Take it on the chin

The Government has controversially announced that it will be closing its scheme for incentivising households to generate solar energy on 12 December – 9 days before its consultation on the subject closes. We are inevitably drawn to conclude that the whole consultation exercise is simply an attempt to spin another unpalatable cut. So what should we conclude about Arts Council England’s consultation with applicants for its NPO funding, asking whether the names of all funding applicants should be made public (p1)? Apparently, only 215 of 1,333 applicants bothered to reply, and of them only 38 raised any objection. It’s not exactly the ringing endorsement ACE might have liked for its policy of secrecy, yet the outcome of this consultation has been used to justify its refusal to make pubic the names of those who lost out. Why does this matter? Firstly, because it reinforces the suspicion that consultations are held because it’s important to be seen to consult – not because anyone wants to listen to what consultees say (or don’t say); but secondly because it suggests, yet again, that ACE has something to hide. The heavily redacted minutes of the meetings at which the NPO decisions were made (which are deeply buried in its website together with Genista McIntosh’s review and a rather fascinating new report on ‘The Public’ debacle)  simply serve to fuel this perception. And all of this hot on the heels of the cover-up of computer failures that undermined its NPO assessment process. This creates the impression that ACE must be up to no good. But that’s not the everyday experience of most arts professionals, who as far as we can tell, find ACE’s staff to be supportive, thoughtful, committed and effective in what they do: McIntosh makes it clear that in many respects ACE can hold its head high. Now must surely be the right time for it to stamp out its culture of cover-ups, admit it’s not perfect and take on the chin any fall-out from its mistakes or bad decisions. If not now, then when? And by the way, the Arts Council of Wales published the names of all its unsuccessful applicants for regular funding – and didn’t redact its minutes.