Good morning, everyone—it is good to see you all again. We have digested a lot in relation to that important piece of work. The last time that I was at the committee, I reported that we had extended that work and the issues that it explored to make sure that we got the full value from it to inform the funding review, which I imagine we will come to later.
The report makes a lot of very helpful recommendations, which I have clustered into three broad areas. Although we will reflect on the full extent of the report and its recommendations, the key things that resonate are to do with strategic, external and internal considerations. I will run through the headlines of those three areas.
On the strategic front, the report has a lot of useful reflection on and commentary about the length of the funding period. Regular funding has a three-year cycle. Cultural and creative organisations want long planning horizons, and a longer funding period is to be considered in the funding review.
A large variety of organisations want to apply for regular funding from Creative Scotland. The variety in the scale of those organisations and the diversity of art forms across Scotland make a one-size-fits-all model particularly challenging, and the need to segment the funding process in some way was a clear idea in the report.
That leads on to another issue, which is that many organisations considered the funding process to be too onerous. We need to reflect on that. The report includes ideas about having a two-stage process, for example. The initial part of that process might be lighter touch, with successful applicants then invited to submit more detail.
The report also includes a lot of debate about the organisations that are too important to fail, what a healthy national cultural infrastructure looks like and how we can best support that infrastructure through our processes.
On the external considerations, there is a lot about transparency in the report. The funding process is perceived to be clear in certain regards, but opaque in others. We really have to address that issue and make sure that there is end-to-end transparency in and accountability for the funding process. That must be clear to people: they must be able to inform the process and its design through the funding review, and they must be able to see and understand how and why decisions are taken.
There is an issue to do with having more open engagement during the funding process. I think that we need to look at the length of the timescales involved. Last time around, the process was extended, which was partly to do with budget-setting timescales. Ultimately, the design of the process should be as focused as possible, to enable us to explain as we go what is happening, and to enable people to interact with it.
A point is made in the report about guidelines on acceptable conduct. I have noted before that the previous funding process was a bruising experience for everybody all round—that is, not just for those internal to the organisation, but for those external to it. Creative Scotland must operate with a very clear sense of professional conduct. We need to understand that and to expect that conduct to be reciprocated when we have very challenging news to give.
On the internal considerations, although a lot of training and support is in place for staff, it is clear that we can and should do more to support them. It is important that staff get that support for all organisational processes, not just in relation to training on funding processes.
Another issue is to do with having a better flow of communications across the organisation, so that people have a greater understanding of what is happening and who is involved.
A very important issue to do with our work on quality assurance was highlighted by the complaints that were received following last year’s funding process. All assessments must be consistent and quality assured, so that they can stand up to scrutiny when we ultimately communicate our decisions.
The final internal aspect is about the dynamic between the staff, the executive and the board of Creative Scotland. They all need to understand one another’s roles, who is doing what and how the work happens. The report captures tensions at the very end of the funding process. We have to be much clearer about how the process works end to end, to make sure that that is understood as we go through it, and, indeed, that we get to the right conclusion.
Ultimately, issues to do with post-application or post-decision aftercare are just as important as the funding process itself. That is a very important consideration when it comes to our ability to engage sensitively with organisations that are disappointed in the outcome of their application. I think that we would anticipate there always being a tension between the quality of the applications and the fact that demand will outstrip the available financial resources for regular funding programmes. We will always have disappointment that we need to manage. We need to open up the organisation and the design of the funding process, so that people can have confidence in it and understand how it operates. Ultimately, when we need to communicate funding decisions, they will then have a greater understanding of why we have reached those decisions.