Culture sector support needs survey

Survey findings -1. Respondent profile

Number of respondents

There were 754 responses to this survey.

Type of respondents (individual or organisation)

Question 1: Are you responding as (please select one):

• An individual
• An organisation

Respondents were asked to identify whether they were responding as an individual or on behalf of an organisation (see Table 1 and Figure 1). Of the 754 respondents who completed the survey:

• 66% (499) responded as an individual
• 34% (255) responded as an organisation

It is important to note, however, that not everyone who selected ‘individual’ is a freelancer / creative practitioner. Some of these ‘individuals’ then went on to answer questions about their organisation.

Question 2: If you are responding as an organisation, what is the name of your organisation (optional)

Question 3: Please provide your organisation’s registered company/charity number, if applicable

Respondents were asked to name their organisation^[12] and their organisation’s registered company / charity number (if applicable). There were 231 responses to the organisation name question and 207 responses to the organisation’s registered company / charity number question. As noted in the next question, these included: universities, culture / creative organisations and groups, Local Authorities, National Collections and Performing Companies, public bodies and representative or umbrella groups.

Sector or organisation type of individual / organisation

Question 4: What is your sector or organisation type?

Respondents were asked to state their sector or organisation type.

The majority of respondents (86%) were in the ‘Culture (arts or creative industries) individual, organisation, group or company’ sector. Twelve percent of respondents were in the ‘Culture (cultural heritage) individual, organisation, group or company’ and six percent in the ‘third sector’. The proportion of respondents in the remaining sectors or organisation types was less than five percent. See Table 2.^[13]

Location of respondents

Question 5: What is the first part of your postcode? (optional)

Respondents were asked to provide the first part of their postcode which allowed analysis of the respondents location by Local Authority and Urban Rural Status.

This is the location of the respondent and not the location of where their cultural or creative activity takes place (see section below (where respondents operate) for further details on this).

As shown in Table 3 and Table 4, respondents are based across Scotland, with at least one respondent from each of the 32 Local Authorities. However, almost half of respondents (46%) were located in City of Edinburgh (24%) and Glasgow City (22%). The percentage of respondents located in each of the remaining 30 Local Authorities in Scotland was five percent or less.

Where respondents operate

Question 6: Which of the following best describes where your cultural or creative activity takes place?

Respondents were asked where their cultural or creative activity takes place.^[14]

As indicated in Table 9, there is wider variation in terms of where the respondents’ cultural or creative activity takes place compared to where the respondents are based. The highest proportion of respondents tended to be local, with just under a third (30%) carrying out their cultural or creative activities within a single Local Authority in Scotland.

Twenty two percent of respondents carried out their cultural or creative activities Scotland-wide, and 19% of respondents activities were within multiple Local Authorities in Scotland. Fourteen percent said UK-wide / elsewhere in the UK, just over one in ten (13%) internationally and two percent said not applicable.

Number of paid members within organisation (full-time and part-time)

Question 7: If applicable, how many paid staff members does your organisation have (include both part-time and full-time staff members)?

Respondents were asked to state how many paid members of staff their organisation has.^[15]

As shown in Table 11, almost half of the 754 respondents (45%) responded ‘self-employed only’ and 17% of respondents responded ‘not applicable’, reflecting the high proportion of ‘individuals’ who completed this survey.

Twenty one percent said they have between ‘1 and 10’ members of paid staff in their organisation. The percentage of respondents who selected ‘more than 100’, ‘11-25’, ‘51-100’ and ‘26-50’ paid members of staff was five percent or less. See Table 11.

Annual turnover of organisations

Question 8: If you are responding as an organisation what is your annual turnover?

Respondents were asked what their annual turnover is.^{[16] [17]}

Most respondents (41%) indicated that this question was not applicable to them (Table 13).^[18] One fifth of respondents (20%) indicated their annual turnover was between ‘£100-000 -£1 million’ and one in ten respondents (10%) said ‘less then £10,000’.

The percentage of respondents who selected ‘over £1 million’, ‘£25,000-£100,000’, and ‘£10,000-£25,000’ was nine percent or less.