Funding of the arts and heritage
Written evidence submitted by Dorset County Council with contributions from Dorset Strategic Partnership Culture Theme Group (arts 180)
Executive Summary
The introduction gives information about the knowledge and expertise underpinning this submission. This is followed by factual information which provides the context for the submission. The rest of the submission addresses the issues which the committee has set out for consideration, and includes the following key points:
·
Most arts organisations can cope with planning for a cut of around 10% from one funder, but an organisation asked to model 40% cuts from all its public funders faces a more seriously damaging prospect. The modelling is not helped by the uncertainty over whether or not the cuts will all come in from next year, will all come in following years, or will be phased in gradually.
·
Arts organisations need to take the initiative and look positively at ways of working more cost effectively on the basis that change is a necessity, not an option. Local Strategic Partnerships provide a framework for collaboration and the cultural contribution to implementation of the Sustainable Community Strategy.
·
The experience in
Dorset
is that it is essential to seek a common approach across local arts organisations, local authorities and the Arts Council. Failure to seek common understanding and to seek to make informed decisions which aligns, so far as practicable, the requirements and funding positions of all parties is a major risk.
·
In relation to arts funding, core investment to support development work will always be needed and the fact that this investment shows a considerable return in terms of economic and social impact unquestionably justifies that investment. The level at which this investment is set should relate to this impact and be directed to developing increased flexibility within organisations.
·
Frameworks for public subsidy should take into account the needs of rural areas. Rural proofing of any proposed changes is therefore an essential part of the Equalities Impact Assessment required in any policy review.
·
It is essential to continue supporting the Portable Antiquities Service which provides an essential protection for archaeological finds and the discovery of Treasure
.
There is no private sector way of delivering this service.
·
Support for English Heritage’s archaeological research programmes is also essential to develop tools within Historic Environment Records to support the delivery of effective protection through the planning system and to increase public awareness and engagement with the historic environment.
·
We understand that there is a proposal that the functions of the MLA will be absorbed into ACE. Strategically we would wish to see within ACE far greater recognition than exists at present of local authorities’ joint investment role in terms of both social purpose and access to excellence within arts and heritage.
·
Business support for the arts is led by business imperatives, and it is important to recognise that this model does not always fit with strategic aims to ensure that all communities have access to high quality arts experiences
·
In relation to philanthropy, Dorset has enjoyed support from local philanthropists who have made an important difference and contribution both to arts and heritage activity. However, philanthropic giving in general is related to projects which reflect the personal interest of the individual philanthropist and therefore it cannot be assumed that philanthropy will somehow fill a gap left by reduced public sector support to ensure the social, health and economic outcomes of strategic arts and heritage provision.
1. Introduction
1.1 The Dorset Cultural Strategy 2009 – 2014 has the vision and ambition that Dorset leads the world in placing culture at the heart of quality of life.
1.2 In the Dorset Citizens’ Panel Survey April 2009 78% agreed that access to cultural activities helps to make Dorset a better place to live; and 77% agreed that engagement in cultural activities contributes to an improved quality of life.
1.3 A key aim of the Dorset County Council (DCC) Arts Service is to provide creative leadership to make arts experiences of the highest quality accessible to all communities in Dorset.
1.4 DCC supports a number of key arts organisations including the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO). The BSO is an orchestra of international standing and regularly brings high quality performances to venues around the county. Its players and performances are a source of inspiration and learning for young people in Dorset.
1.5 Including the BSO which has a much wider geographical reach, there are eight Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) in the county, most of which are also supported by DCC. There are a further four key organisations that receive DCC support and project based funding from Arts Council England (ACE) or other funding bodies.
1.6 DCC’s Historic Environment team seeks to promote interest, understanding and enjoyment of Dorset's historic environment, and careful and sensitive development within it. This is done in a number of ways, which include providing information and advice on planning matters, historic buildings, agri-environment schemes, monument management, and the identification and recording of finds.
