News
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Arts Council plans for cuts of up to 30%
Arts Council England has written to all its Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) saying that it has been asked by the DCMS to plan cuts of up to 30% over the next four years. The same request has been made to other DCMS funded bodies. ACE plans to use 2011-12 as a transition year with deeper cuts falling in the two years following. ACE is asking its RFOs to model prudently for a minimum of a 10% reduction in their ACE funding for 2011-12. ACE, is seeking to give organisations at least 12 months’ notice of significant changes to their funding future.The grant reductions of 25-30%, says Arts Council Chief Executive Alan Davey, are not set in stone. The Arts Council, he says is arguing to minimise the cuts. Any cuts, says Davey in his letter, need to be managed intelligently, and in a way that protects the achievements of the last 15 years. Cuts of up to 30%, he continues, would mean significant change. ACE would no longer be able to fund many organisations in the way it has been to date. To read Alan Davey’s full letter to ACE's RFOs click on read the rest.
The letter sent to RFO's 13 July 2010 at 17.30
Dear colleagues,
It’s clear that we’re living in difficult times and that there are real challenges ahead. Throughout this month the Arts Council is holding briefing sessions to discuss the developing context and timeline that will take us through the spending review to funding decisions for 2011 and beyond. We want to be open with you as to what we know about the tough choices we need to face together. We also want to be clear that in this rapidly changing environment there are still things we don’t know. These sessions will be invaluable in both sharing our direction of travel, and in hearing feedback from you that further shapes our thinking.
In June, along with all DCMS funded bodies, we received a letter from Jeremy Hunt asking us to model reductions of 25- 30% over four years to our funding programme. This shows just how tough this spending review will be, but these figures are not set in stone. The Arts Council is arguing to minimise the cuts – and we will argue that any cut needs to be managed intelligently, and in a way that protects the achievements of the last 15 years. In particular we need to be sure that whatever cuts we do get do not all take place in the first year of a four-year cycle. This would be doubly damaging.
Many of you have talked to us about your enthusiasm for speaking with one voice, using the same key messages and themes to make sure we are heard. To help you with this we have prepared a toolkit, that we will be publishing shortly, to enable you to make the case.There is much detail still to be decided, but we need to be clear that cuts of up to 30% would mean significant change. We would no longer be able to fund many organisations in the way we have been to date.
We want to give organisations at least 12 months’ notice of significant changes to their funding future so we will run the next funding process in two stages: investment decisions for 2011/12 (year one) will be separated from years 12/13-14/15.Given the economic climate, and the fact we have been asked to model a reduction of up to 30% over four years, we are now asking you to model prudently for a minimum of a 10% reduction in your funding for 11/12. This figure is not final, but we suggest it is a reasonable figure for you to address at this point.This allows us all to use 2011/12 as a year of transition that builds towards a new approach to the arts landscape, shaped by our ambitions for the arts. The Arts Council is developing Achieving great art for everyone, a 10-year strategic framework for the arts, setting out clearly what we want to achieve over the next 10 years. At the briefing sessions we will report back on responses to the consultation. It’s important that in this time of short-term cuts we keep our eye on the big picture, so that whatever cuts we do have to make now, art can still thrive over the next 10 years.Following publication of Achieving great art for everyone, the framework will be translated into the next Arts Council plan and priorities. Our funding decisions for 2012/13 to 2014/15, post October settlement, will be firmly set within these priorities, the funding context, and aligned to the long-term goals.
At the briefing sessions we will also discuss the three new funding programmes that we are considering phasing in over time. These programmes will emphasise the nature of our relationship with funded organisations in order to focus our investment on what we want to achieve and allow us to respond quickly to new ideas and ways of working.I hope as many of you as possible will be able to come along to a session to hear more about what I’ve set out here, and to take the opportunity to discuss your questions with us and other funded bodies. We will put the presentation from the session on our website later this month.Best wishes,
Alan Davey
Chief Executive
Arts Council England
Wednesday 02 June 2010
Arts, Health & Wellbeing Seminar Programme
nalgao has now confirmed the programme for its Arts, Health & Wellbeing seminar in Bolton on 19 and 20 July organised in partnership with Bolton at Home. The seminar is aimed at officers involved in both policy and practice related to arts and health commissioning and service provision. The programme will start with an evening social and artistic programme on Monday 19th July, illustrating best practice arts and health organisations in the Bolton area. The following day will explore the many ways that local arts development and delivery supports crosscutting agendas. The seminar will demonstrate how working with health initiatives, organisations and communities can increase participation and access to the arts; which in turn promotes wellbeing and increases confidence and ability, and also supports community development and social cohesion, bringing groups of disadvantaged or hard to reach people to increase their quality of life.
The seminar is supported by Bolton at Home, the National Culture Forum and CLOA amongst others and starts with a keynote presentation from Clive Parkinson, Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The delegate fee for this two day event is just £120 (accommodation not included) for nalgao members, or £100 if you attend for Tuesday only.
