Submission - ArtHouse Jersey - Government Plan 2021 - 6 November 2020

 ArtHouse Jersey Greve de Lecq Barracks

Greve de Lecq St. Mary

JE3 3AA

Deputy Morel Mourier House St Helier

JE1 1DD

Friday 6 November 2020

Dear Deputy Morel ,

ArtHouse Jersey / CSP3 - Heritage, Arts and Culture

Thank you for inviting ArtHouse Jersey to provide a written submission to the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel's Government Plan Review.

I am content for this to be uploaded to the Scrutiny site. Yours sincerely,

Tom Dingle

Director, ArtHouse Jersey

ECONOMIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS SCRUTINY PANEL

REVIEW OF CSP3-5-02: HERITAGE, ARTS AND CULTURE

Dear Deputies Morel , Johnson , Pamplin, Gardiner , Luce & Senator Moore ,

Thank you for inviting ArtHouse Jersey to provide a written submission to the Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel's review of the Government Plan 2021-2024 CSP3 – Heritage, Arts and Culture.

We were pleased to contribute to your previous review of the Government Plan. As we said then, it is important to clarify that I am not writing as a spokesperson for the arts sector. However, while my comments should be taken only in relation to ArtHouse Jersey, it is fair to say that they are informed by manifold conversations with stakeholders across the sector.

The cultural sector, and particularly the arts, have historically been under-resourced. While lip-service has always been paid to the importance of art and culture, little was done in the past and we have had to fire-fight for many years simply to keep our heads above water. In my view, many opportunities have been missed over the past decade as a result, and islanders have not benefited from the world-class arts provision that they deserve.

As the UK's 2016 Culture White Paper sets out, culture has an intrinsic value (the enriching value of culture in and of itself), a social value (improving educational attainment and wellbeing, helping people to be healthier) and an economic value (the contribution culture makes to economic growth and job creation). Against this backdrop, the States Assembly's decision to support Deputy Montford Tadier 's farsighted proposition to ensure that at least 1% of Government budget is dedicated to arts and culture was a long overdue and extremely positive development.

However, the current context of a global pandemic obviously means that

Government will be taking a long hard look at expenditure across all policy areas. We

have always emphasised that Islanders rightly expect their hard-earned taxes contributed to the public purse to be well spent. Every penny put towards the arts is an investment in Jersey's future and as the Island seeks to deal with the ramifications of Covid, judicious investment in the arts can help our community and economy recover and bounce back even stronger.

1. ArtHouse Jersey

The funds Government awarded to ArtHouse Jersey for 2019 were transformational, enabling a huge uplift in the contribution our organisation has been able to make to the local community as well as our capacity to earn more income from other sources.

This year (which in the original Government Plan was something of a pinch point with much greater levels of funding coming on stream from 2021 onwards) we were delighted to receive the full grant requested. We took this as a vote of confidence in our performance, having put forward the case that investment was essential if Government was to achieve what we understand to be one of the key pillars of their economic framework: world-class arts and culture.

The FPP's Annual Report issued last month makes for a sobering read, highlighting that the economic effects of the global pandemic mean that a severe recession is inevitable with considerable uncertainty for years to come. Of course, ArtHouse Jersey understands that the Government faces difficult choices as it seeks to address a significant structural deficit by 2024, but we are confident that our work makes a telling contribution to islanders and benefits the wider economy and deserves to be supported. The Panel will be aware that the Jersey Performance Framework is organised around Island Outcomes. When designing our programme for 2021 we referred to the outcomes and mapped where our charity makes a significant contribution (see below). With public funding set to decline, we will continue to make the case that ArtHouse Jersey represents a significant return on investment given its contribution to the Council of Ministers Common Strategic Policy and the aspirations set out in Future Jersey.

2. Precipitous decline / commitment to P40/2019

As indicated in your recent correspondence, funding levels attributed to CSP-3-5-02 in the 6-month progress report have changed significantly from those in the original Government Plan and have been marked with the status "reduced". The table below shows our understanding of the published figures (NB. we think your correspondence misattributed years).

From what we can gather, the reductions in 2022 and 2023 are connected with the decision to postpone the redevelopment of Elizabeth Castle and the fact that the costs of these capital works were incorrectly attributed to this revenue budget. Our understanding therefore is that the proposed uplift in funding of £3,197,000 from 2022 will still bring the total revenue budget for the sector in line with the aspiration of equating to 1% of total government expenditure.

That said, we are unclear whether Jèrriais has been included when calculating the total existing spend on Arts, Heritage and Culture. As far as we are aware, Jèrriais was not part of the Arts, Heritage and Culture budget when the proposition was adopted by the States Assembly and should not be included as part of the 1% aspiration. It seems to us that a full breakdown of what is included within these calculations would be helpful.

We understand that the further reduction in the uplift available for 2021 is due to the general financial challenges caused by the pandemic. At present we are not clear as to how the figure of £963,000 was arrived at, how it will be distributed and what framework is being used to make these decisions.

3/ Working with Government

The Panel indicated an interest in the engagement we have had with the Department (EDTSC).

As a grant-funded arms-length body, we see ourselves as a strategic partner of Government, but while we contribute to strategic, population level objectives, it is of course important that there isn't any external interference in our operational delivery. We are pleased to note that in this regard Government has established a suitable operating model.

Being in receipt of significant public funds it is only sensible that we establish a close working relationship with Ministerial and civil service interlocutors. As is demonstrated above, we see our work as a contribution to population-outcome' objectives.

In the day to day operation of the grant funding arrangement we keep Government updated on our financial position and performance against 29 operational performance standards, and while we have good access to the civil servant responsible for managing our relationship with government as an arms length body, in general we would most often characterise our situation as having insufficient access to senior civil servants who are developing policy and seeking to ensure that the arts are making as much of a contribution to islanders' lives as they might.

