to provide culture experiences for young people but to create the conditions in which local partnerships can flourish.” (p.12). Further work on the proposals in the paper is, of course, dependent on the outcome of the General Election.
The paper identifies an important advocacy role for the Cultural Learning Alliance, which was launched in late March, with David Puttnam as its chair. It aims to promote the importance of cultural learning for children and young people and to encourage cultural organisations and learning providers to work more effectively together. The website includes personal video endorsements from artists and public figures, and is running a sign-up campaign. You can visit the Cultural Learning Alliance website here
6. Taking Part
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport commissions a large, rolling quarterly survey looking at participation in the arts, Taking Part. Headline data from the 12 months to December 2009 are available here
Arts Council England publishes occasional reports on the data, offering more detailed breakdown and analysis. Their latest report on the 2008/9 data is available here
The report shows that 11.2% of respondents went to a craft museum or gallery exhibition (excluding fairs) at least once during the year. Of those who participated in an arts activity for recreation or leisure, 16.9% participated in a craft activity, one of highest categories. 13.4% of respondents bought original crafts for themselves; this compared favourably to the data on purchase of art, with only 5.9% of respondents having bought original art. The report also includes breakdowns of participation by demographic and data on levels of satisfaction. One significant finding is that attendance and participation is highest among those who had attended or participated in the arts while they were growing up, underlining the importance of encouraging widespread engagement with the arts for children and young people.
7. Parliamentary round-up
In a written answer to a question on 22nd March Vernon Coaker, the schools minister, gave a detailed breakdown showing what proportion of children eligible for free school meals take each subject at GCSE. It is interesting to note that the disparity between the numbers of children eligible for free school meals and other children taking craft-related subjects is much lower than for many other subjects. For example, 23.8% of children eligible for free school meals take Art and Design, compared to 26.8% of other children. 6.1% of children eligible for free school meals take Textiles, compared to 6.8% of other children. For comparison, the figures for Chemistry are 4.0% compared to 12.8% and for French 13.8% compared to 25.8%. This should be of interest to anyone seeking to improve the diversity of the craft workforce. For the full breakdown, see p.125 of this document.
The House of Lords held a debate on “Culture as a Front-line service” on 18th March. The focus of the debate was the experience of Liverpool during its year as Capital of Culture on 2008, but many of the arguments deployed by peers in support of the importance of the arts will have wider relevance. For example, the Bishop of Liverpool noted:
“One of the areas I want to highlight, which is one of the reasons I sought to secure this debate, is not just to report on the economic impact of culture but to show how there is an inextricable link between good cultural services and the health and well-being of a community. Let me quote from a letter that I received from the chief executive of the NHS mental health service provider in north Merseyside, Mersey Care NHS Trust. He writes:
“It is my opinion that culture in all its forms is a more significant contributor to health and well-being than direct formal services alone””
To read the debate in full, see p.30-40 of this document
