Creative Scotland Suspends Some Grant Programmes Due To Scottish Government Uncertainty

23rd August 2024

Creative Scotland has taken the difficult decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals to new applications due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm release of £6.6m in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year, 2024-25.

The Fund will close to new applications from 2pm on Friday 30th August 2024.

Creative Scotland planned to apply £3m of the £6.6m budget to support the Open Fund for Individuals in 2024-25, alongside £3m of National Lottery income.

Without confirmation of release of this budget, Creative Scotland does not have enough funds available to support all the funding routes that we currently provide, as set out in our Annual Plan for 2024-25.

If and when budget clarity becomes available from the Scottish Government, we will aim to reinstate direct funding support to individuals as soon as is possible.

All currently submitted Open Fund for Individuals applications will be processed as per the published Guidance. The National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations remains open.

Iain Munro, CEO of Creative Scotland said:

"The level of uncertainty regarding the provision of Grant-in-Aid budgets from the Scottish Government is creating critical problems for the ongoing support we can provide to Scotland's culture sector. This decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals is not one we would have wanted to take but is unavoidable without the funding from the Scottish Government being available. Like everyone working in Scotland's culture and creative sector, we understand the extreme pressures on public finances but want to see longer term budget certainty from the Scottish Government, including the additional £100m announced in October 2023, details of which have yet to emerge."

Questions and Answers
Why has this only been applied to the Open Fund for Individuals? Why not reallocate from other funds?
Creative Scotland is facing severe budget pressures and has little flexibility as regards implementing changes as to how these budgets have been allocated at the start of each financial year. The scale of the demand on the Open Fund for Individuals (OFFI) and the fact that £3m of Scottish Government funding allocated to it is no longer forthcoming, means that we do not have any viable alternative options other than to close the fund. This Scottish Government funding was specifically allocated to the Open Fund for Individuals, alongside £3m of National Lottery funding, the remaining budget from which will be used to support the successful applications received prior to the deadline of 2pm, 30 August.

Why is the fund closing in such a short timeframe?
As Scottish Government is unable to confirm the release of budget that was previously committed at the start of the financial year, we do not have the money available to support the OFFI past the closure date of 30 August 2024.

In the context of the Scottish Government's recent announcements regarding additional budget control measures, the £3m we had anticipated from them is unlikely to be released and we therefore need to close the fund to new applications.

This has been a very difficult decision, but Creative Scotland needs to have sufficient funds to viably run the funding programmes we offer.

Why are we closing this fund rather than another one (i.e.Open Fund for Organisations)?
The funds promised by the Scottish Government at the start of the financial year were specifically allocated to the Open Fund for Individuals, as a replacement of funds removed from our budget in the previous financial year, and supplemented with National Lottery budgets.

All the funding we receive from both the Scottish Government and the National Lottery is fully allocated at the start of the financial year and, at this stage is already committed or contracted.

Hence the only other similar fund remaining open is the National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations.

The majority of applications we get to the Open Fund for Individuals are to support an individual applicant. In contrast, the majority of applications we get from organisations support employment for multiple individuals including freelancers across the sector. We absolutely acknowledge the huge impact this will have on individuals, however, in this instance, the impact on the sector would have been greater in closing the National Lottery Open Fund for Organisations.

Moving budget from this fund to the Open Fund for Individuals would have limited, short term impact and would also result in us having to close the Open Fund for Organisations within the next few months.

Why didn't we have a contingency in place for this happening?
Creative Scotland works to very strict budgets, provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery, with that money committed at the start of any given year, and detailed in our Annual Plan.

The bulk of funding we receive from the Scottish Government is applied to supporting Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) or is committed to specific funding streams such as the Youth Music Initiative (YMI).

In the financial year 2023/24, the removal of £6.6m of our Scottish Government funding, meant we took the decision to draw down £6.6m of our National Lottery reserves to meet these commitments.

Unfortunately, our National Lottery reserves are now depleted, or fully allocated to other commitments, so it is not possible to fill the gap left by the absence of previously committed Scottish Government funding. There are also restrictions as regards what National Lottery funding can and can’t be used for.

Background
The Open Fund For Individuals is one of Creative Scotland’s key funding programmes, supporting the wide range of activity initiated by artists, writers, producers and other creative practitioners in Scotland.

The £6m fund is designed to support creative activity such as specific projects, productions or periods of research and development for up to 24 months.

Full details about the Open Fund for Individuals and our other funds are available on Creative Scotland’s website.

For links to more information go to https://www.creativescotland.com/news-stories/latest-news/archive/2024/08/open-fund-for-individuals-closure-of-fund