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

Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary Funds

Name of Grant:

Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary Funds

Policy Lead

Hazel Parkinson

Legal power used:

Funding was provided to Creative Scotland to distribute this fund under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, Section 39

Grant Overview:

As part of our COVID-19 response, on Friday 27 March Creative Scotland launched a Bridging Bursary Programme to provide financial support to individuals who are unable to sustain their creative work and practice in the extremely challenging times.

The Bridging Bursary Programme was in two strands:

A £2m Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund to help sustain freelance creative professionals who had lost earnings due to the cancelation of work as a result of COVID-19.

A parallel £1.5m Screen Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund for freelance or self-employed screen practitioners who had lost income from their work due to COVID-19.

Executive Summary:

These funds were to support individual artists and freelancers who had lost income from their creative work and/or practice due to Covid-19. The Bridging Bursary was supported with funding from Scottish Government, the National Lottery and the Freelands Foundation, via Creative Scotland.

This fund was to support freelance artists and freelance creative practitioners working in the not-for-profit sector in Scotland who were experiencing immediate financial difficulty due to the loss of income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This fund offered a one-off bursary to provide a financial bridge for those people in Scotland who were most deeply impacted and disadvantaged by the cancellation of work as a result of the emergency situation. The Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland Bridging Bursaries aimed to support and prioritise those most in need at this time, particularly those who were least likely to benefit from the recently announced Job Retention Scheme and Self Employment Income Support Scheme.

We were also mindful that the equality duty is not just about negating or mitigating negative impacts, we also had a positive duty to advance equality of opportunity and to foster good relations.

The Guidance highlighted that people could submit a request if they had any access needs or if English was not their first language.

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

Age: Older People and Children and Young People

Older people, and children were unlikely to be directly impacted by this support as its focus was on working age people facing financial hardship. However, those of working age, will have been positively impacted by access to this support. This is because freelancers will have been positively impacted by the scheme as it was intended to provide support to creative freelancers experiencing hardship due to lost income from work and/or practice in the creative sector due to Covid-19.

Sex: Men and Women

In 2019, women made up 35.8 % of the creative industries workforce.

The Covid business support schemes were designed to support established businesses, and the grants awarded reflect the pre-existing gender imbalance in the established business base^[200]. In the Creative Industries, women account for around one third of the workforce and 60% of part-time positions.^[201]

In 2019, 29.4% of women working in the sector were self-employed. This was lower than the share of self-employment within the male workforce where 32.4% were self-employed.^[202]

This funding is therefore likely to disproportionately positively impact men overall. However, it will have a higher positive impact for women when considering part-time workers.

Race

• Creative Scotland published two EDI reviews, ‘Understanding Diversity in the Arts’ (July 2017) and ‘Screen Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Review’ (January 2017), which provided a snapshot of the creative sector in Scotland and explored the barriers experienced by those working in the arts. Around 5% of all respondents stated they are from a minority ethnic or mixed group, this compares to 3.7% of the Scottish population (Census 2011). Half of respondents identifying in the minority ethnic or mixed groups stated their ethnicity was a barrier, with Minority Ethnic respondents also indicating a lower median income than average at £15,000.^[203]

This funding is expected to have a positive impact on eligible freelancers from ethnic minority backgrounds who have been adversely financially impacted by Covid-19 restrictions on the culture sector.

Disability

30% of respondents to a 2016 Creative Scotland survey on diversity in the arts, stated they had a disability/long term health condition ^[204]. This is well above the national average of around 20%. However, 22% of the respondents stated their disability reduced their ability to carry out day-to-day activities ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’, which is closer in line with national level statistics. The most common condition, selected by 14% of all respondents is a mental health condition.

In 2017/18, 10% of permanent staff and 0% of contractural/freelance staff in Creative Scotland’s Regularly Funded Organisations identified as disabled.

This funding is expected to have a positive impact on eligible disabled freelancers who have been adversely financially impacted by Covid-19 restrictions on the culture sector.

Religion and Belief

We have no evidence to suggest that people with religion or belief are likely to have been impacted positively or negatively by this fund.

