National Trust job cuts and loss of expertise
‘Restructuring over the past decade has both eroded the curatorial expertise within the organisation and effectively diminished its internal voice. ‘
Athena expresses concern in Country Life for the impact of tax rises on the heritage sector, and also the National Trust’s skewed priorities
LAST week, there came the unhappy announcement of proposed redundancies at the National Trust. A statement declares: ‘The Trust exists to protect and promote Nature, beauty and history for everyone’s benefit. But our job is increasingly tough due to sustained cost pressures beyond our control.’ In particular, it cites the ‘recent employer’s National Insurance increase and National Living Wage rise [that have] added more than £10 million to our annual wage bill’. So, it continues, in order to meet the three main aims of its 10-year strategy—‘restoring Nature, ending unequal access to Nature and cultural heritage, and inspiring millions more people to care and take action to support our cause’—it intends to cut its workforce by an estimated 6%. For an organisation that employs about 9,500 people, that sounds like an accountant’s way of saying 570 jobs or so. Explicitly, it represents an attempt to cut £26 million from the annual budget.
There is unquestionably something slightly irritating about the corporate urge to spin bad news in positive terms and this announcement—entitled ‘Creating a sustainable future’ and illustrated with an image of ‘backlit oak leaves at Sherringham Park, Norfolk’—certainly doesn’t escape it. What really matters, however, is the way in which It highlights a very real problem created by changes to NI and the minimum wage the strategic thinking behind the cuts— be they voluntary or imposed redundancies —will reshape the organisation.
Restructuring over the past decade has both eroded the curatorial expertise within the organisation and effectively diminished its internal voice. Will this pattern continue? To judge from the three stated central aims over the next decade, that doesn’t seem a groundless concern. In Athena’s view, moreover, although culture is important for what it does and for who it reaches, it also matters simply for what it is. That belief feels in regrettably short supply in an organisation that—for all it unquestionably achieves— often sounds more governmental than evangelical in its outlook.