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Dateline: 16th July, 2009
ACE Reorganisation to Go Ahead Arts Council England is to proceed with the restructuring and reorganisation outlined in its consultation paper in February (see our news story). The restructure will save £6.5 million a year in administration costs and these savings will be invested in the arts, the Council said. The proposals for change have since been refined during a period of formal consultation with staff and unions before being approved by National Council on 8th July. The Arts Council has already made savings of £9.6 million a year in running costs since 2002, through a programme of reform and improvement. Making further savings required a major restructuring of the whole organisation and the way it operates. This major review was informed by recommendations of the 2008 McMaster, McIntosh and Hodge reviews and Chief Executive Alan Davey’s vision for the organisation. The principal changes include:
The new structure allows the sharing of resources and knowledge more flexibly across the organisation and simplifies processes – for example, a centralised Grants for the arts process based in the support services centre in Manchester. Staff in the regions will be focused on customer-facing activities, head office is streamlined and the smaller executive board will be more strategic and able to make faster decisions. Alan Davey said, “This is a challenging process but one that I am determined will result in an Arts Council that has an ambitious vision for the arts in this country and the confidence, expertise and relationships to achieve that vision. “This is no mere tinkering. It is about transforming the way we work and requires a significant change in our culture. I have confidence in our people’s ability to step up to that challenge – to operate as one organisation, with responsibility and openness, to achieve our mission of great art for everyone.” The changes will meet the government’s requirement that the Arts Council saves 15 per cent on its grant in aid administration costs by 2010. The Arts Council decided that it should also find equivalent savings on its National Lottery administration costs, making a total saving of £6.5 million a year. The number of posts reduces from 622 to 491, a reduction of 21%:
Savings will be as follows:
Implementation of the changes will begin immediately and the new structure will be in place by April 2010. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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