Agenda and minutes

Venue: CAPA College, Westgate, Wakefield, WF1 1EP

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Syima Aslam, Nicky Chance-Thompson, Amy Foster, Kamran Rashid, Ben Walmsley, Philippa Childs, Dominic Bascombe, Matt Wanstall, Prof Dave Russell, Sam Keighley and Councillors Jenny Lynn and Michael Graham.

2.

Declaration of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

Minutes:

There were no pecuniary interests declared by Members during the meeting.

3.

Exempt Information - Possible Exclusion of the Press and Public

Minutes:

There were no items on the agenda that required the exclusion of the press and public.

4.

Minutes of the Meeting held 16 March 2022 pdf icon PDF 420 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2022 be approved.

5.

Chair's Update

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed the Committee to CAPA College and thanked the College for hosting the meeting. The Chair welcomed the new members of the Committee who were confirmed at the Combined Authority Annual Meeting on 23 June 2022 including:

 

·           Nicky Chance-Thompson (The Piece Hall)

·           Nathan Clark (Brudenell Social Club)

·           WiekeEringa (Yorkshire Dance)

·           Halima Khan (Street Games)

·           Sam Nicholls (Music Local)

·           Leigh-Anne Stradeski (Eureka! Halifax)

·           Ben Walmsley (University of Leeds, Centre for Cultural Value)

It was also highlighted that the name of the Committee had changed from the ‘Culture, Arts and Creative Industries Committee’ to the ‘Culture, Heritage and Sport Committee’ to better reflect the nature and scope of the Committee’s work.

 

The Chair provided an update to the Committee on good news from around West Yorkshire from the sectors represented since the last Committee meeting in March:

 

·           Bradford has been awarded City of Culture for 2025. The Committee passed on their congratulations to everyone involved in the bid.

·           Women’s Rugby League continues to grow and a league record crowd was at Elland Road to watch Leeds Rhinos vs St. Helens. Birkenshaw Bluedogs under-13s won the Bradford cup final at Odsal stadium, the team formed during lockdown with 18 out of 20 girls new to Rugby League.

·           International cricket returned to Headingley stadium in Leeds. The Chair congratulated Yorkshire County Cricket Club for their ongoing work to make Headingley a safe and inclusive place to enjoy test match cricket.

·           Impact Hub Bradford partnership launched a £6.6m Social investment Fund.

·           Ageless Festival by Yorkshire Dance welcomed international guests and local community participants to celebrate age and aging. The youngest performer was aged 2 and the oldest aged 92. Another Ageless festival is planned for 2024.

·           Slung Low is partnering with international property developer CEG to create a new artist development space on Bath Road, Holbeck as part of the Temple Development. The space will house office space for the region’s young and emerging artists and companies. The site will also host an outdoor stage that will present performances. The venue will operate on a Pay What You Decide basis.

·           Screen Yorkshire reported that nearly 900 days of work were secured for local freelancers in the first quarter of 2022 through our crewing service.  Filming days were up nearly 40% from 2020-21 and the upward trend continues in 2022.

·           The documentary ‘A Bunch of Amateurs’ premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest. The film was supported with investment from Screen Yorkshire won the audience award at the festival.

·           Yorkshire Sculpture Park celebrates 45 years this year and will be celebrating with a piece by Roger Hiorns at the park.

·           Thackray Medical Museum is 25 years old this year and audience numbers are recovering especially amongst schools, 3300 students visited in the first quarter of 2022/23 – compared to 641 during the same period last year.

·           Leeds Art University have been able to have end-of-year exhibitions, shows, performances and events in person this year - along with in-person graduation ceremonies.

·           Leeds Beckett University launched a film  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Governance Arrangements pdf icon PDF 181 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Interim Director, Policy & Development presented the Governance Arrangements report to advice the Committee of arrangements approved by the Combined Authority at the Annual Meeting on 23 June 2022.

It was highlighted that the name of the Committee has been changed from the ‘Culture, Arts and Creative Industries Committee’ to the ‘Culture, Heritage and Sport Committee’ to better reflect the broad range of activites that the Committee represents. The report also noted the new members of the Committee and the dates of future committee meetings.

Members asked if there would be any training given to new members. The Head of Business, Innovation, Skills & Culture Policy confirmed that there had already been a Members Induction event to introduce members to the Combined Authority but a training session specifically focused on the work of this committee was already being planned.

The Committee asked if there were any planned changes planned to enable National Portfolio Organisations to become members of the Committee. It was confirmed that at present there were no planned changes but the Interim Director would feedback to the committee on any proposed changes as this was being revaluated.

Members asked for clarification on the funding arrangements of the Assurance Framework. Funding had been spent on consultants who were necessary to help finalise bids for funding and therefore there was less funding available for the cultural activites of which it was originally intended. The Chair and Head of Business, Innovation, Skills & Culture Policy agreed that there needed to be balance between the need for assurance and output and agreed to feedback to the committee on how this can be achieved.

Resolved: That the Committee note the governance arrangements approved by the Combined Authority at the Annual Meeting on 23 June 2022.

