Mapping creative freelancer support in the West Midlands: report out now!

We've been busy over the first few months of this year, and a project that's seen us speaking to people all over the West Midlands has been our work researching, consulting and writing a report, Mapping Creative Freelancer Support in the West Midlands - and it's just been published!

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Cultural Leadership Board (CLB) contracted Curiosity Productions to map support for freelancers in the cultural sector and creative industries in the region. They wanted to see a comprehensive picture of the support and resources currently available to freelancers in the region, and to identify potential gaps or opportunities to improve what's available. 

We met, interviewed and heard from training providers, creative organisations and freelancers across the West Midlands. We researched and logged over 200 offers of support for creative freelancers into a new database. We noted where they were, who they were for, who they were run by, and the key barriers to accessing them.

('Offers of support' includes tools for development like training, information resources, platforms and networks, development and wellbeing funding, but not commissioning creative work itself)

The key findings of this mapping process were: 

• There is a lot of support available to freelancers, but much of it is only accessible if you can afford to pay for it (and can afford the unpaid time to attend). 
• There is a lack of joined-up approach across the sector - support is piecemeal.  
• Opportunities are often not easy to find unless you are already ‘in the loop’ and well networked in the sector. 
• A lot of support available is informal advice and mentoring that is not funded or promoted widely. 
• People who already face systemic barriers are even less likely to have the resources and capacity to navigate and access the complex and relatively hidden support opportunities that are available.  
• There is a huge wealth of expertise and many brilliant training providers in the region across all creative sectors and geographical areas, many of whom are practising creative freelancers themselves, who have worked with various organisations and funders to deliver training programmes in the past.   
• There could be a collaborative approach across the sector and region to curate a training and development programme from all of the great work that has recently and is currently taking place, that ensures there is a consistent offer that fills any current gaps in regular provision in terms of artform/practice or geographical access.