APPENDIX 25
Further supplementary memorandum submitted
by The Arts Council of England
FUTURE STEPS ACE/RABS MERGER
Following our recent meetings I am writing to
summarise the current position of the ACE/RABs merger and the
programme for the next few weeks.
TRANSFER ARRANGEMENTS
All ten RABs have now met to discuss the Transfer
Proposal which was issued in January (RABs having considered a
draft version of the proposal at their December meeting). You
have a copy of this document which addresses the issues raised
by Boards following circulation of Working Together for the
Arts. The main areas for further clarification were governance
issues (including issues of delegation and regional autonomy),
boundary change matters (following the proposal to align RAB areas
with Government Office boundaries) and staffing considerations.
The Transfer Proposal also contains a detailed Project Plan outlining
the practical tasks in place to deliver the transfer. All ten
Boards have now agreed "in principle" to transfer and
to inform their staff of their intention. We expect all Boards
to confirm their agreement at their March meetings. The Arts Council
is currently preparing the Transfer Agreement documents including
the full schedules of assets and liabilities for each RAB in preparation
for the March round of meetings. In addition we will be preparing
an additional annex to the Transfer Proposal with updates of ongoing
work.
CREATING THE
NEW ORGANISATION
Following the "in principle" agreements
we have now initiated a process to build the new organisation.
We have always believed that it would be inappropriate for the
Arts Council's current management to develop the detailed vision,
business plan and staffing structure for the organisation. One
of the main drivers for change has been the need to bring two,
sometimes opposing, traditions together in the interests of creating
one unified arts funding and development body with regional voices
at the heart of decision making. It is important that the new
Council and new Executive Board should take this process forward.
To this end we are working with the DCMS to recruit new Council
members by open application (advertisements have now been placed)
following the process outlined in the Transfer Proposal (Annex
6). From today (11 February), members of the new Executive Board
will meet to take part in change training and future planning
(further full day sessions will take place on 19 and 25 February)
in order to ensure that we are ready with a new management process
by 2 April.
REGIONAL BOUNDARIES
In terms of boundary changes and achieving co-terminosity
with Government offices I can confirm that Northern and North
West Arts have agreed a process for transferring clients in Cumbria,
and that North West Arts and East Midlands Arts have also agreed
to proceed jointly to make the changes in respect of the High
Peak areas. These changes are planned for April 2002. Southern
Arts and South West Arts will be making the relevant changes by
the end of March 2003. The most challenging work will take place
in the Southern/South East area where we will be creating a new
South East regional office. We have agreed a process with both
of the affected RABs, which will enable us to put the new Regional
Executive Director in place within the next few weeks.
EVALUATION
We are currently in the process of agreeing
a process of evaluation for the merger process. This evaluation
will be set up shortly to monitor progress against aims and will
consider the cultural and policy aims as well as our ability to
deliver funding currently being spent on administration back to
the arts. I would be happy to provide updates as the evaluation
process proceeds.
11 February 2001
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