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The Roles of National and Local Government
| The role of Scottish Government focuses on supporting the development of excellence and the artistic product, up to what might be called the 'national standard'. How that will affect practice will depend on the nature of each activity. The Executive will fund directly national bodies responsible for building and/or showcasing cultural excellence. That includes the national performing companies, removing the uncertainty inherent in current funding arrangements through the Scottish Arts Council. Government has responsibility, and a major stake, in supporting top flight performing bodies, to be a source of national pride and enjoyment, and to kindle the ambition of talented young aspirants in every branch of the performing arts. |
In recent years, the Executive has increased its focus on international activity, promoting Scotland and its culture through a series of initiatives in places including Washington DC, Venice, Catalonia, France and the NetherlandsAs mentioned, all portfolios of Government recognise that they have a role to play in the supply of culture to advance their business objectives, and all will take culture into account in their future planning activity, in light of the cultural review. Since the First Minister's St Andrew's Day speech in 2003 there have been regular meetings between the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport with other Cabinet Ministers to achieve this objective. These discussions have produced a programme of joint actions. This action programme has been published on the Scottish Executive website. These Ministerial discussions will continue and the actions resulting will be published periodically on the website. Scottish Executive Departments make a strong contribution, collectively investing over £200 million annually - a similar order of investment to the Executive's main budget for culture and to investment through local authorities.
Local government has a key role to ensure cultural provision in their respective areas. The Executive proposes to promote the development of this responsibility by local authorities, building on their substantial current contribution to achieve more consistent delivery approaches and standards across Scotland.
Planning for culture
To discharge the local authority planning role effectively requires strategy that ensures the wide-ranging benefits of culture are identified across the range of policy areas. Cultural planning is an effective way of discharging that role, identifying the nature of demand by means of inviting, and responding to, local aspirations. The cultural planning process should feed directly into Community Planning - the system advocated for developing cultural provision and advancing community well-being in the 2003 "Implementation of the National Cultural Strategy: Guidance for Scottish Local Authorities", published jointly by the Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.
Like national government, many of local government's top priorities can benefit from using cultural provision as a delivery agent, funded by the relevant non-arts budgets, such as education and regeneration. There are many good examples where this is happening already. The Executive considers that many more benefits can be released by means of this approach if cultural planning develops as an integral part of the 'citizen-first' Community Planning process.
To promote the activity of planning for cultural provision across the local authority sector, the Executive will introduce a new legislative provision that asks authorities to produce evidence of cultural planning as part of the strategic planning activity of Community Planning Partnerships. It will be important for this planning activity to link with other relevant plans, such as Community Learning and Development Strategies, and for adjoining Community Planning Partnerships to exploit economies of scale and strategic interests by working collaboratively and traversing boundaries.
Since the joint publication by the Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities in March 2003, 4 setting out strategic advice on good practice for local authorities in their implementation of the National Cultural Strategy, we have acknowledged that more specific guidance was needed. We shall establish a group including the local authority bodies and cultural agencies to produce practical guidance on the development of local cultural policies and strategies within Community Planning and between Community Planning Partnerships, supported by a new quality assurance tool. The aim will be to help local authorities and their Community Planning Partnerships to plan and monitor their cultural provision as part of a pan-policy process that ensures culture's contribution is harnessed in all departments of local government. It is also intended that this should lead to a greater consistency of approach to cultural provision across Scotland.
National guidance will also be developed collaboratively to help authorities discharge their responsibilities in key policy areas such as access, provision in schools, growing cultural diversity and audience development. Other local partners, including arts venues, galleries, theatres and libraries, clearly have a key role also in promoting 'audience development' - and opportunities to collaborate should be exploited. Guidance will also be provided to the national cultural bodies, requiring them to engage with this local planning activity.
Local cultural entitlements
The Commission was asked to explore and define the subject of cultural rights and entitlements. The Commission stated correctly that entitlements should be developed in each local authority area, in response to the wishes of local people. Its report proposed a raft of legislation for implementing its ideas - making local authorities responsible for developing, and operating the majority of these arrangements, at the critical local level. The Executive has considered this whole area carefully, and is resolutely committed to the principle. It is important that those fortunate enough to have been encouraged to sample and enjoy culture should ensure that the same good fortune is available to others.
The Executive considers that the Commission's recommendation advocating Scottish legislation to endorse international and European rights would do nothing to improve upon the existing position. Similarly, the proposals for entitlements would not readily translate into legislation in ways that would confer any real advantage for the intended beneficiaries. The Executive will not adopt that route.
However we remain wholeheartedly committed to the principle of entitlements to cultural provision for local people, in the spirit of the rights already in place at international and European levels. While we endorse fully those existing rights, we also regard them as a minimum requirement. The Commission's report sets out the main international provisions which apply.
