Up to a quarter of jobs at Scottish arts Council and Scottish Screen could be lost in the merger to form Creative Scotland next year.
The new business plan for the merged body reveals that it will have 33 fewer full-time posts than the current level of 146 full-time positions within the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen combined. Traditional departments will disappear and managers will hotdesk at locations across Scotland. Headquarters will be in Edinburgh but the agency will retain offices in Glasgow too.
Scottish arts chiefs say all job losses will be voluntary and £1 million has been earmarked for payoffs. Current funding arrangements for grants will remain at least for the first six months following Creative Scotland’s start-up. But implementation director Richard Smith warned, “Creative Scotland will be an organisation that has to be prepared to make some tough decisions, not to take the easy line. It will not be a comfy pair of slippers.”