A free handbook for arts freelancers covers fair pay, late payment, funding and wellbeing
If you work freelance in the arts, Arts Council England has published a free handbook for you, and for the organisations that hire you. It covers contracts, fees, funding, tax, finding work, and wellbeing. You can download it, with Large Print, Easy Read, British Sign Language and audio versions.
Arts Council England, the charity that funds arts, museums and libraries across England, estimates that 30% of the cultural workforce is freelance. Its 2024 Cultural Freelancers Study surveyed more than 5,000 freelancers. The handbook answers what the study found: complex money problems, a hard time for freelancers who are parents or carers, and no access to the support employees get.
What's actually in it? The money part is the most practical. There's a method for working out your minimum day rate, links to free fee calculators, and five email templates.
Four help you answer a vague brief with no budget, state your rate, push back on a low offer and turn down work that doesn't pay fairly. The fifth asks for a contract before you start. Then come a contract checklist, what to put on an invoice, and a step-by-step guide to chasing a late payment.
Rachel Mapplebeck, a freelance cultural consultant, wrote and co-edited the handbook. "Freelancers keep the cultural sector running, yet too often the guidance meant for them is written from the sidelines," she said. Three other freelancers wrote chapters: Leila d'Aronville on peer support networks, Caitriona Shoobridge on class barriers in theatre, and Furaha Asani on mental health and equality.
Organisations get their own part too. It has a checklist and a Fair Work Pledge on paying freelancers fairly and on time, contracting well, crediting them, and meeting their access needs.
Concretely, the templates, the day-rate method and most of the contract checklist work wherever you are. The tax pages, the late-payment law and the hardship funds are written for the UK.
It's a first edition, marked beta. Arts Council England is asking freelancers what to add to the second.
