News and Policy brief - March 2010
Policy Briefing from the Crafts Council for March 2010
March policy briefing
1. Political developments
The Conservative party has published its plans for the arts, ahead of the General Election. The two-page document sets out policies under three headings:
• Secure, long-term funding for the arts, based on the mixed economy and the arm’s length principle.
• The promotion of excellence in the arts.
• Enjoyment of the arts by as many people as possible, of every age and from every background
The manifesto reiterates the Conservatives’ commitments to restoring the Lottery to the original four good causes, encouraging philanthropy and encouraging arts organisations to build up endowments. Excellence would be supported by new lighter-touch funding arrangements and independence for the national museums and galleries. Under access, there is a commitment to rationalising arts funding in schools, as well as maintaining free access to national museums and galleries.
Download the manifesto here
The Liberal Democrats have also published their plans for the arts, a longer document entitled The Power of Creativity. Distinctive policies include ensuring that more government arts funding is spent in the regions and less in London and encouraging local government support of the arts. The Lib Dems also propose to improve initial teacher training in the arts, noting how few teachers have specialist arts qualifications. Of particular interest to the craft sector may be the proposal to provide start-up funding, via NESTA, for creative enterprises. You can download the Liberal Democrats manifesto here
For anyone interested in using the general election campaign as an opportunity to engage with local politicians and candidates, the National Campaign for the Arts has published an advocacy toolkit
2. Higher and further education funding
Concern about the impact of the government’s higher education funding cuts on arts and humanities continues – see recent correspondence including our own letter here
Several peers made similar points in a debate on higher and further education funding in the House of Lords on Thursday 25th February. Lord Parekh, a Labour peer and academic argued:
“[The government] must realise that, while it is right to encourage universities to find research money elsewhere, that is not possible in many areas, such as the arts, the humanities and some social sciences. There is therefore a danger that the universities might neglect these areas because money is not available and concentrate entirely on sciences and technology. I think that the Government are, wittingly or unwittingly, in danger of giving a technocratic bias to our university education, which would be disastrous. A university is not simply a place for science and technology; it is the custodian of our civilisation and the values that the country stands for and it cannot ignore its role in those areas.”
Introducing the debate, Lord Baker also described the impact of funding cuts on further education, with a reference to crafts courses:
“There are 350 further education colleges in which 3 million people are trained every year. The cut in this sector is 16 per cent but, as it is focused on adult education, 147 colleges have said that they will have to cut their courses by 25 per cent. The head of Walsall College, Amrit Basi, said that this September he will probably have to cut by 25 per cent, which means 8,000 fewer adults in training. On Tuesday I went around an FE college in London and was surprised at the number of people in their twenties and thirties who were going through retraining; it was a very large number. I spoke to one young lady in her late twenties, I thought, who was training to be a mason; she was chiselling out a piece of Portland stone. I asked her what she had done previously and she said that she had been on the trading floor of an investment bank. So she was at least learning a craft that would be useful in her life. All around, there were other people like her doing various courses.”
Replying for the government, Lord Young argued that the cuts to universities were “modest efficiency savings” and that public investment in training in FE colleges was dwarfed by investment by businesses, which may be true in some sectors but not for craft.
Meanwhile, the HEFCE-funded university museums are waiting for the results of a review of their funding for 2011 and onwards. This was also the subject of discussion in parliament. In response to a question from Ed Vaizey, David Lammy replied:
“The Higher Education Museum, Galleries and Collections Fund recognises the importance of these nationally valued institutions. I am pleased that the resources we have allocated to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) mean that they are planning not only to continue this funding stream, but also to increase it to £10.6 million in 2010/11. However, it is important that all special funding streams are reviewed periodically. This ensures that public funds continue to be spent wisely. The Museums Fund is currently under review by a panel appointed by the Funding Council. The review will make broad recommendations about the fund’s future. The HEFCE Board will make detailed funding decisions for individual institutions based on these recommendations. I understand that those decisions are expected to be made before the summer, after which the review report will be published.”
Stop Press: 18 March 2010: HEFCE funding for 2010/11 announced
The Crafts Council response is here
3. Local authority funding cuts
Local authorities are facing severe cuts, with arts funding likely to be particularly badly affected, according to recent reports.
A survey by the BBC published at the start of March found that more than 70% of respondents thought they would have to cut services by 5-20% over the next three to five years. Of the 62 councils which offered a view on which services would be most vulnerable, libraries, the arts and leisure were identified as being most at risk.
A new report, After the Downturn, which was written by the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), suggests that there will be reductions of between 7.5% and 15% in public spending in the 2011-14 spending round. It notes that, “people may have to get used to receiving less from their local public services.” It also suggests that ring-fencing areas such as health and education may result in cuts of 20% or more to some “unprotected services”, which include arts and culture expenditure. However, since arts spending is discretionary, this will vary from authority to authority and indeed the report advocates that more decisions about spending should be devolved to a local level.
Read the full report here
NALGAO (the National Association of Local Government Arts Officers), is conducting a survey of arts officers this month which will give a picture of actual spending levels over the next year.
Against the background of funding cuts, some local authority services may be considering a move to trust status, or other forms of contracting out. NALGAO has published a report looking at the benefits and difficulties associated with contracting out arts services, Outside In. Although still a relatively uncommon approach, the report’s authors interviewed the heads of 12 contracted out services, and found that many of them had experienced growth after their move to a new status.
For the full report, see the NALGAO website
4. Cultural education
Find Your Talent is the government’s pilot programme aimed at exploring ways in which schools can offer children five hours of high quality cultural education each week. The programme is being piloted in ten areas from 2008-11. An evaluation of the first year has just been published. This evaluation aims to establish a baseline against which changes attributable to the impact of the programme can be measured. In the pathfinder areas, participation in at least some cultural activity was generally high, but the evaluation found that levels of participation varied by demographic group: older boys, ethnic minority groups and those eligible for free school meals were least likely to participate in the last seven days, while younger children, girls and those from white and less deprived backgrounds were most likely to do so.
You can see the full evaluation of the Find Your Talent programme here
5. New Creative Bursaries from DCMS
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has announced a new programme of funded internships, aimed at people from low income backgrounds. The programme, DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursaries, will be managed by the Jerwood Foundation and will offer 40 funded placements over two years, starting in September 2010. Jerwood will be responsible for recruiting the host employers. For more detail you can visit the DCMS website
7. Parliamentary round up
The Digital Economy Bill is progressing through parliament, though it is unclear whether it will be passed before a general election. Reporting on the bill has mostly focused on the measures to combat illegal file-sharing, but there are provisions on copyright that could have some implications for makers. Although these are likely to be fairly minor, the Crafts Council is watching the progress of the Bill and will produce a briefing for the sector when the legislation is finalised.
During a House of Lords debate on economy, enterprise and innovation on 4th February, a number of peers stressed the significance of the creative industries, with Lord Razzall noting that, even before the crash, the creative industries and the leisure industry together made up as much of the British economy as the banking sector.
Andrew Rossindell asked about the impact of the recession on the arts. Margaret Hodge replied that the picture was mixed: London theatre had, for example, done well in 2009 and the Arts Council’s Sustain programme was helping to mitigate the worst effects of the fall in private support for the arts. On local authority funding she said: “Local authorities will determine funding priorities according to local circumstance but I am confident that enlightened councils will continue to support the arts in recognition of their value and importance to local communities across the country.”
