New proposals for creative sector

Better links with Higher Education recommended in creative industries overhaul.

Arts organisations are being invited to contribute to a national debate designed to influence Government policy on the creative industries. The consultation period, which is open until 20 September, is the latest step in the Department for Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) Creative Economy Programme, the aim of which is to make Britain the worlds creative hub. The public consultation will focus on a series of seven draft reports which have been created by industry working groups. These groups, largely made up of DCMS staff and representatives of Non-Departmental Public Bodies such as Arts Council England, have spent the past five months looking at specific issues facing the creative industries in an attempt to develop recommendations for better supporting their productivity.

The consultation will address a range of areas: education and skills; competition and intellectual property; technology; business support and access to finance; diversity; infrastructure and evidence and analysis. The reports into these areas, drawn up by the working groups, consider blockages and opportunities facing the creative industries and suggest new projects to help improve their productivity. They also make recommendations for greater coherence between the many existing public programmes which currently support the creative industries, and all seven papers have considered ways in which individual creative industries can work together and be supported collectively. Specific recommendations include: the development of a Creative Grid mapping activity nationally; specific consideration of the needs of small businesses; more employer involvement in the Creative and Media Diploma for 14-19 year-olds, and an overhaul of Intellectual Property legislation.

All of the consultation areas emphasise the importance of improving the creative industries relationships with the education sector. The Entrepreneurship and Skills Task Group of the Creative Industries Education Forum has recommended changes to higher education infrastructure and the development of a National Enterprise Programme to encourage an under-standing of entrepreneurship in prospective entrants to the creative industries. Citing the fact that the creative industries contribute a higher proportion of Britains Gross Domestic Product than in any other country (£1 in every £12), and the fact that 43% of employees in the sector are educated to degree level or higher compared with 16% of the workforce as a whole, the report argues that it is necessary to improve the preparedness of graduates looking to work in the sector. The report recommends the development of a national framework for entrepreneurial learning, an evaluation of the current provision to establish what works, offering incentives to higher education institutions to encourage entre-preneurship in students, and the establishment of a National Creative Enterprise Programme.

DCMS officials will spend the autumn drawing together the results of the consultation and the various papers, and will then develop a Government Policy Paper. Details of how to contribute to the consultation are available on the Creative Economy Programmes website at w: http://www.cep.culture.gov.uk