The major re-organisation of Arts Council Englands (ACE) national office comes into effect on 1 November, though many key posts in the new structure remain un-filled, and ACE is making a range of transitional arrangements, at least until 1 April 2007, to support projects that are as yet incomplete. The restructuring exercise has impacted on 120 jobs in three departments arts, development and communications plus a small number in finance and operations. Of these, the job descriptions of the overwhelming majority have been identified as redundant, meaning that staff wishing to leave can accept voluntary redundancy, and those wishing to stay must apply for the new positions or be faced with compulsory redundancy.
Some staff opting to take the redundancy package, which is similar to the basic civil service scheme, have agreed to stay on while external recruitment takes place. A 12-month block has been established to prevent ex-staff members being recruited as consultants, other than in exceptional circumstances. The roles of 80 further national office staff, who work in the HR, IT and finance functions, were not covered by the current review but will be subject to review early in 2007, together with their counterparts in the regional offices. The one-off costs of the whole re-structuring exercise, estimated at around £1.7m, are not expected to run into future years: ACE predicts that annual savings of £1.8m from salary and office costs will start being realised in 2007/08.
Published: 23-10-2006