1.7 We have a rich historic environment which is an important factor in Dorset’s unique character and distinctiveness. It includes our built heritage of historic buildings (some housing important art or archive collections), attractive market towns and villages, over thirty historic parks and gardens, over nine thousand listed buildings and some 5% of England’s scheduled monuments such as Maiden Castle, which is among the largest and most complex of Iron Age hill forts in Europe.
2. Factual information
2.1 Dorset is an averaged sized county in terms of area but is among the smallest counties in England in terms of population. The county has a large proportion of older people with almost 29% of Dorset residents over retirement age. (The national figure is19.2%). There is a relatively low proportion of younger people. The proportion of residents in their twenties is 7.9% compared to 13.5% nationally.
2.2 In some of the more rural parts of the county, the population is relatively spares. This situation, together with these demographic trends, have particular implications for an effective response to service needs of Dorset’s communities. This is the context for the responses set out below to the issues the committee has raised.
3.
What impact recent, and future, spending cuts from central and local Government will have on the arts and heritag
e at a national and local
level
3.1 The budget announced the possibility of 25% to 40% cuts in public expenditure and asked government departments to model the impact of such cuts. This has led to a loss of stability in many arts organisations and challenges to planning within sensible parameters. This instability and uncertainty extends from the national level down to organisations working at a local level. The process leading up to the current position (August 2010) has resulted in a three month hiatus which some organisations are finding unproductive and which adversely affects future planning.
3.2 Most arts organisations can cope with planning for a cut of around 10% from one funder, but an organisation asked to model 40% cuts from all its public funders faces a more seriously damaging prospect. The modelling is not helped by the uncertainty over whether or not the cuts will all come in from next year, will all come in following years, or will be phased in gradually.
3.3
T
he t
ipping point which will drive most organisations into financial difficulties is less than
a
30% cut
.
Up to t
his level of spending cuts will mean
that o
rganisations will need to reduce output and
will have considerable impact.
3.4
Smaller organisations in ru
ral areas
in some parts of
Dorset
will find particular
difficult
y
because of the inherent increased
costs of
working
with
in a large
sparsely populated
area
.
3.5
English Heritage funding for buildings at risk has reduced within the county.
Dorset
has a growing population of elderly residents, and those residing on low incomes in historic properties are most at risk of not being able to fund repairs adequately.
4.
What arts organisations can do to work more closely together in order to reduce duplication of effort
and to make economies of scale
.
4.1 Working together within new forums can bring people together to collaborate on joint organisation and marketing, training and business development. A good example of this is the work being undertaken by the Dorset Strategic Partnership Culture Theme Group and the pioneering projects developing under its umbrella.
4.2
Organisations can work together
more closely
but
more formal joint operation will need time to achieve. M
erger
can only take place successfully as
the end of a
long process of
increasing
collaboration
.
4.3
To be successful, m
erger needs to be driven by joint objectives and priorities not financial imperative
.
Collaboration and merger
is a long term process and cannot be achieved overnight
.
4.4 Arts organisations need to take the initiative and look positively at ways of working more cost effectively on the basis that change is a necessity, not an option. Local Strategic Partnerships provide a framework for collaboration and the cultural contribution to implementation of the Sustainable Community Strategy.
4.5
The experience in
Dorset
is that it is essential to seek a common approach across local arts organisations, local authorities and the Arts
Council.
Failure to seek common understanding and to seek to make informed decisions which aligns, so far as practicable, the requirements and funding positions of all parties is a major risk.
4.6
Discussions have identified the
following
areas as having potential to reduce duplication of effort
and bring
economies of scale:
·
Shared marketing and promotion
·
Shared audience and market research
·
Shared
venue staffing
.
5.
What level of public subsidy for the arts and herita
ge is necessary
and sustainable
.
