Titanic struggle?

Another day, another restructure. Just how significant will Arts Council England’s (ACE) changes be? Although we’ve stuck rigidly to the conditional tense in our news piece, we know that change will come. But is this simply varying the normal activity of rearranging the deckchairs by chucking a few overboard, or is it the change of course that the good ship ACE really needs? A lot of people will welcome the 25% downsizing of what many see as a bloated bureaucracy. However, the accompanying ‘redevelopment’ of the salary structure may well see some ACE salaries going up. This would presumably reflect a higher workload, but it wouldn’t play well with the groundlings. The changes are also far less sweeping than many commentators have called for, but we can probably whistle for a truly radical approach. Alan Davey, for all his intelligence and love of the arts, came to ACE from years of stalwart service at the DCMS – he is not going to rock this particular boat in that particular way, especially given the relative lack of security of the current Government and the horrors of the recession. He may feel he is already sticking his neck out far enough by creating so many redundancies. He will also draw fire for the decision to create four areas to oversee the regions. To those who feel that what remains of regional autonomy is coming ever more under the control of the centre, ACE’s wish that it could “truly become one organisation” remains as unwelcome as ever. The idea that an ACE officer in, say, Norwich might be reporting to a Regional Executive in, say, Brighton (a mere 175 miles) is perhaps less problematic in these days of technological gadgetry, but might cause further mutterings. The new Grants for the Arts office sounds sensible: the weight of administration of this relatively small pot of cash has always been out of proportion, but the taking of decisions “at area level”, albeit “with regional input”, may require heroic restraint on the part of those who would formerly have had these decisions within their remit. The consultation has opened. ACE sails on – and whether anything any of us can say at this stage will affect its plans, time alone will tell.