Recommendation 19

We questioned the Department about the assessments it had made of the long-term impact on supply chain organisations.51 It told us that supply chain organisations had been eligible to apply for the fund where they were culturally significant, but we had seen evidence that applicants from such organisations, which often supported numerous freelancers, had felt their cultural significance had not been understood and they had been refused funding.52 The Department told us that its arm’s-length bodies had assessed whether the services applicants provided were predominantly for the heritage or culture sector, whether those services were scarce or particularly innovative and their relevance to the sector.53 ACE explained that the “ecosystem” of the sector had large and small and differentiated sorts of organisations. It acknowledged that, over time, it needed to make sure that the supply chain was represented.54