Coronavirus (COVID-19) business support: equality impact assessments

Youth Arts Emergency Fund

Name of Grant:

Contribution to Youth Arts Emergency Fund

Policy Lead

Eleanor Stanley

Legal power used:

Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010

Grant Overview:

£1 million additional funding to the Youth Arts Emergency Fund to allow more organisations in the Youth Arts sector to be supported. This will provide more opportunities to engage young people, as well as providing additional employment opportunities in the culture sector, including for freelancers.

Executive Summary:

The Youth Arts Emergency Fund was part of our COVID-19 relief funding for the culture sector. This was a £4.5m fund for the Youth Arts sector made up from £3m from culture consequentials, £1m contribution from these Business Support Funds and £500k from other culture budgets. The £1m of Business Support Funding forms part of the overall £4.3 billion that has been committed to business support over the course of the pandemic.

The dual purpose of the Youth Arts Emergency Fund was to:

• support the youth arts sector, which includes many micro-businesses, small charities and freelancers; and
• provide opportunities for young people to participate in arts and culture projects, to support them through the pandemic.

The priority was to provide support quickly to Youth Arts Sector organisations affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. These funding streams were therefore developed quickly by Creative Scotland, following dialogue with the sector. Creative Scotland however has extensive experience in creating policies that meet the terms of the general equality duty as set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not). It used this experience in the designs and delivery of this funding stream.

Instead of being a new programme, the fund mostly replaced and replicated our annual out-of-school project funding from the longstanding Youth Music Initiative (YMI). However, more money was available and the fund was opened up to artforms other than music. This approach allowed a scheme to be developed quickly and take advantage of an existing funding route. Expanding the scheme to help a broader range of organisations in the sector mean the fund could provide more opportunities to young people who might have been badly affected by the pandemic.

It was reasonably expected however that the background of participants would be similar for Youth Arts Emergency Fund projects to participants in recent years’ Youth Music Initiative out-of-school projects

Both the Youth Music Initiative and the Youth Arts Emergency Fund are delivered by Creative Scotland, who are also subject to public sector equalities duties and who regularly assess the equalities impact of the Youth Music Initiative and who also gather information on participants as part of their annual impact report.

This funding was for projects working with target groups of young people. The target groups are young people who:

• Are living in poverty or residing in areas of social and economic deprivation.
• Are experiencing or at risk of experiencing harm and neglect.
• Are looked after children and care leavers
• Are in the early years (0-5) of their life.
• Are from Black and/or Minority Ethnic backgrounds.
• Have a disability and/or additional support needs.
• Are at risk of offending or have previously offended.
• Are young carers and/or young parents
• Are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, or who have been homeless
• Are experiencing mental ill health.

One of the purposes of having a list of target groups is many of these have been identified as having less access to cultural opportunities. The funding also works with groups who would particularly benefit from the wider range of opportunities and benefits of youth arts programmes, such as increased confidence and social skills and the opportunity to express oneself. The last two bullet points represent new target groups for this programme, based on discussions with Creative Scotland and Scottish Government policy teams about who might not be being reached.

The programme is therefore inherently aimed at reducing inequalities and tackling barriers to participation and supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. One of the requirements for applying to the fund was to “demonstrate how the funding will develop additional project-based activity that will tackle inequality and create opportunities for children and young people to engage with the arts.” Projects also have to demonstrate how they would ensure “removal of all barriers to participation whether physical, socio-economic, personal or peer related.”

The additional £1m funding allowed the Youth Arts Emergency Fund to provide support to more projects, provide more employment opportunities and provide more opportunities for young people to access culture. Creative Scotland were able to support 43 additional projects. However, it is not possible to disaggregate which projects were supported from business support funds rather than from culture consequentials and other funding.

Key Findings - impact assessment of benefits and/or disadvantages.

This funding topped up a wider fund which has been shown in previous years (using the Youth Music Initiative out-of-school funds as an equivalent) to benefit several protected characteristics by supporting projects which are targeted towards certain groups of young people. This includes young people living in poverty or residing in areas of social and economic deprivation; disabled young people and young people with additional support needs; and young people from a black or minority ethnic background. All the projects are aimed at widening access to cultural activity and opportunities for children and young people. By increasing the amount of money available through the Youth Arts Emergency Fund, more projects could be supported, thereby benefitting more young people with these protected characteristics.

