Policy paper

Annex 4: Arts Council England Review - Methodology

Published 16 December 2025

Applies to England

1.1 Baroness Hodge of Barking was appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to conduct an independent review of the Arts Council England (ACE) . Baroness Hodge was supported by an Advisory Panel featuring experts from across the creative sectors and a small team of officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) .

Advisory panel

1.2 As this review was a high-priority review of a significant public body, DCMS established an Advisory Panel to inform the review and probe emerging recommendations . The panel was composed of members with specific expertise in a range of areas in the arts and cultural sector . The panel represented areas across the country . The panel’s role was to hear the Lead Reviewer’s views, understand the evidence base, and challenge emerging thoughts and recommendations rigorously and constructively .

1.3 Advisory Panel members :

• Helen Bowdur: Arts Fundraising Consultant and Vice Chair of the Octagon Theatre, Bolton and Buxton Opera House .
• Pawlet Brookes MBE: Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage in Leicester . Pawlet is the Midlands Area Chair for Arts Council England .
• Paul Callaghan CBE, DL, FRSA: Co-founder and Chair of The Leighton Group, and the Sunderland Music, Arts and Culture Trust .
• Stella Kanu: CEO of Shakespeare’s Globe . Stella is also Sadiq Khan’s representative to Arts Council England .
• Dave Moutrey OBE: Director of Culture and Creative Industries at Manchester City Council, and Chair of Theatres Trust .
• Laura Pye: Director of National Museums Liverpool (NML) and Chair of the National Museum Directors Council .
• Samir Savant: Chief Executive, St George’s Bristol .

The panel met several times during the review and members of the panel attended regional events . The panel helped to scrutinise the approach to evidence gathering and helped to frame the emerging recommendations . They ensured that we met a good range of people on our regional visits – using their local knowledge and expertise to bring excellent groups of people to the table . They met in sub-groups to challenge and provide expertise as we developed our thinking and they contributed to the final report and recommendations .

Evidence gathering

1.4 ACE is a large organisation that impacts on a number of different sectors across England . We needed to design an evidence gathering strategy that balanced our desire to capture the broadest range of views and perspectives with the need to be proportionate . We used a mix of interviews, group discussions, regional visits, and a survey to get as much information as possible in the short time available to us . Both the Lead Reviewer and the review team conducted stakeholder interviews .

1.5 The team requested a number of documents and papers from ACE . ACE provided a wealth of data and they offered us a lot of their time to talk through processes etc., for which we are very grateful .

1.6 It was important for the Review Team to consider views from across the country . From March to October 2025, the Lead Reviewer and members of the Review Team undertook visits to a range of regional locations to hear the perspectives from local arts and culture organisations including NPOs, local government representatives and area councils . The visits were to Birmingham, Norwich, rural Norfolk, Bristol, Bolton, Manchester, Sunderland, East Durham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, and Bradford . We also held virtual roundtables for Cornwall and London stakeholders .

1.7 We also held a series of in-person and virtual roundtables with representatives of the various artforms and cultural sectors and particular groups working in the arts and cultural sector . This covered Disability groups, Freelancers, Philanthropy, Music, Opera, Dance, Theatre, Libraries, Literature, Combined Arts, Museums/Visual Arts, Diversity, Festivals, and Young Artists .

1.8 We talked to stakeholders whom we felt should contribute to the review . These included cultural organisations, individual artists, local authorities and other interested parties as well as ACE and DCMS staff, and the ACE Board .

1.9 A list of those consulted is at Annex 7 . The Review Team wants to express heartfelt thanks to everyone who took the time to help us with this review .

What we did with the Information

1.10 Our methodology involved gathering factual information, developing ideas, and listening to diverse viewpoints . We integrated the findings from our Call for Evidence with the analysis of roundtable discussions and with our own observations and notes, to identify the key messages and overarching themes . These insights then guided the issues we sought to address . Our ideas were thoroughly discussed by the team and with the Advisory Panel . We sought to develop a consensus and all the feedback was carefully considered and incorporated, helping to shape the recommendations we make in this report .

Consideration of equality and diversity issues

1.11 In line with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), we carried out an equality impact assessment to examine whether any of our recommendations could impact individuals with protected characteristics (both ACE’s users and ACE staff) . Based on discussions with users and staff, we concluded that none of the recommendations will disproportionately impact individuals with protected characteristics . ACE and DCMS should continue to consider PSED as they implement our recommendations .