A NEW CHAIR AND CHANGE OF LOCATION FOR THE NCA

 

Following the departure of Acting Director Selina Mehra, Laura Willoughby MBE is joining the NCA as Interim Director on secondment from London Councils. 

  Laura is currently political advisor to London Councils, the advocacy and services organisation for the capital’s 33 local authorities. She was a Councillor in Islington for 12 years where she had cabinet responsibility for culture and the arts. She served on the board of Arts Council London and the Reaching Communities Board of the Big Lottery Fund. She chaired the Local Government Association Equalities Executive and currently serves on the Homes and Communities Agency equality advisory panel. Laura was formally Chief Executive of The Food Chain and has undertaken advocacy and media relation roles for YMCA England, Stonewall and IMechE.   Last year Julia Payne of the Hub undertook a Strategic Review for the NCA, which reaffirmed the need for an organisation that can speak for all sectors of the arts. The Arts Index, published last December, further demonstrated this need, highlighting trends of central and local government cuts and fragile private and corporate sponsorship over the last few years.   Following this Strategic Review, the NCA is in discussion with its founding member organisations to ensure that the NCA continues to be an authoritative voice representing the whole sector at the highest level. All NCA Members will be kept informed as these discussions progress.   Laura said “this is a really exciting time to be joining the NCA. A strong and consistent dialogue between the arts sector, the Government and the public is essential. I am looking forward to ensuring the talent and expertise within our cultural industries gets its voice heard.”   With effect from Wednesday April 11, the NCA offices will move from Kingly Street, Soho to Tavistock Street in the heart of Covent Garden. These new, efficient and cost effective offices will enable the NCA to continue its vital work for future of the arts.   The new address in full is:   4th Floor 17 Tavistock Street London  WC2E 7PA   Our new telephone number- which will be active from Thursday 5th April- is : 02072 404698

The Education select committee released its report on the introduction of the Ebacc; a new certificate which recognises A*-C GCSE grades in five traditional subjects. The Ebacc was introduced in schools in January, with the purpose of demonstrating knowledge across a balanced range of subjects, the Ebacc covers a pass in Mathematics, English, the sciences, a modern or foreign language and a humanity (such as geography or history).

This week, WeDidThis, a crowd funding website for the arts, launched its Crowds for Culture campaign. The campaign hopes to increase the public voice and participation, in the arts funding ecology. WeDidThis co-founder and site creator, Hen Norton wrote to Alan Davey, asking ACE to consider three ways it could make micro-philanthropist a greater say in the commissioning and funding of the UK arts, to make the sector stronger and more resilient:

As part of their wider digital strategy, Arts Council England has presented the Digital Research and Development Fund for Arts and Culture in a number of cities, over this month. The digital days, which were held in Birmingham, London, Bristol and Manchester, included case studies and Q and A’s about the fund. ACE have one more digital day in Brighton on the 10th August remaining, however presentations from July are now online.

On Monday, the Treasury announced a discussion paper on the civil service green book, which provides guidance on how ministerial proposals should be assessed before committing public money. The discussion paper considers the use of a social cost benefit analysis and recognises the potential value of non-market impacts, for an economic appraisal. The discussion paper opens up the debate, to consider the impact of health, family and subjective wellbeing on people, and ultimately to re-consider the methods for assessing future decisions.

A new report has just been published by Clore Social Fellow Caroline Beaumont which explores moving from fundraising to resource-raising and how organisations can use donated resources as part of an income-generation strategy.

Following the announcements made in the budget, HM Treasury is now inviting views from the sector on lifetime giving. This consultation is part of the wider government commitment to charitable giving agenda and we encourage our members to get in touch with the NCA with comments on the consultation.

The Home Office has launched a consultation into employment related settlement, tier 5 workers and overseas domestic workers. The consultation forms part of the wider Government reforms to improve the UK immigration system for temporary workers and overseas domestic workers.

ACE announced its new role as the Designated Competent Body for artists entering the UK under the Tier 1 Exceptional Talent route of the points based visa system. The change means that ACE will now have the power to make recommendations to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) about artists applying for a Tier 1 visas.

Supporting Growth in the Arts Economy; a report by Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy released today by ACE, explores the opportunities and possibilities to encourage growth within and across the sector. The report brings together findings from three papers: The arts economy; Place, infrastructure and digital and Towards an arts and creative economy development programme.

Applications are now open for creative businesses focusing on digital content to apply for funding from ACNI. The Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL) have announced £4m, to be administered over four years, to encourage growth, creativity and innovation.

This week also saw the Lords discussing the support available for theatre in the regions. Earl of Clancarty, Nicholas Trench, asked the Government about the support available for local theatre, citing Northcott Theatre in Exeter as a local theatre threatened with closure. He expressed concern that cuts to local theatre would prevent the future creation of award winning productions such as War Horse or Jerusalem, which would not have been possible without public subsidies and regional support.

Government Advocate for Access to Higher Education, Simon Hughes, released his report this week, which makes a number of recommendations to the PM and Deputy PM, on ways to improve access to higher education. The report proposes an improved scholarship scheme, greater powers for the Office of Fair Access (OFA) and annual awards of £3,000 for 10,000 students.

Representatives from a number of sectors, including ACE, the Law Society, the General Medical Council and the Royal Academy of Engineering, have jointly produced a Common Best Practice Code for High Quality Internships. The Gateways to the Professions Collaborative Forum is an advisory group set up to work with BIS on encouraging access to various professions.

Following the recent recommendations made in the Wolf Review, on the provision of vocational education, the Department for Education is now inviting views from interested parties on the proposed reforms to vocational qualifications. The Wolf Review recommended that, both vocational and academic, qualifications must demonstrate where they can or cannot contribute towards performance indicators at Key Stage 4.

The deadline for our members’ survey has now passed and we would like to thank those of you who took part. The I Value the Arts survey is still open and we want to encourage as many people to participate in this as possible. Click here to take part in the survey, the closing date is 29th July.

Following the announcements made in the budget, HM Treasury is now inviting views from the sector on lifetime giving. The announcements suggest a possible reduction in tax liability for those who donate objects and works of art to the nation.

The Home Office has launched a consultation into employment related settlement, tier 5 workers and overseas domestic workers. The consultation forms part of the wider Government reforms to improve the UK immigration system for temporary workers and overseas domestic workers.

Following the announcement from Jeremy Hunt MP, earlier in the year, the Creative Industries Council finally met this week for the first time. The council is a joint forum chaired by Vince Cable (Sec. State for Business, Innovation & Skills) and Creative Industries Minister, Ed Vaizey. The group includes representatives from across the sector including the Design Council, ACE and Harper Collins. A press release from DCMS said the group would provide a forum for action and ensuring a stronger voice for the sector, as well as, a stronger partnership with Government.

Following the abolition of the Museums, Libraries & Archives, from October 2011 Arts Council England (ACE) will take on the responsibility for museums and libraries. As part of making this transition, ACE asked Baroness Estelle Morris to review the 10 year strategy, Great Art for Everyone, and to devise a strategy that accommodates museums and libraries within its framework.