Creative UK launches new advocacy toolkit for the cultural and creative industries

Jul 13, 2026 | Blog

Last week, on a very hot and sweltering afternoon, we headed to the Houses of Parliament for Creative UK’s Summer Reception and the launch of The Case for the Creative Industries.

The new advocacy toolkit is designed to help the cultural and creative industries make a clear, shared case to policymakers ahead of this autumn’s political party conferences.

Creative Industries Advocacy toolkit
The afternoon brought together people from across the creative industries for presentations, speakers and, most importantly, plenty of conversation about the future of the sector and what needs to change.
Creative UK’s toolkit focuses on five broad priorities:
• Building the creative workforce of the future
• Unlocking investment and innovation
• Protecting intellectual property in the age of AI
• Backing creative growth across every nation and region
• Strengthening the UK’s global creative advantage
Together, these priorities make a powerful case for the economic and social importance of the cultural and creative industries. The sector contributes £146 billion in Gross Value Added each year, supports 2.4 million jobs and accounts for nearly 8% of UK exports. Between 2010 and 2023, it grew by 35%, compared with 22% across the wider UK economy.
But for us, making the case for the creative industries must also mean making the case for the people whose work makes that success possible.

Freelancers run through every priority.

Freelancing may not be one of the toolkit’s five standalone headings, but the freelance workforce runs through every one of them.
 
A healthy creative skills pipeline is not only about encouraging more people to enter the sector. It must also be possible for them to stay in it and build sustainable careers.
 
This came up again and again in conversations throughout the afternoon. We spoke with people working across music, film, television and theatre, as well as representatives from universities and higher education courses.
 
A particularly important part of those conversations was the need to prepare graduates not only with the creative or technical skills required to do a particular job, but also with the practical skills needed to build and sustain a freelance career.
 
For many people entering the creative industries, freelancing is not a side issue or an alternative route. It is simply how they will work.
 
That means education and training should also cover things like managing irregular income, negotiating contracts, understanding rights, building professional relationships, protecting wellbeing and developing the resilience needed to navigate an often uncertain working life.
Preparing someone to do the job without preparing them for the realities of freelancing leaves a significant gap.
Big ben

A shared understanding across the sector

 
One of the most encouraging things about the afternoon was how clearly everyone we spoke to understood the value of freelancers.
 
Whether they were working in music, film, television, theatre or higher education, there was a real recognition of the central role the freelance workforce plays across the creative industries.
 
We did not have to begin each conversation by explaining why freelancers matter. That was already understood. Instead, we could move straight into talking about what needs to improve and how different parts of the sector might work together.
 
There was also a strong and shared understanding of the wider value of the creative industries themselves. Everyone we spoke to seemed clear that this is a sector of enormous economic, cultural and social importance, but also one where meaningful improvements are still urgently needed.
 
It was heartening, too, to meet so many people who understood the need for Freelancers Make Theatre Work and who took the time to thank us for the work we do.
 
Those conversations were genuinely valuable. They were a reminder that, while our work is rooted in theatre and live performance, many of the challenges facing freelancers are shared across the wider creative economy.
 

Investment must reach the people doing the work

 
The toolkit highlights the need for finance, specialist advice and practical support that reflect the distinctive ways in which creative businesses work.
 
That support must reach freelancers and micro-businesses, not only larger organisations and established companies.
 
For freelancers, access to training, advice, networks and appropriate finance can make the difference between being able to develop a sustainable career and being forced to leave the industry altogether.
 
The same is true of regional investment. Cultural growth across the UK cannot only mean investment in buildings, clusters or institutions. It must also create meaningful, fairly paid opportunities for the freelance artists, technicians, producers, designers, administrators and many others living and working in those places.
 

Protecting creative work in the age of AI

 
The toolkit’s focus on intellectual property and artificial intelligence is particularly important for freelancers.
 
It calls for a licensing-first approach, strong transparency requirements and fair remuneration for creators and rights holders. It also recognises the need to protect people from unauthorised AI-generated replicas of their voices, faces and likenesses.
 
Alongside those protections, freelancers and micro-businesses need affordable, sector-specific support to understand and respond to rapidly changing technology.
 
The creative industries cannot embrace innovation while leaving individual workers to carry all the risk.
 

Removing barriers to international work

 
The toolkit also recognises the barriers that performing artists, freelancers and technical crews continue to face when working and touring in Europe.
 
These barriers affect much more than individual jobs. They limit skills development, career progression, creative exchange and the UK’s wider cultural presence.
 
Removing them would have a direct and practical impact on many of the people FMTW exists to support.
Creative Industries toolkit

Why being in the room matters

Simply being at events like this is not the point. What matters is what we bring into the room, who we speak to, what we learn and what happens next.

Policy is often shaped through conversations and relationships long before final decisions or funding announcements are made. Our role is to make sure the experiences, evidence and priorities of freelancers are part of those conversations.

It is also about listening, finding common ground and building connections with people working across other parts of the creative industries.

The conversations we had in Westminster were positive, constructive and encouraging. They reinforced the sense that there is a widespread understanding of the value of the creative industries, the importance of their freelance workforce and the need for change.

As we move into FMTW’s next phase, supported by three years of funding, we will continue to enter these spaces while staying firmly connected to the freelancers whose experiences shape our work.

Creative UK’s toolkit offers useful common ground for the sector ahead of political party conference season. We will continue to bring the freelancer perspective into that wider conversation, because a thriving creative economy depends not only on what the sector produces, but on whether the people producing it can build fair, safe and sustainable working lives.

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