4/ Arts Strategy

Since P40/2019 was passed we have argued that there must be a plan to guide investment, enabling decision-makers to make funding decisions that are taken to support the achievement of set objectives and thereby ensuring that public money is well-spent and contributing to the achievement of stated aims.

Our Chair was pleased to be invited to contribute to the work of the Economic Council, which was established to ensure that Jersey emerges from the pandemic in a strong economic position, making the Island a better place to live and work. His key recommendation was the adoption of a new Arts Strategy.

The first and only such Strategy was adopted in 2005. This speaks volumes. It is impossible to imagine this being the case in other policy areas. Our understanding is that the Deputy Chief Minister, who has done a great deal to ensuring that the arts and cultural sector is stabilised, has recognised the importance of adopting a new Strategy and has put wheels in motion for it to be developed. This is an extremely positive development.

The 6-month progress report reads: "A separate Arts Strategy is to be developed. (This) will be important to determine where the additional funding for culture (supported through P.40/2019) will be best directed to achieve the best outcomes."

We have argued that a world-class process must be implemented to develop an Arts Strategy that is going to help us face the challenges ahead and deliver world-class provision for the Island. The Strategy will help Ministers prioritise actions and spend. It will allow decisions to be made based on the return they offer to the public for every pound spent and, perhaps most importantly, it will have the capacity to unite the sector behind a shared vision.

Our hope is that the new Arts Strategy will set out the objectives to be achieved and make clear whether a 1% of overall States revenue expenditure is the right level of funding to achieve them. We also hope that the Strategy will enable holistic thinking about the arts, informing all areas of policy development and decision making.

Here it is instructive to consider the Jersey Development Company's announcement of their intention to develop a new National Gallery. Making decisions about venues without having conducted research into what islanders truly need and what can contribute to the Island's future is surely not to be recommended. A strategy being put in place will provide Government with the tools to guide decision making and help bodies such as the Jersey Development Company understand what is required rather than resort to what is effectively a well-meaning guess. A new Arts Strategy will help us face the current situation of having two theatres that are calling for urgent investment, no real dedicated public gallery space, no concert space, no flexible performance space, no sound/filming studios, potentially no cinema and very few indoor spaces that the public can have access to for free. It will help arrive at a consensus on what spaces would best serve the Island moving forward and then decisions can be made about which of the current assets should be kept, adapted and invested in and what we need to build from scratch.

We consider the progress towards a new Arts Strategy to be extremely positive and we are fully committed to support its development and implementation.

Aiming to complement the development of the Arts Strategy, we intend over the course of 2021 to develop our medium to long-term policies and plans in order to:

Place creativity at the heart of Jersey's future

Improve international perceptions of Jersey

Nurture and support a sustainable creative ecology for the Island

Foster pride and self-confidence amongst islanders for their home.

5/ Return on investment

Value for money and offering a return on investment (in terms of a social return, as well as financial returns), must at all times be guiding principles when funding decisions are made in the arts as is the case in every other sector.

The days of funding being awarded purely on the basis of need or what has happened before, are surely behind us. Public funds should only be invested in organisations and projects that make a meaningful contribution to improving the lives of islanders. Investment decisions should be made following a methodological analysis of business cases and plans put forward, with funding being attributed to organisations and projects that demonstrate a commitment to achieving defined aims and objectives. Civil servants must make informed recommendations (in time, drawn from a clear-sighted understanding of the aims set out in the new Arts Strategy) to the Ministers who make the decisions.

The Panel will be aware that significant funds have been allocated to the restructuring of Treasury & Exchequer for Zero-Based Budgeting to be rolled out across Government as part of the Finance Transformation. Zero-Based Budgeting will need to be implemented extremely sensitively in complex areas such as the arts as its contribution to the Island is multi-textured and notoriously difficult to map. The practice of Zero-Based Budgeting is known to favour areas that achieve direct revenues or production, as their contributions are more easily justifiable, and the Treasury will need to take great care to ensure that the arts do not suffer unfairly. On this point we would recommend that expert guidance is sought by Treasury to ensure that Zero-Based Budgeting is applied correctly, however, the principle that expenditure is analysed to ensure it is being invested sensibly and with an eye on what impact it will have would seem to be entirely logical.

6/ World class arts

Our understanding is that Government's Economic Framework included world-class arts' as a stated aspiration. When assessing Government Plan spending on the arts it is important that we understand what is meant by world-class arts.

We imagine that the new Arts Strategy will provide a definition, but for the time being it seems important to underline that world-class does not and should not equate to elitist. On the contrary, elitist arts are, to our mind, the very opposite of what world-class arts provision would look like for the Island.

For us, world-class speaks to quality. The arts must be accessible, of course, but they must also push the envelope with creativity and new ideas. Not everything can be focused on accessibility if excellence is to be achieved. Ideas need to be supported and be given room to breathe if new content is to be created: every classic tv show and world-renowned artwork started off as an ill-formed idea that was given the opportunity to develop. What is important is that experimentation should ultimately result in or contribute to public benefit, whether that be directly in the form of experiencing a new artwork or indirectly through increased employment opportunities for islanders.

The arts is a sector that has the ability to contribute public benefit across the board. Impactful outreach to equalise access, particularly in the education sector, is an example of world-class. The work that we are delivering in conjunction with the Education Department with projects such as the Skipton Forget Me Knots (which supports the wellbeing of young people and provides an environment for teachers to speak to their students about their experiences and concerns arising from COVID), or the Genesis Programme (which is focused on raising the standard of art education across all primary schools in Jersey) are examples of this already in practice. These are vital initiatives for the well-being and skillset of the upcoming generations.