Creative England opened for business on 1 October 2011, with the core purpose of supporting the sustainable growth of independent creative businesses, and the talent that feeds them, in every part of England outside London. We are the first agency to provide dedicated support to Film, Television, Games, and Digital and Creative Services in the English regions outside London.
Find out more about us by reading about:
A new approach
In November 2010, the Minister for Creative Industries Ed Vaizey announced that the network of regional screen agencies (RSAs) outside London would transform into Creative England, “a simpler, more efficient structure with an expanded remit to support the creative industries across England.”
The RSAs were established by the UK Film Council in 2002 to deliver film culture and nurture talent across England. Since then, the agencies diversified to work across the full range of creative industries, often attracting significant funding from other sources for non-screen projects in the fields of games, digital and new media. Following the abolition of UKFC in July 2010, it was recognised that the RSA network should re-configure into Creative England, a new national delivery arm to build creative companies and talent.
From April 2011, the BFI became the lead body for film in the UK, taking on most of the UKFC's core functions, including overseeing support for film in the English regions. Film London took on the British Film Commission and the national remit to manage the UK’s inward investment strategy. Find out more about the transfer of UKFC responsibilities on the BFI website.
But that’s not all we’ll do. As well as supporting Film, we will also support the creative sectors of TV, Games, and Digital and Creative Services. We plan to:
We'll be launching our new Digital Champions scheme in Spring 2012, so make sure you sign up to receive the latest news.
Since last year, the RSAs have been working together to reform into Creative England. In February 2011, we invited your views on our proposed priorities for film in 2011/12. Consultation meetings took place in Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham.
More than 470 of you responded, and in April our Chairman John Newbigin responded to the initial findings. In June 2011, we shared the full summary of findings, which showed that of those who expressed an opinion, 65% either agreed or strongly agreed that our proposed priorities were the right ones.
Creative England opened for business on 1 October 2011, announcing its first Board members, key senior management and first film funds available. Read more here. It is now organising the transition of RSA staff, to ensure 'boots on the ground' all around the English regions.
For the remainder of the financial year 2011/12, Creative England will receive a budget for film activity from the BFI of c. £900,000 in Grant-in-Aid and £1m in Lottery funds. We are in ongoing dialogue with Government and other public and commercial sources to secure funding for wider creative industry activity.
Creative England will be a new nationwide network based on three key hubs; Creative North, Creative Central and Creative South. Each hub will work with networks of locally-based businesses and sector organisations across the country to deliver cultural and business development.
As well as working with the BFI, Film London and the British Film Commission, we will also work with other creative industry bodies, such as Skillset, the Arts Council of England, the Design Council, NESTA, the Technology Strategy Board and new Local Enterprise Partnerships around the country.
We are also pleased to confirm that we have secured c. £5 million RGF funding from teh Government's Regional Growth Fund for ‘Digital Champions’, a private sector-led scheme providing development funding and market expertise to small creative and digital businesses working in cross-platform content and services. We're currently undergoing a period of due diligence with Government, and will be announcing more details in Spring 2012.
The creative industries are one of the fastest growing sectors in the UK, and will play a hugely important role in economic recovery. These vital, knowledge-based businesses help drive our country forwards, and the DCMS estimates that they contribute £60 billion, or 6.2%, to the economy every year. From 2006-9, the RSAs supported over 13,500 SMEs, safeguarded almost 2,800 jobs and increased the turnover of 500 companies by over 50% (Olsberg).
This kind of entrepreneurial activity became a hallmark of the RSAs and Creative England is committed to building on this to further champion the digital and creative industries. Why? Because we need to keep investing in our core content industries, to keep competing at the highest level internationally, to keep generating the best creative talent and output, and to make sure we don’t get left behind in a digital future.
Join the Creative England mailing list to receive the latest news. If you have a question about Creative England, please email info@creativeengland.co.uk.