 

7.

Culture, Heritage and Sport Framework Consultation pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair informed the Committee that Item 9 – Culture, Heritage and Sport Framework Consultation would be presented ahead of Item 7 as some members had to leave the committee early and the Chair wanted their feedback.

The Culture, Heritage and Sport Policy Manager presented the report to the Committee and asked for their views on the Framework and next steps before the consultation period starts this summer.

Several consultation events had taken place since the last meeting of the Committee including a consultation workshop held on 12 April at John Smith’s Stadium Huddersfield with stakeholders from the region’s culture, heritage and sports sectors. The majority of feedback has been positive with comments centred around what should be added to the Framework rather than removed. Some key feedback includes:

·           Be ambitious, raise aspirations and lift the spirits

·           Use simple, clear language and avoid jargon

·           Sport needs far more prominence

·           Support activites that tell the story of your region

·           Focus resources on things that only a combined authority can do, and which have region-wide impact

·           Support community-led initiatives

·           Support activity that increases engagement with culture and sport for all

·           Make careers in the creative and sports industries visible, viable and accessible to people regardless of their background, and amplify role models.

·           Ensure that culture, heritage and sport are given proper consideration in decisions on planning, transport, and skills and business support

·           Define what you mean by culture, heritage, sport and the creative industries

·           Work closely with partners including Las and universities on evaluation

·           Many calls for WYCA to support specific organisations on initiatives, which may be out of scope for the framework itself (as one purpose of the Framework is to guide funding decisions, not commit us to funding specific organisations).

 

Councillor Darryl Smalley left the meeting at this point.

The Framework will be published for public consultation on the Your Voice webpage from 25 July – 16 September and the Committee were encouraged to share it within their networks to help capture as many responses as possible.

Members asked several questions related to the following:

·           The clarity on the role of the Committee within the Framework.

·           Scale of the social media resources available to members to promote the consultation.

·           Wellbeing being promoted more explicitly in the Framework.

·           How the consultation can be shaped to best engage younger audiences.

·           Protecting assets that are already within West Yorkshire.

·           Linking health into the Framework as well as the soon to be appointed Inclusivity Champion at the Combined Authority.

·           Sharing best practice of engagement between members.

·           Adding ‘Dance’ to the definitions section.

·           Ensuring that all levels of society and users are effectively engaged.

 

Councillor Sarah Ferriby left the meeting at this point.

The Committee thanked officers for the report.

Resolved: That the Committee notes the update on the Culture, heritage and Sport Framework and endorses the commencement of the public consultation.

 

8.

Economic and Sector Reporting pdf icon PDF 269 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Economic Evidence Manager presented the report to the Committee to provide an update on the latest economic data relating to the sector.

The report highlight that the impact of the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 pandemic was short-lived with strong performance seen across most indicators during early 2022. When the report was compiled, there was limited evidence within the published data that the cost-of-living crisis is having a negative impact on the sector, although the UK is at an early stage of the crisis.

Recruitment activity for creative and cultural roles remains strong and national data shows that the sector faces some of the most acute recruitment difficulties of any sector.

Members asked several questions relating to the report including:

·           If data from the Kickstart programme has included in employment figures it could distort the resulting data.

·           The possibility of the Combined Authority creating a program similar to Kickstart.

·           The importance of signposting vacancies in the sector.

·           The cost-of-living crisis having a disproportionally severe impact on the sector due to the lower average wages paid.

 

The Head of business, Innovation, Skills & Culture Policy confirmed that more resource will be added to the research and development team at the Combined Authority to focus on the cultural sector.

The Committee thanked the Economic Evidence Manager for the report.

Resolved: That the Committee

(i)     Notes the evidence presented in the report.

(ii)    Notes the proposed reporting arrangements.

(iii)   Notes the steps being taken to build analytical capacity in this area.

 

9.

Creative Catalyst - Update pdf icon PDF 275 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Business, Innovation, Skills and Culture Policy presented the report to provide an update on the schemes in delivery and development which form part of the Creative Catalyst programme.

Highlights within the report included:

·           The Creative Accelerator, delivered by Indielab, is in delivery with 26 TV and gamin businesses on the programme.

·           Export Labs is in delivery with 30 businesses across three cohorts on the programme.

·           The Mentoring scheme is due to go out to tender in the next couple of weeks with 20 mentees working in mid-level roles within the screen industries to be targeted ti receive intensive mentoring from industry professionals

·           Beyond Brontës: The Mayor’s Screen Diversity Programme, a TV/film production training and work placement programme delivered by Screen Yorkshire, has completed its first cohort which was five times over-subscribed. With this cohort, the programme supported 58% women, 50% BAME and 33% people with disabilities, and recruitment specifically targeted disadvantaged groups including gender, ethnicity, disability and social class as well as a split across the region of participants.

 

Resolved: That the Committee notes the updates on the Creative Catalyst programme.

 

10.

Date of Next Meeting

The date of the next meeting is 3 November 2022.

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled for 28 October 2022.