Culture Fair Work Taskforce minutes: September 2025
- Published
- 29 October 2025
- Directorate
- Culture and External Affairs Directorate
- Date of meeting
- 16 September 2025
Minutes from the meeting of the group on 16 September 2025.
Part of
Attendees and apologies
Chair
- Briana Pegado, Chair and Independent Creative Practitioner
Members in attendance
- Ayo Schwartz, National Theatre of Scotland
- Ola Wojtkiewicz, Executive Director, Creative Edinburgh
- Alastair Evans, Creative Scotland
- Paul Mcmanus, BECTU – Prospect
- Mark Geddes, South of Scotland Enterprise
- Kathryn Welch, Culture Counts
- BD Owens, Scottish Artists’ Union
- Marie Christie, EventScotland
- Robert Kilpatrick, Scottish Music Industry Association
- John Campbell, Museums Galleries Scotland
Apologies
- Mairi Taylor, Executive Director, Birds of Paradise
- Iain Hamilton, Head of Creative Industries, Highlands and Islands Enterprise
- Jane Muirhead, Chair of Pact Council and Raise the Roof Productions
- Lindsey Ross, Director of People, Historic Environment Scotland
- Rosie Aspinall Priest, Independent – advocate for rights of freelancers
- Sam Gonçalves, Society of Authors
- Caroline Sewell, Musician’s Union
- Marlene Curran, Equity
- Stephanie Colgan, Glasgow Life
Items and actions
Introductions and welcome
The Chair welcomed members and noted that today’s session will focus on the drafted recommendations paper which was circulated ahead of this meeting.
An update from the Chair
The Chair noted that, as discussed at the last meeting, a Letter from the Taskforce was submitted to the Independent Review of Creative Scotland. The Taskforce’s recommendations are likely to be published at a similar time to the Independent Review of Creative Scotland.
The Chair will be meeting with Head of Edinburgh Futures Institute to discuss whether there are any other considerations for the Taskforce’s recommendations report.
The Chair noted that equity is considered within the current draft recommendations but asked the membership if there were any factors they would like to be more explicit about, citing as an example the Scottish Government’s current Anti-Racist Employment Strategy.
Discussion on the second version of the draft recommendations, expanded from the original five
The Chair invited feedback from the membership on the current draft of recommendations.
It was noted that following the discussion at the previous meeting, UNESCO’s status of the artist, is included in this iteration of the draft recommendations.
It was noted that in reference to inclusion of freelancers the specific STUC “Freelance and Forgotten” report could be utilised within the draft recommendations report.
It was noted that there are people who work in the Creative Industries that would not necessarily define themselves as artists but will work in the creation of arts, for example cultural educators. It was also noted that ‘professional’ is not inclusive of the entirety of the sector.
A discussion about whether the membership should be more explicit in defining what is meant by cultural workers was undertaken. Membership to consider what is trying to be achieved in tightening this definition.
The group discussed volunteers, in particularly noting that sometimes interns and apprentices can be used interchangeably and that the recommendations should be explicit in outlining that both should be paid.
It was noted that the current draft quite prominently references Creative Scotland and that, in terms of sequencing, the Taskforce should be conscious that outputs of the Independent Review of Creative Scotland are awaited alongside next steps following that report. Creative Scotland is part of the ecology of the sector but not the sole actor, for example there are also local authorities to consider.
It was suggested that public sector organisations, as opposed to solely Creative Scotland, should be stipulated within the final recommendations. As previously discussed by the Taskforce, a Fair Work Charter should focus primarily on freelancers and not organisations as there is currently no Fair Work support for freelancers and this is where the Taskforce can make a difference. It was noted that this iteration of the draft recommendations report does not outline this focus clearly enough at the start.
It was noted that any drafted Fair Work Charter has to be voluntary but the topic of conditionality of the Charter could be discussed further amongst the Taskforce.
Some of the recommendations could be considered quite far reaching in intent and members should consider if all recommendations remained focused on the original task set within the commissioning Terms of Reference. It was noted that they should proceed with refining recommendations in an approach that is considerate but ambitious whilst maintaining an awareness of legislative challenges that may be raised.
It was noted and agreed that a tiered system for categorising organisation’s adherence to Fair Work was not preferred by the membership. Organisations are either considered to be adhering to Fair Work or emerging in their adherence.
On the drafted recommendation surrounding a Fair Work Fund, it was noted that budget lines would focus on each of the five principles previously discussed by the Taskforce.
The Fund’s intention would be to fund new projects, with the suggestion that the Fund would offset some of the costs of embedding Fair Work implementation but not completely, given that employers should be doing this anyway. Decisions on operational details of the Fund should be considered by the proposed Fair Work Implementation Group.
It noted that funds recommended as part of the Fair Work Fund would be requested in addition to the £100 million for culture uplift. The Chair invited members with a specific interest in the Fund to have a further conversation.
The Chair agreed that the membership can return to discussion on definition of the cultural workforce at the next meeting alongside the drafted recommendations section on Independent Review of Creative Scotland.
Actions
- amend next iteration of draft recommendations in line with the Taskforce discussion on following areas: Independent Review of Creative Scotland, language on volunteers, apprentices and interns, Freelance and Forgotten report inclusion and removal of reference to a tiered system for Fair Work adherence
- the Chair to invite members with specific interest on the Fair Work Fund to discuss further