Minutes
National Council
Date
Time
Location
6 July 2010
11.00am - 12.00 noon
Laban, Creekside, London, SE8 3DZ
Present
Liz Forgan (Chair), Janet Barnes, Jon Cook, Ekow Eshun, Sheila
Healy, Nicholas Kenyon, Keith Khan, François Matarasso, Peter
Philips, Alice Rawsthorn, Alistair Spalding, Tom Shakespeare, Peter
Standfield, Veronica Wadley
Alison Cole, Alan Davey, Lucie Dutton, Althea Efunshile, Anupam
Ganguli, Andrew Nairne, Geoff Westby
Apologies
Diran Adebayo, Caroline Collier, Anil Ruia, Rosemary Squire
Action
1
Welcome and Apologies
1.1
Liz Forgan welcomed everyone to the meeting. She extended
a particular welcome to Peter Standfield and Veronica Wadley,
who were attending their first meeting of National Council.
2
Minutes from the last meeting
2.1
National Council received the minutes of the meeting held on
12 January 2010.It was noted that the minute of item 7, Grant
Payment, had been circulated as a separate document to
Council members only, except for those who had a direct
interest in the matter.
2.2
The minutes of the meeting of National Council held on 12
January 2010 were AGREED as a correct record.
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3
Declarations of interest
3.1
Council noted the Register of Interests. There were no
interests declared in relation to items on the agenda for the
meeting.
4
Sharing of arts experiences
4.1
Council members and members of Executive Board shared
some highlights of their arts experiences since the previous
meeting. These included Merchants of Bollywood at Sadler’s
Wells; an outdoor performance - Electric Hotel at Kings Cross;
Into the Little Hill co produced by the Opera Group and
Aldeburgh Music; Lincoln Centre Jazz at the Barbican; the
Brighton Festival; Quilts at the V&A; Art and Poems on the
Underground; Temenos, Anish Kapoor's new Middlesbrough
installation; Icarus at the Edge of Time at the Royal Festival
Hall; Northern Stage’s Oh! What a Lovely War; All My Sons at
the Apollo Theatre; Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by WNO;
the Shakespeare Schools Festival; Simon Callow’s
Shakespeare one man show; Picasso, The Mediterranean
Years, 1945-62 at the Gagosian Gallery; Wolfgang Tillmans at
the Serpentine Gallery; King Lear at the RSC; Jack Cardiff
season at BFI Southbank; Political Mother by the Hofesh
Shechter Company; Jerusalem at the Royal Court and the
Apollo Theatres; and Sucker Punch at the Royal Court.
5
Chair’s Report
5.1
Council received the Chair’s report, which updated them on
her activities since their last meeting, and drew their attention
to the appointment of Veronica Wadley as London Regional
Chair until 30 June 2014, and Peter Standfield, the new interim
North East Regional Chair, until 31 December 2010. Peter
Standfield was filling the place vacated by Tom Shakespeare,
whose term had ended on 31 March 2010. Tom Shakespeare
would continue to attend meetings of the Arts Policy
Committee and National Council as a guest. The Chair wished
to place on record her thanks to Ajay Chowdhury, who had
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acted as interim Council member for London while the position
was vacant, and had made a valuable contribution to the work
of Council and to the Arts Investment Committee.
6
Chief Executive’s Report
6.1
The Chief Executive gave a verbal update on his activities
since the last meeting of Council. He reported that he had
opened The Hive in Manchester, a facility that would form a
key part of the Arts Council’s operating power and potential.
He noted that the new organisational structure had come into
effect on 1 April 2010, and a lot of work had been undertaken
by Executive Board to bring this into effect. On 30 June, there
had been an All Staff Day in Nottingham, and this had been
overwhelmingly positive. He noted that the new governance
structure was now in effect, and that constructive meetings
were being held, but servicing the increased number of
meetings was proving to be challenging. He also reported that
he had chaired a meeting of the International Federation of
Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) in Canada, and
that there was much experience to learn from and share with
international colleagues.
7
Annual Accounts
7.1
Anupam Ganguli introduced the Annual Accounts, which were
recommended to National Council by the Performance and
Audit Committee.
7.2
Council noted the Statement on Internal Control. This
concluded that the Arts Council had had a sound system of
internal control operating during 2009/10.
