About the 5 GPs
The Freelance Taskforce brought together 169 freelancers from the performing arts industry for 13 weeks during the first covid lockdown of 2020.
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The authors of the 5GPs were members of the Cornish, South West and Dance FTF working groups.
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The 5GPs were refined in discussion with all of these groups and with the South West sponsor organisations. They have been embedded in the founding documents of
As members of The Freelance Taskforce we collated ‘burning issues’ from 130 + freelancers to draw out a set of key themes. One of these was the desire for a best-practice model for organisations working with freelancers. We looked at the ‘fair trade’ marque - suggesting a model that could be adopted as a way of subscribing to best practice.
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The principles would identify an organisation so freelancers & other organisations could assume a shared set of values. With these 5 Guiding Principles we’re attempting a model that can be subscribed to - regardless of the size of an organisation, the specific sector it sits within (theatre, dance, music, outdoor arts etc) - or the kind of activities it delivers (on stage, off stage, education, community etc).
Ahead of joining the taskforce we had noticed a shift in some language - in reacting to the Covid crisis and early responses to it - that separated organisations and freelancers rather than viewing them holistically as part of the same endeavour. We see this piece of work as a joint enterprise in which organisations and freelancers positively empower each other. We foresee a process in which each organisation works together with its freelancers to best interpret the principles as relevant actions for them. Referring to the outputs of the various working groups, sector-wide lobbying, and existing models of best practice we will provide guidance on how to do this.
Subscribing to the 5 guiding principles requires a commitment from all of us to keep working at applying them.