On the face of it, the latest shake-up of arts funding by Creative Scotland moves more than 40 of Scotland's arts companies from a position of stability to instability.

Flexible funding was a relatively short-term funding method, a step below the rock-solid foundation funding, but it afforded companies time to plan shows, pay bills, hire staff and breathe easily.

To be moved on to a project-by-project funding basis will, therefore, for many not only be onerous (they will now have to apply for project funds before flexible funding runs out next year) but also deeply worrying. For these companies, June and July will now be a vital time to discuss their futures in meetings with Creative Scotland. Those on annual funding will not be sleeping soundly either, especially the festivals, such as Celtic Connections, which have to plan significantly in advance.

Creative Scotland says it was not forced into these changes. But the levers behind its greatest power – money – are changing significantly.

Yes, it has new strategic aims and desires, including a pressing desire to open up access to culture and the arts across the nation, but the large increase in lottery funds, which cannot be used for revenue funding, and the comparative decline in Government money, meant, it says, that something had to change.

For some companies that are tried and tested and lauded for their work, being put on project funding may seem like a demotion of some kind, even if Creative Scotland is adamant there is no hierarchy in its funding model.

More change is to come: each sector of the arts in Scotland is being reviewed, and we have yet to hear details of a £3.4m "strategic commissioning" plan. There may be more storms before the calm.