Agenda item

(Director of Communities) to consider the attached report.

The Committee received a report on the proposal to establish a Museum Development Trust for Epping Forest and Lowewood Museums. At the meeting were the Assistant Director for Community Services and Customer Relations, J Chandler and the Museum, Heritage and Culture Manager, Tony O’Connor.

The meeting noted that In April 2015, officers were successful in securing £55,000 funding from Arts Council England (ACE) as part of its Resilience Programme, to undertake two feasibility studies. The aim of the studies was to investigate opportunities for supporting resilience of the Museum, Heritage and Culture (MHC) service over the long–term and during economic austerity.

Two companies were appointed to fulfil the required work; these were the Management Centre and Baker Langham both of whom had a high level of experience in the cultural sector and significant expertise in the areas to be considered. In addition, Winckworth Sherwood Legal Consultants were appointed to provide legal advice in relation to the establishment of the proposed Trust entity.

The key recommendation to come out of the study was to establish a Development Trust to operate in parallel to the general management of Epping Forest and Lowewood Museum services based on the model of a company limited by guarantee and registered charity.

Part of this preparatory research work was to undertake comparator interviews with three museum services that have been through a similar transition: Hampshire Cultural Trust, Norfolk Museums Service and Maidstone Museum Foundation. These interviews indicated the positive benefits of setting up a separate charitable entity, which included the ability to access a range of funding possibilities that were not previously available to them, the opportunity to secure additional grants and donations and the ability to claim Gift Aid on qualifying ticket sales.

Beyond the structure, one of the key things to come out of the comparator interviews was the role of the Board and the number of positive benefits that an effective Board could bring, beyond being a legal necessity. Legally, there are minimum requirements for the Board, but beyond this it would be up to EFDC to decide the extent of any active engagement. There will need to be a close relationship between the charity and the Museum Services; and the Board will need to have a good understanding of the museum, its work and the priorities and constraints of the staff.

The comparator organisations also reflected on the values of a skills-based Board and suggested the key skills and experience needed, and also recommended that we include two elected Members on an ex-officio basis, as this was important in ensuring good links and alignment between Council, Museum and Charity.

The role of Chair would be key to the functioning of the Board, and it had been suggested that a recruitment process for the chair could run in parallel to the process for other Board members. The first Chair of the Board could be an Elected Member to ensure this position was filled early on in the recruitment process.

The Charity would also need to be supported with practical administration, and will need separate banking arrangements to the Council in order for accounts to be prepared and returns made to Companies House and the Charity Commission. It was possible for this role to be organised through the Council and it could provide the conduit between the Museum’s, the Council and the Board.

The Council had an opportunity to pump prime the structure required to set up the Trust, through funding from the Arts Council England (ACE) Resilience Fund, which has recently opened a second round of funding to support Museums and the Arts. Due to the rigid timeframes around the application process, officers have already submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) ACE, if successful with the EOI, the Council will be invited to submit a fully developed application, which needed to be in by May 5^th 2016. The total amount of the funding bid was £280,000.  Under this round of funding, applicants  were required to contribute a minimum of 10% match funding towards the overall bid and the Cabinet had agreed sum of £20,000 to be made available from the invest to save budget. This sum has been supplemented by Broxbourne Borough Council and Chelmsford City Council, who have agreed to contribute £10,000 each towards the bid, which would include the provision of specialist support for Lowewood Museum and Chelmsford Museum.

This tripartite arrangement came into being in early February, following an approach by Chelmsford City Council for support and advice in relation to operation of their Museum Service, which has just received funding for a major Heritage Lottery Fund project.

Mr O’Connor noted that two senior officers from Chelmsford came to look at our museum and talk to senior officers here. They had discussions about the Trust and how to set it up. They were very impressed with our work and were keen to act as a partner agency for us and set themselves up as a separate foundation Trust. We shall establish a close relationship with them as well as Broxbourne.

There was a lot of interest out there for this type of model and a lot of support funding to be had.

Councillor Surtees asked how far we were from drawing up of the trust documentation etc. He was told that officers were presently taking it forward by the external funding route and would know in June if they were successful in getting the funding. If not successful they could apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding. They would know by the autumn if they should go ahead with this.

Councillor Jennings was supportive of the notion of the Trust but wondered what this would mean for the visitors. Mr O’Connor replied that the operation would remain with the Council; the Trust would provide the developmental money to help develop the site. A lot of charitable bodies would fund a Trust but not local authorities, so a lot of local authorities were setting up Trusts to get access to this funding.

Councillor Sartin asked how successful had others been with this. She was told that Norfolk had started to do this along with Maidstone and Hampshire, but we would have to wait a year to find out how successful they were.

RESOLVED:

1. That the Select Committee considered and noted the proposal to establish a Development Trust for Epping Forest and Lowewood Museums, to operate in tandem with the management of the facilities; and

2. That the Committee agreed to the proposed form of the Development Trust and would recommend this to the Cabinet for formal ratification.