I do, convener. Thank you very much.
Good morning, convener and committee members, and thank you for inviting us to give evidence this morning. This is an extremely dynamic time for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. The Edinburgh festivals have, once again, announced an increase in audiences and participants, and, last year, the Commonwealth games cultural programme reached thousands of people, stretching from Orkney to Glasgow. Many people in many places throughout Scotland are contributing significantly to the arts, screen and creative industries and will welcome the fact that culture and creativity are being discussed at the heart of Government today. I hope that our written submission, which we supplied ahead of the meeting, provides the committee with the detailed information that it needs to make positive and constructive recommendations as a result of its inquiry.
I just want to highlight some key points. As you will know, Creative Scotland was formed in 2010 by the merger of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen. That merger was part of the Government’s commitment to public sector reform and, in addition, we were given a role in supporting the growth of the creative industries. Following a few challenging early years, the organisation took stock and, in December 2012, the board made a series of commitments to change. I joined as chief executive in July 2013 with the task of delivering on those commitments. Key to that was the development of our 10-year plan, which we published in April 2014 and which was developed through consultation with a reference group and more than 1,000 people working across the arts, screen and creative industries. It is a shared plan.
It is interesting to note that a widely discussed report published earlier this year by the Warwick commission talks about cultural value and the lack of attention that has been paid to the synergies between the interlocking sectors of the cultural and creative industries—mainly in England—in terms of an ecosystem. We had a deep discussion about that in Scotland last year, when we were discussing our 10-year plan, and we worked up what we called the creative system. In Scotland, we are paying full attention to those connections and are working hard to develop an intelligent understanding of them in order to strengthen everybody’s ability to deliver whatever they do.
An important part of the plan was the simplification of our funding systems. We now have three routes to funding: regular, open project and targeted funding. That enables us to carefully allocate our annual budget of £88.5 million, which comprises both grant in aid and national lottery funding. It is important for the committee to note that, across our three routes to funding, we receive more than 4,000 funding applications each year, of which we are able to support about a third. Thankfully, we are able to support some amazing individuals, projects and organisations, but we also have to turn away others that we would have supported if we had had more resources.
That issue was thrown into relief last year when we launched our regular funding programme, which was aimed at providing funding of up to three years for organisations. We set a budget of £100 million for a three-year period, which is subject to amendment if overall budgets change, and we received 212 applications that amounted to requests for almost £250 million. The resulting portfolio, rich as it is, is made up of 118 organisations, ranging from the world renowned such as the Edinburgh International Festival and the Centre for the Moving Image to the locally significant such as An Lanntair in Stornoway; the culturally vital, such as the Gaelic arts body Fèisean nan Gàidheal; and the emerging, such as the Stove Network in Dumfries.
Inevitably, funding decisions create tensions, as you will have seen in some of the submissions that you have received as part of your inquiry. However, in the majority of cases, our relationship with the high volume of applicants that we engage with—both successful and unsuccessful—is constructive, open and professional. There is lots of independently gathered evidence for that, some of which is presented in our written submission, but the figure that sums it up for me is the percentage of our stakeholders who feel favourably towards Creative Scotland. That has increased from 67 per cent in November 2012 to 91 per cent in March this year, and it is recognised that we have listened and responded to the criticism that was levelled at the organisation three years ago.
Of course, there are always things that we can improve on, and everyone at Creative Scotland is committed to continuing to work as hard as we can to check, listen and respond. One of the key leadership messages that I have given to my team is that we must see Creative Scotland as a learning organisation that continues to adapt and respond to deliver the best possible results in everything that we do, even if that means saying no—which is always really hard to do, especially when we are saying no to Scottish talent and creative potential.
I will finish with a couple more statistics that I think are relevant. First, we note from the Scottish household survey that cultural engagement is increasing. In 2013, engagement was up 91 per cent, which means that more people are valuing and taking part in cultural activities.
Secondly, we know that Scotland’s positive reputation internationally is increasing; indeed, according to the nation brands index, it is up to its highest ever level. Culture has played a huge role in that, and the ambition, talent and energy of everyone working in our arts and creative sectors are pivotal to Scotland’s continuing confidence and success.
Iain Munro and I are both looking forward to this morning’s conversation. Thank you for listening.