British Council transformation and investment plan update

In June's statement, the British Council's chief executive, Martin Davidson, said "we are not immune to the external financial pressures facing everyone today. We must adapt to these realities if we are to safeguard and grow our international cultural relations work for the UK in the arts, education, governance, science and sport."

Like many public bodies, the organisation has been living with reductions in its government grant as well as more recent efficiency cuts. The drop in the value of sterling last year also resulted in a tens of millions of pounds reduction in the British Council's purchasing power overseas.

"To ensure that we are spending as much as possible on our programmes which build influence and opportunities for Britain internationally, we will be investing more overseas to increase our impact and part of this investment will be paid for by reducing our running costs" said Martin Davidson.

The transformation programme includes a voluntary redundancy and early retirement scheme for permanent staff, which was announced last month. The British Council will lose between 400-500 posts in the UK over the next two years; approximately a third of the UK workforce. Around half of these posts are currently filled by temporary workers or consultants and some are vacant.  

The organisation also expects to reduce the number of posts overseas by several hundred. As a major international organisation working in over 100 countries, the British Council currently employs 6100 staff overseas.

We are looking to make savings in the region of £45 million over the next two years in order to ensure that we spend as much of the money we receive from the taxpayer as we can on our programmes abroad and deliver more for the UK in terms of building influence and opportunities for Britain overseas.

We are looking to save £25 million by creating lighter, leaner, more effective administrative and back-office functions, particularly in the areas of Finance and IT. This money will be invested in our programmes overseas. Additionally, we need to meet efficiency savings set by the Treasury last year of £18.2 million and a further £2.5 million in 2010/2011.

As announced a month ago, under these plans the British Council proposes to consolidate finance functions, currently located in five centres around the world, into one overseas and one in the UK. The management team is in ongoing consultation with staff and the PCS union on these plans and has the support of the Board of Trustees for this overall approach.

The number of finance roles in the UK is expected to be cut by just over half to around forty posts in a new centre of excellence of more highly qualified UK staff.

Overseas, finance hubs in Mexico, India, Poland and China will be consolidated into one location - probably in India - with around 60 new jobs created in India but still with a net reduction overall of around forty jobs overseas.

The organisation is also consulting with staff and the unions on proposals to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of IT work. Under the proposals being considered, work carried out by overseas hubs in India, Poland, Dubai and Singapore would be consolidated into fewer sites. Overall job numbers overseas are likely to remain similar, although some hubs will close, and in the UK the number of posts will fall from 185 to around 100 if this plan is approved.

We have been talking to our UK trade unions since April about our expectation of post reductions and many meetings have been held with them. We will very shortly be outlining specific proposals for post reductions across the UK and on how we wish to select staff who have volunteered for redundancy.

Our aim is to reach an agreed way forward with our unions and to avoid compulsory redundancies as far as we can. Our consultation timetable with the unions is well within what is required by the statutory guidelines and allows sufficient time to full engage with the union membership and hopefully reach agreement.

The British Council will retain five offices in the UK - London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

At the same time, under this transformation and investment programme, the organisation will be re-investing money saved in the UK and generated from its English language teaching and exams business in new programmes overseas that will strengthen the UK's international relations.

ENDS/

The British Council

• Marking 75 years in 2009, the British Council is the UK's international cultural relations body.

• We work in over 100 countries worldwide to build engagement and trust for the UK through our programmes which support intercultural dialogue, the UK's creative and knowledge economies and help to tackle climate change. 

•  We run international activities in the arts, education, English teaching, science, sport, and governance.

• Our work aims to foster the long-term cooperation needed to address global challenges.

• Last year we engaged face to face with 13.2 million people and reached 221 million.

• We are a non-political organisation which operates at arm's length from government.

• Our turnover in 2008/9 was £645 million, of which our grant from the British government was £209 million. The other £436 million was generated from English language teaching, the administration of exams, and delivery of contracts for third parties.

For more information, please visit www.britishcouncil.org or call the press office on 020 7389 4987