Arts Council Wales confirms redundancies and restructure

Arts Council of Wales (ACW) has announced significant staff redundancies and the departure of senior leadership team members as part of a cost-cutting restructuring of the arts funder.

The job cuts follow the Welsh Government's announcement earlier this year of a 10.5% reduction in ACW's budget for the 2024/25 financial year.

ACW said in a statement: "11 members of staff have accepted voluntary redundancy and two members of our senior leadership team have left the company."

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The two senior leaders are Lleucu Siencyn, Director of Arts Development, and Richard Nicholls, Director of Operations.

ACW thanked the departing staff "for the dedication, energy, and passion they have shown for the arts; some staff worked with us for over 20 years".

Funding changes

ACW was allocated £30.4m for the 2024/25 period instead of an expected £33.9m, a figure it said was “the lowest since 2007/08".

The reduction meant there were "budgetary pressures across all activities" and that difficult decisions have had to be made "across all grant schemes, many of which will have less money available to them".

Changes include new funding cycles for Create, its Lottery grants fund, with decisions on small Create grant applications now made in eight weeks (previously six) and large grant decisions taking weeks 10 instead of nine.

ACW added the impact of fewer staff will mean "we will have to tailor our support and put the emphasis on those who are applying for the first time and those who may face obstacles when applying for funding".

It said the decisions it had made, including a 2.5% reduction in multi-year funding across all of its 81 supported organisations "and other internal savings", would mean "no more savings will have to be made through redundancies".