News

Arts Council England Restructuring - Detail Announced

After months of internal deliberations (and apparently no external consultants) ACE has announced the results of its organisational review and planned savings of £6.5m a year.

Staff numbers fall by 21%, with the regions taking the bulk of the hit. The nine streamlined regional offices are grouped into four super-areas: North; Midlands and South West; East and South East; London. The London office will move to Great Peter St to share premises with National Office (Alan Davey was at pains to reassure the Art Form Lead Bodies at a briefing on 15.07, that this would not lead to a concentration of influence). The Executive Board reduces from 13 t o 9, but as yet Council and the Regional Councils remain as they are. The centralised Grants for the Arts unit in Manchester will lead to more efficient processing - the artistic decisions still be made regionally by the renamed 'Relationship Managers’. Welcome news in that the application process will be simplified for smaller grants.

The change is driven by the necessity to cut overheads but also by a will to 'change the culture' of the organisation - with greater sharing of resources and knowledge and a clearer strategic overview to support the implementation of the 10 year arts strategy that is currently being developed under Andrew Nairne's leadership..

A specialism 'map' will allow expertise to be called on across the country leading to a more collegiate and creative way of working, and over time more bottom-up policy making. The specialisms are grouped under dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts, combined arts and touring, engagement and participation, learning (children and young people, or learning and skills), diversity in arts practice, digital and creative economy and regional planning.

Implementation of the changes will begin immediately and the new structure will be in place by April 2010. Alan Davey said that further savings may well be possible through a future review of real estate.

ACE has set aside £5 million to go towards redundancies and other costs. We were reassured that both the present government and the Conservatives are fully behind the proposals - so we trust that this will be the last restructure for a while.

ACE Briefing Note ; Structure

The review was informed by recommendations of the 2008 McMaster, McIntosh and Hodge reviews. For details of the latter and how, the DCMS's four key agencies in the regions - Arts Council England, Sport England, English Heritage and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council are now beginning to work together here.