Age: Older People and Children and Young People

This funding is for projects that work with children and young people. Children and young people benefit by participating in the projects. The benefits for the young people involved are recorded in end of project evaluations, as detailed in the annual Youth Music Initiative Impact Report – the 2018/19 impact report can be found here: YMI-Impact-Report-2018_19-FINAL.pdf (creativescotland.com)

The additional funding will have allowed more young people to participate in projects.

Sex: Men and Women

Participants in the equivalent existing Youth Music Initiative projects are gender balanced. In the 2018/19 impact report, participants were reported as 47% male, 50% female and 3% other gender identity. Creative Scotland do not have currently data on the make up of the youth arts workforce.

We are not aware of any negative impact that increasing this funding would have for this protected characteristic.

Race

Young people from a black or minority ethnic background are one of the target groups for these projects. In 2018/2019, 24 out of 193 projects were specifically targeted to or aimed at young people from a black or minority ethnic background and in 2017/2018 this figure was 29 out of 199 projects. The additional funding is likely to have supported more projects targeted towards young people from a black or minority ethnic background

Creative Scotland do not currently have data on the make up of the youth arts workforce.

Disability

Disabled young people and young people with additional support needs are one of the target groups for these projects. In 2018/2019, 38 out of 193 projects were specifically targeted to or aimed at disabled young people or young people with additional support needs and in 2017/2018 this figure was 39 out of 199 projects.

The Youth Arts Emergency Fund also introduced young people experiencing mental ill health as a target group. As long term mental ill health is included within the definition of disability, this expansion of target groups may have allowed more disabled young people to access projects.

Overall, the additional funding is likely to have supported more projects which are targeted at disabled young people, and young people with additional support needs.

Creative Scotland do not have data on the make up of the youth arts workforce.

Religion and Belief

We are not aware of any positive or negative impact that the expansion of this funding would have on this protected characteristic.

Sexual Orientation

We are not aware of any positive or negative impact that the expansion of this funding would have on this protected characteristic.

Pregnancy and maternity

We are not aware of any positive or negative impact that the expansion of this funding would have on this protected characteristic.

Gender reassignment

We are not aware of any positive or negative impact that the expansion of this funding would have on this protected characteristic.

As noted above 3% of out-of-school participants in the 2018/19 YMI identified as a gender other than male or female

Marriage or Civil Partnership

We are not aware of any positive or negative impact that the expansion of this funding would have on this protected characteristic.

Socio-economic disadvantage: any people experiencing poverty

Young people living in poverty or residing in areas of social and economic deprivation are one of the target groups for these projects. In 2018/2019, 61 out of 193 projects were specifically targeted to or aimed at young people living in poverty or residing in areas of social and economic deprivation and in 2017/2018 this figure was 63 out of 199 projects.

Expansion of this funding is likely to support more projects for young people living in poverty or residing in areas of social and economic deprivation.

Stakeholder Engagement:

Our direct stakeholders were Creative Scotland who delivered the funding on our behalf. They in turn engaged directly with the youth arts sector on the expansion of this programme.

Mitigations –

Equalities, diversity and inclusion considerations were built into the Youth Arts Emergency Fund as set out above.

In terms of the process of applying for funding, applications were managed by Creative Scotland, who are committed to offering clear and accessible application processes and programmes that are open to everyone. Creative Scotland made the application information available in alternative formats including translations. Creative Scotland also offer access support to disabled applicants, tailored to individual requests. Support includes Sign Language Interpreters for meetings and scribing support for dyslexic applicants. Creative Scotland Officers can offer advice to new applicants and support them to make an application. The Creative Scotland Equalities Team can offer additional one-to-one support to applicants with access requirements. Creative Scotland accepted applications and supporting materials which are written in English, Gaelic or Scots. BSL users can access Creative Scotland services with the Contact Scotland-BSL programme.

Additionally, all first time applicants to Creative Scotland were required to provide a copy of their organisation’s Equal Opportunity Policy.

Next Steps (if any)

The Youth Arts Emergency Fund will be evaluated by an external organisation, as commissioned by Creative Scotland; the interim evaluation is under way. Creative Scotland have also recently undertaken a further Equalities Impact Assessment of the Youth Music Initiative overall, with recommendations as to how to continue to improve the inclusivity of the programme.

Declaration and Publication

I have read the Equality Impact Assessment and I am satisfied that it represents a fair and reasonable view of the expected equality impact of the measures implemented.

Signed: Rachael McKechnie

Date: 25 February 2022