Multi-year Scottish funding decisions postponed until 2025

Creative Scotland has announced it will delay the announcement of its Multi-Year Funding (MYF) awards by three months until it has “clarity” over its budget from the Scottish government.

Outcomes for 281 grant applications, amounting to £87.5m, were due by the end of October but will instead be pushed back to the end of January 2025, as Holyrood has confirmed it cannot offer Creative Scotland funding clarity until the release of its draft budget, expected on 4 December.

Creative Scotland confirmed that its £11m of National Lottery reserves remain allocated to support Transition Funding from April 2025 for organisations currently receiving ongoing funding but unsuccessful in their application for Multi-Year Funding.

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In a departure from recent strained relations between the funding body and the Scottish government, Creative Scotland’s statement presented a more united front with Holyrood and included a pledge from Cabinet Secretary for Culture Angus Robertson to continue the collaboration.

“While we would have preferred to announce the outcome from this application process in October as planned and have been working collaboratively with Scottish government to endeavour to do so, we also understand the extreme budget pressures that exist,” said Robert Wilson, Chair of Creative Scotland.

“These pressures mean we are required to postpone the outcome until such time as we have budget clarity. This will enable us to make final decisions in a context of budget confidence and to support as many organisations on a multi-year basis as we possibly can.”

Despite the current uncertainty, which follows months of muddled cultural funding announcements, cuts and u-turns, Robertson repeated affirmations that government is planning to increase Scottish spending on culture by £100m over the next five years but implied that Holyrood is waiting on the UK government’s Autumn Budget before making any commitments in the short term.

“The cultural sector is an integral part of our identity as a country. This is why we’re working hard to help the sector to fulfil its potential in Scotland by assuring at least £100m more annually in funding by 2028/29,” said Robertson.

“We await the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s budget announcement on 30 October which has a hugely significant bearing on the Scottish budget. Following that, we will be able to set detailed budgets for the coming financial year, including for the culture sector.

“I will continue to work in collaboration with Creative Scotland and the sector over the coming months to ensure stability until Creative Scotland have sufficient clarity to be able to announce the recipients of their multi-year funding awards.”

‘Drastic financial implications’

The announcement comes amid warnings from across the sector that any delay to the programme could have “quite drastic financial implications” for those organisations reliant on Creative Scotland for core funding.

Writing on X, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) said it was “deeply concerned” about the postponement.

“The impact of this announcement, and the ongoing lack of clarity about the level of additional funding available to organisations through this fund, means that we face an extremely uncertain future,” the statement from DCA said.

“This delay will affect our audit report and our ability to be declared a going concern, jeopardising our ability to fundraise elsewhere; and will force us to escalate scenario planning for receiving less support than we have applied for, putting jobs and our ability to serve our audiences at risk.”

The delay to  Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Fund follows the publication earlier this month of a report into the programme’s application process, which found shortcomings, including a “long timeline, complex and extensive requirements and insufficient guidance”.

It concluded that the MYF application process led to less art being made in Scotland and a “raft of financial and wellbeing impacts” for individuals working in the arts sector in Scotland.