CC(3) AC AWE 15
Communities and Culture Committee
Inquiry into the Accessibility of arts and cultural activities in Wales
Additional Information from Gwent Theatre
GWENT THEATRE PETITIONS30.11.2010
1.On Tuesday 30th November 2010 a delegation from Gwent Theatre presented files containing a petition of 4,600 names and an E
petition of 1,118 names to the chair of the committee.
Purpose The petitions call for the Welsh Assembly Government to continue its funding for Gwent Theatre.
ReasonThe E
petition’s wording explains that ‘the removal of this highly valued resource from the communities it has served for over 30 years deprives young people of a significant opportunity to engage with the arts.
Shortly afterwards, members of Gwent Young People’s Theatre presented a sack containing 740 letters to Nick Capaldi and Dai Smith. The letters protest against the decision to cut Gwent Theatre’s funding, which effectively puts an end to Theatre in Education in our region.
It has been suggested by the Arts Council of Wales (ACW) that any of the 32 companies that have been removed from its funding portfolio could muster a campaign of support to reverse the decision. The fact is that Gwent Theatre stands out. It has attracted (not mustered) huge support for its continued existence. The groundswell of public opinion in favour of Gwent Theatre over the past five months has been astonishing.
2.ACW meetings The original decision to cut Gwent Theatre’s funding was taken by ACW in their meetings on 24th and 25th June 2010. Gwent Theatre had a follow up meeting with ACW officers on 15.7.10 when we questioned how the decision had been arrived at – what methodology, points scoring system etc that could help us understand the decision making process. We were told that the decision had been taken by council members in discussion meetings which were not minuted.
3.The Decision The minutes that do exist simply record the outcome of the June meetings and not the content of the members’ discussions. What we can glean is that when it came to considering the provision of Theatre in Education across Wales, all eight TiE companies were discussed.
It appears from the minutes that ‘some concern’ was expressed at reducing provision for the arts in this area of activity. We do not know who expressed that concern or how it was dealt with.
Nevertheless, the members decided to :
End our previous strategy for theatre in education.
Become a stronger advocate for arts in schools.
Focus on ‘exemplar work’ for young people.
Reduce the level of funding that was previously dedicated to this area of schools related activity.
Consider the role that the eight currently funded TiE/TYP companies might play in our ‘new approach.’
It was also indicated in June that the ‘new approach’ would be published.
The ‘new approach’ has still not been published. We were told by ACW on 29.11.10 that it is with translators and will be out in the next two or three weeks.
The ‘new approach’ first became apparent when the ACW decision was announced in June. The fact that it was not produced prior to the Investment Review and has still not been published leads one to conclude that arts provision for young people is not being planned in any strategic way at all.
4.It was decided that five TiE companies would be admitted into the ACW portfolio and that as from 31.3.2011, three would be cut, namely :
Spectacle Theatre (serving Rhondda Cynnon Taf)
Theatre Powys (serving large rural areas in Central and S.E. Wales
Gwent Theatre (serving the old counties of Newport, Torfaen, Caerphilly, Blaenau-Gwent and Monmouthshire ; it should be noted that the schools in the first three counties have bought into the TiE provision while the counties of Blaenau Gwent and Monmouthshire have funded Gwent Theatre directly.)
5.PROCEDURE
a) Minutes In spite of ACW’s consistent claims that the procedure has been transparent, the basis for the decision to cut these three TiE companies remains a mystery. The minutes are non existent and subsequent explanations from ACW officers have simply said that it came down to ‘fine judgements.’ The absence of any guide to methodology and the absence of minutes of discussions leading to strategic decisions are serious flaws in the process.
b) The ‘new approach’ to TiE This was not heralded prior to (or during) the Investment Review. If any possibility of ending its strategy for TiE had been contemplated by ACW, it was not communicated to its Revenue Funded Organisations. If it had been, it would have formed a central part of our business plan, and no doubt of the business plans of the seven other TiE companies. We regard this as a further flaw the conduct of ACW’s Investment Review.
c) Restricted rights of Appeal Gwent Theatre appealed against the ACW decision. It was rejected. That came as no surprise since ACW set out its own permissible grounds of appeal, confined to procedural irregularities in the decision making process. Without minutes of the discussions held by ACW members and very limited knowledge of how the decision had been made, we were hampered.
We therefore based our submission on the outcome of the review – essentially that no council – having regard to the track record of Gwent Theatre and the needs of our young people to have some contact with live theatre, literature and music (which Gwent Theatre has provided to English and Welsh schools) – could possibly have made this decision.
d)Explanations On 30th November, at the ACW building, a short impromptu discussion was held between Gwent Theatre delegates and Nick Capaldi and Dai Smith. They confirmed the steps taken by ACW in their June meeting, as set out in paragraph 2 above.
The first step was to end the TiE strategy. So that meant all eight companies leaving the ACW fold.
Finally, with the ‘new approach’ in mind, they considered whether any of the eight might fit back in. They decided that five would be taken back into the fold and three would not.
In this extraordinary way, three TiE companies were cut. We have heard Dai Smith talk at length about the Investment Review and how it was ‘not about cuts.’ From our perspective it is a cut which signals the end of TiE in Gwent. That is the stark reality and it is a consequence which ACW would have foreseen.
5OUTCOME
Putting aside the procedural inadequacies of the ACW decision, the outcome needs to be considered as a matter of urgency.
