The Arts Council director whose decision to take up a six-month paid sabbatical as the first CEO at a partner organisation ensured that she will receive a redundancy payout from the Arts Council, has now been confirmed in the CEO post permanently.

Andrea Stark was, until recently, executive director of Arts Council East and South East, a post she had held for about ten years. In October last year, it was announced that she had been appointed as “the first chief executive of a new charity managing the High House Production Park” (HHPP).

No mention was made at the time of the fact that Stark would remain employed by Arts Council England (ACE) and take a paid sabbatical instead of drawing a salary from HHPP. By doing this, Stark ensured that she remained on the ACE payroll until the end of this month, when she will be eligible for a redundancy payment widely predicted to be in the region of £100,000.

Her post is one of around 100 to be axed by the organisation following funding cuts of around a third until at least 2015.

HHPP is a 14-acre creative and cultural facility where sets are built for Royal Opera House productions and training is offered in backstage theatre skills.

Confirmed in permanent role

A Royal Opera House spokesman confirmed this week that Stark’s contract with the Arts Council ends on Friday 28 June, and she will be employed by High House Production Park from Monday 1 July.

Stark is one of a small minority of long-serving Arts Council staff who has a protected employment term under TUPE regulations which allowed them to have a paid sabbatical. In 2011, ACE said that the remaining staff had to take their paid sabbatical within the next two years or they would lose their entitlement to do so.

By taking the sabbatical instead of resigning outright, Stark ensured she remained eligible for the redundancy.

A spokeswoman for ACE confirmed that: “Andrea will be leaving the Arts Council at the end of this month and at that stage will receive her redundancy payment as she is entitled to do."

She added that the redundancy figure will be published in ACE’s annual accounts, due in mid to late July. The funding for redundancy payments come from a pre-determined pool of funding allocated to ACE by DCMS which is to be used only for this purpose.

"Redundancy payments are therefore not money which would otherwise be going to the arts," the spokeswoman said.

No comment from Stark

Asked whether Stark wished to comment, the ACE spokeswoman said: "Andrea is entitled to receive a redundancy payment just as she was entitled to take a sabbatical as per her protected employment terms.

"She has chosen to exercise both of those rights and to use her sabbatical to help establish a new arts charity which will have a positive impact on the arts sector. Andrea is not receiving anything more than she is contractually entitled to. There is nothing further for Andrea to add."