SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE

Maximising the social benefits of culture

Culture promotes social cohesion
Over the last 25 years there has been increasing interest in the social benefits of cultural participation. Recently the Scottish Arts Council has sponsored a number of locally-based projects, working in partnership with local providers and communities. Around Scotland the many festivals and community-based celebrations of local traditions show the power of participation to strengthen communities. Participating in cultural activity can have a range of benefits, for example in helping people to find previously unrecognised talents, or in raising individual or community self-esteem.

Realising the full potential contribution of culture to the quality of people's lives, requires us to ensure that everybody feels they have a place in Scotland's cultural life, regardless of their traditions, origins, religion or race. Arts, sport and culture have an important role to play in sustaining, developing and regenerating communities. They create employment directly and give people opportunities to acquire skills and experience which are useful in the labour market. In Dundee, for example, arts development has been placed firmly at the heart of the city's drive to economic and social regeneration.

Demonstrating the benefits
Although there has been much recent activity evaluating the social benefits of cultural activity, evidence remains dominated by 'soft' measures, frequently based on programme criteria rather than the needs of the community itself. Although it is important to recognise that some benefits of cultural participation cannot easily be measured, there needs to be a better balance between 'soft' measures, such as perception and anecdote, and 'hard' measures such as, objective evidence, third-party observation and data-collection. Good quality information about provision also helps those involved to make improvements and will be key to securing additional resources. We therefore intend to develop a better framework for evaluating the benefits of culture to the community.

Widening access to excellence is important. Excellence should be based upon the quality of performance or experience, not upon prior notions of cultural hierarchies, based upon the art form. Unhelpful distinctions can inhibit individual creativity and limit opportunities. There should be opportunities for all people in Scotland to celebrate their culture, language, beliefs and traditions through participation, observation and appreciation. We also aim to optimise the potential of the new technologies to support access to cultural activity and the arts. A significant development in this area has been the extension of New Deal support to young people working in rock and other popular music.

Employment
Cultural activity can offer significant benefits for the local and national economy. Many of the jobs associated with this sector demand high levels of skill and creativity and are personally fulfilling. Increased affluence and leisure time mean that these areas continue to grow, particularly in the creative industries. There is also significant export potential. The direct employment benefits associated with the cultural industries are complemented by associated economic benefits from linked activities such as tourism. More widely, participation in cultural activities can develop self-esteem and interpersonal skills, which increase people's employability in a wide range of fields.

The place of sport
Sport is embedded in Scotland's cultural life and heritage. It has an impact on almost everyone and major sporting events and stories such as Scotland's participation in the 1998 football World Cup in France and Paul Lawrie's victory in the 1999 Open Golf Championship capture widespread attention, even amongst those not normally interested in sport. Scotland is home to many sports, such as curling, shinty, golf and traditional 'games' events. It has also adopted many other sports as its own, including rugby and football. The language and traditions of sport permeate and enrich our speech. Sport can inspire creativity in forms such as song, comedy, film, television, drama, story-telling, journalism, reportage, imaginative writing, as well as in photography and a range of visual arts. Our sporting heritage is represented in a number of collections, including the Museum of Golf at St. Andrews and the Museum of Football, scheduled to open at Hampden later in 2000.

In 1998, the Scottish Sports Council published Sport 21: Nothing Left to Chance which set out a strategy for sport in Scotland. The Scottish Executive has endorsed this strategy as a basis for its own policies and programmes for sport. We believe that when sport is successfully promoted, its cultural dimensions also flourish. Sport and other aspects of culture share much common ground; they can both play an important role in bringing people together and promoting social inclusion.

Sport 21 states that Scotland should be a country where sport is more widely available to all, sporting talent is recognised and nurtured and which achieves and sustains world-class sporting performances. Its objectives are to:

• Provide a national framework for the continued development of sport throughout Scotland
• Reinforce the importance and value of sport in Scotland today
• Set sport in the wider context of Scotland's political, social and economic environment
• Encourage the creation of more comprehensive strategies and possible policies for sport at all levels
• Accelerate the development of new structures and new approaches by promoting good practice in Scottish sport
• Increase further the levels of co-operation in Scottish sport in order to maximise the resources available and eliminate duplication of effort.

>>Actions to maximise the social benefits of culture

We shall:

• Promote community-based cultural and sporting activities in the context of Social Inclusion Partnerships, to include a wide range of activities
• Audit all public support for arts and culture in terms of its social benefits, including its planned contribution to social inclusion
• Conduct robust evaluations of the contribution that cultural and sporting activity makes to urban regeneration in the context of existing projects, and identify and disseminate features of good practice
• Increase the numbers across all communities taking part in voluntary activities, including cultural activity, in line with the Active Communities Initiative and Millennium Volunteers
• Investigate the feasibility of extending New Deal to a wider range of cultural and sporting development and training and identify the contribution that Modern Apprenticeships can make to developing young people's skills in cultural and sporting activity.