The Scottish Arts Council
The Scottish Arts Council is the principal channel for the Scottish Executive's funding of contemporary arts in Scotland. It receives an annual grant from the Executive, amounting to £28m in 2000/01, which it distributes to artists and arts organisations in Scotland. It funds a wide range of organisations on a continuing basis. SAC also distributes Lottery funds to the arts in Scotland.

SAC works at arm's length from Scottish Ministers. It is responsible for decisions about funding and policy in line with broad guidance set out in its Charter and other strategic directions from Ministers. Ministers do not engage in detailed funding decisions. The Scottish Executive considers that the principle of arm's length working is important and we wish to maintain it. A clearer definition of roles and responsibilities is now required.

SAC gives significant support to national artistic and cultural activity, as well as to local provision and individuals. Its work includes:

• Supporting galleries, festivals, theatres, arts centres, touring companies, contemporary dance, promoters, service organisations and resource centres
• Providing awards, bursaries, fellowships, travel and research grants
• Providing information services to the arts community
• Conducting research
• Encouraging others (local authorities, the education sector, economic development agencies, private sponsors and charitable trusts) to support the arts.

SAC has a demanding role. It has to:

• Make choices amongst competing demands for limited resources
• Take account of national and local priorities
• Reflect the diversity of arts provision in Scotland
• Ensure the highest quality in work they support and monitor grant receivers both financially and artistically
• Liaise with individuals, the arts community and a wide range of public and private bodies
• Inform the Scottish Executive and the people of Scotland about its own work and, more generally, the arts in Scotland.

In recent times, SAC has made considerable progress in making its working practices and decision-making processes more transparent. All positions and posts, including these of Council members, are advertised and appointed in line with clear criteria. Council meetings are now open to the public. It is essential for the continued positive development of art and culture in Scotland that the SAC enjoys the confidence and respect of the public, the arts community and local councils. To assure this the Scottish Executive will:

• Specify clearly its expectations of SAC, in line with this strategy, by the end of 2000. These will provide a basis for SAC's operational decisions
• Work with SAC to develop criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of its own work and that of those it supports, to include gathering and responding to the views of both the arts community and wider public, by summer 2001
• Conduct a full review of the work and roles of SAC, by Spring 2003, drawing upon the wide range of data that should be available by that time.

>>Actions to develop a national support framework appropriate to the 21st Century

We shall:

• Ensure that continuing reviews of existing national cultural bodies take full account of the objectives set out in the National Cultural Strategy, to include an early review of the work and roles of the Scottish Arts Council
• Work with COSLA and others to promote effective local partnerships between groups of local authorities and key local bodies to provide a wide range of local cultural activities in line with local priorities
• Embed cultural strategies within the local community planning process and within community learning plans, forming links with key local agencies
• Increase recognition of the potential contribution of the cultural and aesthetic across all areas of Scottish Executive policy.

A focus on improving the quality and management of cultural provision

Evaluating for improvement

Our approach to review needs to be transparent and fair, based upon firm information about the present levels of provision and distribution of resources and about the quality and effectiveness of their impact. It is not sufficient simply to assert that supporting cultural activity and engagement with the arts will automatically improve each citizen's quality of life. It must be demonstrable: up to date, accurate information about the outcomes and effectiveness of provision is essential.

All of our national cultural bodies and organisations have arrangements for evaluating the effectiveness of their work. There is, however, room for further improvement in:

• Measuring the overall impacts of particular initiatives
• Identifying and applying measures of the wider effects and benefits of cultural activities, particularly those that are community-based
• Identifying and sharing good practice and agreeing and codifying common measures, whether qualitative or quantitative
• National collation of evidence of the extent, quality and effect of provision.
• Evaluating the effects of joint working
• Assessing the synergy of activities, individually planned and executed
• Using the information from evaluation to inform and guide management and organisational decisions
• Evaluation using a third party.

