Report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods)

The report provides an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the city’s cultural sector; outlines access to local and national financial support for the sector; and describes the role the Council has played, with partners, in supporting the sector.

The Committee will also receive a presentation on the Cultural Impact Survey.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director (Neighbourhoods) which provided an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on the city’s cultural sector, outlined access to local and national financial support for the sector and described the role the Council had played, with partners, in supporting the sector.

The Executive Member for Skills, Culture and Leisure introduced the report, highlighting the impact of the pandemic on the sector, including the loss of income, and what had been done in response to this.  He thanked the Head of Libraries, Galleries and Culture and the Director of Culture, for their work and made reference to the work to widen access to and participation in cultural activities prior to the pandemic and the progress that had been made.

The Director of Cultureoutlined some of the key challenges facing the sector, including the end of furlough and the Cultural Relief Fund, the impact on freelancers, the supply chain and the pipeline of future talent and audience confidence as venues re-opened.  He also highlighted the amount of change and uncertainty the sector was dealing with, with new government advice meaning that recovery plans had had to be re-written and uncertainty about whether venues would be able to re-open on the planned date.  He reported that over the next 18 to 24 months there would be a focus on business and economic recovery and also health recovery for staff, audiences and participants and he outlined the key areas of this recovery work, includingpromotional activity, events, children and young people, network development support, workforce development, research and development and sustainable working.

The Principal Resources and Programmes Officer (Culture) delivered a presentation on the Cultural Impact Survey.  The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• Economic impact;
• Social value;
• Funding and income;
• Reach;
• Demographic data on audiences, participants, volunteers, employees and Board Members;
• School engagement with cultural organisations;
• Carbon reduction; and
• Cultural engagement by ward.

Some of the key points that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Whether demographic data could be provided for Chief Executives of cultural organisations;
• Freelancers having to find alternative employment;
• The Audience Development project, including engaging with new audiences and links with the NHS;
• How cultural events and venues would be promoted to the public when venues re-opened; and
• Redundancies in the sector.

In response to a Member’s question about responses to the Cultural Impact Survey, the Head of Libraries, Galleries and Culture reported that most of the larger organisations were included in the Cultural Impact Survey data, including those funded by the Arts Council and other public sector bodies, but that he would provide a more definitive answer on this.

The Principal Resources and Programmes Officer (Culture) reported that the Survey did not currently ask for demographic information on Chief Executives, advising that confidentiality issues would have to be considered if gathering information on specific posts; however, she advised that the questions were reviewed every year so consideration could be given to how data on the diversity of organisations’ leadership could be included.  The Director of Culture informed Members about work currently taking place to look at how the leadership of the cultural sector could be diversified.

The Principal Policy Officer (Culture)reported that there was a high level of freelancers in the sector, possibly double the number of employees.  She advised that, through supporting the benefactor of the Hardship Fund for freelancers, knowledge about this group and the challenges they faced was expanding and that this would be reviewed.  She reported that freelancers had been creative about finding alternative work and that national data showed that, among both freelancers and employees from the cultural sector, those leaving the sector at this time were disproportionately those who were younger, female and from diverse backgrounds and that there was a risk of the talent pool in the sector being significantly damaged.  The Director of Culture reported that more data was expected to come out of the national networks about what was happening with freelancers but that this was not available yet.

The Director of Culturereported that Manchester had successfully bid for approximately £250,000 from the Cultural Relief Fund for audience development work to enable cultural organisations and venues to work together to re-engage audiences.  He also outlined how the sector was working with the NHS and promoting the message that engaging with arts and culture was beneficial for health and well-being.  The Culture Lead provided Members with an overview of the grassroots engagement work which would be taking place as part of the Audience Development project.  She informed Members that, just before the first lockdown, the Council had launched a new website called Loads To Do, which provided residents with one site where they could view details of the creative and cultural offer across the city, not just in the city centre.  She advised that it would be re-launched as part of the Welcome Back campaign with the Communications Team and the Audience Development campaign.  A Member suggested that the Committee receive further information on the Audience Development project.  The Executive Member for Skills, Culture and Leisure responded that the audience participation data detailed in the Cultural Impact Survey did not reflect all cultural activities across the city and in neighbourhoods and suggested that a piece of work be undertaken to capture this information.  He advised that he would speak to officers about this outside of the meeting.

The Principal Policy Officer informed Members that the Cultural Impact Survey covered the period to March 2020 so the results of the next survey would need to be studied to see the full impact of the pandemic, including job losses within the sector.

In response to a Member’s question, the Director of Culturereported that the funding which organisations had received included money to make their venues Covid secure and that making audiences feel safe was key to attracting them back.  In response to a further question, he advised that a national conversation was taking place about a government-backed insurance scheme to cover event cancellation due to COVID-19.

Decision

The Committee note the report.