Local Authorities and Independent Museums

Adrian Babbidge was commissioned by AIM to make a study of  the current relationships between  Independents and their Local Authorities.  This resulted in a keynote speech at Aim Conference in June. A summary of his findings is shown below with a link to the full report

To download the full report click HERE

Executive Summary

1 The Independent museums constituency in the United Kingdom has seen substantial growth over the past thirty years; Its total income Is now approximately £300 million - one quarter of the total museum economy. It is characterised by a great range of organisations, with budgets ranging from hundreds to millions of pounds, and covering a broad span of themes.

2 Most Independent museums rely on their own ability to make money, and are 'Independent' by any definition. A substantial minority, however, rely on local councils, either for core funding or providing services or support in kind. Around 8% of local authority expenditure on museums goes to corefund Independent museums. The level of such support is relatively small in relation to each museum's turnover - half receive under £50,000 pa, and one-third under £10,000 pa - but nonetheless provides a vital income stream. Additionally, the majority of independent museums occupy premises owned by local authorities.

3 In England and Wales many of the smallest museums, usually volunteerrun, rely heavily on their town, parish or community council, whether for accommodation, or for financial support, or both. The support of these councils in sustaining the grass roots of the independent museum sector is often unacknowledged.

4 Besides direct financial support for running costs or projects grants for improvements, councils at the higher tiers of local government sometimes provide museum development officers, who do important work In raising standards of collections care and public use of those museums.

5 For the past thirty years local government has been going through a period of reform, reorganisation and restructuring, and especially so over the last decade. There is little sign that this will cease, particularly in England. The trend has been for local councils to take a more strategic approach to their functions, aiming to be more responsive to residents' needs, and becoming more efficient. Of growing Importance Is their working In partnership with other local Institutions - health trusts, police and fire services etc - to tackle the most important issues In a 'joined-up' way. In future, councils will be judged on how far they have succeeded in working with partners to achieve agreed outcomes. These new ways of working will take place at a time when, following Comprehensive Spending Review 2007, there is likely to be a squeeze on local authority spending.

6 Together, the twin strands of strategic working and funding pressures represents a real challenge for museums in general, and independent museums In particular. While the larger local authority-supported museums have both the capacity and political connections to deal with such issues, small museums often find themselves at the margins of the
council's structures and business. They are a non-statutory function, and it is often easier to reduce a grant to an external body than make savings in directly-delivered services, where most expenditure represents the fixed costs of staffing or premises. Museum development officers - where they exist - have neither the status nor the responsibility that would enable them to be effective advocates for these museums.

7 While independent museums at least have the opportunity to develop and maintain a high profile, they will never have the scale to justify their own seat at the tables where decisions are made. Only by working with other bodies with a common interest, whether in the cultural or voluntary and community sectors, are they likely to have any influence. In some independent museums, where the focus has been inwards, this represents not just a different way of working, but a different way of thinking.

8 Local authorities also have opportunities to reform unhelpful practices. The English Compact for the Voluntary and Community Sector, its Scottish and Welsh counterparts, and Local Compacts, represent good practice in relationships between government and the third sector. Yet many councils appear to limit application of such compacts to their social service and personal care functions. HM Treasury recommendations that recognise the benefits of longer-term funding frameworks appear to have passed unnoticed by some councils; and too many funding agreements carry conditions or administrative requirements disproportionate to the level of grant being awarded, and its low risk.

9 Traditionally, local authorities have been generous in their dispositions of property, and museums have occupied premises on long-term arrangements at nominal cost. In more recent times a growing emphasis on asset management has led councils to be driven towards a more commercial attitude, leading to a reduction in the use of their powers to dispose of property by sale or lease in such a way that community organisations - including independent museums - can enjoy security of tenure at a low cost, thereby enabling them to more easily raise funds and plan ahead.

10 Museum development officers employed by local councils have always been few, but where they exist they represent an important support mechanism, especially when linked to county museums networks and forums. In recent years they have rather been lost in a flood of new development officers funded by Renaissance In the Regions. How far the small-scale, singleton nature of most local authority development posts fits into the changing pattern of local government remains to be seen, but many of the arguments traditionally advanced in their support may hold less weight in the future than they have in the past.

11 The fundamental difficulty faced by both local authorities and independent museums is that current relationships have been established in a piecemeal fashion, frequently over an extended period of time. Sometimes
they are grounded in practice that is very hard to reconcile with the world of local government as it is today. Only very few councils have the benefit of a heritage or museums strategy that demonstrates foresight, provides clarity of intent and, where it is accompanied by funding support, establishes a framework for a relationship that is based on all those elements required for a successful partnership - trust, equality, common vision, and sharing of benefits and risks.

12 The following requirements represent the essential features of a productive relationship between a local authority and the independent museums in its area:

•the council must acknowledge Its cultural responsibilities, and ensure that these are represented in the community strategy and its corporate objectives;

•the museum must liaise with other local cultural bodies to ensure that culture, heritage and museums are represented in community strategies, and that these areas feature in the work of the appropriate strategic partnerships, and are remembered in the formal local agreements that are playing a greater role In local government;

•the council should have a museum strategy/plan for a clear term of years, derived from the community strategy, that defines Its intended relationship with the museum sector and outcomes It expects, the types and levels of support (if any) it proposes to provide, how that will be delivered, and how progress wilt be evaluated;

•the museum must be alive to the council's strategic priorities, ensure that its activities are presented to the council in such a way that they mesh with the council's corporate objectives, and appropriately acknowledge the council's support;

•the council should adopt the national guidance in the Compact Codes of Practice, as well as that issued by HM Treasury in relation to the funding of third sector organisations, and apply it to all parts of the voluntary and community sector, Including museums;

•the museum should acknowledge that it is a community organisation and should collaborate with other voluntary-sector service bodies to ensure that Local Compacts are not limited to the needs of health, social work and community organisations;

•the council should use funding agreements that are clearly-drawn and include a precise definition of what the council is supporting (including an appropriate proportion of overhead costs), embodied in a clearlydrawn funding agreement, negotiated between both parties, for a reasonable term of years, with terms and conditions that are proportionate to the level of funding awarded; and
the museum must cease to see the council's financial support as an act of largesse, and see it more as the council procuring a service to deliver a function.