New Deal of the Mind has become The Creative Society
Since founder and CEO Martin Bright wrote the article that kick-started our work, the concept of a New Deal of the Mind has provided a mutually rewarding service in which creative organisations and businesses have directly benefitted from the creation of over 1000 sustainable jobs for young people.
As our work has evolved however, we’ve had to evolve with it, and now need a new way to better reflect the positive outcomes that we as New Deal of the Mind have helped to shape.
We are therefore evolving our brand to become known as The Creative Society with a mission to build and support the creative economy.
Look out for changes across our social media sites – coming very soon.
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The Creative Society is an arts employment charity that helps young people into jobs in the creative and cultural industries.
MPs told to get their house in order
Hazel Blears MP has today launched a campaign to ban the practice of long term, unpaid internships in Parliament. The Getting Our House In Order Campaign will ask MPs to pledge to paying their interns, rightly identifying that unpaid internships exploit young people and act as a barrier to those from less affluent backgrounds.
During a debate in Parliament, MPs acknowledged the work of The Creative Society (formerly New Deal of the Mind) in tackling the issue of unpaid internships in the UK’s creative industries. Due to the systemic nature of unpaid internships and the ‘who you know’ recruitment culture within the sector, we are running a campaign called Fair Access which encourages creative employers to pay their interns and recruit from a wider talent pool.
We are asking all creative employers to sign our Fair Access Principle, committing them to a minimum standard of recruitment and recognising that if the UK is to remain a world leader in the sector it needs to adopt more transparent and progressive practices.
The Fair Access Principle has so far been signed by over 40 employers in the sector and is part of the application process for the Arts Council’s £15 million employment fund, the Creative Employment Programme.
The message of Hazel Blears’ campaign will hopefully impact beyond the Westminster Village and provide the impetus for more employers in the creative industries to join our Fair Access Campaign.
New Deal of the Mind has become The Creative Society
We have an exciting announcement to make! New Deal of the Mind has officially become The Creative Society.
Since founder and CEO Martin Bright wrote the article that kick-started our work, the concept of a New Deal of the Mind has provided a mutually rewarding service in which creative organisations and businesses have directly benefitted from the creation of over 1000 sustainable jobs for young people.
As our work has evolved however, we’ve had to evolve with it, and now need a new way to better reflect the positive outcomes that we as New Deal of the Mind have helped to shape.
We are therefore evolving our brand to become known as The Creative Society, with a mission to build and support the creative economy.
We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners old and new for joining us in our work and helping us build The Creative Society. Everything we’ve achieved has been in tandem with you.
We are still inspired by the pioneering arts work programmes of FDR’s 1930s New Deal, and we look forward to continuing our core mission to help young people into jobs in the creative and cultural industries as The Creative Society.
We’d love to know what you think of our evolution. Our social media links will be changing to @CreativeSoc and facebook.com/creativesoc. Come and say hello to us there.
Fair Access – Ending Unpaid Internships in the Creative Industries
Last Friday 100 companies were referred to HMRC for using unpaid interns after an intervention from the campaign group, Intern Aware. Sadly, this came as no surprise to the Creative Society as our experiences since 2009 have shown us that unpaid internships are commonplace in the creative industries and act as a huge barrier to many young people wishing to pursue creative careers.
However, things could be about to change. Over the last year The Creative Society has been working directly with creative industry employers on a campaign to improve recruitment practices and tackle the issue of unpaid internships. As a result, we have developed a Fair Access Principle which commits employers who sign up to a minimum standard of recruitment. The principle has been formally included in the application process for a new £15 million jobs fund established by Arts Council England.
The Fair Access Principle is part of Fair Access, a Creative Society campaign, supported by Trust for London, which over the next year aims to encourage thousands of creative employers to sign up to the principle and publicly recognise their stance to end prolonged periods of unpaid work. We hope this public recognition will galvanise other employers in the sector and lead to a sea change in how the creative industries operate and recruit.
The Fair Access Principle was informed by extensive consultations with of range organisations including leading employers in the sector, campaign groups, such as Intern Aware, and sector bodies including Arts Council England and Creative & Cultural Skills, who co-produced recruitment guidance in 2011.
The Fair Access Principle’s inclusion in the Creative Employment Programme will allow us to establish a critical mass, sending a signal to employers that the future success of the UK’s creative industries depends on enabling young people from a range of backgrounds to access entry level jobs.
The Fair Access campaign stemmed from the findings of the Creative Society’s Future Jobs Fund programme, where 90% of the 800 young people we helped into paid creative role told us they would not have been able to take the position had they been unpaid.
Ed Miliband and Matthew Hancock hire apprentices from the Parliamentary Academy.
The Labour leader and the minister for apprenticeships are part of a new group of MPs to hire an apprentice through The Parliamentary Academy, Parliament ’s first apprentice school.
The scheme was setup in 2011 by youth employment charity The Creative Society (formerly New Deal of the Mind) and Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, to address the difficulties that non-graduates face when attempting to access entry-level roles in Parliament. It has quickly attracted cross-party support.
The Parliamentary Academy offers non-graduate 18-24 year olds the opportunity to take up a paid, 12 month placement in an MP or peer’s parliamentary office whilst simultaneously studying for an NVQ in Business & Administration. Apprentices train together as a cohort, allowing them to share their experiences of working for different MPs and political parties in Parliament.
The number of MPs hiring through the scheme has continued to increase and also includes the first member of the House of Lords to recruit an apprentice, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon who has hired two.
Other MPs joining the scheme in December include Mel Stride and Stephen Barclay. They join Mike Crockart, Andrea Leadsom, John Woodcock, CCHQ , Mark Harper, Caroline Dinenage, Mark Prisk and Sadiq Khan who have previously hired an apprentice.
Ed Miliband said of the scheme: “I’m delighted to have recruited an apprentice through The Parliamentary Academy. With such a large number of young people struggling to find work, the scheme offers an excellent opportunity for people from a wide range of backgrounds to work in politics.”
Matthew Hancock commented: “I was delighted to take on an apprentice in my office through the Parliamentary Academy. I think it is an excellent way to give someone who is passionate about politics the opportunity to earn a fair wage, doing a real job in Parliament, whilst studying for a great qualification.
“The whole recruitment process has been very easy and my team has gained a valuable new member. I would strongly encourage all my colleagues in Parliament to look very carefully at hiring their own.”
Martin Bright Founder and CEO of The Creative Society said: “It is great news that more MPs have hired apprentices through The Parliamentary Academy. Senior MPs are beginning to recognise the importance of offering young people from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to work in Parliament and enabling them to embark on a career in politics.”
How to improve the Work Programme
Chief Executive of The Creative Society (formerly New Deal of the Mind), Martin Bright, has blogged at The Spectator with his reaction to recently released analysis of the Work Programme, and recommendations on how it could be improved.
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