Background

Arts Council England is an executive non-departmental public body and registered charity, sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. ACE also works with other government departments and it has important relationships with local authorities.

The Arts Council of Great Britain was established by Royal Charter in 1946 and was divided in 1994 to form Arts Council England, the Scottish Arts Council (now known as Creative Scotland), and the Arts Council of Wales. At the same time the National Lottery was established and these 3 arts councils, plus the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, became distribution bodies.

ACE is one of the government’s primary vehicles to support and develop creativity and culture in England; its role encompasses funding and investment, research, support, advice to national and local government, development and advice to the sector, and partnership promotion. It works with both community and national organisations engaged with the arts, culture, heritage, education and health. ACE distributes public money from the Government (£540.2m in 2022-3) and the National Lottery (£251.7m), and has 618 FTE roles filled by 665 people (October 2023).

ACE administers several statutory cultural property schemes, including Export Licensing, the Government Indemnity Scheme, the Acceptance in Lieu and the Cultural Gifts Scheme, and it also provides support to the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Arts and Objects of Cultural Interest.

ACE was last reviewed under the Tailored Review programme in 2017 - full findings and recommendations.

Scope and purpose of the review

The review does not have as part of its scope the question of whether ACE should exist. Conversations between officials in the department; with ACE and with Ministers; and departmental knowledge of the public body, have established that the below areas of focus and themes should be covered by the review in more detail.

The review will culminate in a report which will make recommendations for the future based on the evidence gathered.

ACE’s purpose and structure

The review will explore ACE’s purpose and structure, including:

• Whether the Royal Charter still provides a clear and appropriate mandate and how ACE delivers it
• Whether the principle of delivering both excellence and access is embedded in its work
• What is the role of ACE in the wider cultural ecosystem
• Whether ACE is structured appropriately and has the necessary skills, powers and freedoms to deliver its mandate
• How ACE defines and fulfils its role as the development agency, including advocacy, for creativity and culture, including libraries and museums
• Whether regional intelligence and expertise is sufficiently integrated into ACE’s structures and processes
• How effectively ACE’s teams and divisions operate, how effectively it is governed, how accountable it is for its actions, and how efficiently it is run
• How ACE leads the sector in relation to the update of new technologies and innovative approaches as well as taking risks

ACE’s activity and decision-making

The review will assess how ACE delivers strategic objectives by exploring:

• How far ACE responds to the views, desires and demands of diverse organisations, groups and people, including both those who are funded and are not funded by ACE. These include:
  • Members of the public, including children and young people, who may benefit from and contribute to creative and cultural activity in England - particularly those in the most deprived parts of the United Kingdom
  • Individuals who work in the creative and cultural sectors
  • Smaller, place-based and community-driven organisations
  • Nationally and internationally significant organisations
• ACE’s funding decisions, including
  • How ACE approaches the entire Arts funding ecosystem in England to facilitate excellence, access and opportunity
  • The effectiveness of ACE’s decision-making regarding which priorities, programmes and organisations it funds
  • How far ACE ensures that its funding decisions are fair, well-evidenced and reflect the interests and needs of communities
  • How far ACE ensures that its funding reaches a diverse range of individuals, groups and artforms spread across the country and ensures that the organisations it funds engage with the local community to run programmes that appeal to them
  • How far ACE ensures that its grant making and monitoring processes are easy, timely and proportionate for prospective grantees and funding recipients to navigate
  • Whether the length of funding cycles is appropriate and how organisations that have funding cuts are supported
• ACE’s activity in and in relation to local areas:
  • How far ACE involves local stakeholders to ensure that decisions affecting those communities are well-informed
  • To what extent is bottom up decision making utilised in local areas and whether enough is done to work with or devolve decisions to local decision makers.
• How effectively ACE carries out its statutory functions
• To what extent does and should ACE take into consideration other funding sources such as philanthropic contributions, and whether it should play a role in encouraging philanthropic giving
• How ACE measures and demonstrates the impact of its activity

ACE’s working relationships and partnerships

The review will assess the effectiveness of ACE’s relationships and partnerships with its stakeholders by exploring:

• How effective the relationships between ACE and the organisations it funds are
• How effective the relationships between ACE and the organisations it does not fund, but which play an important role in our cultural and creative sectors are
• How effective the relationships between ACE and local authorities and mayors are
• How far ACE cooperates and shares knowledge with the United Kingdom’s Arts Councils in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• ACE’s role in attracting and facilitating international collaboration, and promoting British art and culture abroad
• How ACE works with other agencies, local education providers such as Universities and Further Education colleges, and with Family Hubs, to promote and enhance the nation’s engagement in creativity, and support creative education across all age ranges
• How and whether ACE should have a role in bringing different agencies and institutions together to support arts and creativity in places

The relationship between ACE and government

The review will assess whether there is an effective and appropriate relationship between government (national, regional and local) and ACE by exploring:

• How well the arm’s-length principle is working - and in particular, how decisions about arts and culture funding can be protected from short-term political expediency
• How effective is the oversight of ACE at DCMS.
• How effective ACE is at working with DCMS and delivering on DCMS priorities where it delivers specific functions on behalf of DCMS.

In addition to the above themes, if additional areas for exploration are highlighted during the evidence gathering-process, these questions may also be considered by the review.

Roles and responsibilities

The review will be conducted by an independent Lead Reviewer supported by a Review Team within the Department. The departmental Review Team will be separate to ACE and its sponsoring team. This separation will allow for the review to objectively consider the sponsor relationship between ACE and the Department. The review will be aided by an Advisory Panel. The Advisory Panel’s role will be to hear from the Lead Reviewer, understand the evidence base, and challenge emerging thoughts and recommendations in a rigorous and constructive manner.