January 2025

Happy New Year! We’ve got plenty to get our teeth into this week as we continue to unpack the latest news from across the sector. Continue reading to discover the full January 2025 Policy Brief, where we will uncover the following:

• Important new product safety regulations 
• Making the case for craft education 
• Initiatives to grow the creative economy 
• Projects that are gathering better information on creative skills and cultural value 
• New evidence of financial inequality in cultural work 
• A quick look at the meaning of the Budget for craft 
• What drives cultural participation?
• Action to improve creative health 

New General Product Safety Regulations 

The new General Product Safety Regulations (GPSR) came into force on Friday, 13 December 2024. We know that many makers are worried about how to comply with the new regulation, which applies to anyone placing new, used, repaired or reconditioned products for distribution, consumption or use in the European Union and Northern Ireland - on all sales channels - after that date. 

We've produced a free resource to support makers getting to grips with it, consulting with other organisations supporting the craft community to bring together what we know so far. 

Making the case for craft education

The Government is reviewing the existing national curriculum and statutory assessment system in England, as we reported in the last newsletter, to ensure they are fit for purpose and meeting the needs of children and young people.

In our response, Crafts Council focused on the content of the curriculum as well as its context. We supported the calls of colleagues across the creative education sector for urgent reform of school accountability measures, such as the inclusion of creative subjects in Ebacc and Progress 8 measures, highlighting how uptake for Design & Technology GCSE has fallen dramatically. We want to see the reintroduction of craft and 3D making at all educational phases and access to craft education as a social justice issue. It’s vital that opportunities for craft and making are included within the school day through all phases of education and that creative skills are recognised as a valuable part of multiple career pathways.

Edge has recently published their history of Design & Technology. It reminds us how craft skills have been at the core of the subject since the 1960s and how craft is interwoven with design, technology and solving broader societal problems. The report concludes with a trend we may recognise, “Craft has faded away over time and no longer features in the National Curriculum (see Department of Education 2013); this contradicts the ascendancy of craft (Sennett 2008) outside of formal education in alternative learning spaces such as makerspaces (Leonard, et al. 2023) which some suggest could be used within formal education (Walan and Gericke 2023).”

The Oracy Education Commission report calls for schools to be incentivised to provide a broad curriculum. It argues that “arts education offers unique conditions and contexts for pupils to engage in dialogue, express themselves and develop their oracy skills through creative processes.”

Meanwhile A New Direction’s new Primary Arts programme has launched in London. 20 partners are offering workshops, free tickets and CPD sessions for teachers in London’s primary and SEND schools.

Growing the creative industries? 

The creative industries were named as one of the government’s eight growth-driving sectors in its Industrial Strategy green paper consultation. The Strategy is intended to help businesses in high growth sectors to reach their potential, particularly in clusters and corridors of activity. They intend to help unlock private investment, boost exports and develop skilled workforces.  

Crafts Council has responded in detail, highlighting in particular the need for: 

• Haptic skills development in schools, further and higher education to address the loss of focus on skills development at all levels in recent years 
• Better support and investment in craft microclusters 
• The role of craft skills, often in microclusters, in powering other creative industries with central processes and techniques  
• The contribution of the sector to economic resilience and social value through sustainable businesses and activities that improve mental health and wellbeing 

Meanwhile a new taskforce, led by Baroness Shriti Vadera and Sir Peter Bazalgette, met for the first time in December to help deliver a Creative Industries Sector Plan to grow the creative industries. The plan, to be published in the spring alongside the Industrial Strategy, will be part of the Government’s Plan for Change. 

The RSA’s Creative Corridors report highlights creative corridors as a way to grow the creative industries, helping to streamline skills pathways and attract finance. The approach builds on the 55 clusters and 700 microclusters identified in the Creative PEC’s Creative Radar report. Creative PEC research shows that craft businesses cluster predominantly outside London and the South East yet capital finance for creative industry firms is heavily concentrated in those two areas. Growth Finance for Creative Industries also shows that creative businesses are more likely to identify new R&D opportunities than businesses in other sectors but may face barriers in accessing the capital they need to take them forward. 

Meanwhile, this nice piece in The Scotsman from Irene Kernan, Director of Craft Scotland, explores how craftspeople can save Scotland’s high streets. 

A new report from Aston University, Unbound: UK Trade post-Brexit, shows sharp declines in UK goods exports (27%) and imports (32%) with the EU between 2021 and 2023. The product categories listed in the report (Crafts Council worked with DCMS to clarify those for craft), show, for example, a 57% decline in the import of leather goods and a 46% decline in exports, with similar declines in some textiles and decreases that are almost as high for glass and ceramic products. The report recommends intervention to mitigate the adverse effects of the UK and EU trade agreement and support for firms in adapting to new trade barriers. 

The Government announced at the Labour Party conference a new growth and skills levy which will replace the existing apprenticeship levy and include new foundation apprenticeships. 

These are intended to give young people a route in to careers in ‘critical sectors’ (to be defined), enabling them to earn a wage whilst developing skills. The new levy will also allow funding for shorter apprenticeships. 