7.3
Council also noted that the audit opinion from the Comptroller
and Auditor General had given the Arts Council a clean audit
opinion for the year 2009/10. However, their opinion reported
the circumstances surrounding the award and subsequent
payment of a grant to a trustee, and the impact that this had
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had on the financial statements and the audit.
7.4
The attention of Council was drawn to the redundancy
payments made to Executive Directors during 2009/10 which
were reported in the Annual Accounts. These payments had
been made as a consequence of the Organisational Review.
There had been some external press interest at the time the
payments had been made.
7.5
Council noted the wording with regard to the Arts Council’s
reserves in the foreword to the Accounts. This wording
reflected the use of reserves in 2010/11 to offset the in-year
budget cuts as agreed by National Council in June 2010.
7.6
Council noted that the Arts Council Collection was held on the
balance sheet as a heritage asset at market value. It was
noted that the value of this collection had increased by £6m to
£97m during 2009/10. Members of Council asked whether
there was any likelihood of Council forming a view that they
should consider whether to dispose of elements of the
Collection given the current financial situation. It was noted
that disposal of items from the collection could be complex
given that some items had been bought by the Arts Council,
while some items had been given to the Arts Council with
AG/AD
explicit conditions attached. It was AGREED that officers
would explore the detailed position with regard to disposal, and
that an in principle note would be circulated to Council in due
course.
7.7
National Council APPROVED the Annual Accounts, which
were then signed by the Chair and Chief Executive. It was
noted that the Annual Accounts would be sent to the
Comptroller and Auditor General for signing before being sent
to the DCMS for laying before Parliament before the summer
recess.
7.8
Council wished to place on record their thanks to Liz Bushell,
the Director of Finance, and her team, for their work in
preparing the Annual Accounts.
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Reports from Council Committees
8.1
Council received a report that updated them about the work
undertaken by the Arts Investment, Arts Policy and
Performance and Audit Committees since their establishment
earlier in 2010.
8.2
Council noted that the reports from the Arts Policy Committee
and the Arts Investment Committee presented an overview of
the issues considered by those committees to date. The
Performance and Audit Committee report was more detailed
because it had a different status; it was a requirement under
the terms of reference of the Performance and Audit
Committee.
8.3
Council received the reports.
9
Amendments to Terms of Reference for Council
Committees
9.1
Council received a paper that set out a number of minor
amendments to the terms of reference to the Council
Committees.
9.2
The amendments to the Terms of Reference for the
Remuneration Committee were AGREED. However, there
were some discrepancies in terms of levels of decision making
in the terms of reference for the Arts Policy and other
Committees, and it was agreed that a more detailed review of
the Committee terms of reference was required.
10
Lucie Dutton
Levels of Delegated Financial Authority
10.1 Anupam Ganguli presented a paper that presented proposals
for revised levels of delegated financial authority as
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recommended by the Management Committee. He noted that
the current levels had been set in 2006, and that they needed
to be updated to reflect the new governance and staffing
structures that were introduced in April 2010.
10.2 Council noted that the following key principles had been
adopted for the purposes of reviewing the levels of delegated
financial authority:
 That these levels should be as simple as possible to
ensure that all relevant staff could easily understand the
principles;
 That authority should be delegated to the group or
individual with the right level of knowledge and
understanding to ensure good decision making;
 That decisions should not be escalated unnecessarily.
Those decisions taken by Management Committee
and/or Council or its subcommittees should only be
those with significant financial implications;
 That there should be sufficient flexibility to escalate a
decision irrespective of its value if it were deemed to be
high risk or have wider financial implications.
10.3 It was noted that previous levels of authority required National
Council to approve top level budgets for funding programmes,
administration and general contingency. Under the new
governance structure, this had been delegated to the Arts
Investment Committee. High level Lottery budgets would also
be signed off by the Arts Investment Committee, but it was
now proposed that that Management Committee would have
delegated authority to approve budget increases of up to £1m
to existing Lottery budgets. This would avoid the necessity of
presenting the Arts Investment Committee with smaller, less
significant changes. Management Committee would also retain
the authority to sign off the detailed budget breakdown of
budgets for Gfta, Managed Funds and administration.
