Creative Scotland Group Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2020 Creative Scotland Group Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 March 2020 Contents Performance Report.......................................................................................................................... 2 Joint Report by the Chair and the Chief Executive .......................................................................... 2 Performance Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 14 Accountability Report ...................................................................................................................... 19 Corporate Governance Report ....................................................................................................... 19 Director’s Report ............................................................................................................................. 19 Statement of Accountable Officer’s responsibilities ....................................................................... 23 Governance Statement ................................................................................................................... 24 Remuneration and staff report ........................................................................................................ 28 Independent auditor’s report to the members of Creative Scotland, the Auditor General for Scotland and the Scottish Parliament ............................................................................................ 35 Group Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure .................................................................. 38 Other comprehensive expenditure ................................................................................................. 38 Group Statement of Financial Position ........................................................................................... 39 Statement of Cash Flows ................................................................................................................ 39 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity .................................................................................. 40 Notes to the financial statements ................................................................................................... 41 Accounts Direction .......................................................................................................................... 65 1 Creative Scotland Group Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 March 2020 Performance Report Joint Report by the Chair and the Chief Executive In March 2020, cultural life across Scotland and around the world, was impacted enormously by the Covid- 19 pandemic. All aspects of life have been severely affected, the recovery will be long, and many things will not be the same post-Covid as they were before. Culture will play a vital role in society’s recovery, continuing to make a significant contribution to our wellbeing, quality of life and the economy. From April 2020 onwards Creative Scotland has delivered a pivotal role in providing emergency funding support to Scotland’s creative and cultural sector and this has been the primary focus of everyone in our organisation since that time. The Covid-19 pandemic coincided with a period of strategic and operational change for Creative Scotland including a review of the way that we deliver funding, one of our core operational purposes. In the light of the pandemic, we prioritised our resources to address its impacts and to enable the delivery of high-volume emergency support funding for the people and organisations working in Scotland’s culture sector who have been most impacted. The staff of Creative Scotland are thanked enormously for their focus and commitment in delivering all of this work. The Covid-19 pandemic arrived in the final few weeks of the 2019/20 Financial Year and, significantly more commentary and analysis will be provided in next year’s annual report and other update and review documents. However, significant progress was made in the year to March 2020 that is the subject of this report. A major piece of work in 2019/20 to support our development and change as an organisation was our strategic and funding review. During the summer of 2019 we held public workshops in 17 venues across Scotland involving over 400 participants and contributions to inform Creative Scotland's priorities and funding approach. Alongside consideration of the new context created by the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact; the output from these workshops will help shape our strategic priorities and future funding approach which we will begin to implement in 2021/22. Alongside this external facing review work, we continued to build on our journey of internal change, making improvements in our working practices, culture, and operations to strengthen the delivery of our services, including a key programme of work in digital transformation that is ongoing. It was also an important year for recruitment with the appointment of Iain Munro as permanent CEO in October 2019 and David Smith as Director of Screen in November 2019. Director of Strategy, Philip Deverell, left in July 2019 with Gary Cameron stepping into the role on an acting basis. The Board’s capacity was further strengthened in September with the appointment of Duncan Cockburn, Philip Long, Sarah Munro and Stephanie Fraser. Many thanks go to Erin Forster and Sheila Murray for their 4 years of service to the Board and its Committees. Throughout 2019/20, the Chair, CEO and other staff members gave evidence to four meetings of the Scottish Parliament Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee and kept the Committee informed of progress. 2019/20 was the second year of supporting the network of 121 Regular Funded Organisations and during the year we announced that the current 3-year arrangement would be extended to a fourth year, to March 2022. The Covid-19 pandemic has had a major impact on these Regularly Funded organisations and 2 Creative Scotland Group Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 March 2020 additional support from the Scottish Government has enabled us to provide a degree of stability and continuity for these vital cultural organisations and the work they provide for the people of Scotland. We have also continued to support creative activity by individuals and organisations through our Open Project Funding (supported by The National Lottery). This includes creative work across crafts, dance, design, digital, literature and publishing, multi-art form, music, theatre and the visual arts. Creative Scotland’s Targeted Funding has also enabled numerous opportunities for culture and creativity for people of all ages. For example, the Youth Music Initiative had another successful year offering high quality music making opportunities for young people across all parts of Scotland. In January 2020 Shorestage Limited, a subsidiary of Creative Scotland, leased the premises at 31 Bath Road in Leith. Under the management of the operators, Firststage Studios Limited, work began on refurbishing and marketing the facility as a film and TV studio. Subsequently, the first major production, The Rig, produced for Amazon Prime Video, entered the building in November 2020. 2019/2020 saw the release of award-winning films backed by Screen Scotland including Wild Rose, Yuli, Only You, and Scheme Birds, and the broadcast of successful network TV productions including Elizabeth is Missing, The Victim and Guilt. Training opportunities across film and TV disciplines included a further edition of the Outlander Training Scheme, Short Circuit film talent development, TRC’s Supersizer and PACT’s Diversity Schemes. Large scale productions in Scotland included 1917, Deadwater Fell, and Fast and Furious: Hobbs and Shaw. A collaboration with the Edinburgh Fringe saw creative connections fostered between film, TV producers and exciting new theatre talent. At the end of the financial year, Screen Scotland responded swiftly to the pandemic, launching the Bridging Bursary support for freelancers and support for producers and writers through its single project development awards. More information on all of Creative Scotland’s funding is available in the Review of Funding section of this document and a detailed review of performance can be found in our separately published Annual Review of Performance document which is produced to accompany this Annual Report and Accounts. 2019/20 was an important year for Creative Scotland in its continued improvement and development as an organisation. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent re-prioritisation of our strategy and resources will mean that our future approach will need to be re-considered accordingly and in the broader context of Scotland’s public sector post-Covid. However, our primary aim remains unchanged: supporting and developing Scotland as a creative nation and our Board and staff remain committed to moving forward positively and with ambition, enabling creative people, places, communities and activity to thrive. 3 Creative Scotland Group Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 March 2020 Structure, Governance and Management Creative Scotland was founded on 1 July 2010 under the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 and is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives,