National Partnership for Culture: independent report

Summary of recommendations

Education and Learning

1.1 The Scottish Government should guarantee the equitable provision of cultural education both in formal and informal education for young people.

1.2 Relevant agencies should be charged with developing a national plan to embed artists and other creative practitioners in all schools, in ways that align with the curriculum.

1.3 Greater support and guidance should be provided to education professionals and young people to help demonstrate accessible pathways into careers in culture

Community and Place

2.1 National initiatives should be joined up and both inform and be influenced by local and regional initiatives.

2.2 Equity of access to culture should be prioritised at a national level to support local, grassroots delivery.

2.3 Local authorities should use culture as part of their delivery across wider local authority services.

Health and Wellbeing

3.1 The Scottish Government should be charged with ensuring that culture is employed as a key part of delivering Health and Social Care priorities and contributing to an overall wellbeing economy.

3.2 Scottish Government should make connections at Ministerial and policy level to highlight the impact that social prescribing can play and identify the role of culture in nurturing and scaling work in this area.

3.3 A dedicated funding stream for culture initiatives should be developed within the health portfolio.

Fair Work

4.1 A national network of free support should be available for freelance artists and creative practitioners, providing training opportunities and HR support comparable to what would be available to those in salaried employment.

4.2 The Scottish Government must commit to enforcing and monitoring the Fair Work practices of any organisation in receipt of public funding.

Data and Evidence

5.1 The four National Performance Framework indicators for Culture should be reviewed, to better encapsulate the spirit and priorities of the Culture Strategy.

5.2. The primary generators and users of cultural data should be asked to standardise, manage, and share current, ongoing and future data sets so that cultural organisations and artists are not required to provide the same data repeatedly and a wide range of cultural organisations and bodies can easily access, use and contribute to them.

5.3 The Scottish Government should commit to undertaking a meaningful evaluation of the Culture Strategy for Scotland and the extent to which the Strategy has produced change.