Research and Policy Brief
In this brief, we focus on the Skills for Jobs White Paper and what it might mean for craft. In addition, we look at:
- the evidence about how craft is helping us to get through the pandemic
- how the pandemic is impacting on arts and culture
- culture’s contribution to the economy
- advice now Britain has left the EU; and
- some new education good practice materials.
The Skills White Paper and what it means for craft
The Government published its Skills for jobs: lifelong learning for opportunity and growth White Paper on 22 January. The intention of the measures is:
- to address the UK’s historical skills gaps
- to increase the country’s productivity
- to tackle the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
The measures include:
- giving employers a central role in designing almost all technical courses by 2030 to link education and training to skills needed. Local Skills Improvement Plans will support this by bringing together employers, colleges, other providers and local stakeholders.
- boosting the quality and uptake of higher technical qualifications by introducing newly approved qualifications from September 2022. The majority of post-16 technical and higher technical education and training (including T Levels) will be aligned to employer-led standards set by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. Higher technical education (levels 4 and 5) will be reformed with a new approval system based on employer-led standards.
- introducing a Lifelong Loan Entitlement from 2025 for training and retraining throughout adults’ lives (the equivalent of four years of post-18 education) to make it as easy to get a loan for a higher technical course as it is for a university degree.
- using a new £2.5 billion National Skills Fund to support adults to upskill and reskill – so all adults achieve their first full advanced (level 3) qualification as part of a Lifetime Skills Guarantee.
The White Paper sits alongside Government proposals to reform post-16 technical and academic qualifications at levels 3, 4 and 5 (including removing a number of qualifications), consultation on outline content for T levels, (including the Craft and Design T Level, to which we responded) and changing the focus of higher education (explicitly excluding creative subjects from high cost funding, whilst increasing specialist arts institutions’ funding).
What does this mean for craft? We’ve long argued that there is a need to increase the diversity of routes into craft, to increase both vocational and academic routes into practice, but also to tackle the low numbers of government funded craft apprentices and the funding challenges for independent apprenticeships. So, the White Paper could provide welcome opportunities for those working in craft.
But the new vocational pathways need to be in place before some qualifications and higher education courses disappear. The change in focus of higher education institutions could force them into making difficult decisions about resourcing and running courses. And the Government needs to follow through on its commitment (paragraph 27) to work with employers in the creative sector to address the potential barriers to participation of businesses with flexible employment patterns. So craft businesses and makers need to be supported effectively to participate in and contribute to the employer role.
What is Crafts Council doing? In our recent meetings with DfE, DCMS, Arts Council England, the Creative Industries Council and the Creative Industries Federation we are raising questions, as well as gathering evidence from across the sector.
If you have any comments do get in touch with us at research@craftscouncil.org.uk.
How craft is helping us get through the pandemic
The MARCH mental health network (Crafts Council is a partner) have published Predictors and impact of arts engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic: analyses of data from 19,384 adults in the COVID-19 Social Study. The findings include that those more likely to engage in crafts were, for example: aged 60 and over; ethnically white; with a diagnosed mental health condition. People with a problem-focused (as opposed to emotion-focused) coping style were much more likely to engage in crafts. People engaged in crafts as part of a coping strategy but were also, unlike most arts( though not reading), were more likely to do it for self-development. It also confirms that there was a rapid increase in the sale of crafts materials such as paints and wools.
The Happiness Research Institute report ‘Wellbeing in the age of Covid-19’ gives a snapshot of how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on subjective wellbeing between April and July 2020. Findings show that arts and craft participation was ranked second of seven areas that boosted happiness during the pandemic, although these began to decline in popularity as time went on – see figure 19 on page 31. (Going outside for 15 mins was ranked top.)
How the pandemic is impacting on arts and culture
Analysis by the Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) and the Centre for Cultural Value show that the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns have had a devastating impact on the cultural and creative sectors. Initial findings from a COVID-19 research project show devastating numbers of job losses and reduced hours, with 55,000 jobs gone (a 30 per cent decline) in music, performing and visual arts in the first six months of lockdown.
Another useful PEC report Building Back Better? Creative Freelancers and Learning from the Covid-19 Experience resonates with experiences in the craft sector, even though the focus is broader. The report includes descriptions of the all the categories of freelancers (including sole traders) who have missed out on Government or other support, as well as a model of where businesses see themselves in terms of responding to the pandemic.
