Richard Commission Evidence Session

Haverfordwest, Friday 11^th April 2003

National Museums & Galleries of Wales’ (NMGW) Submission

Background

During 2002-2003, we operated museums in eight locations across Wales:

National Museum & Gallery in Cathays Park, Cardiff

Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans, Cardiff

Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon, Newport

Welsh Slate Museum in Llanberis, Gwynedd

Museum of the Welsh Woollen Industry n Dre-fach, Velindre, Carmarthenshire

Segontium Roman Museum in Caernarfon, Gwynedd

Turner House Galley in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan

Big Pit National Mining Museum of Wales in Blaenafon, Torfaen

During the year museum sites attracted 1,237,000 visits and employed around 630 staff.

• the complete illustration of the natural and cultural environment of Wales

• the collection and elucidation of things of interest to the above or generallyif it will advance education and promote literary and scientific research and

• the preparation and publication of illustrative material in whatever form in respect of the above.

2.  

NMGW is therefore primarily an accessible learning organisation illustrating the past in a way which has relevance for the present and future. By definition our work is part of the cultural agenda which seeks among other objectives to promote social inclusion. It is also part of the economic agenda for cultural tourism because our Museums attract visitors from within Wales, from elsewhere in the UK and from overseas, thus contributing to economic activity through day and overnight visits.

The Council

3.  

NMGW is a registered charity subject to the full supervision of the Charity Commission. The Council is NMGW’s Board of Trustees and it currently presents its Annual Report to a Court (of Governors) numbering some 43 members representing a wide range of stakeholders from Welsh society. The definition of the role of Council from the Charter and Statutes reads:

"The Council shall be the executive authority of the Museum responsible for the management and administration of the finances and property of the Museum with exclusive power to control the use and custody of the Common Seal of the Museum and with power to decide any matter relating to the affairs of the Museum (other than matters which by this Our Charter or under the Statutes are with the responsibility of some other body or person)."

4.  

The Council has four Officers (President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Immediate Past President) and 12 other members. Currently, four of these are appointed by the Assembly Government from among the members of the Court appointed by it and four persons appointed by the Court from among its own members and four persons appointed by the Council not necessarily from the Court. Currently Council members receive no renumeration.

5.  

Council is not in quite the same position as trustees of private charities. The latter are appointed by virtue of deed of trust or will, or similar instrument, and in some cases serve for life. Council members on the other hand are appointed for fixed term, which is only renewable once. All appointments are now made by open competition in line with Nolan Standards.

Council as Trustees

6.  

Members of the Council of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales (NMGW) are appointed in accordance with the Statutes. Members are appointed with regard to their knowledge or experience in the disciplines of the Museum and any other field where their knowledge or experience would be valuable to NMGW. Members are drawn from a wide range of backgrounds.

7.  

Council is a body corporate and it is in the name of Council that the Museum’s assets and collections are held, staff are employed, loans made, books and articles published, and copyright held. In the context of the more widely recognised sense of trusteeship, Council has a duty to the public for the assets of NMGW, including the buildings and the collections and to ensure that public funds are properly safeguarded and operations are conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible. It is Council that is responsible for determining the policy of NMGW, the allocation of the grant-in-aid and monitoring NMGW’s operation. Council is guided and advised in its deliberations and decision taking by the Director General and senior staff. The Director General, as well as being responsible to Council for the general exercise of its functions, is personally responsible to the Assembly Government as an ASPB Accounting Officer, for the expenditure of all NMGW’s monies, including grant-in-aid.

8.  

The responsibilities of Council are determined by the Royal Charter and for its stewardship of Government funding by the Management Statement & Financial Memorandum issued by the Assembly Government. However, very little is articulated on the relationship between those respective responsibilities or, indeed, the balance of responsibility between the Director General and the Council, particularly in areas other than financial management. In practice, in respect of the latter, a modus operandi has evolved. In general it is recognised that day-to-day management is the responsibility of the Director General and Directorate, supported by Management Forum, a body comprising of the institution’s senior managers.

Council is largely concerned with overall policy and strategy including corporate planning, the budget and any policies which directly influence the allocation of funds. Individually, Council members need to strike the delicate balance between satisfying themselves that the Museum is meeting its Charter obligations, and providing support where it is called for, without crossing the line into undue interference with the day to day running of the Museum. This balance is one that Council members can find by drawing on the advice of the President and Director General and their own experience and common sense.

10.  

The President has a key role in working closely with the Director General on all matters within the determination of the Council. Day-to-day contact between the Museum and the Assembly Government is normally through the Director General but communications between Council and the Assembly Government are also conducted through the President. The President will liaise with the Assembly Government on matters concerning Council appointments, and provide an assessment of the performance of existing Council members annually and when reappointment is being considered.

