Gender debate ‘fracturing Arts Council England’

Arts Council England (ACE) has experienced an "unresolved breakdown" in the relationship between pro-trans and gender critical staff, a review has found.

The independent review, conducted by management consultancy Nous Group, found that the controversial withdrawal of funding to an organisation accused of being anti-trans, which resulted in a high-profile employment tribunal involving former employee Denise Fahmy, has resulted in "internal division". 

It said the debate around gender reassignment now represents a "major fault line" within the public body that will not be easily rectified.

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A report detailing the review's findings also highlights instances of racism, with almost all staff colleagues of Black, Asian and ethnically diverse backgrounds "sharing negative experiences at ACE in relation to their race".

The review, commissioned by ACE last year to assess its progress in the area, stresses that the public body has achieved "commendable progress" concerning equality, diversity and inclusion.

This includes diversifying the talent pool from which it recruits and taking actions to support staff with a wide range of protected characteristics, needs, and abilities to achieve pay parity. It adds that ACE meets or exceeds the expectations that a less aspirational organisation would set itself. 

But it concludes that action is required on a number of issues.

Transgender division

In relation to internal division relating to transgender issues, the review found that the handling of the "LGB Alliance conflict" in 2022 – which involved a £9,000 grant for the organisation being withdrawn due to concerns over its stance on gender issues – resulted in an "unresolved breakdown" in the relationship between pro-trans and gender critical staff. 

It found that a staff petition following internal discussions on the matter, which was central to the employment tribunal case that followed, included language towards gender critical employees inconsistent with the Equality Act’s protection of gender critical belief.

It adds that some gender critical staff were found to display "potentially harmful behaviour".

"For example, a begrudging performance of accepting another person’s pronouns will be read as such and does not encourage a positive working environment for trans staff colleagues," the report states.

"Equally, overtly de-legitimising trans identities is likely to promote a hostile environment for trans staff." 

The report adds that gender critical staff have stated that they "don’t trust" colleagues with pronouns in their biographies or email sign-offs.

As a result of the situation, both gender critical and what the report describes as "pro-trans staff colleagues" have sought to avoid each other, taking advantage of flexible post-Covid working practices to do so.

"Both gender critical and non-gender critical staff colleagues have contributed to an environment where other staff colleagues may feel harassed," the report states. 

"The harm, stress, and genuine hurt that staff colleagues feel was obvious and heartfelt. This contributes to an elevated emotional environment for the Arts Council. Working through this challenge will be a novel experience for the Arts Council.

"The evident pain that staff at the Arts Council experience around this matter means that light touch or small interventions are unlikely to reach a positive resolution."

Racism

The review found that the experiences of Black, Asian, and Ethnically Diverse staff vary greatly across and within ethnic groupings. 

While there were some positive examples of staff experiences in relation to ethnicity, particularly at senior levels of leadership, analysis of staff data, interviews and survey responses found that Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse staff at ACE "experience heightened challenges at work".

These include "experiencing micro-aggressions and other forms of racism", colleagues making assumptions about their background and interests and "not feeling able to bring their 'whole self' to work". 

"Almost all staff colleagues of Black, Asian and Ethnically Diverse backgrounds who contributed to the review shared negative experiences at the Arts Council in relation to their race," the report states. 

"These experiences appeared to be more frequent outside of London, with lower visible ethnic representation. Several staff colleagues described experiencing or witnessing racial microaggressions. 

"These often came in the form of patronising tones and attitudes, excluding colleagues from activities, assuming artistic expertise based on race, and confusing colleagues for others of the same (or the presumed same) ethnicity."

Disability

Regarding disability, the review found that ACE demonstrates "excellent practice" in addressing barriers to its disabled/D/deaf/neurodiverse staff, with a recruitment drive that has led to greater representation at the organisation. 

However, the report said it is not clear that the organisation has effectively created an environment for these individuals to thrive and grow. 

"Diversity may not have fully translated into inclusion," it states. 

"Despite progress, most disabled staff colleagues who engaged in this review described instances in which the organisation had not considered [or forgotten] their access needs or preferences. 

"They recounted experiences of facing challenging ableist attitudes and/or discrimination within the Arts Council from colleagues, line managers, and more senior leaders. These experiences evidently deeply impacted the well-being of these individuals."

A total of 430 ACE staff completed a survey to inform the review, with 82 participating in interviews and/or focus groups.

Culture change

Darren Henley, Chief Executive of ACE, described the report as "measured, thoughtful and full of sensible recommendations".  

"It has both positives and negatives, and we have learned a huge amount both from the process we’ve been on and from the findings," he said.

"The Nous group has set out key recommendations which have been directly drawn out from the findings of their research and their interactions with our colleagues. 

"These recommendations relate to consistent application of workplace adjustments, improving staff awareness of available support; making career progression routes and our complaints processes more transparent; ensuring managers have the capability to create an inclusive culture; clarifying the role of our staff networks; upholding our duty around team member’s personal beliefs, and reinforcing our organisational purpose and identity.

"As an organisation and a leadership team, we are now focused on implementing these recommendations and to seeing culture change take place. This will mean making some changes to our systems and processes, but it will also mean continuing to talk to each other about how we act and how we treat each other."