Management Committee currently had delegated authority to
agree virements of up to £1m between programme budget
lines. It was proposed that the limit of such virements be raised
to £3m. Below that, it was proposed that Executive Directors
should have the authority to agree all virements within a
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programme and up to £500,000 between programmes, and
that they would have the ability to delegate this to Senior
Manager Finance and Business Services/Assistant Director
Finance Staff for virements of up to £100,000.
10.4 With regard to grant commitments and de-commitments, it was
proposed to lower the upper limit for Management Committee
decisions from £5m to £3m. The exception to this would be for
Managed Funds grants and contracts where a lower £1m limit
was proposed given the strategic nature of these funds. It was
further proposed that a lower limit for capital projects should be
retained at £1m. Most capital funding decisions would
therefore be referred to the Arts Investment Committee.
10.5 It was noted that the current levels of authority relating to
contracts, leases and goods were such that Management
Committee approval was required for commitments over
£500,000, and the approval of National Council or the Arts
Investment Committee for grants of £5m or more. For reasons
of simplicity and consistency it was proposed that the same
£3m and £500,000 levels should be applied to these types of
transactions as to those in 10.3 and 10.4 above.
10.6 Proposals to escalate decisions in certain circumstances were
noted. It was proposed that escalation should occur in the
following two situations:
 When there was a possibility that the transaction would
fall into the category of ‘novel or contentious’ under the
terms of the Arts Council’s financial memorandum. Such
transactions required DCMS and in some cases HM
Treasury approval and, therefore, should always be
signed off by the Arts Investment Committee;
 Where a commitment, while not falling into the novel or
contentious category, was deemed to be high risk or to
have possible wider financial implications for the Arts
Council.
10.7 Council AGREED to approve the revised levels of delegated
financial authority and the escalation policy as outlined above.
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11
Appointments to Regional Councils
11.1 Council APPROVED the following appointments to Regional
Councils until July 2013, and the following reappointments as
listed below:
a.
South East: the appointment of Peter Seddon, Matt
Adams, Nick Giles and Jamie Watton; and the reappointment of Eckhard Thiemann from July 2010 to
2013;
b.
South West: the appointment of David Sproxton,
Camilla Hampsire, Councillor Simon Cook, Councillor
Dave Butt, Councillor Antonia Noble; and the reappointment of Mary La Trobe Bateman and Michele
Farmer until 31 December 2010;
c.
East: the appointment of Tamara Rojo; and the
reappointment of Councillor Penny Otton, Councillor
Sue Wigglesworth, and Jason Christopher Yarde from
July 2010 to 2013;
d.
East Midlands: the appointment of Councillor Wendy
Golland, Councillor Andre Gonzales De Savage, Wendy
Rouse, Professor Mary Stuart and Nik Ashton; and the
reappointment of Corey Mwamba from July 2010 to
2011 and Anette Schafer from July 2010 to 2011;
e.
West Midlands: the appointment of Stuart Griffiths, Neil
Maybury and Liz Roberts;
f.
North West: the reappointment of Cheryl Martin from
November 2009 to July 2011;
g.
North East: the reappointment of Eric Cross and
Maurice Dezou from 30 September 2010 to 30 June
2013;
h.
London: the reappointment of Cecilia Wee, Alan Miller
and Munira Mirza. It was noted that following the
election, changes to the local government nominations
would take place, and these would be reported in due
course.
11.2 It was noted that interviews for candidates for the Yorkshire
Regional Council were due to take place during July, and the
results of these interviews would be communicated to Council
in due course.
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11.3 Council noted the following retirements or resignations from
Regional Councils:
 South East Cllr Donald Seale, Cllr Shweta Kapadia,
Cllr Euan Henderson, Mike Fairclough, Penelope
Marcus, Stephen Turner, Elaine Thomas, Judy Panesar
Harrison;
 West Midlands Professor Susan Bassnett, Dr Noha
Nasser, Clare Edwards, Colin Ablitt;
 East Midlands Cllr Dr Jill Vincent, Cllr N Worth, Donna
Munday;
 North West Paula Pearson, Ruth Gould and Professor
Lubaina Himid;
 London Barbara Campbell, Anjana Patel and Flick Rea.
12
Any Other Business
12.1 There was no other business and the meeting closed at 12
noon.
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