Arts Council England restructures

From the Arts Council England press release:

Arts Council England today announced details of a proposed organisation-wide restructure that will save £6.5 million a year in administration costs and invest these savings in the arts.

Having already made savings of £9.6 million a year in running costs since 2002, through a programme of reform and improvement, making these further savings has required a major restructuring of the whole organisation.

The proposed 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.

This major review has also given the Arts Council the opportunity to address the recommendations of the July 2008 McIntosh report and our Chief Executive’s vision for the organisation, arising out of his response to that report.

The principal changes contained in the proposal include:

• an overall reduction in staff numbers across the organisation of 24 per cent
• nine streamlined regional offices grouped in four areas – North; Midlands and South West; East and South East; London
• a smaller head office, which will also co-locate with the London regional office
• a smaller executive board – nine members instead of 14
• a centralised Grants for the arts team based in Manchester
• a staffing structure redefined to place an increased focus on customer relationships
  

Although staff numbers are substantially reduced, the proposed new structure allows people to share resources and knowledge in a more flexible way across the organisation. Processes are also made simpler with, for example, a centralised Grants for the arts team based with the support services centre in Manchester. Less process work will allow staff in the regions to spend more time on customer-focused activities and the proposed smaller executive board will be more strategically focused and able to make faster decisions.