Assembly Sponsored Public Body (ASPB) Funding

11.  

Council is not the agent of the Crown, the property it holds is not held on behalf of the Crown and its staff are not civil servants. The Museum, however, is a public body, almost all of whose revenue funding, and a substantial part of capital funding for current developments, comes from the National Assembly. Its actions must, therefore, meet the highest public standards.

The Issues before the Commission

A. Electoral Arrangements of the National Assembly

12.  

NMGW offers no direct comment on the question of the appropriateness of electoral arrangements or possible alternatives. We do, however, draw attention to the fact that if the National Assembly were given primary legislation responsibilities in relation to some matters of interest to NMGW, notably charity law, it would have considerable implications for the expertise that Assembly Members and staff would need to develop and by implication for their numbers. We comment further on the desirability of this in relation to possible increase in National Assembly powers (see paragraph 26).

B. The Powers of the National Assembly for Wales

"In what practical ways do the powers of the Assembly, or the limits on its powers, impinge on you, your organisation or the people whom you serve and what are the best examples of this from your point of view?"

Corporate governance and the safeguarding of public funds and accountability to the public and to the Assembly Government.

13.  

Devolution has been a step change of a different order to the administrative devolution which has gone before during the last century. It has created a democratically elected body with the right to set priorities for the expenditure of resources over a wide range of areas of life in Wales, including matters with which the Museum is concerned. That has had two effects.

14.  

First it has meant the promulgation by central government i.e. the National Assembly, of policies of ‘finer grain’ for Wales, tailor made by the Welsh Assembly Government to Welsh circumstances and secondly it promises to lead to a shift in the degree to which so called ‘arm’s length’ bodies determine their own actions.

15.  

Since devolution, the Government agenda has been firmly linked culture to social improvement and economic regeneration and moved education from a ‘classroom monopoly’ into a ‘lifelong learning’ concept. The NMGW and other publicly funded bodies have been anxious to support this agenda. The Assembly Government’s Culture Strategy, Creative Future: Cymru Greadigol, seeks to set out a comprehensive framework and direction, in particular to reinforce the sense of cultural identity and distinctiveness in Wales. That is helpful for all the organisations involved as is the co-ordinating body, Cymru’n Creu, which has been set up as a forum for carrying the strategy through.

16.  

In 2001/02, the Welsh Assembly Government completed a Quinquennial Review of NMGW, continuing the practice of the Welsh Office to carry out such revisions of all their sponsored bodies. The overall conclusion of the Review, accepted by the Welsh Assembly Government, was that NMGW was a well-run organisation but proposals were made for changes in the arrangements of governance. The Review recommended that the Court should cease to play a role in the governance of NMGW and that "the main routes of accountability should be to the public both via the Assembly and direct". The Welsh Assembly Government accepted that recommendation and invited NMGW to consider ways of how it might be implemented. NMGW Council has prepared a scheme for the reform of governance involving the replacement of the Court and submitted it to the Welsh Assembly Government for consultation.

17.  

The Quinquennial Review has considered the question of the balance of appointments to Council. Noting the Charity Commission’s requirement for independence, the Review concluded that the National Assembly should not dominate the appointment process and suggested nine appointees from the Council and seven from the National Assembly. The Welsh Assembly Government has proposed 9:7 ratio in favour of the Assembly. The Minister of Culture has commented that NMGW’s proposals for appointment to Council which would give it the balance of appointments would not reflect the constitutional and financial situation which now exists in Wales; nor would they bring the NMGW into line with the constitutional arrangements which apply to similar institutions elsewhere in the UK.

18.  

There is a degree of nervousness about a change in Governance which places ultimate control of NMGW affairs outside NMGW itself. There are potential conflicts here with NMGW’s status as a Registered Charity which will require legal advice. NMGW is also technically different to other National Museums in the UK, since it was not set up at Government behest but established by Charter that was the result of a petition to the Privy Council.

19.  

Ultimately the nervousness with the proposal that the balance of appointments should be with the Assembly Government lies in a concern as to how the ‘arms length’ principle will be applied.

20.  

Devolution has led to a shift in the arm’s length boundary, This has been acknowledged by the very supportive Minister for Culture who commented somewhat wryly recently that the while ASPBs have always been at arm’s length and enjoyed considerable autonomy in both policy and funding decisions, ‘I would say that the arms have probably got a bit shorter now and in some cases telescopic when we need to!’

21.  

In what sense have the ‘arms got shorter’? Well in many ways that is still emerging. The National Assembly is still a very young institution. Certainly the Museum is now currently subject to much greater scrutiny and challenge which is a function of the greater amount of time that a democratically elected Minister of the Assembly has compared with the former Welsh Office ministers and also the scrutiny role of the Assembly Committees. There needs to be a debate about what the ‘arm's length’ principle should mean in the devolved system. How should the principle be defined? Would it be desirable to draw up a formal memorandum of understanding on the issue between the Assembly Government and the ASPBs operating in the cultural field?