The staff of Gwent Theatre have all been made redundant as from mid February 2011. That is a personal tragedy for them of course, but they are professionals and, to their credit, they have focussed the arguments on the children and young people in the region. Gwent Theatre reaches well over 20,000 each and every year. As from February 2011 the schools in the five Gwent counties will have lost the dramatic / artistic input from this professional company. It is a massive problem because there is nothing to take its place.
On Saturday 4th December 2010 Nick Capaldi visited Gwent Young People’s Theatre (GYPT) in rehearsal at the Drama Centre, Abergavenny. Many of the young people, aged between 14 and 19 from all parts of Gwent, told him that they had joined GYPT after being inspired by the TiE company’s visits to their schools. They questioned Mr Capaldi about arts provision for future generations of Gwent pupils. Mr Capaldi said that ACW had no plans to replace the TiE company.
The result for Wales as a whole is that five TiE companies will carry on as before, funded by the ACW as before, providing the same valuable service as before to children and young people in schools and other venues in their regions, while the children of Gwent, Rhondda Cynnon Taf and rural Powys will be left out in the cold.
6The WELSH ASSEMBLY GOVERNMENT
The WAG has a duty to act fairly and equally across Wales. We were promised “joined up government” in Wales, where there would be communication and co-operation between government departments.
a) Joint responsibility
I have already made the point to the Communities and Culture Committee Inquiry that accountability is an issue here. The ACW are hedged around and protected by their officers who do the talking for them. The Heritage Minister also recites the ‘arms length’ argument when trying to justify this enormously unpopular decision.
I have heard the Heritage Minister say that “you either believe in ‘arms length’ or you don’t.” But it is not that simple or clear cut – otherwise no quango decision would ever be open to review. In fact, it is incumbent on all Assembly Members collectively to hold quangos – and Ministers for that matter – to account.
b) Collective ApproachI would urge Assembly Members to adopt a collective approach for what is going on here. It is a cross-party issue involving joint responsibility to see equality and fair play.
One of the arguments used by ACW is that they should not be footing the bill for TiE because it really should come out of the Education budget. That is a little surprising since the ACW has been supporting Gwent Theatre for 35 years, but divisive statements like that simply should not in any case win the argument.
Gwent Theatre does not care which budget its support comes from. Nor do the thousands of children who will no longer have the benefit of live theatre in their schools. The same would be true of the other two TiE companies who have been cut.
In a recent answer to the Communities and Culture Committee, Leighton Andrews AM said that he would be concerned if the ACW decision resulted in an unfair provision of arts across Wales. He is right to be concerned. ACW’s decision to cut Gwent Theatre is monumentally unfair to the children and young people of South East Wales. It is glaringly obvious that the human right of our young people are being forsaken.
c)Duties Please forgive two quotations from parts of the Government of Wales Act 2006. You probably have them well in mind. But in the light of the Inquiry presently being conducted and the petitions that are to be considered, it does no harm to remind ourselves of the guiding principles:
Preamble
“…..The 60 Assembly Members in the National Assembly scrutinise the Assembly Government’s decisions and policies, hold ministers to account…..”
Section 77 Equality of Opportunity
“The Welsh Ministers must make appropriate arrangements with a view to securing that their functions are exercised with due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people.”
d)It would not be enough, in our submission, for Ministers to say that a decision has been made ‘at arms length’ by a body charged to do so. That cannot begin to justify it and would simply state the fait accompli
.
When faced with such an obviously unfair outcome, surely the whole Assembly should be involved to rectify it and provide equality of opportunity to children of South East Wales.
7PRESENT STALE MATE POSITION
Gwent Theatre has been supported by hundreds of letters from teachers, pupils past and present, and members of the public. They have all attempted to persuade ACW to change its mind. ACW has replied to all the letters but they will not budge. ACW thinks it has made the right decision.
Evidence before the Communities and Culture Committee and the petition signatures that have been gathered show that there are thousands of people in the local communities of Gwent who believe that ACW has made the wrong decision. They do not accept that the decision of the ACW cannot be reviewed and reversed.
ACW announced at their Newport Riverfront conference on 17th November that they are beginning a ‘fresh consultation’ to determine what the young people of Wales really want. As it was announced, there were young people looking in through the windows of the conference hall. They were holding banners “Save Gwent Theatre” and I suggested to Dianne Hebb that she should invite them in. Of course they were not asked in because they are petitioners and their views are known.
But what will happen if ACW consults the children and teachers in the schools of the Gwent valleys and are told that Gwent Theatre was a highly valued provider of the arts and they want it back. By then it will be too late. The ACW will have killed off one of the success stories of arts in South Wales – destroyed an infra structure that has taken decades to build up.
8.Save us from the merry go round
It looks as if we are embarking on another merry go round of consultations, listening to young people, drafting endless reports and so on and so on. This is a particularly pointless exercise and the answer is staring everyone in the face -- restore Gwent Theatre.
If Wales really had joined up government, Gwent Theatre would not be closing down. It would have more staff and more resources and be able to take its work out on tour to wider venues. It has all the expertise.
It should continue its programmes of work performed in schools where teachers and visiting social workers are all involved, pupils engage in discussions ‘with the characters of the drama’ to tackle important contemporary issues in an inspired way. This is so highly valued, as the groundswell of public opinion in Gwent testifies.
Gwent Theatre
Fund it from a budget made up of ACW money and/or
Fund it from the Education Budget and/or
Fund it from the ‘Assembly Government’s Get Things Done Budget.’
But please fund it. It is simply too important an institution to lose.
GREGG LYNN TAYLOR Q.C.
CHAIRMAN GWENT THEATRE
