The Museums and Cultural Property team has national and some UK-wide responsibilities that support the strategic development of public collections. They work with the cultural sector to secure, sustain, preserve, advocate for, and enable access to collections in support of Arts Council’s Strategy Let’s Create!

·      Implementing and enabling process improvement to support the delivery of the UK-wide Acceptance in Lieu/Cultural Gifts Schemes.

·      Working with the Museums and Cultural Property, Transformation and IT teams to enable efficiencies across workstreams through digital transformation

·      Actively engaging with the work of the Museums and Cultural Property team and wider Arts Council on strategic and developmental initiatives, including the Arts Councils Strategy Let’s Create!

·      Championing Acceptance in Lieu (AiL) and Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) and their impact and ensuring the effective working of the Acceptance in Lieu Panel to deliver them. Providing advice and guidance on the Arts Council’s Cultural Property schemes to internal and external stakeholders.

Main day to day responsibilities

·      Identifying and implementing improvements to the administration of the Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gift Schemes which enable the team to deliver them more efficiently.

·      As the team’s first point of day-to-day contact wtih HMRC colleagues, ensuring close and effective working to deliver improvements to process flow and administration of the Schemes

·      Project management of the Acceptance in Lieu/Cultural Gifts Scheme Annual Report

·      Support to the development of the two schemes including policy reform, working with DCMS and HMRC colleagues

·      Working closely with the Arts Council England Transformation and IT team to support Scheme improvement through digital and process transformation

·      Supporting the effective line management of Officers / Assistants ensuring that all team members have clear objectives, and that progress is monitored against the case-tracker and up-to-date OKRs.

·      Liaising with the Director, Cultural Property on policy queries.

·      Promoting understanding of the work of the wider team and Acceptance in Lieu and Cultural Gift Scheme by participating in seminars and publications and in providing guidance and advice on the schemes generally both to colleagues and external stakeholders.

·      Developing and maintaining effective relationships with key stakeholders, such as the owners, art and antiques trade, expert advisers, Panel members, the staff of public collections and membership and funding bodies.

·      Contributing to the organisation’s commitment to diversity and its implications for the arts and culture, promoting an inclusive approach in all aspects of the post’s objectives and activities.

·      Working with senior managers to contribute to any reviews or development of AIL and/or CGS.

·      Ensuring that records are maintained in line with Arts Council England records management policy, in line with GDPR and able to support requests made under Freedom of Information.

·      Working closely and flexibly with ACE staff to develop a shared understanding of our work across the team, contributing proactively across the range of our responsibilities and acting as an internal and external advocate for the work of the team.

·      Supporting the senior management team in business planning, reporting against departmental, corporate and strategic plan and risk registers.

·      Undertake other duties as may reasonably be required.

·      You will contribute to a positive working culture in the organisation by taking a proactive approach to learning, responding to change, inclusive practice, and environmental responsibility. ·

·      You will reflect the Nolan Principles of Public Life and the Arts Council's values with a commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Key relationships

·      Museums & Cultural Property management team

·      Specialist staff across Arts Council, including Transformation, IT, Governance, Communications, Customer services

·      You will work in a fully interconnected structure that relies on collaboration, flexibility and the ability to operate within both formal and informal reporting relationships.

·      External stakeholders including Government departments (notably DCMS and HMRC), owners, public collections, agents, advisers, solicitors and funding, membership and development bodies such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund.

What do I need to bring to the role?

Essential (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviors)

·      Experience of working in a previous role with a high degree of accountability and responsibility.

·      Commitment to identifying and delivering user-focused scheme delivery improvements

·      Good knowledge of programme management and delivery, quality assurance and continuous review and evaluation. You will have a good understanding and awareness of risk assessment procedures.

·      Highly digitally literate; confident user of digital systems and workflow management tools, including SharePoint, Microsoft 365; Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Lists.

·      Experience of motivating, managing and developing staff.

·      Well-developed ability to work in a high-volume, high-risk environment without losing necessary attention to detail, working on your own initiative, but making good judgement calls about when to bring in others’ expertise as part of a matrix team.

·      Ability to prioritise work and meet tight deadlines and targets while remaining calm under pressure. You will have a strong commitment to providing excellent public value and accountability.

·      Strong analytical and numeracy skills and the ability to synthesise large amounts of information.

·      A collaborative ethos and ability to contribute to organisation-wide objectives and initiatives.

·      Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to communicate in a confident and engaging manner and influence individuals over whom there is no formal line-manager relationship.

·      A good understanding of the Arts Council’s duty as a public body under current diversity

legislation, the current diversity agenda and its relationship to the arts and culture.

Desirable (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviors

·      Experience of Committees or Boards and working alongside a Chair

·      Experience of leading a team through the change management process

·      Agile project management

·      Experience of working in a customer-facing role, resolving queries from a wide range of people.

·      Facilitating hybrid meetings with stakeholders

·      Experience of handling and filing confidential data.

·      Understanding of the art market

·      Due diligence for acquisitions

We are a Disability Confident Employer and we participate in the ‘Offer an Interview’ scheme, which means that we offer an interview to any disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria for the role they’re applying to, subject to the volume of applications received. Disabled candidates, those living with a long-term condition and/ or neurodivergent candidates may be eligible for this scheme.

Our Code of Ethics requires that employees of the Arts Council are not able to receive an Arts Council grant, investment or loan funding - either in person, as a member of a partnership, or for any organisation they own. There are also limitations on board or CEO positions employees can hold in organisations we fund. For more information on this, please talk to the recruiting manager or contact recruitment@artscouncil.org.uk

1st interview: 16 February 2026

2nd interview: 23 February 2026