Across the range of activities nationally, we do not have sufficiently clear, collated, year-on-year information about levels of provision, their quality and effectiveness. The existing information is too diverse, and there needs to be greater consistency in identifying what is to be collected and how it is to be analysed. Given current arrangements, it is difficult to measure how effectively our objectives are being achieved. We need, for example, to be able to judge how well people's needs are met and whether existing support mechanisms are sufficiently inclusive and transparent. This kind of information is needed to support future decision-making. Since most decision taking is devolved, the information needs to be widely available and understood.

>> Actions to improve the quality and management of cultural provision

We shall:

• Develop, disseminate and apply relevant research into aspects of cultural provision in Scotland
• Establish an effective system for gathering and disseminating information and statistics about national provision for cultural activity and participation
• Publish regular summaries of research into the range, level and quality of cultural provision
• As part of the development of a national evaluation framework for cultural provision in Scotland, commission a set of instruments for evaluation, to be progressively developed to include exemplification of standards, illustrations of good practice, and advice on measuring the social benefits of cultural activity, for use by all those working in these areas.

Targeting funding to achieve clear priorities

Investing in culture
Culture makes a major contribution to the economy of Scotland. Public sector investment is only part of the total, but the sums involved are significant. It is difficult to be precise about Scotland's spending on cultural activity as definitions vary about what is counted as cultural. Public funding comes in a number of forms. Over £80m per year is given directly to the arts and cultural agencies supported by the Scottish Executive, with a further £10.3m to Sportscotland. Between 1995 and April 2000 a total of £136.6m of lottery funding has been distributed to arts and culture in Scotland and a further £122.5m to sport. In 1998-9 local councils spent just over £240m on a broad range of cultural and leisure provision. Public resources need to be carefully targeted to ensure that they make the most effective contribution to achieving national and local objectives.

Many cultural activities thrive with either no or relatively small amounts of public financial support. These activities are either commercial and are funded entirely by the admission fee, purchase price or associated merchandising, or are sponsored by business or, less commonly, individuals. Business sponsorship of the arts and other cultural activity in Scotland has grown significantly in recent years and last year it was just under £12 m. To maintain and increase these levels of support, representatives of arts groups need to plan to gather convincing evidence of the potential commercial benefits of their activity, and to demonstrate the advantages to the potential sponsor.

Simplifying funding, minimising bureaucracy
There is a range of sources of public funding for arts and culture, each with its own qualification criteria and accountability needs. We need to do more to consider the cumulative effects upon those bidding for funds. There can be a mismatch between the skills required to meet the bureaucratic demands which assure accountability for public funding, and those required to produce good quality cultural work. Where work receives support from public funds, there needs to be a clear understanding by all concerned about what is expected. Individuals working in the cultural sector and groups or companies who undertake work with public support need to have confidence about finance over the agreed life of the project so that they can plan their work effectively. To facilitate planning, the Scottish Executive would like to see funding agreed for a three-year period for projects funded over the long-term.

Once priorities have been identified and provision has been planned, meeting exceptional claims for unplanned funding, particularly where there is a cost to others, may be regarded as unfair. Good cultural provision has to be supported by good management and careful financial planning. The innovation and enthusiasm which are essential to initiating new work or establishing new facilities, need to be sustained once work is underway. Projections for audience, visitor or participation levels, for commercial success and for additional financial support or sponsorship from other sources need to be realistic, based upon good quality market research, benchmarked against similar projects and circumstances. Every new project needs to have a business plan which projects how it will be sustained over time.

Public money needs to be spent in ways which are demonstrably beneficial to the public, and there need to be appropriate checks. The Scottish Executive is determined to find ways of both meeting these requirements and minimising the bureaucratic burden. It will work with others to encourage sponsoring bodies, wherever possible, to:

• Standardise application procedures and forms
• Gather only information necessary to enable the application to be evaluated against the relevant criteria
• Promote training in business practice for those working in the cultural sector
• Provide advice and support for applicants.

>>Actions to target funding to priorities

We shall:

• Work with funding bodies and those charged with making cultural provision
  to agree a clear set of national priorities for cultural development
• Minimise the bureaucracy associated with public funding
• Collate information from funding bodies to provide an annual prospectus setting out funding available, to include information about deadlines and funding criteria
• Continuously monitor and review the balance between 'project' and 'revenue' funding of cultural provision to promote sustainability.