Source · Select Committees · Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Paragraph: 51
The Covid-19 crisis presents the biggest threat to the UK’s cultural infrastructure, institutions and workforce...
Conclusion
The Covid-19 crisis presents the biggest threat to the UK’s cultural infrastructure, institutions and workforce in a generation. The loss of performing arts institutions, and the vital work they do in communities by spreading the health and education benefits of cultural engagement, would undermine the aims of the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda and Arts Council England’s next 10-year strategy, and reverse decades of progress in cultural provision and diversity and inclusion that we cannot afford to lose. In addition to the emergency funding already announced, the performing arts need a sector-specific recovery deal that includes continued workforce support measures, including enhanced measures for freelancers and small companies; clear, if conditional, timelines for reopening, and technological solutions to enable audiences to return without social distancing; and long-term structural support to rebuild audience figures and investment in time of economic uncertainty.
Paragraph Reference:
51
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
On 5 July the Government announced a £1.57 billion support package to protect Britain’s world class cultural, arts and heritage institutions. This money represents the biggest ever one-off investment in UK culture and will provide a lifeline to our vital arts and cultural organisations across the country hit hard by the pandemic. It will help them stay afloat while their doors are closed and help to ensure a vibrant sector after the crisis. The Government also recognises the crucial role that individuals play in making our arts and creative industries world-leading, and is working hard to ensure that we help to provide financial support to freelancers during this period. As a result of the grants and loans available through this package, organisations will be more able to resume cultural activity, albeit in a socially distanced way, which will increase employment opportunities for freelancers. Each organisation that receives money will know how best they can support their workforce, including freelancers. Alongside this funding, Arts Council England have announced £95 million of additional support for individuals, which can include freelancers, including £75 million in project grants. These will be focused on applications that maximise employment opportunities and those from under-represented groups and freelancers are eligible to apply to this directly. National Portfolio Organisations can also apply to create new work, with bids that create employment opportunities being prioritised. A further round of the Arts Council England programme ‘Discover Your Creative Practice’ will also open in the autumn, which will make approximately £18 million available for individuals looking to develop new creative skills that will help them to further develop their career. Arts Council England will also be adding £2 million into relevant benevolent funds for those less well supported by the programmes outlined above, including stage managers and technicians. In addition to this unprecedented financial package, we have set out a five-stage roadmap outlining how we will get audiences back into performing arts venues. We are now at Stage Four of the roadmap, meaning that venues and organisations can now put on live indoor performances in front of a socially distanced audience. This is in addition to the earlier announcement that from 11 July we can all enjoy performances outdoors with social distancing. Any further steps to continue to open up the economy will be dependent on the state of the epidemic at the time and the trajectory of cases being stable or remaining in decline. We will continue to work with the sector on how to enable the safe return of fuller audiences, including technological solutions and we are working closely with the 8 Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors: Government Response Department for Health and Social Care on the Moonshot programme. To this end we have launched a Sport Technology Innovation Group which will make proposals to the Government on approaches that could support a wider return of spectators to stadia. The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will meet with the Chair regularly to discuss their findings.