Creative Scotland multi-year funding: Ministerial statement

Presiding Officer, thank you for the opportunity to address parliament today regarding Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding programme and today’s announcement of successful applicants.

We spoke here on 14 January about the importance of the culture sector and why it is such a vital asset to Scotland, our society and our economy. I am always heartened by the strong consensus here on the centrality of culture to our prosperity as a nation.

Recent years have been turbulent for the sector. The effects of the pandemic, leaving the EU, the cost of living crisis, and the impact of UK government financial austerity, do not need to be rehearsed again now. However, they have put many cultural organisations in a perilous position.

Our role and that of our public bodies in this period has been, as far as possible, to protect the sector against the worst of the challenges. Today’s announcement has been keenly anticipated and it definitively moves us beyond simply sustaining the sector to return our focus to where it should be – its long-term development. The Scottish Government’s commitment to increase culture budgets by £100 million annually by 2028-29 firmly sits in this space and demonstrates our commitment to the sector’s future.

Multi-Year Funding is important because by providing long-term certainty, it lays the foundations on which a diverse range of Scotland’s key cultural organisations can build. It will allow the organisations that have secured support to pursue their core work and move on from a difficult period, while also supporting the wider cultural ecosystem in Scotland. Artists and venues will benefit, through work commissioned by funded organisations, through use of their spaces by touring artists who will bring performances and exhibitions to communities across the country. And it will provide opportunities for people across Scotland to engage in culture, which for many may be the first step on a lifelong and life-enriching interest, or even the beginning of a career in the arts.

The way in which Multi-Year Funding is being delivered will have a very practical impact on the levels of support available to the sector. Through increasing the number of organisations in receipt of core funding it will free up Creative Scotland’s wider resources by reducing the number of organisations competing for it.

Today’s announcement is the beginning of a new period for the sector, one in which we can look to the future. Scotland’s culture sector is one of our most important assets. Our artists and cultural organisations are innovative and internationally-respected while being grounded in our local communities, and have an authenticity that gives them their unique character. This package will provide stability and allow the sector to get back to what it does best – creating interesting, innovative and challenging output that enriches our lives.

In her statement on 4 December the Cabinet Secretary for Finance outlined an increase of £34 million in the culture budget for 2025/26. The largest element of this increase is £20 million for Multi-Year Funding. Subject to budgetary processes we will increase the culture budget by a further £20 million in 2026/27. This additional funding will go in whole towards Multi-Year Funding taking the budget for the programme to £74 million, more than doubling it from current levels.

This level of funding will allow Creative Scotland to make awards to all applicants that met the criteria for the fund. It will mean that more organisations than ever before are supported with core funding.

251 organisations will receive funding from 2025/26. A number of applicants that narrowly missed out will join a development stream in which they will receive advice and financial support to adapt plans with the aim that they would receive Multi-Year Funding from 2026/27.

Creative Scotland currently support 119 organisations with regular funding, so this represents a dramatic increase. It means that 95% of organisations that reached Stage 2 of the Multi-Year Funding process will either receive grants or have the opportunity to do so from 2026/27.

Not only will numbers of organisations supported increase, but so will levels of grant. When we compare Multi-Year awards to grants to current Regularly-Funded Organisations, we see that average grant levels will increase by 33% in year 1 of Multi-Year Funding and by 54% in year 2. By delivering funding in this way it will ensure that as many organisations as possible are supported in the coming year and that all funded organisations can see a path ahead of them, building their work and unleashing their potential.

Organisations across the whole of Scotland will be supported, across diverse art forms and with diverse impacts.

I hope that this addresses the concern I have heard that resource would be spread too thinly. This represents a significant increase in both the number of funded organisations and also the level of grants. It has the potential to be truly transformational, securing the future of cultural organisations of all sizes across the whole country.

For those organisations whose applications have not been successful there will be transition support available. This will be in the form of funding for organisations that previously received a significant level of funding from Creative Scotland. All organisations unsuccessful at this stage of the process, whether previously funded or not, will be able to access transition advice. These measures will support adaptation and business planning.

The foundations that the delivery of Multi-Year Funding puts in place provide an opportunity to look to the wider needs of the sector. Through the funding proposed in the budget we will increase support across a range of other programmes:

• A £4 million Culture and Heritage Capacity Fund will build resilience in museums and galleries.

• The Festivals EXPO fund will more than double in value and expand its reach beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow.

• Screen Scotland’s Production Growth Fund will receive an additional £2 million to attract investment in Scotland’s screen sector.

• The Culture Collective programme will restart with an increased budget of £4 million, providing opportunities for communities across Scotland.

• And we will undertake groundwork into the establishment of a cultural export and exchange service to enhance the role that international activity can play in the sector’s development.

Taken together, these measures create a comprehensive package of support that is focussed on the diverse impacts that the culture sector has. Multi-Year Funding allows us to look beyond the immediate and focus on new, innovative and transformational interventions.

It is important as part of this foundational shift, that the infrastructure that supports the sector is considered. I am delighted that Dame Sue Bruce will lead an independent review of Creative Scotland, its remit and functions, which will aim to publish recommendations by the end of summer this year. This will be part of a wider review into how the culture sector is supported. The scope of this work will be informed by responses to a public survey which closes tomorrow. Together, these pieces of work will ensure that the increased resources we are committing to the sector will achieve the greatest impact they can.

I was pleased to see earlier this week that Green and Liberal Democrat Members will support the Government’s budget for 2025/26, following constructive engagement and discussion. By passing the proposed budget we will lay the foundations for Scotland’s artists and cultural organisations to create, innovate, develop and engage locally and internationally. It will uphold the vital role of the sector in our society, communities and economy.

I hope that today’s statement has provided Members with assurance that Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding awards will begin a foundational shift in how Scotland’s culture sector is supported.

The scale of awards both in their number and financial value represent one of the most significant and positive developments in the sector for many years. Alongside a range of other interventions, they provide a basis for Scotland’s culture sector as a whole to look to the future with optimism and excitement about the opportunities that they will create.

I am aware that Members will have questions and I am pleased to answer those now.

Thank you, Presiding Officer.