How is the Welsh Government planning to support cultural freelancers in the event of further restrictions on events to protect public health?
Wales is now at alert level zero. We are confident we have passed the peak of the December-January omicron wave and there are encouraging signs cases of coronavirus are stabilising.
Freelancers are currently being supported through the local authority discretionary fund – we recently increased the award to £1,000 for individuals impacted by the alert level two measures, which were introduced on Boxing Day in response to the omicron variant. This follows support previously provided through the Freelancer Fund, which provided £17.7m to more than 3,500 individuals.
Aligned to this funding is the Welsh Government’s ambition to support the freelance community though our public sector freelancer pledge. We are continuing to develop the pledge and will shortly be providing an update on progress, in partnership with the working group that was brought together for this work.
If further measures are needed to protect public health, we will work with the wider culture sector to identify any impact on the freelance community and assess the need for additional support.