Creative Industries Federation - Freelancers survey findings

Creative Industries Federation have today launched the findings of their creative freelancers’ survey. The highlights mentioned at the launch are below:

• There is poor visibility and lack of evidence of the impact of freelancers working in the creative sector. Government are Unaware of the importance of freelancing to the growth of the creative industries. This results in lack of support, few policies and little protection for workers.
• The survey showed that people freelance to keep creative control over what they do and because their work is too specialist for them to work for one company and the skills they have are in demand across a range of companies
• Main issues which they experience are lack of financial support and no social security. This highlights a need for them to be properly recognised in govt. e.g. in skills and immigration policies where freedom of movement in EU will facilitate a pool of freelance contractors being available quickly in the UK labour market.
• Representation in skills policy will help to ensure routes into freelance careers are legitimised and signposted. Bespoke intellectual property, business and financial advice and peer to peer support were highlighted as needs and CIF are recommending they become part of the sector deal currently being worked on as part of the industry strategy.
• Access to investment not required to turn a quick profit to provide new financial options for growth of freelance business was highlighted alongside a sustainable social security package including maternity and paternity pay.
Prohibitively high cost of workspace especially in London especially high and a lack of messy space was a significant issue.
• Poor business practice was highlighted such as unpaid work being a norm. CIF proposed championing proper paid work.
Creative Freelancers, draws on evidence from 700 freelancers and around 50 organisations that use them to demonstrate who these workers are and what they do for the fastest growing sector of the British economy. Nearly half of the creative workers in the creative industries - 47 per cent - are freelance compared with 15 per cent across the workforce as a whole.

Recommendations to improve the working lives of the self-employed include:
• Piloting ways of providing sustainable social security for freelancers
• Providing extra support during transition to Making Tax Digital and quarterly tax returns
• Protecting freelancers’ creative workspaces against development
• Making self-employment, across all sectors, part of a ministerial brief in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
• Supporting an independent UK-wide virtual hub - a business booster network - which would be a one-stop shop for business advice and facilitate peer-to-peer mentoring for creative entrepreneurs.

Read more about the report here: https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/creative-freelancers?mc_cid=a8f3c3c4ca&mc_eid=87072c426b

For more information visit https://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/creative-freelancers?mc_cid=a8f3c3c4ca&mc_eid=87072c426b