5.1
Some public subsidy
for the arts will always be necessary
. Any attempt to define an appropriate level of public subsidy would need to be informed by a thorough review of the entire public, private and philanthropic
investment picture.
5.2
There is now a considerable body of evidence that cultural activity improves individual and community health and wellbeing
and can support achievement of outcomes for children’s, health and social care services.
Consideration of how cultural organisations can better integrate with the joint strategic commissioning process may be useful in relation to public subsidy.
The recent Health White Paper
’
s move towards GP commissioning is particularly significant.
5.3
In relation to arts funding
, core investment to support development work will always be needed and the fact that this investment shows a considerable return in terms of economic and social impact unquestionably justifies that investment. The level at which this investment is set should relate to this impact and be directed to developing increased flexibility within organisations.
5.4
It is essential to continue supporting the Portable Antiquities Service which provides an essential protection for archaeological finds and the discovery of Treasure. It also provides the principal means of bringing this information into the public domain where it can be used by professionals and the public. There is no private sector way of delivering this service.
5.5
Support for English Heritage’s archaeological research programmes is also essential to develop tools within Historic Environment Records to support the delivery of effective protection to the historic environment through the planning system and to increase public awareness and engagement with the historic environment.
5.6
It is also highly desirable to continue funding to tackle those buildings and monuments that are most at risk and which cannot be used for directly profitable purposes. The longer they are left to deteriorate the more expensive it is to put right the depredation. It is particularly important to link this delivery mechanism with agri-environment schemes as many of the monuments at risk, particularly in
Dorset
, are on agricultural land. The available evidence suggests that agri-environment schemes make a vital contribution to environmental outcomes and are a key vehicle for delivering conservation of the natural and the historic environment.
2
Research also suggests that Environmental Stewardship and particularly Higher Level Stewardship deliver significant additional socio-economic benefits.
3
As the development of agri-environment schemes is ongoing there will no doubt be scope for further process improvements and simplification, but the continuation of these schemes and the provision of adequate resources for them should be
regarded as a keystone of the g
overnment’s aspiration to be the ‘greenest government ever’.
5.7 Frameworks for public subsidy should take into account the needs of rural areas, which are not always met by the urban or city focussed opportunities such as Capital of Culture. Rural proofing of any proposed changes is therefore an essential part of the Equalities Impact Assessment required in any policy review.
6.
Whether the current system, and structure, of fundin
g distribution is the right one
.
6.1
The current system tends to
wards encouraging dependency. Therefore t
h
e system should look to build
longer term sustainability which is not so dependent on public subsidy
. However to be successful
this will mean forging new longer term relationships between funder and funded.
6.2
The current system seems to be withdrawing from the support of the built heritage. This is happening at a time when a recent Visit Britain report shows that the built heritage is a strong driver of visits to
Britain
with £4.5 billion worth of spending by inbound visitors annually. In particular the report notes that built heritage is something that most visitors want to experience, appealing to all ages; that Britain’s built heritage is seen as iconic and that Britain’s built heritage is world-class, ranked 4
th
out of 50 nations by potential visitors; France, Italy and Spain being our main competitors.
4
7.
What impact recent changes to the distribution of National Lottery
funds will have on a
rts and heritage organisations
.
7.1 An increase in the National Lottery distribution of funds to arts and heritage is to be welcomed but not as replacement for treasury funds; however this is not scheduled to take effect until after the Olympics have finished in 2-3 years time.
8.
Whether the policy guidelines for National Lotte
ry funding need to be reviewed
.
8.1 Guidelines for the National Lottery funding should be kept under periodic review to reflect changes in the needs of society and of the arts and heritage sector.
8.2 The offering of grant aid to smaller heritage research and development projects also needs reform to require that a copy of the results is lodged with a public repository such as the local historic environment record and thereby made available to a wider audience.
9.
The impact of recent changes to DCMS arm’s-length bodies - in particular the abolition of the
UK
Film Council and the Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council
.
