E-mail to the Committee from Martin Davidson,
Chief Executive, British Council
BUSINESS AND
INVESTMENT PLAN
As you know, we are implementing a number of
difficult decisions following the reduction in the purchasing
power of our grant. The changes will develop a sustainable operating
model and ensure we spend as much as possible on our programmes,
which create influence and opportunities for Britain.
We announced a transformation and investment
programme in June, which includes a voluntary redundancy and early
retirement scheme for permanent staff. We expect to lose between
400 and 500 UK posts over the next two years, approximately a
third of our UK workforce. Around half of these posts are currently
filled by temporary workers or consultants and some are vacant.
We also propose to consolidate our finance functions,
currently located in five centres around the world, into one overseas
centre and one in the UK. The number of finance roles in the UK
is expected to be reduced to around 40 posts. Overseas, finance
hubs in Mexico, India, Poland and China will be consolidated into
one location—probably in India—with around 60 posts
but with a net reduction of around 40 jobs overseas.
These have been difficult decisions for our
senior team and we are acutely aware of their impact on our people.
As you would expect, we have been in discussions with staff and
unions throughout and we will soon be consulting formally on all
the proposals.
31 July 2009
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