Collects, preserves and documents objects of historic and cultural significance
Displaying objects and associated information to the public
Research into history and culture of Berwick Borough
Undertaking educational work with schools and other groups
Doing outreach projects throughout the Borough for the benefit for residents and visitors.
Corporate Policy
How Policy Implemented
Equality & Diversity
We will ensure equality through Education and outreach projects; The Berwick Museum building is not itself DDA compliant, but there is a ground-floor visual access point for upstairs exhibits.
• This service unit will carry out the timetabled Equality Impact Assessments as detailed in the Councils Inclusive Equalities Scheme, and where necessary we will assist other Service Units with their Equality Impact Assessments.
• This service unit will engage with equality self-assessment, scrutiny and audit on our service delivery.
• This Service Unit will assist where possible in the development of an information and monitoring system for the Councils work on Equality & Diversity.
• Staff within the unit will comply with Council policy for responding to harassment on the grounds of race, disability and gender.
• The service unit will engage in consultation with designated community, staff and stakeholder groups on its equality impact and needs/requirements assessment and its service delivery.
• In any partnership arrangements that this service unit enters into, we will seek to ensure that the equality policy and objectives are incorporated.
• This service unit will engage in development of service level equality objectives and targets.
• Where necessary, the service unit will establish planning groups for monitoring and information systems.
• Staff in the service unit will be encouraged to participate in equality and diversity training opportunities offered by the Council.
Data Quality
Visitor number, education & outreach indicators on Covalent
Service Policy
How Policy Implemented
National accreditation
Registration certificate held & working towards accreditation, due Dec 2008
Service Partner Providers
How Partner Supports Service Delivery
2007/8
Civic Society
History Society
English Heritage
Berwick Preservation Trust
Research & Display on Medieval Berwick
Golden Age of Northumbria Project
National Archaeology Day Event
Partnership working on the Dewar’s Lane Granary project
IT Systems
How IT System Supports Service Delivery
Design software packages
Essential for exhibition design & publicity work
Covalent
The Service will maintain up-to-date Covalent records relating to the Museum.
Achievements: Previous Year & Current Year (to date)
Measure or Milestone
Reference
Target 2006/7
Actual 2006/7
Target 2007/8
Forecast2007/8
No of users (per 1000 pop)
170a
791
670
675
No of visitors in person (per 1000)
170b
627
538*
540
Numbers in education groups
170c
440
700
783
Numbers of visitors getting free entry**
5862
6000
6000
Number of Outreach events
16
17
13
14
Number of participants in outreach events
2500
4205
3383
3000
% of satisfaction with Museum***
90
96
90
93
% of satisfaction with exhibitions***
Grant income generated
75
73
22,000
n/a****
4250
n/a
4250
*2007/8: Allows for 6 month closure of site
**English Heritage members, Museum Friends, Berwickshire Naturalists, Art Fund etc
*** Calculated from Visitors’ Book comments
**** 2007/8: No budget for temporary exhibitions
Success
How Achieved
Lessons Learnt
2006/7
Tales from the East exhibition
War with Russia
Weekend
Visitor feedback
Visitor numbers & TV coverage
Effectiveness of linking collection to current popular culture
Effectiveness of pursuing unusual narratives
Challenge
How Resolved
Outcome
Closure threat
Public opposition to closure plan expressed in survey in ‘Bear Facts’
Members vote for Consultation on Museum service
Financial Resources to Deliver Services
Note: This section of the report will be based on information contained in the Budget Book for the current year, in this case 2007/08. The original budget figures for the current financial year will be used as the base line figure for the calculation of cashable and efficiency gains.
Please complete the three following tables (if applicable) indicating how partnership working, IT systems or adherence to / achievement of quality standards have contributed to value for money.
Service Partner Providers
How Partner Supports Service VFM
Civic Society
Joint working on Buried Berwick exhibition
History Society
English Heritage
Maltings
Museum involvement in Golden Age of Northumbria Project
Museum involvement with National Archaeology Day
Museum assistance to Maltings Youth Theatre
IT Systems
How IT System Supports VFM
Design software
Essential for exhibition board & leaflet design
Covalent
Enables monitoring of performance and cost against VFM targets
How Service Links to Council Priorities
This section contains the same information as collected in the previous year’s budget setting process. The priorities will be reviewed by the Members and either modified or confirmed as consistent (remaining the same as last year). The data provided on this document will be summarised and challenged at Corporate Management Team for content and consistency.
Priority
Description of how service contributes to Council Priority
1
Improvements in Museum based on accreditation (i.e. ‘industry best practice’) principles
2
The Berwick Barracks Museum is a key Berwick town centre attraction
3
4
5
Works with diverse local cultural & heritage groups
Outreach projects to get to non-museum visiting residents
8
9
10
11
12
Research and interpretation into culture and history of Borough
Contribution to Other Five C’s
Outcome Factor
Description of how service contributes to “C” Factor
Customers
Museum receives feedback from customers in a book at the Museum building and responds to comments and suggestions therein
Communication
Provides information in a readily understandable style to customers, stakeholders and partners such as the Friends of the Museum and English Heritage
Cohesion
Connects the local community with their past to give a sense of place and time
Museum works closely with other service units such as Tourism, Town Centres Manager, Arts and Culture Officer and Archive to ensure joined-up working and the breaking down of silos
Culture
The Museum contributes to a positive culture within the Regeneration Service and throughout the rest of the council by taking a proactive and challenging approach to perceptions and presumptions.
Compliance
Works with nationally agreed frameworks and ensures that corporate governance requirements such as appraisals and performance management are embedded as working practices.
Service Proposals for next 3 Years
Measure / Milestone
Reference
Forecast2007/8
Target 2008/9
Target 2009/10
Target 2010/11
Consultants report
Report in October
Action
Finished
Museum Accreditation
On hold
Obtained
Maintain
Maintain
Golden Age Project
In Progress
Finished
On-line access
On hold
Action
Finished
Maintain
Summer exhibitions
None
Exhib
Exhib
Exhib
Dewar’s Lane Granary
Co-operation
On hold
Action
Exhib
Exhib
Other Outreach Projects
In Progress
Action
Action
Action
These targets will feed directly into the Best Value Performance Plan. Once the targets have been established and agreed (in principle) with the Head of Service or Director, an assessment of resources required should be made in the next table.
Measure / Milestone
Reference
Resources Needed
Less
Same
More
Consultants report implementation
X
Museum Accreditation
X
Golden Age Project
X
On-line access (eg software)
X
Summer exhibitions
X
Dewar’s Lane
X
Outreach projects
X
TOTAL
X
The achievements of some of these targets will be achievable within existing or reduced resources.
Where service improvements are linked to more resources a ProjectBrief (template available on the Intranet) should be completed and submitted to the Programme Improvement Board.
Where service improvements are linked to less resources, the proposals for savings should be identified in the Proposals to Achieve Cashable & Efficiency Gains section.
Staffing is now down to absolute bare minimum in order to open the Museum and other spending heads have, similarly, been cut to the bone. The Museum could not take any further cutbacks in funding without cutting core services.
Proposals to reduce Cashable resource requirement by 3%
No
Description of Proposal
Value (£)
Timing
1
2
3
Proposals to reduce resource requirement by 10% (Cashable or Efficiency Effect)
