SOLT/UK Theatre to place greater focus on advocacy

Leaders of Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre have announced a restructure of the two organisations promising a greater focus on advocacy work, as well as its members and audiences.

The “root and branch” restructure is expected to see up to five people leave the organisations – equivalent to around 10% of its 51 staff members – including head of UK Theatre Sebastian Cater, who has already left.

Joint Chief Executives Claire Walker and Hannah Essex have said the two organisations will play a greater role in lobbying government and funding bodies throughout 2024, when the next general election is likely to take place.

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The bodies’ advocacy team has more than doubled, with a team of five now set to work in this area.

Walker told The Stage one of the reasons she and Essex were hired just over a year ago was to “really focus our work more and more on the advocacy, to provide a collective voice for your sector and the different groups within it”.

In the last year, SOLT and UK Theatre has successfully lobbied government on extending Theatre Tax relief and launched the Theatre for Every Child campaign.

Essex also said she recently convened several top commercial producers to meet with the Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Shadow Culture Secretary Thangam Debbonaire to make the case for theatre.

“We know we have to do much more engagement as we go into the general election,” she added.

Elsewhere in the organisation, a new engagement team will arrange meetings across the country, placing a greater focus on members and helping the organisations make more connections on the ground.

This will allow concerns to be fed back, as well as inform work around advocacy.

Staff cuts

Cater’s departure as head of UK Theatre marks the first time will be without a direct lead, leaving Essex and Walker to oversee both SOLT and UK Theatre.

In total, 11 positions are being made redundant, with some people able to reapply for positions within the organisation.

Essex told The Stage the organisations are “trying to retain as many staff as possible, but we have to focus on what we think the organisations need to look like to be successful against our goals”.

Based on salaries only, the new structure will cost £2.84m, compared with £2.95m prior.

Further non-staff cost savings are expected, alongside income-growth opportunities.

While the two bodies will continue to operate independently, the restructure will see greater alignment between the two organisations.

“We are not merging – we need to be really clear about this,” Walker told The Stage.

“We are still working with both boards. What we are doing is coming together where it makes sense. It does not make sense to have two events teams, for example.

“So we are coming together where we should align on business plans but we recognise we have two distinctive brands – one is very important for our regional venues and one is important for SOLT venues.”