Exposure Draft, April 2001

Chapters 1 & 2: Background & The Context
Chapter 3: The Policy Framework
Chapter 4: The Market
Chapter 5: Museums & Their Collections
Chapter 6: Resources
Chapter 7: Conclusions
Annexes 

 

6 Resources

601.  Only 16% of museum premises in the region, of whatever age, are purpose-built. Table 23 shows that 32% have had major refurbishment within the past ten years, and a third remain much as they were pre-1980. There has been a reduction in real-terms expenditure on museum premises during the past ten years, in part reflecting deferred maintenance. Other than National Trust properties, few have cyclical building inspection or maintenance programmes.

Table 23: Nature of Museum Premises in the East Midlands ¹

¹Total of 94 museums
²Structural or display refurbishment of more than 80% of building (including common areas)

602.  72% of museums in the East Midlands occupy premises that are Listed as of special architectural or historic interest. 41% are Grade 1 (buildings of exceptional importance) or 2* (of particular importance) and 9% are also Scheduled Ancient Monuments.

Table 24: Building Conservation Status of East Midlands Museum Buildings

Note: Total of 93 museum buildings

603.  Few of these buildings were intended to be museums. Their importance is vulnerable or sensitive to change, and deserve as much - and in some cases more - consideration than the collections they house. Museums in such buildings should always have policies that enable retention of the building's significance, irrespective of any development or changes that may take place or be planned.

604.  These policies should be defined by a Conservation Plan, which can be used to provide a single approach to understanding and managing the heritage significance of the site - the buildings, their environmental context, and collections. Grade 1 or 2* buildings always warrant a full plan; for Grade 2 Listed Buildings a shorter Conservation Statement, which nevertheless identifies the key sensitivities and how they are to be protected, is appropriate.

Information & Communications Technology

605.  East Midlands museums are representative of the region in terms of low interest in ICT. While most museums use computers for word-processing and documentation, very few have developed websites that are anything more than electronic brochures. Many are pages within a local authority corporate website, with very little to identify themselves to the outside world. Only one museum - the National Tramway Museum at Crich - has developed a website to provide services as well as information, by way of interactivity with collections, and that is currently limited to its photographic and library holdings.

606.  Every museum should develop the use of ICT as an effective management tool and, whether individually or as part of a consortium, provide access to selected objects in the collection, with digitised images, and on-line educational resources and exhibitions.

607.  The development of the East Midlands Broadband Consortium (EMBC), and in particular its East Midlands Community Grid for Learning (EMCGfL), provides an opportunity for museums to link with the National Grid for Learning by providing content for educational webcasting. While major public investment has been made in infrastructure, relatively little has been committed to create the content needed for the Grid to meet its full potential. Commercial enterprise is moving to fill this gap.

608.  This poses a huge challenge for the region's museums, many of whom are ideally suited to provide such material. However, few - if any - have the capacity to produce such material themselves, or to do deals with commercial developers that protects their property rights in their collections. Advice, training and investment in infrastructure will be needed if this opportunity is to be maximised.

Revenue Funding

609.  For 1999/2000, the overall size of the economy of the museums sector (excluding National Trust properties) in the East Midlands, in terms of gross expenditure, was around £15 million. This figure is distorted by local authority treatments of central costs and loan repayment costs, in the application of which there are substantial differences between councils. A more reliable indicator is 'core expenditure', which includes the front-line costs of employees, premises and operating activities. The core expenditure for East Midlands' museums for 1999/2000 was £13.5 million. Gross current income was just over £3.6 million, giving a net core cost of £9.9 million.

610.  This measure does not truly reflect the overall spend, especially that derived from volunteer effort. An estimate of this general contribution of voluntary workers to service delivery and support amounts to £1.62 million, giving an 'added value' net core expenditure of £11.52 million.

611.  Tables 25 and 26 show core expenditure and income for local authority (excluding Lincolnshire County Council) and independent museums for the financial years 1996/7 and (based on estimates) 1999/2000. This shows a 4% reduction in expenditure in cash terms. This has affected both constituencies and all elements of expenditure, with the exception that operating costs in independent museums have risen by 24%. This reflects, to some extent, programming and marketing to address the difficult market situation, but most of this expenditure reflects grant funding for specific projects mirrored by a 20% increase in income from grants and donations.

Table 25: Core Expenditure on East Midlands Museums (£'000)

* excludes museums operated by Lincolnshire County Council
Source: East Midlands Museums Service

Table 26: East Midlands Museums Income (£'000)

* excludes museums operated by Lincolnshire County Council
Source: East Midlands Museums Service

612.  Income from admission fees has reduced by 32% in independent museums, reflecting the reduction in visitor numbers, but this has been largely offset by higher spend on retail and catering. The reverse is true in local authority museums, which has seen substantial increases in admission income, but a compensating loss of trading income. Although local authority museums have also seen a drop in income, the charges that apply now are more than the token fees that were previously imposed.

