The Arse Council Of Wales
Oops, sorry, a typo there…
I’ve been in discussions with the Arts Council of Wales since 2019. Often this has been heated. On occasion, I have had surprising admissions of ‘yes, we ought to be doing more’ but this final communication from Richard Nicholls draws a line under the discussions and I believe there is no further useful debate to be had.
Richard has not answered adequately my questions which he misrepresents in his response (for example I asked for Arts Council of Wales to create a directory of all art projects and not solely for Life Drawing) and the points I raised, I believe, are still valid and urgently need addressing. But, Arts Council of Wales, it is clear, will not address them.
I have given Arts Council of Wales final notice that if my business is again affected by Arts Council of Wales grant funding then I will have no option but to seek reparations in a court of law. Of course, the court system is creaking and not fit for purpose, but what other options are there in my sole desire for a level playing field and the negation of government agency interventions in the marketplace?
I have asked for impact assessments to take place when grants are issued to both existing businesses and to start-ups. Richard says NO, we don’t do this and we will not be doing this.
I have asked that Arts Council Wales be aware of existing businesses and projects so that when they make grants available they can assess the potential for impacting on those existing businesses. I suggested a directory of arts providers, to be made available to any that wanted access (I believe schools and colleges would make good use of this resource) and paid for by subscription. The reason for the subscription model is to ensure that the list is up to date. So, say £20 every six months and if payment is not received the organisation or supplier is automatically removed from the list. A simple self-maintaining listing site. Richard says NO, effectively admitting that Arts Council Wales has no interest in knowing what is out there, making them blind to art provision and events that are taking place on their patch. This is the key to impact assessment and so I suggested, tongue in cheek, that I’d make the list for them and provide all of the code to make it a self-sustaining project, but again they said no.
Here are my questions:
I’ll ask again and I expect a clear answer to this question, how can you undertake an impact assessment or an assessment of need if you do not know what provision is ‘out there’? Simply asking applicants does not demonstrate robust checks and balances or indeed knowledge.
Please give me full disclosure regarding the impact assessments undertaken for the issuing of the grant/s for Cirw Celf and also for the grant for NoNaffArt. I want to see the discussions and the knowledge of existing provisions and why the grants were issued in face of that information.
The Arts Council Wales, I believe, is willfully damaging small businesses in Wales in their funding of new projects and now I have made them fully aware of the consequences of their actions I believe they are liable for any losses.
Here is Richard Nicholls's final judgement on these matters:
Colleagues at Arts Council Wales have reviewed your most recent correspondence together at a meeting on 29 August. In your email of 25 August, you asked us to respond to specific questions. We understand that these questions are:
1) Creating and maintaining an arts directory of providers of services for life drawing
2) Consideration of services that you and other similar providers may offer, for example, through an impact assessment
To respond to these points specifically:
1) Arts Directory: Colleagues discussed the matter of creating an arts directory of suppliers and concur that as a public body Arts Council of Wales operates under the Public Procurement Regulations (PPR) which governs our own procurement policy. Under PPR the creation of an Arts Directory would be regarded as a closed or preferred supplier list and would inhibit freedom of choice for individuals to select their own partners and suppliers to work with. We would not make recommendations for procurement of specific contractors, either in a general advisory capacity or to applicants/organisations to whom we may provide financial support through grant awards. To do so would be perceived to be us endorsing or supporting certain providers over others. Under such an arrangement we would also be responsible for maintaining the list, ensuring any work is allocated equally across suppliers and monitoring supplier performance against individual projects, which is not within our remit. Applicants who receive grant funding from us are responsible for and undertake their own project delivery, adhering to their own procurement policy and standards. Therefore, it would not be practical for Arts Council Wales to create an Arts Directory of services as you request.
2) Impact Assessments: We undertake Impact Assessments at the strategic level of policy development. The purpose of our Impact Assessment is to ensure that the policies and strategies that we develop promote the Arts Council’s overall priorities. In this case this means Equalities, Welsh language, and the 7 Well-being goals of the Future Generations Act. This helps us to meet our requirements under the Equality Act 2010, Welsh Language Measure 2011 and Well-being of Future Generations Act. We conduct these assessments across our activities and funding programmes but not for individual funded projects. Therefore, we do not hold the information you have requested. In the interest of fairness and transparency individual applications for grant funding are assessed against our published priorities for funding for each particular programme.