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) - everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts …(Article 27 - which also affords the right to protection of artistic production)
- everyone, as a member of society … is entitled to realisation … of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality (Article 22)
- everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible (Article 29)
The Declaration of the Principles of International Cultural Co-operation by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation ( UNESCO, 1966) - each culture has a dignity and value which must be respected and preserved (Article 1)
- every people has the right and the duty to develop its culture (Article 1)
- in their rich variety and diversity, and in the reciprocal influences they exert on one another, all cultures form part of the common heritage belonging to all mankind (Article 1)
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) - the right to freedom of expression … freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds … either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice (Article 13)
- the education of the child shall be directed to: the development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential (Article 29)
- the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities … and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts (Article 31 - which also states that States Parties shall respect and promote the child's right to participate fully in cultural and artistic life, and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity)
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Taking these existing rights as a starting point, the Executive will seek to put in place arrangements that will ensure cultural rights and entitlements can impact on the lives of citizens and communities right across Scotland. We propose that the Culture Bill - through which we plan to implement relevant key provisions of our future policy - would create a legislative framework for delivering rights and entitlements. At national level, relevant cultural bodies which are part of the new infrastructure described below, will be required to develop minimum standards for the various sectors - such as museums, theatre, libraries, dance, literature - reflecting guidance from Scottish Ministers, and in consultation with the sectors in question and other stakeholders. Those national bodies will also be expected to contribute to the development of cultural entitlements. We shall consider the question of how the new provisions should affect the existing duty of "adequate" provision in the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1994 (arising from the Local Government and Planning Act (Scotland) 1982).
At local level, the local authorities will have a duty to develop minimum cultural entitlements to apply in their areas. As with direct support to non-national cultural organisations and venues, the Executive believes that cultural entitlements are best, and most appropriately, delivered locally - for the benefit of communities. The cultural planning activity of local authorities, mentioned above - integrated within the framework of Community Planning - should include entitlements that address identified need in each authority area. The Executive anticipates this approach should open up a range of choices for local people, and a menu of cultural options which they have helped to develop. The principle of free access to cultural activity for young people should be every provider's goal - and should underpin the entitlements and pledges now being explored.
Delivery of local entitlements
Many local authorities have a record of commitment to meeting identified demand which is well demonstrated by actions such as, improvements in the museums sector, and recognition of the need to strengthen their joint working activities. The Executive has been considering, in the light of discussions with local authority bodies, what approaches would help local authorities in their delivery functions - to maximise cultural opportunities for people across Scotland.
In setting entitlements, local authorities will want to have regard to what will be effective and practical. To inform that aspect, pilot projects are proposed exploring approaches to entitlement-setting in different scenarios. One such is the Cultural Pledge for young people, being introduced by The Highland Council as part of the legacy programme for Scotland's Year of Highland Culture in 2007. The Executive is looking to fund a number of pilots and initiatives to inform the development of standards and entitlements, and will examine incentives to local authorities to help build on their extensive existing activities in ways that promote consistent provision throughout Scotland. One of these initiatives is the Public Library Improvement Matrix, being piloted in ten local authorities with support from the Executive and the Scottish Library and Information Council to develop standards and evaluation criteria. Details of other pilots will be announced shortly.
In 2007, Scotland will celebrate Highland culture in an exciting year-long festival including a range of international, regional and community events, as well as capital projects and cultural activities specifically for young people. The project is a partnership between three principal funding agencies: The Highland Council, the Scottish Executive, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise and aims to promote the Highlands as a great place to live and to visit by showcasing the unique nature of Highland culture past, present and futureSome authorities, like Glasgow, have been considering the implications of the review agenda in advance of this response. Glasgow is developing its own set of citizens' entitlements, including some for cultural provision. This is a very welcome development, setting an example for others to follow.
The proposed new cultural planning and self-monitoring guidance, mentioned above, is intended to help local authorities take necessary action. That guidance will provide examples of good practice, and cover the practical development and monitoring of entitlements by each local authority, discussing approaches such as capacity building, and collaboration between Community Planning Partnerships and with neighbouring authorities - for example, to provide touring exhibitions. While entitlements should be the product of local decision-making, it is envisaged that they will promote access in a range of practical ways, such as providing transport to cultural venues - in the authority area, or that of a neighbouring authority - or making exhibits available electronically. As well as entitlements to visit collections and be part of the audience, active participation in cultural activity and creative processes should also be promoted.
Once the new arrangements are in place, we shall take soundings at local level, to discover how cultural provision is being implemented in light of these arrangements, and the existing international and European cultural rights. The Commission's proposal to make culture a specific theme in Community Planning would not be compatible with the 2003 legislation, which does not specify which policy themes should be promoted. The Executive is aware, however, of the powerful role that Community Planning can play in opening up cultural opportunities locally, and intends to ask the Chairs of all Community Planning Partnerships, periodically, to advise on how citizen-first cultural planning activity and local entitlements are impacting. That should identify how consistently and effectively local planning is meeting local people's wishes. We shall review how these arrangements can in due course be developed as part of the debate on future public service reform.
Action is also needed regarding what we might call the contact points between 'national and local' endeavour. The thrust of public service reform is to establish a relationship between the Executive and local authorities based on achieving high level national priorities and those set locally. The features that should characterise future public sector service delivery centre on meeting the needs of citizens and service users (rather than service providers), quality, efficiency and productivity, accountability, achieving outcomes and more joined-up partnership activity. This will need to inform the delivery of cultural services as with any other area of provision. As well as exploring opportunities to incentivise local provision, we shall consider the possible devolution of funding via specific grant for initiatives best delivered locally but which could not reasonably be resourced out of normal funding arrangements - for example, certain venue provision currently funded by the Scottish Arts Council to its core funded organisations; schools-based programmes (discussed below); and a possible extension of the proposed museums "national significance recognition" scheme to other sectors. A cultural policy-based pilot initiative might also be explored, to test new approaches allied to public service reform.
4. "Implementation of the National Cultural Strategy: Guidance for Scottish Local Authorities".
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