ITEM CA11
CABINET – 21 OCTOBER 2008
FUNDAMENTAL SERVICE REVIEW OF CULTURAL SERVICES
Report of the Head of Community Services
1. This Report summarises the outcomes of the Fundamental Service Review of cultural services and seeks Cabinet approval of its recommendations. The review covered the following: Library Service, Heritage Services, Music Service, arts and recreation development, management, policy and performance. The Adult Learning and Registration Services were not included in the scope.
2. The review was conducted following a corporate framework, with a project board chaired by the Director for Social and Community Services and including representatives of the Corporate Core. The Heads of Adult Learning and Registration performed the role of critical friends along with Corporate Core officers. It was carried out by cultural services managers. No additional resources were assigned for the review. At key stages guidance was obtained from the Cabinet Member for Social and Community Services, and the findings were also presented for critical challenge to the Deputy Leader and the Cabinet Member for Change Management.
3. The Social and Community Services Scrutiny Committee were kept regularly updated on the review and received a report on the main outcomes at their July meeting, which minuted the following comment:
This Committee endorses the summary of changes to be implemented as a result of the Fundamental Service Review of Cultural Services which, in its view, has been well conducted. It wishes to reiterate the value of cultural services for the whole remit of Social & Community Services, with particular regard to the library service, heritage services, and the arts. This Committee continues to be concerned at the imposition of continued efficiency savings as far as future service provision is concerned.
Financial Context
4. The following table summarises budgets (in £000s) of the services for 2007/08, the financial year in which the review was carried out.
This illustrates the high dependency of most services on income (largely from external grants and charges to users) which constitutes 28% of total expenditure. In other words, less than £10.8m investment by the County Council annually generates just over £15m worth of activity. This does not include the leverage achieved for external bodies by grant aid for arts, recreation and village halls.
5. In the 2007 resource and planning round Cultural and Adult Learning Services had a combined savings target (to meet efficiency targets and budgetary pressures) of £730,000 in 2008/09 rising to £1,368,000 in 2011/12. The biggest budgetary pressure related to loss of income from library audio-visual services, reflecting changing patterns in public sourcing of recorded music and films, and from library fines since loans can now be renewed on line. The review considered possible sources of earned income to replace these losses but identified none with sufficient potential.
6. 96% of the controllable budgets for cultural services is spent on the services themselves. The largest area of expenditure across services is on staff.
Conclusions and Recommendations
7. The main findings of the review are summarised in Annex 1 (download as .doc file). The following important recommendations arise from those findings.
Recommendation 1. The Library Service should adopt a strategy for the next five years based on the service’s core activities and the three principles of value for money, partnership, and customer focus. In particular the strategy should focus on improving key service points where there is the highest level of customer use (town and city libraries and areas of significant population growth), engage with communities to ensure that library services are delivered in the most cost-effective manner for the tax payer, and explore alternative means of delivery such as collocation with other facilities and use of technology.
Recommendation 2. The Museums Service should focus its strategy on: · developing the Oxfordshire Museum as an attraction, through the provision of new and changing exhibitions and activities, partnership with the Soldiers of Oxfordshire, and improved welcome to visitors; · identifying suitable alternative use and management arrangements for Cogges Manor Farm, achieving revenue savings for the County Council; · creating one learning and outreach team to work across Heritage and Arts Services; · a more rigorous approach to collections management, including a reduction in the range of collections, in accordance with professional standards and practice.
Recommendation 3. The Archives Service and Oxfordshire Studies should be brought under a unified management. Family and local history resources should be brought together at the County Record Office on a short-term basis for the temporary closure of the Central Library. Although the refurbished Central Library will provide good local studies resources as an integral and important element of the new service, the longer-term prospect of a combined “History Centre” approach, potentially in partnership with the University of Oxford and others, should be explored further.
Recommendation 4. County Council revenue support for the Oxfordshire Victoria County History should continue at present level until March 2011. Officers should work with the VCH Trust and others to identify options for the longer-term continuation of the project in the county.
Recommendation 5. The Music Service should continue to improve its earned income through fees, further improvement in management efficiency, and external sponsorship in order to further reduce the need for County Council revenue subsidy. The service should explore the possibility of eventual independent trust status.
Recommendation 6. Arts grants should be focused on core funding strategic partners who can demonstrate their ability to deliver outcomes aligned to the county’s Sustainable Community Strategy. Funding partnerships should be regularly reviewed, with the opportunity of a managed refreshment of the portfolio of organisations funded. Assistance should be given to arts and other cultural organisations to source project funding from elsewhere.
Recommendation 7. Oxford Inspires should be approached with a view to their managing the administration of the arts grants as part of a partnership agreement with the County Council.
8. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) note the conclusions of the Fundamental Service Review of cultural services contained in Annex 1; and
(b) approve recommendations 1 to 7 set out in paragraph 6 above.
RICHARD MUNRO Head of Community Services Social & Community Services
Background Papers: Working documents for the Fundamental Service Review of Cultural Services.
Contact Officer: Richard Munro. Tel: 01865 810191
October 2008
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