Click here to download the seminar programme and booking form.
Seminar organised in partnership with
The day will allow delegates to hear about policy and practice from a range of informed speakers and presenters, also allowing delegates to visit arts projects as part of a study tour programme in the afternoon.
The morning will include an introduction by Jon Lord OBE, CEO of Bolton at Home and a major keynote presentation from Clive Parkinson, Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University, followed by a series of breakout sessions with presenters drawn from good practice case studies from a national prospective with opportunities for debate and information sharing. Following the morning seminar, the afternoon offers delegates a choice of study tours with visits to different arts projects in the Great Manchester area with a practical opportunity to experience arts practice at first hand.
The morning will include an introduction by Jon Lord OBE, CEO of Bolton at Home and a major keynote presentation from Clive Parkinson, Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University, followed by a series of breakout sessions with presenters drawn from good practice case studies from a national prospective with opportunities for debate and information sharing. Following the morning seminar, the afternoon offers delegates a choice of study tours with visits to different arts projects in the Great Manchester area with a practical opportunity to experience arts practice at first hand.
nalgao Arts at the Heart Questionnaire
nalgao is developing an integrated communications strategy to improve and develop our communications packages. At present, the nalgao magazine (Arts at the Heart, which is due to be circulated to you in the next couple of weeks), the nalgao websites (at both www.nalgao.org and www.nalgao-goodcompanion.org.uk) and the weekly nalgao ezine are stand-alone packages and it is very difficult to navigate between them.
To improve our services, as well as making them much more creative and interactive, we are recommending to you that we move towards an electronic magazine, and with the savings offered in printing and distribution costs, to develop an integrated package with improved website and ezine. You will still receive a magazine 3 times annually, but the format would be electronically available, also benefiting those of you who have already moved to a paperless office.
Your views on this are extremely important to us. We are therefore requesting you to undertake a very short survey, based in Survey Monkey. We would be extremely grateful if you could please follow this link to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YZXW57H and complete a quick questionnaire, which should only take you a couple of minutes.
Many thanks in anticipation of your participation
To improve our services, as well as making them much more creative and interactive, we are recommending to you that we move towards an electronic magazine, and with the savings offered in printing and distribution costs, to develop an integrated package with improved website and ezine. You will still receive a magazine 3 times annually, but the format would be electronically available, also benefiting those of you who have already moved to a paperless office.
Your views on this are extremely important to us. We are therefore requesting you to undertake a very short survey, based in Survey Monkey. We would be extremely grateful if you could please follow this link to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YZXW57H and complete a quick questionnaire, which should only take you a couple of minutes.
Many thanks in anticipation of your participation
Friday 21 May 2010
Unitary Status Overturned
Exeter, Norfolk and Suffolk will not become Unitary authorities the new Coalition Government has decided. The decision, contained in the Coalition’s Programme for Government will overturn commitments made in the dying days of the Labour Government, commitments which national newspapers have reported were opposed by Senior Civil Servants.
Thursday 18 February 2010
Outside In Report Launched
nalgao yesterday launched ‘Outside In’, a study examining the issues and opportunities in contracting out local authority arts services. The report was launched at a seminar of the same name in London attended by 180 people. Produced by Paul Kelly of Cultural Futures and Rick Bond of The Complete Works, the 60 page ‘Outside In’ report identifies five different ways that local authority arts services can be externalised. The report authors talked to nine different organisations about the issues and benefits involved in alternative ways of delivering arts services and their report is packed with anecdotal detail and practical checklists.
The ‘Outside In’ report also briefly examines the opportunities offered by Strategic Commissioning which is increasingly being undertaken by local authority childrens’ services and care services.
Lorna Brown, Chair of nalgao said, “At a time of growing pressure on local authority arts services, nalgao considered alternative delivery mechanisms at its conference last October and the possibility these offered of protecting long-established arts services. We realised we needed to share authoritative information with our members. It has taken just four months from our conference to the release of this well researched, valuable and timely report. That must be something of a record in local government response times. I am delighted that nalgao is able to offer its members this valuable advice. We are looking to build on this excellent research over the year ahead with updates on our website.”
The ‘Outside In’ report was produced with the financial support of Arts Council England.
Click here to download the Outside In report.
The ‘Outside In’ report also briefly examines the opportunities offered by Strategic Commissioning which is increasingly being undertaken by local authority childrens’ services and care services.
Lorna Brown, Chair of nalgao said, “At a time of growing pressure on local authority arts services, nalgao considered alternative delivery mechanisms at its conference last October and the possibility these offered of protecting long-established arts services. We realised we needed to share authoritative information with our members. It has taken just four months from our conference to the release of this well researched, valuable and timely report. That must be something of a record in local government response times. I am delighted that nalgao is able to offer its members this valuable advice. We are looking to build on this excellent research over the year ahead with updates on our website.”
The ‘Outside In’ report was produced with the financial support of Arts Council England.
Click here to download the Outside In report.
