A new era of local authority funding?
A report that assesses sharing services between authorities and outcome-based commissioning could transform how the museum sector is funded. By Gareth Harris
A recent report by the New Local Government Network (NLGN) thinktank examining alternative models of supporting arts and culture for local authorities could transform how the museum sector is funded in the light of funding cuts.
The NLGN report, On With the Show: Supporting Local Arts and Culture, by Claire Mansfield, is based on data provided by 211 respondents from 183 local authorities, with the highest percentage of respondents (19.7%) from the south-east of England.
The funding models explored include putting existing organisations out to trust or similar arm’s-length arrangements, an issue that has dominated the sector in the past 20 years; sharing services and resources between local authorities; and moving from grant giving to commissioning models of financial support, where local authorities commission services based on outcomes.
“Placing services in an independent trust arrangement has been pursued by local government for a number of years,” the report says, citing the key benefits as a greater degree of flexibility and the opportunity to “exploit new income streams”.
Towner Gallery in Eastbourne transferred to trust status earlier this year. Its executive director, Emma Morris, told Museums Journal in July that “being a trust should enable us to raise more money to do more great art for all”.
Crucially, local authority funding in England for arts and culture has fallen by 19% over the past three years, according to the National Campaign for the Arts.
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But some culture professionals, including Robert Hewison, visiting professor at City University London, strike a note of caution.
“Trusts do seem to reduce the dead weight of bureaucracy, but museums especially, are public assets, and local authorities have to maintain the public interest in them,” he says.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to walk away. It is fine to move ‘from funder to facilitator’, provided the core funding is still there.”
Museums Worcestershire has rejected trust status, and is a now a “merged service” run jointly by Worcester City Council and Worcestershire County Council.
Iain Rutherford, the general manager of Museums Worcestershire, says: “We have looked at trust transfer, but for the moment, both councils are content that we continue to be hosted by one of the partners [Worcestershire] and for me to report to a joint committee of four councillors to run the service.”
Rutherford stresses that the report is “no surprise”, adding that “our work for both councils reflects the emphasis in the report on economic development and [boosting] the visitor economy”.
But some local authorities are considering a more radical model – aligning their arts and culture provision with other essential services.
“This may be within the corporate strategy, the health and wellbeing strategy or some other component of the council’s strategic planning,” the NLGN report observes. Significantly, half of respondents have considered using their public health budget to help fund local culture-based schemes.
Health service
Wakefield Council is cited in the report as a good example of a council that is “generating strong links” between culture and public health. Its Creative Partners grant scheme includes the Make it Happen: Culture Cures strand. The initiative supports arts projects led by Wakefield-based arts organisations aimed at improving the wellbeing of vulnerable communities.
This approach could galvanise the sector, as health and wellbeing is one of the top three reasons cited by respondents for funding arts and culture.
“The problem with commissioning is that it is the most explicitly instrumental form of funding, and cultural organisations need to be true to their own missions and purposes – organisations risk distorting their identities in pursuit of externally imposed goals,” Hewison says.
Britain’s cultural infrastructure depends on local government, he argues, and the only way to guarantee the survival of arts and culture at a local level is to make it a statutory duty to support these services, with financial backing from central government.
Whether this is a realistic option for local authorities remains to be seen.
The NLGN report, On With the Show: Supporting Local Arts and Culture, by Claire Mansfield, is based on data provided by 211 respondents from 183 local authorities, with the highest percentage of respondents (19.7%) from the south-east of England.
The funding models explored include putting existing organisations out to trust or similar arm’s-length arrangements, an issue that has dominated the sector in the past 20 years; sharing services and resources between local authorities; and moving from grant giving to commissioning models of financial support, where local authorities commission services based on outcomes.
“Placing services in an independent trust arrangement has been pursued by local government for a number of years,” the report says, citing the key benefits as a greater degree of flexibility and the opportunity to “exploit new income streams”.
Towner Gallery in Eastbourne transferred to trust status earlier this year. Its executive director, Emma Morris, told Museums Journal in July that “being a trust should enable us to raise more money to do more great art for all”.
Crucially, local authority funding in England for arts and culture has fallen by 19% over the past three years, according to the National Campaign for the Arts.
Public relations
But some culture professionals, including Robert Hewison, visiting professor at City University London, strike a note of caution.
“Trusts do seem to reduce the dead weight of bureaucracy, but museums especially, are public assets, and local authorities have to maintain the public interest in them,” he says.
“They shouldn’t be allowed to walk away. It is fine to move ‘from funder to facilitator’, provided the core funding is still there.”
Museums Worcestershire has rejected trust status, and is a now a “merged service” run jointly by Worcester City Council and Worcestershire County Council.
Iain Rutherford, the general manager of Museums Worcestershire, says: “We have looked at trust transfer, but for the moment, both councils are content that we continue to be hosted by one of the partners [Worcestershire] and for me to report to a joint committee of four councillors to run the service.”
Rutherford stresses that the report is “no surprise”, adding that “our work for both councils reflects the emphasis in the report on economic development and [boosting] the visitor economy”.
But some local authorities are considering a more radical model – aligning their arts and culture provision with other essential services.
“This may be within the corporate strategy, the health and wellbeing strategy or some other component of the council’s strategic planning,” the NLGN report observes. Significantly, half of respondents have considered using their public health budget to help fund local culture-based schemes.
Health service
Wakefield Council is cited in the report as a good example of a council that is “generating strong links” between culture and public health. Its Creative Partners grant scheme includes the Make it Happen: Culture Cures strand. The initiative supports arts projects led by Wakefield-based arts organisations aimed at improving the wellbeing of vulnerable communities.
This approach could galvanise the sector, as health and wellbeing is one of the top three reasons cited by respondents for funding arts and culture.
“The problem with commissioning is that it is the most explicitly instrumental form of funding, and cultural organisations need to be true to their own missions and purposes – organisations risk distorting their identities in pursuit of externally imposed goals,” Hewison says.
Britain’s cultural infrastructure depends on local government, he argues, and the only way to guarantee the survival of arts and culture at a local level is to make it a statutory duty to support these services, with financial backing from central government.
Whether this is a realistic option for local authorities remains to be seen.