The Cultural Value Centre summarises government cultural policy responses to the pandemic across the UK and how they might shape the future. It shows how artist-led activity shifted to the virtual with new commissioning and programming utilising online spaces; how freelance and self-employed artists and cultural practitioners are facing specific challenges; how some may find solutions in rescue funds and how the pandemic has highlighted several socio-political tensions, such as inequalities across race, disability, class and gender in the UK.
Excluded UK has been advocating on behalf of those missing out on support programmes during the pandemic, with city mayors uniting to offer support. Munira Wilson MP, led a parliamentary debate on 9 December highlighting the needs of people ineligible for Covid support schemes.
The Creative PEC has published its latest data on cultural content consumption during the pandemic, with more people buying physical books as lockdown eased.
The APPG for Creative Diversity, chaired by Baroness Bull, is investigating ‘what works’ to boost diversity in the creative sector, supported by King’s College London. They have also released a paper with the Creative PEC on the impact of the pandemic on diversity in the creative sector.
NEMO continues to analyse how the pandemic is impacting on the museums sector in terms of losses, digital offers and organisations' readiness to adapt. NEMO is calling for adequate financial support for the lockdown period as well as the following years for museums to build on their digital momentum.
Museum Freelance’s recent poll shows that freelancers feel they are falling through the 'government support cracks' and feel abandoned by the museums sector. Almost 80% of museum freelancers have lost earnings during Covid.
Ofsted’s second series of reports on the impact of the pandemic summarises over 900 visits to education and social care providers during September and October. The reports make bleak reading both for the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable children and on the arts in schools. Most secondary schools are teaching all subjects, as are ‘many’ primary schools. However, many school leaders reported having restrictions on their full provision of practical activity for pupils in Key Stage 3 in subjects including design & technology and music.
The first wave of The Audience Agency’s COVID-19 Monitor shows that in a constantly changing landscape, the ability to understand and respond to audiences’ changing preferences and behaviours is vital.
Voluntary Arts report Common Ground - Rewilding the Garden shows how creative activity is thriving in areas of socio-economic deprivation regularly overlooked by the cultural sector, but how it needs significant support and recognition of how taking part in creative cultural activity improves social connectedness.
Northumbria University and Brunel University London are working with resilience planners from UK cities to explore how art and performance could be used to establish successful social distancing strategies.
How culture contributes to the economy
The latest DCMS Economic Estimates show that culture adds £34.6bn to UK economy. The Creative Industries contributed £113.6bn in 2019, an increase of 5.6 per cent from 2018. (Note that the Crafts Council continues to point out that the figures do not represent the full breadth of the craft sector’s contribution.)
DCMS has created economic guidelines for valuing capital assets in culture that it says will guide future funding decisions. The research is based on the Treasury's model of social cost benefit analysis.
Visual Arts: The Beating Heart and Soul of Building Back Better reports on entrepreneurship and diversity in the UK. It examines the profound effects that ethnic and economic background, gender and place have on entrepreneurial opportunities and outcomes. Contemporary Visual Arts Network (CVAN) along with the UK think-tank Policy Connect, and the All-Party-Parliamentary-Group for Design & Innovation make five recommendations: to establish a visual arts baseline, to set social and economic growth targets at a national and local level, to extend and simplify tax incentives to support growth, to remove barriers to talent from abroad, and to strengthen networks to deliver social inclusion and diversity.
Advice now the UK has left the EU
The latest Government advice on Brexit is here (scroll down for goods) and Crafts Council advice is here.
The UK desk of the European Union Creative Europe programme will close on March 31 after funding for a possible successor to the programme was excluded from the recent Spending Review in March.
New education good practice materials
CREST Awards, run by the British Science Association, have launched new primary school materials to support teachers. They include how CREST activities can support the delivery of the Art & Design curriculum.
Stitching Together have produced Good Practice Guidelines for facilitators of participatory textile making workshops and projects. The publication aims to highlight all the aspects of a participatory textile making project that need to be considered in order for it to work well for participants, facilitators and any partner organisations or funders.
And lastly…
An eight-point manifesto from Culture Counts asks campaigning parties to commit to a National Arts Force and new Office for Cultural Exchange, ahead of Scotland's forthcoming election.
