Scotland's National Cultural Strategy: page 12

Scotland's National Cultural Strategy

Partnerships in Practice

Each summer, Scottish Youth Dance, a national organisation core-funded by SAC, with support from the Lottery Advancement Award, offers opportunities for young people aged 14-25 to participate in dance, culminating in a summer festival. In July 2000, to celebrate the Millennium the annual festival was extended to cover other arts in addition to dance. Held in Stirling, the festival drew upon Scottish Youth Dance's outreach programme which had run across Scotland for six months and involved partnerships with local authorities and others.

Like many other cultural events and activities, the festival depends for its success on contributions from many partners, including:

Stirling Council, who gave both funding and support in kind with use of venues and support staff
The MacRobert Arts Centre, the event co-hosts
The Duke of Edinburgh Award and the Millennium Fund, both of whom gave financial support
Scottish Youth Dance
Volunteer support from the Millennium Volunteers Programme, supported by the Scottish Executive
In kind support from Historic Scotland
The Thistle Shopping Centre, Stirling which hosted the final pageant
SAC who, as well as providing funding, continue to advise and monitor the work of the group.

We need to take account of changes to the way in which Scotland is governed, changing patterns of cultural participation, the upsurge of interest in Scotland's culture, and emerging new media and other developments in ICT. The national framework needs to:

Promote access, creativity and excellence
Locate decision-making in the appropriate place at the appropriate level
Focus available resources on clearly stated objectives
Cover the range of provision, but avoid duplication
Be transparent in its decision-making, with clearly stated objectives
Encourage partnership and joint-working
Enable and empower, not control and constrain
Be guided by accurate information.

A framework for partnership
Culture focuses upon shared experiences and therefore partnerships are of particular importance. The key cultural partnership is the one between artist, producer or presenter and participant, audience or consumer. However, in order to reach their audience, those working in the cultural sector also need to work in partnership with a range of others, including those who fund and facilitate cultural provision and access, such as commercial bodies, local authorities and the Scottish Arts Council. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) effectively supports the establishment of such local cultural partnerships through HI Arts. Overall, activity which is supported by public funds needs to have tangible benefits measurable in terms of meeting people's requirements, promoting inclusion and excellence, widening access, stimulating creativity and removing barriers to enjoyment and participation.

HI Arts

In 1991, to support the promotion of arts and cultural activity in the Highlands and Islands, Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) set up Highlands and Islands Arts Ltd (HI Arts), a limited company with charitable status. HI Arts is contracted by HIE to deliver, on its behalf, an annual programme of arts development and promotion. The Scottish Arts Council also funds this programme and HI Arts has been particularly successful in securing SAC National Lottery Funds to support local work. HI Arts is based in the offices of HIE, employing ten staff and a range of project workers. Among HI Arts' key activities on behalf of HIE are:

A comprehensive database of arts organisations and events in the Highlands
and Islands
A three year programme of Music Industry Development and Support - MIDAS
Advising arts groups and Local Enterprise Companies in the HIE Network, on development proposals and funding applications
Advising and reporting on applications to Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Funds.

Establishing a national framework for cultural provision appropriate to the 21st Century

Reviewing existing arrangements

Scotland has a complex cultural infrastructure. Over time, the existing support framework has evolved in response to emerging priorities. Within the public sector, organisations are reviewed on an individual basis in line with requirements set out for government-supported bodies. We will ensure that future and continuing reviews take account of each organisation's contribution to the objectives and aims set out in this strategy. Reviews will be conducted in a planned, progressive manner and will enable the effectiveness of existing arrangements to be evaluated so that the framework can be improved.

Local authorities

Local authorities are responsible for the majority of public support for cultural provision and access. Locally, they have key roles as:

Providers of cultural services and activities, amongst others: museums, theatres, leisure centres and schools
Partners and supporters of cultural activity in the voluntary and private sectors
Representatives of the communities they serve.

Authorities have statutory duties to ensure that there is adequate provision of library services and of facilities for recreational, sporting, cultural and social activities for the residents of their areas. They also have a power to 'provide or do, or arrange for the provision of or doing of, or contribute towards the expenses of providing or doing, anything necessary or expedient for the purpose of ensuring that there are available, whether inside or outside their area, such facilities for recreational, sporting cultural or social activities as they consider appropriate', Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1982.

In May 2000, all Scottish local authorities took part in a snapshot survey, designed
to support the development of the national cultural strategy. The survey sought to find out why, what and how they provided or supported cultural activity and facilities. There are some positive developments and some issues of concern in the results of this survey. The Scottish Executive will discuss these issues with COSLA and consider the case for a more detailed review. We shall continue to work in partnership with authorities to identify and disseminate good practice in planning, evaluating and making cultural provision. Local cultural strategies, where appropriate, jointly agreed across partner authorities, can be an important strand in the development of community plans.

Local Authority Provision for Culture

Amongst the main findings of the May 2000 survey of cultural provision by local authorities were:

Overall, spending on cultural activity by local authorities decreased over the three years 1996-1999, although in some authorities spending was maintained or increased. In 1998/9 Scottish councils spent Ł240,745,000 on cultural activity, or Ł47.02 per person
Different local authorities placed different emphases on cultural activity, and provision of facilities varied widely
There was significant variation in the range, type and frequency of cultural activities supported by authorities
The balance between what authorities provided directly and what they supported as enablers was being adjusted to support national and local objectives
A number of authorities were making good use of partnerships with other public and private sector agencies and bodies in order to provide the best service
Increasingly, authorities were using cultural activities to help to achieve objectives in priority areas such as health, lifelong learning and social inclusion
There was little comprehensive data collection or analysis of spending on cultural activities and its effects
There were very few local cultural strategies, but most authorities had recent or emergent sports or leisure strategies or plans for sports development.