Touring Fund - Panel Members Required

Published: 10 Dec 2020

Creative Scotland is seeking individuals to join the decision making panel for a special round of the Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance for outdoor and non-conventionally staged work.

Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund for theatre and dance was developed in consultation with members of the touring Theatre and Dance sector, in collaboration with the Federation of Scottish Theatre, and is a response to the recommendations of the Review of Theatre and Dance Touring in Scotland.

The fund has opened for its latest round of applications in December 2020, and this round of the fund is specifically designed to respond directly to the limitations in place within the dance, theatre and touring landscape as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and associated restrictions. It seeks to support venues, theatres, artists, companies and producers to re-engage with their audiences in innovative ways while still complying with ongoing restrictions.

Creative Scotland is now looking for external panellists to be part of the decision making panel for the fund, which will take place on Monday 15 March 2021. The Touring Fund panel will comprise of four Creative Scotland staff and five external Panel Members contracted through this process to work together.

You can find more information about the Touring Fund criteria and objectives here on the Touring Fund page.

Role of the Panel

The desired outcome of this funding deadline will be to fund work of high artistic quality and ambition that provides a balance of:

• Work that will support venues, theatres, artists, companies and producers to re-engage their audiences
• Work that will provide the public with opportunities to access high-quality live performances
• Work that will support venues and theatres to develop their engagement with their locations and local communities
• Good geographic spread across Scotland. This will include a consideration of venues and touring networks outside the main Central Belt cities and venues across the Central Belt who are under served with theatre and dance. The decision-making panel will balance the geographical spread of the projects that will be supported
• Work that is created by a diverse range of artists and producers
• Work for a diverse range of audiences.

Our Requirement - Panel Members Commitment

• Panel members will be paid a fee of £200 per day. This will cover training, preparation work and panel meeting attendance (excluding VAT if applicable).
• Panel training will be a half-day session (via Microsoft Teams online meeting).
• Panel preparation work will involve reading Touring Fund applications and assessments in order to participate in the decision-making process at the Panel. Reading will take up to 2 to 3 days depending on the number of applications received.
• Panel attendance will be 1 day (via Microsoft Teams online meeting). Panel members will also assist the Chair in finalising feedback on decisions at the end of the meeting.
• A senior member of Creative Scotland staff will act as Panel Chair and will be responsible for running the business of the meeting.

Experience and Skills

We are looking for independent, professional Panel Members with sufficient availability and flexibility to respond to this opportunity. 

External Panel Members will be expected to hold credible professional knowledge and expertise of the Theatre and Dance Touring sector in Scotland, either from a venue programming perspective or as a maker/producer of work that tours, as well as experience of budgeting, project development, management and evaluation.

Relevant training will be provided.

Deadline for application is at 12pm noon on Thursday 7 January 2021. Tenderers will be advised of our decision by email no later than 19 January 2021. Tenderers should note that there will be no feedback given to unsuccessful tenders.

Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest

Successful tenderers will be required to complete a Declaration of Interest form prior to commencing panel work detailing any organisations or Boards they are connected to, or any funding applications in which they may have a vested interest. Completion of this documentation will allow Creative Scotland to ensure tenderers are not asked to participate in a Panel meeting where they have a direct note of interest.

Please note that applicants to the Touring Fund in this round will not be eligible to be panellists but can apply to be part of the pool of professionals we will contact for future panels.

Timescale

• Deadline for tenders: 12 noon, Thursday 7 January 2021
• Decision Notification: Tuesday 19 January 2021
• Panel Training: Wednesday 10 February 2021

The key deadlines for the next Touring Fund round, which will focus on Covid 19 Impact: Outdoor and Non-Conventionally Staged Work are:

• Deadline for funding applications: Friday 5 February 2021
• Panel Decision Meeting: Monday 15 March 2021
• Decisions Announcement: w/c 29 March 2021

How to apply

In order to comply with the current legislation and guidelines all applications must be made via the Public Contracts Scotland (PCS) portal.

To apply for this opportunity, please initially register with PCS as a supplier, if you are not already registered go to the registration page.

Once registered, please then complete your application via the PCS Portal using reference DEC401819 on the search listing page.

Step by step instructions on how to register onto PCS and submit a Tender Response via the PCS Postbox

1. Go to to Public Contracts website and register as a Supplier, just putting your name in the “Organisation Name” field, click Continue (this will take you back to the main page).
2. You will receive an email from PCS which you will need to click into to activate your PCS Membership.
3. Once that’s done, go back to the login page and log in with your details.
4. At the top of the Home Page, click “Browse Notices” and under the “Filter Results”, insert in the “Reference No” field DEC401819 and click search, (this will bring up Creative Scotland’s Notice Details). Click into the Notice and “Record your interest now” then Save and Continue.
5. Click onto the Notice again where you will find access to the Document Tab and can open up the Tender Brief document.
6. Once you have completed the Tender Brief and the necessary documents, go to this listing page and click on the “Go To Postbox” option on the right hand side and Create a Postbox Response (this is where you will upload and submit your documents) and click Despatch.
7. The documents which need to be submitted are:
   • Background Details
   • Schedule 4 – Signed Form of Tender to Creative Scotland
   • 2 x A4 documents detailing how you meet the criteria detailed on Section 1.21