Trends in Local Authority Expenditure

613.  Chart 5 shows the trend in local authority expenditure between 1990 and 1999. While budgets kept place with inflation during the first five years, since 1997 there have been major reductions that appear to be continuing. As well as the general pressures on public expenditure, this reflects the result of local government reorganisation, and the advent of unitary authorities in 1997 and 1998.

614.  There has been a 10% reduction in local authority core expenditure in cash terms during the decade. The proportion that is personnel costs has risen from 65% to 73% of core expenditure, while premises costs have reduced from 17% to 14%. Operating costs remain at 17% of spend.

615.  Not all operating costs are 'doing money' - it also includes routine elements as diverse as protective clothing for staff, telephone charges, postages and insurances. In 1999/2000 such costs absorbed more than 50% of operating budgets. The balance - the money available for all direct costs, and partnership funding for grant bids - was deployed in the 'top line' budgets shown in Table 27:

Table 27: Direct Programme Expenditure in East Midlands Local Authority Museums*

616.  This represents the equivalent of 19p per visitor, or 4% of a gross core expenditure that is the equivalent of £4 per visitor.

617.  Table 28 shows that spending on museums by East Midlands local authorities was, in 1998/9, about the national average.

Table 28: Local Authority Expenditure by Region 1998/9

Source: CIPFA

618.  This disguises considerable imbalances within the region. Chart 6 shows that only Leicestershire and Rutland spend above the regional average.

The horizontal line shows the national average

619.  The per capita spend on National museums by people in the region by way of national taxation is around £4. The region's total museum expenditure is less than the £13 million annual government grant to the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside.

620.  The region's museums attracted £12.7 million in inward investment between 1995 and 1999, from the following source:

• 65% from the Heritage Lottery Fund;

• 15% from Arts Lottery;

• 15% from European Union structural funds;

• 3% through the East Midlands Museums Service; and

• 2% from the Museums & Galleries Commission/Victoria & Albert Museum Purchase Fund and the Museums & Galleries Commission/PRISM Fund

621.  Table 29 shows 76% of the region's total inward investment going into Nottinghamshire (including Nottingham City). Although Derbyshire attracted 12%, no other county gained more than 7%.

*Total = £12,668,000

622.  Table 30 shows that independent museums have achieved 61% of inward investment, and local authorities 35%. These proportions are reversed if spend on the Galleries of Justice at Nottingham, which absorbed 42% of all inward investment for the five-year period, is discounted.

Table 30: Inward investment by constituency (£'000)

623.  The effectiveness of this inward investment, in terms of museum outcomes, is open to question. Nottinghamshire, the county which achieved the largest level of investment, also shows the largest reduction in visitor numbers. Yet many museums that had received very little grant managed to maintain their visitor profile. This reinforces the view that inward investment is not the only determinant of success, and that the impact of the 'bidding culture' common in many museums, may be marginal in terms of long-term outcomes.

624.  Following publication of Facing the Future, the Council of the East Midlands Museums Service agreed a series of priorities to be recommended to the Heritage Lottery Fund for capital investment in the region's museums. Table 31 describes those projects, and the progress made to achieving them:

Table 31 (a) - Museum Projects

Table 31(b) - Multi-Heritage Projects

Note: This list includes those projects that embrace multiple heritage components (eg collections and historic buildings) and will require a conservation plan. It may be elements other than collections that give the priority.

625.  Following the completion of these major capital schemes, the aim should then be to achieve a more equal distribution of inward investment throughout the region, with the aim of:

• renewing and refreshing existing museum public spaces to the standards expected by today's users;
  

• providing new museum buildings and extensions only where this is the result of closure of existing museums and grouping collections together;
  

• creating purpose-designed space to accommodate educational activities wherever the opportunity arises;
  

• developing new, purpose-built collections management and storage facilities, especially where these are shared between more than one museum organisation;
  

• enabling the region's museums to maximise the benefit of developments in ICT;
  

• creating opportunities for local museum developments in partnership with other cultural developments in the region's market towns.

People

626.  In 1960 there were 35 museums in the region which employed 139 staff, of which 46 were employed at Leicester City Museums, which also employed half the professional staff in the region. During the following forty years numbers of paid museum staff rose in number to the equivalent of 735 employees posts - more than four times the 1960 complement.

627.  The majority of those staff are employed in the local authority sector. Most local authority museums have seen increases in staff between 1990 and 1999, though the cessation of the Derbyshire County Museums Service in 1992, which saw a net loss of 19 jobs, means that there has been a loss of 0.5 posts overall during the period. In 1990 employee costs were around 49% of core expenditure; by 2000 this ratio had increased to 73% of core expenditure.

628.  If absolute numbers of professional staff have remained about the same, the nature of those posts has altered, as shown in Table 32.

Table 32: Changes in museum posts 1990 - 1999

Source: Museums Yearbook 1991 and 2000

629.  Most museum employees are engaged to provide 'front-of-house' duties of supervision, retail or catering. The specialist expertise needed to deliver