A Culture Strategy for Scotland: Action Plan

Chapter 3 – Transforming through Culture

T1: Collaborate to realise the transformational power of culture in achieving a broad range of policy outcomes by developing cross-Government policy compacts, embedding culture at the centre of policy-making.

We will engage across government to mainstream culture in policy making, prioritising health and education in the first instance. Our work will recognise the transformational power of culture and value the contribution it makes to achieving key policy outcomes. This commitment reaffirms our aim to place culture as a central consideration across all policy areas, making clear how it can deliver on a range of priority outcomes; improving health and wellbeing, supporting a thriving economy, raising educational attainment, tackling inequality and realising a greener future.

We will prioritise cross-policy working with both health and education portfolios, as reflected in the actions set out in this plan, whilst continuing to work across government to agree future areas for priority engagement.

The upcoming Cultural Value Summit, which we will take forward in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities early next year, will frame some of this work, in terms of the role of culture in a wellbeing economy.

T2: Harness the transformational power of culture to deliver on climate change priorities.

As the Scottish Government continues to work towards net zero, it will work closely with the Scottish Culture and Creative sector. These sectors play a unique part in exploring and communicating the impacts of climate change and the necessity and opportunities involved with achieving net zero. For example Creative Scotland have developed a Climate Emergency and Sustainability plan setting out how culture can help address the climate emergency.

Additionally, as the lead public body established to investigate, care for and promote Scotland’s historic environment, Historic Environment Scotland launched the Green Recovery Statement for Scotland’s Historic Environment on 26 April 2022. It is a vision for how the historic environment can be the keystone for Scotland’s green recovery. Historic Environment Scotland have also published their Guide to Energy Retrofit of Traditional Buildings.

Cultural organisations and creative practitioners engage with a wide range of people, harnessing the power of culture through their cultural assets, programming and content. This engagement informs public debate on the climate emergency and enables subsequent behavioural change across society.

We will work with the Culture and Heritage Sectors to utilise and advocate for the potential of the arts and heritage to raise awareness of climate change, its impacts and the need for action in a way that is relevant to communities at their local level.

T3: Scope the creation of another Youth Arts Strategy

In 2013, we launched Time to Shine, a strategy setting out a ten year vision for youth arts in Scotland. In 2023, the period covered by Time to Shine comes to an end. Drawing from the experience of ‘Time to Shine’, we will work with Creative Scotland and stakeholders from across the sector to consider the most appropriate form for a follow-up strategy, which will be centred on embedding children and young people’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) principles, and including the voices of children and young people at its core.

T4: Foster greater collaboration between the Culture and Education Sectors.

The National Partnership for Culture, through their recommendations, set out that the Scottish Government should improve access to formal and informal creative learning opportunities for children and young people. We have established a new Culture and Creativity in Learning Group. The aim of this group is to formalise the relationship between key actors in the context of arts, cultural and creative learning in school and beyond, and cement areas of common focus and mutual benefit into work streams and actions. We will use this group to bring together organisations, experts, practitioners and young people to improve experiences for children and young people in accessing cultural opportunities and creative careers.

The Culture and Creativity in Learning Group aims to co-ordinate the Scottish Government’s links between education, culture and relevant stakeholders, involving the voices of both young people and practitioners. This concerns supporting the delivery of action T4 in this Action Plan, and will allow the group to highlight the transformative power of culture in achieving other outcomes via education.

We are working closely with the Culture and Creativity in Learning Group to establish a workplan for 2024. We will ensure the group considers where additional expertise or a more diverse range of voices can be brought in to provide input. As part of this, the group will bring in key partners to ensure that areas like skills and workforce training are included in the conversation, to improve the experience of learners, teachers and practitioners in Scotland.

T5: Strengthen cross-Scottish Government joint working on culture and health and wellbeing policy development and delivery.

The Scottish Government will prioritise working across the Health and Wellbeing portfolio to ensure the potential of culture is maximised in achieving key cross-policy outcomes in this area. To achieve this, we will formalise cross-government connections between Culture and Health officials via our recently established Scottish Government Culture and Health working group.

This group will expand the cross-government understanding of initiatives and research taking place within the culture and health space in Scotland, actively taking forward learning from these where possible. This will involve ensuring the vital work that cultural organisations do in this space is understood and acknowledged across the health and wellbeing portfolios and networks and will allow cross portfolio areas to advocate for the transformative power of culture in achieving priority outcomes.

The Culture and Health Working Group will play a significant role in advocating for increased representation of the arts and cultural activity within ongoing Scottish Government physical and mental health and wellbeing initiatives and policy development discussions. The work of the group will be guided by the recommendations set out by the National Partnership for Culture in this area, as well as ongoing engagement with Arts Culture Health and Wellbeing Scotland and our co-delivery partners across the Culture Sector.