Some new statistics from the Government show that the UK art & antiques market (gross value added) has doubled from £0.4 billion in 2010 to £0.8 billion in 2023. 

Gathering better information on creative skills and cultural value 

The Creative PEC is commissioning a business survey to support skills audits for the creative industries including craft. Crafts Council made a submission to the Creative PEC last year about the need for better skills data and is represented on the steering group. The Centre for Cultural Value is also leading a new scoping project to develop a blueprint for a national cultural data observatory. Crafts Council was consulted on the challenges of comparing craft data. 

Towards a National Collection (TaNC) is a research programme using digital technology to create a unified national collection of the UK’s museums, libraries, galleries and archives to help them maintain global leadership in digital humanities and arts research. It is urging cultural heritage organisations and funding bodies to come together and develop a UK-wide digital collection that is inclusive, unified, accessible, interoperable and sustainable. 

Financial inequality in cultural work 

Craft sole traders and microbusinesses will recognise the challenges highlighted by Arts Council England in the lives and working conditions of cultural freelancers. The findings in the Creative and Cultural Freelancers report 2024 include: chronic financial precarity, low pay, late payment, insecure and unpredictable income streams and workflows, poor contracting practices, lack of recognition for work and providing unpaid additional hours to deliver projects. Just under half of respondees felt the cultural sector is not very/not at all inclusive. Freelancers highlighted the need for more influential advocacy and financial support for advocacy organisations - a role which Crafts Council regularly plays, highlighting the similar challenges for makers. 

Sutton Trust research, A Class Act, reveals stark class inequalities in access to the creative industries, suggesting the creative industries remain elite professions. (However, the Creative PEC’s Getting in and getting on Class, participation and job quality in the UK Creative Industries shows that craft is an exception with a fairly balanced workforce in terms of class.) 

A new report from the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) into artists’ earnings reveals falling incomes. The UK Visual Artists’ Earnings and Contracts Report 2024 shows that median income for visual artists is £12,500 a year, a 47% decrease since 2010. There are significant disparities in pay across demographics, with women and other genders earning 40% less than men and disabled artists earning a median of just £3,750. 51% of visual artists have to supplement their income with additional work. 

What the Budget meant 

The Chancellor’s autumn budget confirmed: 

• The rate of employers’ NICs will rise by 1.2 percentage points to 15%. To support small businesses with these changes, the government is increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 
• A £3m scheme to improve awareness of creative career paths for school children  
• Continuing grants for regional clusters of creative firms outside of London 
• Museums tax reliefs to continue. 

During a House of Lords debate on the impact of the budget on arts, heritage and cultural organisations, the Earl of Clancarty (a cross-bench peer) noted that the budget lacked emergency help for civic museums and that there was increased financial pressure on grassroots music venues and specialist arts education providers. 

Art Fund has given £1 million in grants to support local museums and galleries in response to the growing local authority funding crisis. Recipients include the Museum of Making in Derby. 

What drives cultural participation?

Culture Commons has explored the future of cultural devolution in the UK. It’s calling for national arm’s length bodies and grant giving bodies to explore supporting public involvement in decision making. Local decision-making is seen as offering hope for addressing regional imbalances in investment.  

The British Council has summarised the key issues facing young people taking part in UK arts and cultural activities and how creative practice - including visual arts - is responding to those needs. It finds that many organisations are challenging themselves to develop new and interesting ways to support young people and involve them in co-design. 

Culture Action Europe’s report The State of Culture explores how the value of culture lies in its autonomy and its processes as much as its products. 

Meanwhile Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced a new independent review of Arts Council England. This will explore how to improve access to arts and culture in all areas of the country to drive access to opportunity. 

Action to improve Creative Health 

A Government-commissioned report on Culture and Heritage Capital highlights how cultural engagement can benefit adults’ general health and how arts activities can improve children’s self-esteem. A new approach to ‘monetising’ the economic, social and cultural benefits of culture and heritage, points to benefits of £8 billion to wider society in ‘avoided’ health conditions. ‘Attending museums, art galleries, and exhibitions every few months or more was associated with decreased dementia risk, valued at £369 per person and a society-wide benefit of £1.5 billion per year'. Crafts Council is participating in focus groups to consider findings. 

The new All-Party Parliamentary Group on Creative Health launched on November 26th 2024. It aims to provide a forum for regular discussion between politicians, researchers, people with lived experience and practitioners, providing a springboard for parliamentary action. It’ll be co-chaired by Dame Caroline Dinenage MP, a strong supporter of craft, and Dr Simon Opher MP. 

Understanding Creative Health in London highlights some of the many creative health opportunities (including craft) in the capital’s social care and health settings and urges commissioners to create more opportunities for training that bring health and arts practitioners together. There are around 30,000 freelance arts practitioners delivering work across London.   

Cultural sector leaders have found that demands placed on them have grown worse in the last five years, according to a Clore Leadership report. It recommends that cultural organisations should develop strong networks beyond the sector to stay up to date with new ideas. 

Lastly…

Stuart Andrew, MP for Daventry was appointed Shadow Cabinet lead for culture. He was a DCMS Minister in the last Conservative government.