Torbay Culture Coronavirus Advice
Updated: 30 July 2020
The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has been - and continues to be - a time of concern and uncertainty for everyone. We understand the pressures and difficulties this is causing for organisations and individuals across the culture and creative sector. We continue do everything we can, within our capacity and resources, to provide support to the sector in Torbay during this time. As the Government outlines the ‘unlocking’ process for different parts of the social, cultural and economic life of the country, we are doing our best to keep on top of it.
The £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport on 5 July is now being distributed through the arms-length bodies. Please see below for more details of the different programmes of support, and links to the application forms and guidance.
Torbay Culture’s actions
Torbay Culture has supported the local cultural sector in the following ways:
Keeping this page up to date with information about support available, and sharing examples of how the local cultural sector has been responding creatively to keep people connected
Forming a new What Next? chapter to bring people together online to talk about concerns and support each other going
Providing advice and guidance through the different emergency funding programmes released by national agencies
Providing intelligence to other organisations, locally and nationally, to help plan for recovery (including DCMS Inquiry, Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund and TDA), informed by many individuals and organisations that contacted us with information about the impact of the pandemic
Advocating for culture with the Torbay Together strategic partnership, other local networks, national agencies and government
Securing Arts Council funding to deliver recovery activity including the Create To Recover programme, sector advice and support
Adapted our existing programmes where possible to continue to deliver impact for Torbay’s communities.
Advice, Guidance & Support (general)
We can signpost you to local and national organisations that are offering advice, guidance and support which may be useful to you at this time. Key sources of information are:
Torbay Council: Advice and support for businesses (including reopening and accessing grants)
UK Government: Self-employment Income Support Scheme
UK Government: advice for employers and businesses
Torbay Council: Guidance for all in Torbay
Job Centre Plus: Support for people being made redundant or looking for work (pdf)
Torbay Community Development Trust (TCDT) and Brixham Does Care (BDC) have set up a Torbay Community Helpline for people affected by COVID-19: 01803 446022 (Open 10am to 6pm Monday to Friday, and 9.30am to 12.30pm on Saturdays)
You can also contact BDC direct: 01803 857727 (Monday to Friday, 9.45am-4pm)
Download the Helpline poster (pdf)
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG): Guidance to local authorities on COVID-19 business rate discount including who will be eligible (includes museums, galleries, historic houses, theatres, tourist attractions, and more)
Charity Commission: Coronavirus guidance for charities
NCVO: Guidance for charities, voluntary organisations and volunteers
UK Government advice for all continues to be updated at www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response
Facebook: Small business grants
LEP Digital Skills Partnership: Online tools and digital skills training
Accounting4Everything: free daily, live business Q&As from Paignton-based accountancy firm - via their Facebook page.
Federation of Small Businesses: Advice and guidance for small businesses and the self-employed.
Advice, Guidance & Support (sector-specific)
We are aware of the following advice and support being offered for arts, culture and heritage workers and organisations:
CULTURE RECOVERY FUND
UK Government: Announcement of £1.57 billion investment in arts and heritage through a new Culture Recovery Fund (5 July 2020)
On 29 July the DCMS arms-length bodies - Arts Council England, British Film Institute, Historic England and National Lottery Heritage Fund announced how they would be distributing this funding. For detailed guidance on the different strands of help available, visit the website of the respective organisations below.
National Lottery Heritage Fund Culture Recovery Fund being delivered in partnership with Historic England
Arts Council England Culture Recovery Fund
OTHER FUNDING AND SUPPORT
Arts Council England: Project Grants reopened with amended criteria on 22 July 2020
House of Commons Inquiry into the impact of COVID-19 on DCMS sectors
Arts Council England: Coronavirus information and resources
Society of Authors: Authors’ Emergency Fund
Directors Charitable Foundation: Directors Support Scheme supporting directors of stage & screen
ArtsMinds: Support for mental health of creative practitioners
Arts Council England: information for Department of Education funded programmes; Project Funding; Museums & Cultural Property Schemes
Arts Fundraising & Philanthropy: Networks Funding (to support new ways of working and fundraising capability)
Arts Council England: Emergency Funding (closed for applications)
Historic England: Covid-19 Emergency Heritage at Risk Response Fund (closed for applications)
PRS for Music: Emergency Relief Fund (closed for applications)
Film & TV Charity: COVID-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund and hardship fund (closed for applications)
Freelands Foundation: Emergency Fund for visual artists in partnership with a-n The Artists Information Company (closed for applications)
Torbay Culture programmes
The health and wellbeing of those that we work with directly is a priority. As such we are following Government advice in relation to running events, holding meetings or bringing people together. We are also sensitive to the needs of our non-cultural sector partners during this time.
This means that some things have been postponed, delayed or cancelled – we will update partners and participants directly regarding specific activities. The end-date for Torbay’s Great Place Scheme has been extended by the funding partners so we now have until 30 September 2020 to complete activity.
Information about our Create To Recover programme can be found on the dedicated project pages or follow @TorbayCulture.
We will update this page when we have more information to share as the situation changes.
