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

Culture Organisation and Venues Recovery Fund

Name of Grant:

Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund

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:

This fund is part of the package of COVID-19 support established by the Scottish Government to help support organisations that are vital to the cultural life of Scotland and require funding to help prevent insolvency and/or significant job losses due to the impact of COVID-19. It covers the period 1 April – 30 September 2021.

Executive Summary:

The Scottish Government understands the impact COVID-19 has had on culture organisations and venues, which had to close completely for the majority of the pandemic. That is why emergency funding was provided for a Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund (COVR), operated by Creative Scotland, to provide emergency support for this sector.

Many cultural organisations operate successful, commercial models without the need for public funding. Others operate within a mixed economy model, often supporting their activities through a combination of public sector funding and trading activities. The ongoing impact of the pandemic has meant that a large number remain financially vulnerable, unable to maintain the levels of income generation required to ensure their future viability. Some organisations have benefitted from targeted financial support through loans or grants, intended to address those sectors where industry bodies have identified specific hardship and others have benefitted from various schemes and initiatives from the Scottish and UK Governments but many still are threatened by insolvency.

In order to address the needs of many sectors adversely impacted by the pandemic, a range of business support funds were introduced over several months to provide emergency funding to help secure jobs, safeguard businesses and to alleviate hardship. The Culture Organisations and Venues Recovery Fund (COVR) forms part of this wider funding package.

Within this context of needing to react quickly, there was limited opportunity to gather evidence on the possible impacts of these measures. Nevertheless in developing these funds we spoke to a range of organisations representing people with one or more of the protected characteristics which included speaking regularly to the Scottish Trade Unions Congress culture affiliates and in particular the Scottish Commercial Music Industry Taskforce.

Together this helped us shape the funds in a way which recognises the importance of assessing new and revised policies against the needs 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. The Scottish Government also considered whether the measures could constitute direct and/or indirect discrimination.

We are also mindful that the equality duty is not just about negating or mitigating negative impacts, we also have a positive duty to promote equality.

We have sought to do this through the funding conditions and the support and guidance available to applicants. For example, the guidance produced by Creative Scotland for the scheme said that all applicants were expected to create accessible and inclusive spaces for making and experiencing culture and encouraged the use of Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action plans. A toolkit was also provided.

Creative Scotland’s guidance for the fund and administration approach ensured those 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. BSL users were also able to access our services with the Contact Scotland-BSL programme. Support includes Sign Language Interpreters for meetings and scribing support for dyslexic applicants.

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. The Evidence paper from the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women And Girls’ spotlight on gender inequality within the Creative industries can be found here.

Closing that gap will require a cross-government approach and we have made a commitment of £50m for the Women’s Business Centre over the course of this Parliament.

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^[211]. We continue to work with Creative Scotland and partners to discuss gender inequality within the music sector.

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

Age: Older People and Children and Young People

Our evidence tells us that older people, and children are unlikely to have been directly impacted by this support as its principle purpose is to prevent insolvency and protect jobs. However, those of working age, will have been positively impacted.

Sex: Men and Women

Both men and women working in the culture sector will benefit from this funding.

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. The Evidence paper from the FM’s National Advisory Council on Women And Girls’ spotlight on gender inequality within the Creative industries can be found here.

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.^[212]

The scheme is in place to protect jobs which will have a positive impact on Minority Ethnic people employed in the creative sector.

Disability

30% of respondents to a 2016 Creative Scotland survey ^[213]stated they had a disability/long term health condition . 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.^[214]

The scheme is in place to protect jobs which will have a positive impact on disabled people employed in the creative 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

For the COVR fund, we have no evidence to suggest that there has been a significant impact on pregnant people or mothers. However, we are aware that due to the necessary urgency of this fund, there was only a week for applications to be submitted. This might have proved challenging for parents with limited time to complete the form, although enquiries could be submitted to Creative Scotland.

We are aware of wider equality issues 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^[215].

Gender reassignment

We have no evidence to suggest 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 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

Applications were for venues and cultural organisations facing insolvency, and to save jobs. So this scheme is likely to have positively impacted people economically.

Stakeholder Engagement:

We have engaged extensively with businesses and venues, and representative organisations across the music sector 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 COVR and Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund (PAVR) 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 –

We have sought to meet equalities duties through the conditions attached to this funding and the support and guidance available to applicants. For example, the guidance produced by Creative Scotland for the scheme said that all applicants were expected to create accessible and inclusive spaces for making and experiencing culture and encouraged the use of Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Action plans. A toolkit was also provided.

Creative Scotland’s guidance for the fund and administration approach ensured those 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. BSL users were also able to access our services with the Contact Scotland-BSL programme. Support includes Sign Language Interpreters for meetings and scribing support for dyslexic applicants.

We have engaged extensively with venues and representatives from across the music sector, including unions, to ensure any negative impact on people with protected characteristics would be spotted.

Next Steps (if any)

We recently published a paper for the First Minister’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^[216]. 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