Community Focus – Reviewing the review

Graham Duxbury calls for the arts sector to be more proactive in responding to government agendas.
As government ministers take off for their traditional sojourn at the villa in the South of France, many of them leave behind civil servants fretting in a state of high anxiety. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has kick-started one of the most searching reviews of public spending ever undertaken. Although the headline message is about renewal and reprioritisation, hes also been unambiguous that one of the core purposes of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) is to identify efficiency savings. This means that everybody in government has to justify their existence. It also means that the non-essentials may soon become non-existents.

Right across the public sector, the value of specific funding streams and organisations is being weighed and measured. What outcomes is this investment returning? Could better value for money be achieved through spending it in a different way? Do we need to spend it at all? Particularly frightening is the threat of mainstreaming. Some officials like to mainstream investment in the way that Daleks seek to mainstream Doctor Who  a flash of light and a puff of smoke and a funding programme disappears.

Where does this leave the arts? At first glance, not in a great place. We all know that the arts are still seen by many in Whitehall and in council chambers as a luxury item  something that makes people feel good but doesnt really help meet targets for child poverty, job creation or crime reduction. The worry is that the CSR will be just the excuse many public sector commissioning bodies need to cut corners, downsize and concentrate on the essentials.

For some in the arts community this will inevitably lead to much head-shaking and hand-wringing, and provide more ammunition for those who believe were becoming a philistine nation. For others, however, it will be seen as another opportunity for creativity  in a society with significant social, economic and environmental challenges, how do we demonstrate that the arts and the cultural industries are an integral part of an investment solution? To my mind there are two major opportunities.

Those anoraks who are studying the course of the CSR will have picked up some time ago that there are some overriding priorities. Yes, everyone will need to fight like cats in a sack for their share of the spoils but the rules of the game are pretty clear. We know what the Chancellor is worried about  losing out to China and India in global markets, the cost of delivering continued improvements in public services, the need to solve our housing crisis, global terrorism and, belatedly but encouragingly, the threat and implications of climate change.

Lets take the economic argument. Many of us involved in supporting communities or looking after the environment have a tendency to roll our eyes at this point and bemoan the fact that jobs, skills and enterprise are all that seem to matter when it comes to investment. But thats simply a failure of imagination.

We know instinctively that economic investment decisions  whether a major multinational invests in a region or the local grocer decides to shut up shop on a village high street  rest on more than economics. Yes, the price of property and the availability of skilled workers are principal drivers but, in turn, those things are influenced by whether or not people actually want to live and work in an area  and that comes down to whether its an attractive, stimulating, safe and pleasant place to be. And thats where we come in  whether building new sustainable communities or preventing existing ones from slipping into decline, the arts, culture, leisure and the environment have to be part of the mix.

Our problem is that we find it difficult to prove. What has been the effect of the Angel of the North on peoples attitudes to living and working in the North East? Does the proximity of an art gallery, a cinema or a well-kept park boost the appeal of a neighbourhood? We know the answer is yes, but until we put our heads together to amass the data well never win the argument.

Moving on to the public services debate, one of the ways the Treasury is attempting to deliver more while paying less is by harnessing the power of the voluntary sector. Over the next few years more and more charities will be engaged in delivering core services  from providing social housing to running rehabilitation schemes for offenders. Local authorities and other public agencies are drawing up strategies for how they will contract these services out  with minimum targets and clear guidelines on how charities should be paid. This means the balance of commissioning power will continue to shift and provides a huge opportunity for artists and charities to work together to develop innovative and creative ways of meeting local need. Of course, this also means that arts provision becomes even more utilitarian but, outside of private commissions, hasnt this always been the case?

As the CSR unfolds over the next few months there will, no doubt, be a lot of glum faces in and around the corridors of power. But by acting together and being creative theres no reason why the arts community shouldnt come out the other side smiling.

Graham Duxbury is Head of Policy and Communications at Groundwork UK.
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w: http://www.groundwork.org.uk