On 28 June 2018 Herefordshire Council’s Cabinet agreed that

‘A procurement process is commenced for the future commissioning of museums, libraries and archives based on current standard of services with a further decision to be made by the cabinet member for contracts and assets on options for implementation’.

Current indications are that this process will start in autumn 2018 and a new operator will commence running the services in the Spring of 2020.

HMSSG is disappointed that Herefordshire Council is taking its conventional approach to procurement of external agencies to run Council Museums, Libraries and Archives.

We do not support this approach for reasons which are explained below.

Background

The Museum Service is not a statutory responsibility and has been particularly vulnerable to budget reductions. Herefordshire Council has severely cut back funding and staffing over several years reducing it to a barely viable service which provides extremely limited access to the County Collections.  A skeleton team of curatorial and front of house staff run the Black and White House Museum, the Museum Resource and Learning Centre in Friar Street and the Art Gallery and Museum in Broad Street.

In 2017 the Black and White House was refurbished, entrance charges and a small shop were introduced. This investment by the Council for income generation has not stopped the overall decline in the Museum Service.

The Future – what we do NOT support

HMSSG does NOT see a viable future for the Museum Service if it is kept entirely in-house within Herefordshire Council. 

HMSSG does not see any sign that Herefordshire Council will be able to increase funding for its Museum Service in the near future. (While an election could bring a change in political attitudes to cultural services, this is uncertain and unlikely to result in increased funding, given councils’ financial difficulties nationally.)

HMSSG does NOT support the procurement process that Herefordshire Council is implementing to ‘outsource’ the Museum Service and the Archives and Library services.  These Services cannot be treated like other types of Council service. The Museum Service has been particularly severely reduced so that it would be very difficult for any external agency to build it up again or even to sustain it at its current levels.

The Future – what we DO support

HMSSG DOES support the partnership non-profit Trust model devised by expert museum consultants Prince and Pearce in 2017/18 (available via HMSSG website). This plan (produced jointly by the Council and HMSSG) enables the Council to secure a partnership Trust model to build a sustainable future for the Museum Service. Among many other practical steps, this plan proposes that the Council invests 5 years’ worth of current Museum Service budget over 3 years, providing a small up-front boost for (pto) setting up the new non-profit Trust. The work on devising this Plan was funded by Heritage Lottery, with expectation that a further tranche of HLF funds would be sought to implement the Trust.

In this Trust model HC would retain ownership of and responsibility for the Collections and (at least initially) the buildings, and a rigorous system for service delivery would be set out for the Trust to manage the operations for public access to the Collections and to increase that access through various means.

Disappointingly and showing short-sightedness from  Herefordshire Council, this Trust model was not presented to Cabinet as a main option and was not discussed at the Cabinet meeting as a possible viable alternative to a general procurement process.

Next steps

Given Herefordshire Council’s decision, HMSSG is now considering how it can influence the Council’s procurement process so that it incorporates elements from this non-profit Trust model in order to bring the best possible chance of viability for the Museum Service. This might include persuading Herefordshire Council to adopt the standards and approaches contained in the Trust model when devising procurement methodology, and persuading potential tendering organisations to adopt the Trust model when bidding to run the Service.

Herefordshire Council is now preparing a follow-up HLF bid (without HMSSG’s partnership) for funding to support the spin-out of Services – it is as yet unclear if this bid focuses on all 3 MLA Services or only on the Museum Service. HMSSG aims to influence this HLF bid – for example by strongly insisting that the Service Support Groups are involved in preparation of tendering documentation, in the setting out of standards required, and in the selection of agencies bidding to run services; and other aspects.

HMSSG has also suggested to the Archives and Library friends/support groups that we explore how best to work together to influence the Council and the procurement process.

HMSSG Trustees: July 2018