Genista McIntosh to investigate ACE’s spending review

Published Thursday 13 March 2008 at 11:10 by Alistair Smith

Baroness Genista McIntosh is to undertake the investigation into the controversial spending review decisions taken by Arts Council England, The Stage can reveal.

Recently appointed ACE chief executive Alan Davey said in February that he was bringing in an “external eye” to review the organisation’s recent funding process. McIntosh, who has previously run two of the UK’s flagship performing arts companies - the Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company - has now been chosen to undertake that review.

It will mark the second time the Labour peer has been asked to investigate ACE, having chaired 2005’s peer review into the arts council. The resultant report was highly critical of both ACE and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, claiming, at the time, the relationship between the two had deteriorated since the 2004 spending review and created a “climate of mistrust” that “required urgent attention”.

McIntosh will begin her work after Easter and it is expected the review will be complete by early summer. ACE will publish the main recommendations of her report, although interviews will not be made public, so those consulted are able to speak in confidence.

The investigation will cover the entire funding process from January 2007 to February 2008 when the final funding decisions were announced. Althea Efunshile, ACE executive director of arts planning and investment, will provide the day to day contact for McIntosh.

Davey said he felt the baroness was “the ideal person to carry out the review” because of her extensive experience within the arts. He added: “This is the first time that the arts council, as a single body, has led a single, integrated investment strategy for our regularly funded organisations. As a learning organisation it is important we now review that process in detail, establish what worked well and what improvements can be made next time. An external perspective on this is vital.”

A spokesman for the arts council said it had always intended to conduct a review of the funding process and McIntosh’s appointment was not a result of the recent controversy surrounding some of the announcements.

But it is understood that McIntosh will be looking, in particular, at how ACE’s new structure worked throughout the process, with a focus on the relationship between the regional offices and the national council and how the proposals were communicated to the industry. McIntosh will then report back on what lessons can be learned from the spending review, as well as any positive moves which came from it.