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ACE's Proposals: FundingA single organisation will give artists and arts organisations a clearer and simpler route through the funding process; and it will be able to eliminate wasteful duplication of process. The current plethora of national and regional schemes will be reduced to a handful, although the total sums available for funding programmes will increase. Allowing for a measure of regional variation, most funding programmes should be equally available to artists and arts organisations in whichever region they are based. Regularly funded organisations will be monitored with only the lightest of touches. The new funding body will also sharply reduce the amount and frequency of the statistical and other routine paperwork which the current system demands of funded organisations in the context of both their revenue support and of any lottery funding from which they may benefit. In general, the supply of information must meet the fundamental requirements of accountability and be sufficient to enable the system to measure the outcomes of its spending against its stated objectives. But beyond that, the Council strongly believes that arts organisations should not be asked to provide for the system’s purposes other information which there is no reason for them to require for their own. The Council is looking to the new organisation to find ways of releasing £8-10 million a year from current administrative costs. This target must necessarily be provisional for the time being, pending a detailed review of staffing and operations for a unified organisation. The Arts Council has not been able to undertake this review alone, since the RABs too will need to be closely engaged in the process of structural reform. The Council will need to consider with regional colleagues the location of certain grant-giving functions currently housed in the Arts Council. These are the National Touring Programme, Capital Services, Stabilisation, and Recovery Programmes and the Contemporary Music Network. Leaving this issue on one side, the Council believes that the new national office will require a core establishment for policy and planning purposes of no more than 70-80 posts to be housed in central London (though separately from the regional executive office for London). The Council is determined that the rewards of change should accrue directly to artists and arts organisations. In recent months Council members have given increasing attention to the need for additional support for cultural diversity and for the individual artist – two areas which they believe need to be given much higher priority in future, both nationally and regionally. For their part, they believe that, for at least the first three years from 2003/04, the new organisation should consider devoting the full sum to be saved annually on administration to creating flexible funds for these express purposes. On the assumption of the structural changes outlined in the rest of this document, the Council envisages that such a fund would be delegated largely to the new regional councils for allocation at their discretion once broad national policy guidelines have been determined. Those guidelines would need to be drawn up by the new organisation in consultation with representatives of the intended beneficiaries of the fund. Outline Articles Indices: |
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