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Articles
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Articles |
ACE's Proposals: the RegionsThe regional councils will determine grants for and be the main focus for relations with all regularly funded organisations. For the avoidance of doubt, this includes funding for touring companies and for what are currently termed the national companies. The regions will have full control of a larger tranche of flexible funding (that is, monies which are not pre-committed to particular funding recipients), to be enhanced year-on-year as increases in grant-in-aid permit. The new national organisation will also delegate more National Lottery funding to the regional executive offices for distribution on a similarly flexible basis. The new national strategic office will need to provide and manage key support services for the organisation as a whole. The national office will also be responsible for setting common performance standards in such areas as regional assessment and monitoring of funded organisations, advisory and development services for the arts and grant application processes. The regional executive offices will otherwise have full discretion in managing their day-to-day affairs, including line management of all regional staff. It is important to emphasise that all decisions and actions, wherever they may be taken within the new organisation, will be actions and decisions of the organisation as a whole, for which the whole organisation will be accountable. In addition to their grant-giving functions, all the RABs currently engage with local authority and other partners in arts development work in their regions. The new organisation will be able to identify and analyse the critical components of best practice in this area so that it can be replicated across the system as a whole for the benefit of both the arts community and the wider public. The new organisation must also maintain and develop the RABs’ existing links with other regional agencies, most notably with the Regional Development Agencies, with government offices in the regions, with regional cultural consortia and with elected regional ssemblies/government where they exist or come into being. The new regional executive offices will be given the necessary authority to solicit and receive funds from other sources (such as local authority subscriptions, grants from the European Regional Development Fund and charitable donations). Local authority subscriptions currently amount to some £3.6 million across the country, providing an important supplement to the funds available to RABs from national sources. They can also help to engage local authorities more fully in regional arts issues. There is no technical impediment to the subscription system’s continuing with regional executive offices as the recipients. It is accordingly proposed that the system be maintained but that it should be reviewed over the next year in consultation with the LGA. The question of regional boundaries is to some extent a separate matter. The Arts Council is strongly predisposed to the view that existing RAB boundaries should be adjusted where necessary so as to become co-terminous with those of other regional agencies. To proceed otherwise – particularly at a time when the government’s own regional agenda is developing apace – could lead to confusion and ineffectiveness. Having said that, however, the Council recognises that the sheer size of the standard South East region may require the maintenance of two offices in the South of England under the direction of a single regional council. The South East, Southern and South West Arts Boards have recently commissioned some urgent research on this matter, and the Council will await the outcome before finally determining the shape of the new regional executive office boundaries across the South of the country. It will also await the findings of a similar exercise in Cumbria before deciding on the remits of the Northern and North West regional offices. But it will not be easily persuaded that the present differential boundaries should remain. Outline Articles Indices: |
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