Norfolk Museums Service consults on restructure - Museums Association

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Norfolk Museums Service consults on restructure

Funding squeeze could lead to staff cuts
Norfolk Museums Service is consulting on a restructure that could mean the loss of 10 posts this year.

The service will see its council funding cut by £941,000 in total by 2017 and has also had its Major Partner Museum grant from Arts Council England cut by almost 15% for 2015-18. It needs to find savings of £432,000 in the next financial year.

According to a consultation document, the service is proposing to delete 14 posts and create four new positions with a greater level of responsibility. This would mean the loss of four full-time and six part-time jobs in all.

Under the proposals, six existing posts in area and operations management will be consolidated into four new positions, including a new head of operations and learning and three operations manager posts.

The 10 jobs being considered for redundancy include posts relating to archaeology, exhibitions, museum development, volunteer management and youth engagement.

The proposed restructure will “minimise disruption to frontline services” and enable the organisation to maintain its learning and social inclusion programmes, according to the document.

Steve Miller, the head of Norfolk Museums Service, said it was a “tough time” for all museums.

“While the majority of this funding gap can be met through additional earned income, it is only possible to meet the full reduction by reducing our costs, including our employment costs, and regrettably, we are facing the prospect of having to make some very difficult decisions in the coming months,” said Miller.

“In delivering these difficult savings, we are working hard to ensure the long-term sustainability of the service, and continue to deliver the same high-quality service to the public, schools and communities at a time of extraordinary pressure on local authority budgets.”

Miller said the decision to reduce staffing was particularly hard to make in light of the service’s “exceptional performance” over the past year, which saw it significantly increase its self-generated income and host its most successful temporary exhibition to date.

The organisation has established an independent development foundation to give it more flexibility to raise funds, and is expanding commercial activity at its venues, including wedding and conference hire.

Miller said the proposals were "still very much in negotiation" and the service would ensure the views of staff were taken into consideration. Public-facing operations and opening hours would not be affected by the new structure, he added.

The consultation closes on 30 January and a final decision on the restructure will be announced in early February.

Norfolk County Council did not respond to a request for comment.



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