A Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan

Chapter 1 – Overview actions: Resilience

R1: Ensure effective ongoing engagement with the sector and maximise impact of existing public sector support.

We want to ensure that public sector support has the greatest possible impact. This is especially crucial in such a challenging financial situation, although our understanding of support extends beyond money, to space, resources, relationships, and more. We have heard from cultural and creative organisations and practitioners that a comprehensive overview of relevant support and opportunities is needed.

In order to be able to make consistent and well-informed policy decisions in a quickly evolving landscape, we need a broad overview of the current context and, in particular, intelligence about specific challenges. We already work closely with our public bodies and directly funded organisations to ensure emerging situations are quickly escalated. We are committed to continuous improvement in this area, making sure our reporting routes remain fit for purpose and allow the Scottish Government to gather information and be responsive where appropriate. To maximise benefits for the sector and ensure that we are aware of, and can respond to, current and emerging issues for the sector, we are reviewing our strategic engagement with the sector going forward in a way that is agile and ensures the many voices working across the sector are heard and understood.

Maximising impact is about more than ensuring support goes as far as possible, it is also vital that all eligible organisations and practitioners have the opportunity to apply for support. We will work closely with our partners to explore ways of streamlining this and, in doing so, will listen to sectoral views on what would be most useful.

We are working closely with analytical and social research colleagues to deliver this action. Aspects of this are already underway, for example, we have developed new questions to be used in YouGov polling to obtain a snapshot of behavioural trends.

R2: Seek ways to review pressure on outgoings and activities.

This action requires a clear line of sight between the sector and Scottish Government to understand the details of specific pressures. Through our roundtable discussions, it was clear that tax relief for culture organisations was a high priority for the sector.

Following lobbying by the Scottish Ministers, the UK Government has agreed to extend the tax relief available to the Culture Sector until April 2025. We will continue to lobby for this high rate to be extended beyond this date as we are aware of the important role these tax reliefs play to organisations. We are already engaging with the UK Government to deliver appropriate tax and energy relief schemes; engaging with other Scottish Government teams to ensure schemes, such as domestic rates relief, are understood by the culture and events sectors; and engaging with relevant Scottish Government teams to ensure there is an understanding of challenges for the sector.

Other issues emerging through our engagement with the sector include increases to rental rates and high energy prices. While these are not unique to the Culture Sector, there are excellent examples of cultural organisations maximising resources via collaboration, space sharing, or operating creatively from derelict or unused places – which, in turn, has a positive impact on the local setting. We will amplify and learn from these examples of best practice.

R3: Explore and develop alternative and additional income streams.

Along with the need to maximise existing support and reduce pressures wherever possible, we recognise that securing new sources of funding will allow the sector to be supported to the fullest extent possible.

We will develop a ‘Percentage for the Arts’ scheme, which will generate revenue for the sector by requiring that a small percentage of spending on all new public buildings and spaces is channelled into support for culture and community art commissions. We will share more information on progress with this commitment in line with our broader reporting mechanisms on this Action Plan.

Additionally, the Scottish Government has introduced the Visitor Levy (Scotland) Bill. If passed, the Bill will give local authorities a discretionary power to apply a levy on overnight visitor stays in accommodation across their local area. This will be a discretionary power, for a local authority Council to use if it chooses to do so and if it can demonstrate it is right for their local authority area. The proceeds raised from the levy can be used to fund relevant local activities and services which support and sustain the visitor economy. Local authorities will be obliged to consult local communities and business, and give significant notice, before a visitor levy can be applied.

Overall, we know that maximising the range of income streams available to the sector will support and build long-term resilience. Many organisations across the sector already successfully utilise a mixed funding model. We will consider how learning from this approach can maximise the impact of public funding.

R4: Collaboration for effectiveness and impact.

The Scottish Government cannot operate alone in this space, we must work in collaboration towards the recovery and renewal of the Culture Sector.

Cultural organisations and practitioners found innovative and additional opportunities for collaboration throughout the pandemic, for example, through the creation of more flexible funding arrangements such as the Culture Collective and the Youth Arts Emergency Fund. This action seeks to maximise the learning from this period: firstly, by seeking ways to create the conditions for more collaboration across organisations; and secondly, by increasing collaboration between funders to ensure public funding provides flexibility.

This action needs to be delivered over the long term, and we will work closely with the Culture Sector to support this. However, collaboration extends beyond the role of the Scottish Government and we encourage the Culture Sector to consider how they can help achieve this action.

R5: Advocacy effort within national and local government to ensure the value of culture is understood and maximised.

Throughout the roundtable discussions, collaboration was highlighted to be vital at a local, regional and national level, alongside the importance of proactive communication and advocacy for the sector. The Scottish Government will do more to promote the return on investment offered by the Cultural and Creative Sectors, building on good practice already seen through the connection between Culture and Health at policy, practitioner and community level.

To deliver this, we are renewing our commitment to work collaboratively with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, under the auspices of the new Verity House Agreement. Together, we are working on plans for a joint Cultural Value Summit, which we expect to take place in 2024. The Summit will demonstrate the positive outcomes culture can achieve across a range of policy areas, to the benefit of communities across Scotland. Through the Summit, we will explore ways of mainstreaming culture alongside fostering creative thinking, closer collaboration and problem solving in line with the sector’s priorities, while still considering the challenging financial landscape.

Following this, we will publish a Culture Partnership Agreement, which will align with the Verity House Agreement principles and will seek to further set out ways of working together around our joint ambition to highlight the intrinsic value of culture and its ability to deliver beneficial outcomes across Scotland’s communities. In developing both the Summit and the joint agreement, we will ensure a clear line of vision, with parallel work on developing a National Events Strategy 2023-25, led by VisitScotland, which is expected to be published in the spring of 2024.