Six key priorities that the Government needs to adopt if Yorkshire’s creative industries are to continue to thrive - Carol Bell

At Creative UK, our vision for the future is a nation where creativity is key to our communities and our resilience. Where all Yorkshire’s creatives can continue to thrive, and the Cultural and Creative Industries’ economic contribution grows even beyond the current £2bn a year.

In this UK General Election year, Creative UK has published a manifesto – entitled Our Creative Future - with six priorities which any future UK Government must adopt to make that happen.

Chief amongst this is a culture-rich education. We want more creative classes in schools, with a focus on creative skills such as coding, acting and music. Creative outputs should help measure how excellent a school is as well as providing skills-focused careers guidance – available to all young people from all backgrounds to ensure future skills gaps in the creative sector can be filled.

We want support for more regular visits to cultural sites, events and venues for young people from every background. Experiences such as Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Alhambra Theatre, Bradford Literature Festival, Saltaire, and Theatre Royal Wakefield can be transformative in school aged children – broadening their understanding of areas such as art, books, history and heritage. Visits like these could be the first spark of a creative fire that lasts a lifetime, leading to enriching careers.

We are also calling for more investment because although the Creative Industries account for around 6 per cent of our country’s gross value added (GVA), we are still seriously undercapitalised. Existing funding models need attention. Publicly funded arts and culture are the crucible of innovation and are critical to driving commercial growth.

Just look at Everybody’s Talking about Jamie’ - this started life as a musical commissioned by Sheffield Theatres Trust, first performed at the Crucible Theatre. Now it’s a Broadway success and a hit film.

As well as the importance of the public purse, we’ve been an advocate for new funding and support models for a long time, establishing our own investment fund for the Creative Industries as well as advocating to other investors to ‘buy in’ to the sector.

Earlier this year we were delighted to announce a partnership with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to deliver the West Yorkshire Create Growth Programme. This aims to support around 40 creative businesses in the area, with mentoring from investment and creative industry experts, specialist workshops and opportunities which will provide them with the expertise and introductions to local and national investors, levering in inward investment into the sector and the region.

Carol Bell OBE is associate regional director at Creative UK.