The Stage

DCMS/ACE failing minorities in arts

Published Wednesday 22 June 2005 at 11:35 by Alistair Smith

Exclusive: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England are failing to reach their own targets for increasing the involvement of minority groups in the arts.

Both public bodies had set themselves the goal of increasing both participation and attendance by the disabled and the socially excluded - those in the census’ three lowest class bands. However, they are failing to improve the situation in three out of four categories, with the number of disabled people attending events and the number of socially excluded people involved in cultural activities actually having fallen significantly since the scheme was launched in 2001.

Despite this, the DCMS had originally claimed in its 2005 annual report that it was on course in its mission to improve access to the arts, until it was challenged by The Stage. A spokesperson for the DCMS admitted: “It’s a mistake. It shouldn’t say that the projects are ‘on course’ - they aren’t. The department is disappointed in the progress against its targets and concedes that the programme has taken longer to kick in than we would have hoped. However, we will be working hard towards those targets with ACE in the future.”

In 2001 the proportion of disabled people attending at least two arts events was 29%, with ACE and the DCMS setting themselves a target of increasing that number to 32% by 2006. Instead, by 2004, the number had fallen to 26%. Likewise, the number of socially excluded people taking part in at least two arts events has dropped back from its 2001 level of 10% to 9% in 2004.

Meanwhile the number of disabled people participating in the arts has stood still at 12%, remaining 2% behind its 2006 target. The only category in which the organisations have been successful is in encouraging socially excluded people to attend events, which has already reached its 2006 target of 26%.

A spokesperson for ACE said: “The arts council would not normally comment on these figures. They are part of research towards Public Sector Agreement targets for 2006. They are interim figures and therefore cannot be used to forecast what the results will be by the end of the reporting period.”

Tim Wheeler, artistic director of disabled theatre company Mind the Gap, reacted angrily to the data and insisted that he was not surprised by it. He explained that there was a huge difference between the perceived public support that disabled groups received and what they were actually given.

He added: “These results are down to the lack of any meaningful investment. You can have all the ideas but you need to put the money in. The rhetoric is there but the change is not happening. The amount of funding that disabled groups receive is very little.”

The DCMS also revealed in its report that, while it was successfully recruiting ethnic minorities to many positions within the department, it was still failing to find people from these groups for senior civil service posts. Its target for 2005 is to have 10% of its senior civil servants from ethnic minorities.

However, by 2004 it still had less than half this figure. A spokesman for the department insisted that while senior civil servants were disappointed that it had not reached the published target, the level was aspirational and due to the size of the organisation, one staff change could, percentage-wise, make a considerable difference.

Philip Hedley, chairman of equality agency EQ, said he was disappointed that more ethnic minorities were not being employed in senior positions. He commented: “Having seen some splendid candidates from ethnic minorities for senior posts at EQ recently, I believe that all it takes in the recruitment process is more imagination. There are the people out there.

“You must be more proactive and imaginative. I hope the appointment of David Lammy [the new minister for culture] will have a positive effect on these areas.”