9.1
There are reservations about the MLA In terms of its effectiveness at representing the archive
and libraries
sector. Since its reorganisation and relocation to
Birmingham
, MLA's local 'reach' is arguably non-existent with only small teams covering two English regions each. Contact with MLA tends to be infrequent and based largely around funding streams on offer.
The consequence of the demise of the MLA will mean that The National Archives will need to play an even greater role in terms of archive
leadership, encouragement of best practice and self assessment.
It is questionable that there is a similar body to fulfil this role for libraries. This means that the opportunity to share good practice and the development of a consistent sector wide approach to common issues such as the developer contributions work that the MLA has been involved with, will be lost.
9.2
Any significant reduction in funding of museums through the current MLA "Renaissance" funding
programme
is likely to have an impact on arts and culture. This may not be through a direct reduction in museum activity
but
because local authorities may have to move funding from other cultural areas to offset any reduction. This
example illustrates
a more general point which is
the importance of appreciating the inter-locking nature of funding streams. It is only at
the
local level where the consequences of
hard decisions come together and an overview of impact can be seen
, both by sector leaders and managers, politicians and the public.
9.3
Funding for the Portable Antiquities Scheme is paid by DCMS through the
MLA and removal of that funding stream would be disastrous as
previously noted.
9.4
Despite our
reservations
about the effectiveness of the MLA
, we would be very concerned to see museums, libraries and archives effectively 'unrep
resented' at government level.
U
ntil we are clearer about how MLA's functions are to be re-provided, there will be degrees of concern about the government agenda on heritage and its real long-term interest in
museums, libraries and archives following MLA's abolition.
9.5
We understand that there is a proposal that the functions of the MLA will be absorbed into ACE. Strategically we would wish to see
within ACE
far greater recognition
than exists at present
of local authorities’ joint investment role in terms of both social purpose and access to excellence within arts and heritage.
10.
Whether businesses and philanthropists can play a long-term role in funding art
s at a national and local level
.
10.1 Businesses and philanthropists have supported the arts over a very long time, choosing, as they may, who and what they support. This support is to be welcomed and encouraged but not as a replacement for state funding for the arts. A critical reason for this is the need to ensure sustainable approaches and work for the medium to long-term. It is debilitating and not cost-effective for organisations to survive on short-term funding solutions.
10.2 Business is more likely to be attracted to the larger organisations which have a national and international profile. There is no evidence that any more than relatively minor business sponsorship can be achieved for the small scale arts provision which is the model in Dorset. The BSO’s larger profile and national reach means that it can attract significant support from business.
10.3 Business support for the arts is led by business imperatives, and it is important to recognise that this model does not always fit with strategic aims to ensure that all communities have access to high quality arts experiences
10.4 In relation to philanthropy, Dorset has enjoyed support from local philanthropists who have made an important difference and contribution both to arts and heritage activity. In addition organisations and local authorities in the county have a good track record of obtaining funding from grant-making trusts. However, philanthropic giving in general is related to projects which reflect the personal interest of the individual philanthropist and therefore it cannot be assumed that philanthropy will somehow fill a gap left by reduced public sector support to ensure the social, health and economic outcomes of strategic arts and heritage provision.
11.
Whether there need to be more Government incentives
to encourage private donations
11.1 Any step that encourages private donations is to be welcomed as long as there are realistic expectations as to how much this is likely to achieve. It is also important that private donations are not considered as a viable alternative to state funding for the arts and heritage.
11.2 Government should certainly provide incentives to carry out actions it requires people to do for the benefit of society as a whole. For example repairs to historic buildings sometimes cost more than repairs to ordinary buildings. Tax incentives should encourage this vital aspect of properly sustainable investment and activity.
Glossary of abbreviations
ACE Arts Council England
BSO Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
DCC Dorset County Council
MLA Museums Libraries and Archives Council
RFO Regularly Funded Organisation
September 2010
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