Sexual Orientation

We have no evidence to suggest that sexual orientation is likely to have been a factor influencing whether this fund has had positive or negative impacts on a person.

Pregnancy and maternity

We have no evidence to suggest that pregnancy and maternity is likely to have been a factor influencing whether this fund has had positive or negative impacts on a person.

We are aware of the issues in inequality across the music sector faced by those who are pregnant or who are Mothers. This is why we are supportive of Creative Scotland’s ‘Radical care’ scheme which seeks to investigate the practicalities of providing childcare in creative workspaces. ^[205]

In Creative Scotland’s “Understanding Diversity in the Arts Survey Summary Report”, a third of survey respondents had parental or carer responsibilities with no significant variance by gender. However, there was significant gender variation in how responsibilities are shared, 57% of females described themselves as the primary or sole carer compared with only 9% of males; 44% of respondents felt that carer responsibilities were shared equally (although males were more likely to state this than females).^[206]

Gender reassignment

We have no evidence to suggest that gender reassignment is likely to have been a factor influencing whether this fund has had positive or negative impacts on a person.

Marriage or Civil Partnership

We have no evidence to suggest that marriage or civil partnership is likely to have been a factor influencing whether this fund has had positive or negative impacts on a person.

Socio-economic disadvantage: any people experiencing poverty

In Creative Scotland’s “Understanding Diversity in the

Arts Survey Summary Report”, economic limitations was the most commonly cited barrier to career progression, selected by 76% of all respondents. The qualitative data reveals the low earnings and precarity of the careers of many who work in the arts. Economic limitations was more commonly cited by women, part time workers and by those who were primarily artists.^[207]

This scheme will likely have had a positive impact on people with a socio-economic disadvantage as it targeted freelance professionals and creative practitioners who were least likely to benefit from the Job Retention Scheme and Self Employment Income Support scheme.

Stakeholder Engagement:

We have engaged extensively with businesses and venues, and representative organisations across the creative industries during the pandemic.

Engagement with the music sector includes regular communication with:

the Scottish Commercial Music Industry taskforce, Scottish Music Industry Association, Music Venues Trust, STUC Culture Affiliates, and more. These organisations offer perspectives from a broad range of music stakeholders who will have had access to the Freelancer schemes.

This provided an opportunity to listen to stakeholder views, test ideas, share information about progress and discuss and address specific issues identified by sectors and individual businesses. This has enabled us to ensure the schemes are not unintentionally discriminative to any groups with protected characteristics and to identify any potential barriers to engagement.

Mitigations –

The guidance for the fund, produced by Creative Scotland, ensured people, such as disabled applicants, who needed alternative formats, languages or access support for their application could request this. This included offering additional one-to-one support between applicants and Creative Scotland’s equalities team.

Bursaries could be requested for any sum in the range of £500- £2,500. Applicants could request more than £2,500 if their request included access costs. Access costs could include but were not limited to the following:

• personal care support at home
• help with transport
• travel to medical appointments
• purchasing medication
• personal assistant support
• additional therapist support over and above of what you currently receive
• an advocate
• communication support such as BSL interpreter, note taker, speech to text reporter, lip speaker, audio description, facilitation or translation of documents into Easy Read or other formats such as large print or audio, translation support if English is not your first language
• communication support provided remotely or purchasing software and equipment to deliver communication support.

Next Steps (if any)

We recently published a paper for the FM’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls’ spotlight on gender inequality within the creative industries, where we suggest a need for further work to tackle the gender inequalities across the creative industries^[208]. This paper recognises that the creative industries and arts have a role to play in tackling gender inequality, but also that there is an exciting opportunity for the sector to lead by example. The creative and varied nature of the creative industries and arts sector means that they have a unique voice and potential to reach and engage with new audiences, both in Scotland and globally, on issues of diversity, including on gender inequality.

We continue to work with Creative Scotland and partners to discuss gender inequality within the music sector.

We have a Programme for Government commitment to revise our Creative Industries Policy Statement, and improving equalities within the creative industries will form a part of this.

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: 28 February 2022