This website is using cookies. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.
Please choose whether to accept cookies.
1 April 2022
The Scottish Government’s resource spending review is an excellent opportunity to make the necessary but challenging spending decisions to support transformational change in public service delivery, according to the Scottish Parliament’s Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee.
The Committee has been looking at how culture spending can be mainstreamed across the Scottish Government, in particular working with the health sector, to maximise the benefits of culture to health, and deliver better outcomes for the Scottish population.
Despite an increasing recognition of the established health and wellbeing benefits of culture, the Committee heard that this had not so far led to transformational change in terms of either a cross-cutting approach within Government, or increased budgetary support for culture across a number of spending areas. This has contributed to what has been described as “a major implementation gap between policy ambitions and delivery on the ground” by the Auditor General for Scotland.
To improve the use of culture to better health outcomes, encourage ‘social prescribing’ and funding for cultural activities from different areas, the Committee recommended:
The Committee also heard that overall participation in cultural activities was higher among women, those with degrees or professional qualifications, those with no long-term physical or mental health conditions, those living in less deprived areas, and those with a higher household income.
Speaking as the Committee reported its findings to the Scottish Government, Convener Clare Adamson MSP, said:
“We want to empower public sector leaders to deliver a more collaborative approach, and we believe rethinking how their performance is measured will help achieve these outcomes.
“The response to the pandemic showed what the public sector is capable of when it feels empowered to work innovatively and focuses on outcomes. We want to see a similar focus and innovation mindset result from this government spending review.
“While it would undoubtedly help our cultural sector in Scotland, we believe the biggest benefits would be to communities and people in Scotland, not least those who are currently less likely to benefit from cultural activities.”
Documented benefits of culture on health and wellbeing outcomes include: