ACE lays out investment plans for the year ahead

Arts Council England (ACE) has announced the final 664 arts organisations that will be designated National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) from 2015-18 – down from 703 in the period 2012-15. Their Grant-in-Aid funding has been assured for 2015/16, but will only be confirmed beyond this following the forthcoming election and the subsequent spending review. Of the £326.2m set aside for NPO funding for the year ahead, £69.5m will now be from Lottery funds, compared with £29m from a total of £314.5 in 2014/5.

A “focus on business plans and resilience” is at the heart of this latest NPO investment round, and ACE is aiming to “establish new standards of accountability – on both sides – and offer greater transparency” in relation to its NPO funding, providing them with more details on risk assessment and goal monitoring. Its Annual Survey of NPO activity will be extended to reflect “the importance we attach to the Creative Case for Diversity” and also include monitoring of broadcasts, festivals and digital engagement. The final NPO contracts have dropped the controversial clause aiming to protect ACE’s reputation, which appeared in the earlier draft.

As well as announcing its new portfolio, ACE has confirmed some details of its other funding streams. Due to high levels of demand, £75m is now being budgeted for the Lottery-funded open-access programme Grants for the Arts (G4A), but this is still less than the £77m awarded in 2014/15. The original G4A budget for 2014/5 was only £63m, but high levels of demand led to the budget being increased and ultimately funding being allocated over budget, for which ACE used some money originally earmarked for ‘financial interventions’. ACE’s National Council was warned that demand for G4A funding may increase as a consequence of a smaller NPO portfolio, and noted that “further action may be necessary to manage demand” for 2015/16 and beyond.

Strategic funding will be worth £104m over the next three years, with several strands already announced. ACE describes this as money that targets “particular challenges and opportunities in achieving our mission of great art and culture for everyone.” Funding for the coming year will include a small scale capital grant budget worth £9.6m; £2.7m to the digital platform The Space; £500k for the Arts and Technology pilot programme; £7m to the Arts Impact loan fund; and a Research Grants programme worth £700k a year for the next three years. £15m will go to strategic touring; and £1.8m to a digital content company to set up and run a new multi-channel network for the arts.