The future of
local cultural decision making
An open policy development programme
Culture Commons are convening the creative and cultural sectors, local governments and leading researchers to explore the future of increased local decision making across the UK.
This 12-month open policy development programme will shape a suite of new policies alongside the regions and four nations of the UK that will support the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem in a radically transparent way.
With a general election on the horizon, now is the perfect moment to bring a coalition of partners together to think about what our local creative, cultural and heritage ecosystems might need from national policymakers in the coming years.
Local Authority Partners
Research Partners
Sector Partners
Funding Partners
We're really pleased to be part of the efforts of Culture Commons, working to develop policies that will create the best possible outcomes for our local creative & cultural sectors.
Alison McKenzie-Folan, Chief Executive of Wigan Council
Programme news
Have your say...
Call for evidence!
To ensure that the programme is drawing on the widest possible body of evidence, the Culture Commons team and partners are making an open call for evidence to gather perspectives from individuals and organisations on how increased local decision making might affect the creative and cultural life of the UK.
Rationale
In recent years, several major political parties have set out policies that centre the creative and cultural sectors within their national economic growth strategies with an emphasis on addressing geographic disparities that see between and within regions across the UK. This comes at the same time as promises by the UK Government, opposition parties and devolved governments to give wider and deeper decision making powers to local governments.
There is an ever-growing body of evidence that many of the infrastructures and outcomes associated with the UK’s creative, cultural and heritage sectors are unevenly distributed across the regions and nations of the UK; in addition they are less accessible to certain groups in society. With workforce conditions some of the most precarious across the UK economy, disparities appear to be increasing in a post-Covid-19 and ‘cost of living’ economy, with a risk that they could be further exacerbated without concerted policy intervention.
With the need for increased local decision making now broadly accepted as a political and policy imperative, we propose that attention should now turn to how new policies and local governance models might interact with the creative, cultural and heritage sectors to deliver more equitable and sustainable growth in local communities.
If policies that increase local decision making are not designed strategically with appropriate oversight and engagement mechanisms, we risk several direct and indirect impacts which could, in turn, exacerbate geographical inequalities and further fragment growth between the regions and nations.
We have concluded that a new, inclusive and deliberative policy design programme is now needed to examine the risks and opportunities that increased local decision-making could pose to the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem.
Publications
Insight Paper
The role of cultural strategies in local cultural decision making
In the second Insight Paper as part of 'the future of local cultural decision making', we're exploring some of the key findings that came out of a Knowledge Exchange exploring how cultural strategies have supported local cultural decision making.
Insight Paper
What do we mean by local decision making?
In this our first in a series of Insight Papers drawing out findings from a Knowledge Exchange session as part of 'the future of local cultural decision making', we explore key concepts associated with ‘devolution’ and increased local decision making through a four UK nations and cultural policy lens.
We are delighted to be working with Culture Commons and a superb group of partners to explore an ambitious future for local cultural policy, recognising the huge social and economic benefits of vital cultural space to local people.
Jenny Waldman, Director of Art Fund
The Coalition
The creative, cultural and heritage sectors are made up of a rich tapestry of subsectors and stakeholders, each acting in unique ways with specific powers and responsibilities operating at different levels. We believe that no one organisation can credibly explore the devolution and 'increased local decision making' by working alone.
Throughout 2023, Culture Commons openly invited stakeholders to join the an open policy development programme as partners. Over 9 months, we reached out to over 200 organisations across the four UK nations to discuss our plans, as well as ran an open call for participation.
Our confirmed partners, listed below, have collectively funded the programme and will guide it via a dedicated Steering Panel, responsible for all delivery and outcomes. We are delighted to have received funding from grant giving organisations to support this work too.
Programme
Over 12-months between October 2023 and September 2024, Culture Commons will:
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convene partners in a series of insight gathering, knowledge exchange and public facing activities
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commission research through strategic partnerships with university and independent research partners
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analyse findings to unpack risks and opportunities we unearth along the way
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design a new suite of policies directed towards local and national policymakers
Themes
Over 12 months, the programme will explore implications across four key themes:
Local Decision Making
How will more localised decision making impact the UK's creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem?
Funding
What new fund funding approaches could better address inequalities in regional investment and outcomes?
Culture-led Place Shaping
What role can the creative, cultural and heritage sectors play in the development of different kinds of places across the UK?
Local Voice
How can local citizens meaningfully engage in local decision making associated with the creative and cultural life of their own areas?
With the combined expertise of the brilliant collection of partners Culture Commons have lined up, I know the outcomes of this programme with be bold and disruptive and I encourage decision makers to follow this work carefully
Bernard Donohughe OBE, Director of Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA)
Definitions
Recognising that everyone’s working context is different, we wanted to share with you the working definitions we are utilising within the context of ‘the future of local cultural decision making’ programme.
If you have any thoughts on how we might refine our working definitions, please email contact@culturecommons.uk
Local decision making
Decisions made by elected leaders, civil society groups, organisations, communities or individual citizens that shape outcomes in local areas.
Cultural decision making
Decision made by by elected leaders, civil society groups, organisations, communities or individual citizens that shape outcomes specifically associated with the creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem.
Creative, cultural and heritage ecosystem
A broad and inclusive framing for a multiplicity of component parts of an ecosystem, which includes firms in the creative industries (as defined by DCMS Standard Industrial Classification Codes); the publicly and privately funded cultural sectors; the workforce operating within the Creative Economy (i.e. workers with DCMS Standard Occupation Classification Codes and those in Creative Occupations working in other parts of the economy), including employed, freelance/self-employed and atypical workers; arm’s length bodies (such as Arts Council’s); grant giving bodies (such as Trusts and Foundations); the research community (including schools, colleges, high education institutions and informal sites of learning); local, regional and national decision makers (e.g. in local authorities, combined authorities, national governments).