A year in the life

Those who have run organisations, venues and professional bodies have commanded the sector’s public narrative over the last 12 months.

This is the story of the freelancers

This timeline is compiled from the full Big Freelancer Report which can be found here and other key dates.

March 2020

The communications crisis

Freelancers do not get laid off or made redundant, instead they simply cease to get work. Self-employed theatre makers are proficient in the art of managing portfolio careers, but never before have they been forced to piece together a survival plan in total darkness.

Without access to an HR department, a weekly company meeting or a reliable supply of information, the ‘communications crisis’ experienced by freelancers since March has been a major contributor to the income crisis that followed.

April 2020

The ‘excluded’

Given the speed with which SEISS was created and launched, it is inevitable that it would contain flaws and inconsistencies. No financial instrument of this scale is likely to be perfect in its first iteration.

However, when these flaws were made apparent to HM Treasury, nothing was done to address them. To confront the limitations of SEISS and fail to correct them is a deliberate choice, not an inevitable consequence of a complex business model.

May 2020

Speaking as one

Performing arts freelancers are not represented by a single body but by a patchwork of unions and professional associations.

The inability of this workforce to speak with a single unified voice has undoubtedly been a major obstacle to advocacy, representation, communication and the advancement of a recovery agenda.

June 2020

The data deficit

If something cannot be measured, it cannot be managed. The sector has been severely disadvantaged by a ‘data deficit’. Its data collection practices are historically poor, meaning that it relies on a small clutch of figures, primarily financial in nature, to make its case to Government.

Freelancers suffer disproportionately as a result of this data deficit. Operating without a specific tax code, the workforce is all but invisible to key agencies. Organisations are able to evidence the scale of their financial precarity. However, until The Big Freelancer Survey is conducted, the impact of the pandemic on the freelance workforce is largely a matter of guesswork.

July 2020

Town Halls

Many organisations invited freelancers with whom they have a relationship to a series of Town Halls. Although an end to what had been experienced as ‘radio silence’ was welcomed, these Town Halls were felt to have varied in tone and utility.

Attempts at ministering to the presumed wellbeing needs of freelancers were thought to be less successful than plain-talking information exchanges. Town Halls which offered little more than ‘we miss you guys’ were seen to exacerbate the sense that the buildings still didn’t understand the specific challenges facing freelancers.

August 2020

If a tree falls in the forest …

August sees data on sector job losses within organisations begin to be captured by the ONS labour market reports, published by organisations such as BECTU and debated in the House of Commons.

Due to the nature of freelance employment and the lack of a sector specific tax code, it is impossible to capture the equivalent data for the self-employed. When a freelancer goes out of business they do so so quietly that unless you’re really listening, you won’t hear a thing.

Consequently, creative freelancers continue to struggle to make their voices heard at HM Treasury, by the  media, and ultimately by their own sector.

September 2020

Lead times

The live performance sector has longer lead times than hospitality, leisure and retail. Whilst the nimblest organisations are able to get a show in front of an audience in a matter of weeks, most organisations require around three months to bring a production to the stage.

The date for indoor performances to recommence is announced by DCMS with 10 days’ notice.

It is not until September that the majority of theatres are able to get productions back into rehearsal. Many of these shows will only just have met their first audiences when the second lockdown begins on 5 November. Retail, leisure and hospitality will enjoy around 17 viable trading weeks between the July reopening and the November lockdown. Many theatres are lucky if they manage two.

October 2020

The ‘trickle down fallacy’

When asked to identify the benefits of the CRF for the sector’s ‘supply chain’, including its freelance workforce, the government repeatedly invoke a ‘trickle down’ effect. In reality, however, very little money trickles anywhere.

Many theatres elect to ‘mothball’ rather than risk the impact of new lockdowns. Those that reopen do so with radical reductions in both the number and scale of shows in production.

By January, DCMS will publicly claim that ‘around 12.5% of business costs by CRF recipients will go to freelancers, artists and casual events staff’. The source of this data point is as yet unknown. Figures produced within the sector suggests that organisational ‘spend’ on freelancers has dropped by around 95% on the previous year.

November 2020

The trouble with SEISS

Unlike the JRS which became operational in March, SEISS did not open its application portal until May. On paper, each new round of SEISS is provisioned to cover the subsequent three months. In reality, due to the ‘missing’ 2 months of income support, the self-employed are effectively being paid ‘in arrears’.

The fourth round of SEISS, provisioned to cover February, March and April, was only announced in the March 3 budget. At every stage, the ability of freelancers to plan ahead has been undermined by late announcements and revisions.

The fifth round of SEISS is intended to cover 4 rather than 3 months’ income support. By September 2021, SEISS will fall short of the JRS by 3 months.

December 2020

The small print

The much vaunted £1.57bn ‘rescue package’ was designed to support the cultural sector achieve viability by April 2021. As the pandemic worsened, rather than announce a new injection of Treasury funding, the bailout has simply been spread across a longer timeline.

Rather than using the £400m ‘hold back’ to support organisations who were unsuccessful in their round 1 applications or provisioning it for freelancers, it will now be used to support the organisations regain viability by June 2021. Round 2 of the CRF will not support a greater cultural recovery. It will merely support a more drawn out cultural recovery.

January 2021

Toxic optimism

When the third national lockdown necessitates the ‘unproducing’ of thousands of new projects, the sorrow is shared by the organisations and the freelance workforce. But the risk is not.

As freelancers are forced to absorb the financial consequences of cancelled contracts and deferred payments, the optimism of producing organisations pushing for a return to ‘business as usual’ begins to look dangerous.

Producing organisations undertake a risk assessment before green-lighting a new project. However, these risk assessments do not measure the risk of cancellation or postponement to freelancers, only to the organisations themselves.

Little wonder that many freelancers are experiencing the negative consequences of the sector’s positive thinking.

February 2021

An English problem

On February 11, the Welsh government made a further £8.9m available to freelancers as part of its own Culture Recovery Fund. One day later the Scottish government pledged £9m for its Hardship Fund for Creative Freelancers. Unlike ACE project and creative practice grants, the Scottish and Welsh funds are intended solely as ‘hardship’ measures.

Whereas ACE funding tends to privilege certain specialisms such as writing, directing and producing, the Scottish and Welsh funds list over a hundred qualifying specialisms. The lack of provision for English freelancers in technical and craft-based disciplines is likely to impact upon the speed and sustainability of sector recovery.

March 2021

One year on

Twelve months on from the moment theatres closed their doors, the impact of the pandemic has exceeded the ‘worst case scenario’ that DCMS had planned for.

The SOLT / UK Theatres One Year On survey reveals that 95% of theatres are worse off because of the pandemic. 1 in 4 freelancers are reported to have ceased trading altogether.

Arguably, however, the true impact of COVID-19 on performing arts freelancers is yet to be felt.