The Arts Council England Review is an opportunity to examine how the national development agency can bring world-class cultural excellence to every corner of the country while amplifying local voices in decision-making.

The independent review gathered evidence between February and June 2025 from a wide range of different cultural organisations and voices, including the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Having thoroughly engaged with the review process, we believe that the arm’s length principle for funding arts and culture in England is valuable and should be maintained for many reasons, including enabling artistic freedom and fairness in decision-making.

We also see opportunities for ACE to improve in the following areas:

1. The co-creation of a strategy that better supports England's performing arts ecosystem

We would welcome the co-creation of a strategy between ACE and its National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) to build resilience and reduce duplication within the performing arts ecosystem. 

This strategy could include the co-development of a jointly owned target, with intentional geographical spread, that all nationally-funded and nationally-reaching organisations can work towards.

2. Reframing ACE’s strategy so it is audience-focused and artist-led

We believe that artistic excellence and access are mutually beneficial, and should be valued equally.

We would welcome a reframing of ACE’s strategy to be both artist-led and audience-focused. This would enable a more flexible approach, moving away from a ‘one size fits all’ model for co-creative practice. 

3. More transparent, supportive and efficient communication between ACE and performing arts organisations

While our current relationship with our ACE manager is positive, we would welcome more ‘two-way’ communication across the sector, where challenges and issues can be discussed openly, data and insights are freely shared, and where everyone works towards the shared goal of delivering brilliant, accessible arts and culture across England. 

We're also advocating for a more efficient reporting system, focusing on value-added outcomes. Data shared by funded bodies should be collated and shared back to the sector to inform delivery and decision-making, enabling organisations to be more future-focused and supporting wider development within the sector.

4. Improved impact via Education Specialist Hubs

ACE funding is crucial to engaging children and young people in arts and culture inside and outside of school. We propose a more efficient model which defines specific NPOs as specialist 'hubs' for arts education. Here, practitioners can work at scale with evidence-based approaches and then share best practices with partners across England. 

Building on our ground-breaking work in this field, we are ready to collaborate with ACE and partners across the country to share our evidence-based approaches and work at scale to improve engagement with schools, teachers, and young people.