22.  

No organisation which receives £20 million a year of public funds and help with capital projects as well can object to scrutiny to ensure that the funds are properly applied and controlled. The nervousness comes with a concern that the ‘arms length’ principle might be compromised to the extent that there was control of the content of the Museum’s work to reflect a particular set of political value judgements.

23.  

Subject to proper and prudent use of public money provided by the Assembly Government for the running of NMGW (and with all the usual audit procedures), it is of fundamental importance that in matters of museology and associated planning NMGW be allowed to exercise independence of judgement.

24.  

Anything other would be wrong in principle and could cause conflict of interest with Trustees responsibilities under Charity Law, especially their overriding responsibility to the long-term public benefit as the measure of their actions.

25.  

In noting the Welsh Assembly Government’s proposals for changing the governance of NMGW, we have proposed that discussions be held with the incoming Assembly administration about how the ‘arm’s length’ principle might operate. It is noted that consideration is to be given by the Assembly Government to clarifying the responsibilities of members of ASPBs as non executive directors and that in that context the special responsibilities of members of ASPBs which are Registered Charities will have to be considered. That clarification will support the work proposed to define the ‘arm’s length’ principle.

26.  

It will be apparent from the information given in this memorandum that any extension of the powers of the National Assembly, as they might bear directly on NMGW activity, would require clarification of the relationship of the devolved administration with the Privy Council and Charter bodies and with the Charity Commission. In respect of the former, the bodies include the National Library of Wales, the Sports Council for Wales, the Arts Council and the Royal Commission on Ancient and Historic Monuments. In respect of the latter, Charity Law is of considerable complexity and from the standpoint of raising funds for NMGW purposes from charitable foundations, whose interests are mainly in England, there is considerable advantage in maintaining a common legal approach. Bearing in mind the need for Assembly Members and Officials to get more experience in legislative processes, it is suggested that the complex areas of Charter Bodies and Charity Law would not be in the list of possibilities for extending the Assembly’s powers at this stage. Indeed, there may be considerations which would make for continuation of a common approach to Charter Bodies and Charity Law for the foreseeable future.

27.  

The Welsh Assembly Government has increasingly encouraged all ASPBs to utilise a 'Sponsored by Welsh Assembly Government' logo on almost all literature and signage. The aim is to demonstrate more clearly to the people of Wales that the ASPBs are deliverers of Welsh Assembly Government policies. NMGW is very happy to be involved in ensuring that the public understands the funding mechanism in this way and has been at the forefront of efforts to highlight the healthy relationship between NMGW and its sponsor Division. For example, the joint-co-operation on the promotion of the Free Entry policy since April 2001 has been an outstanding success. We do, however, need to encourage a mature attitude which is prepared to acknowledge the importance of the arm’s length principle and occasions where ‘arm’s length bodies’ might have priorities different from those of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Cross-cutting Issues

28.  

Whilst NMGW is sponsored by the Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language Division, it also makes a huge contribution to areas that are the responsibility of other Divisions within the Welsh Assembly Government – such as education, social policy, tourism and science and environmental issues. It is true that the establishment of Cymru’n Creu has enabled NMGW to have a better dialogue with ASPBs such as the Wales Tourist Board over matters such as the development of a Cultural Tourism Strategy. There remains, however a need to improve NMGW’s ability to have a closer working relationship with those involved with the formulation of the Assembly Government’s Education, Social and Environment Policies. 

The Welsh Language

29.  

NMGW is fully committed to the Welsh Assembly Government's vision of creating a bilingual future for Wales as outlined in the recently published Iaith Pawb policy document. Whilst our ability to contribute directly to increasing the numbers of Welsh speakers will always be limited, we have a huge contribution to make towards creating the right social climate and intellectual circumstances in Wales for the population to be at ease with the prospect of increasing bilingualism.

30.  

There are two possible risks of creating exclusion associated with the fact that Wales has two major linguistic traditions. Fluent Welsh speakers may feel excluded by the lack of adequate Welsh medium provision. On the other hand, non-Welsh speakers may feel excluded by any increase in emphasis on mainstreaming the Welsh language in line with aims and ambitions of Iaith Pawb. NMGW can help the Assembly Government to take account of the needs and sensitivities of both groups.

31.  

We will develop a 'Communication Skills Strategy' during 2003/04, to make sure that we proactively offering visitors our services in the language of their choice. The proposed ‘Gallery of Welsh History’ development at MWL will also have an important role to play in creating a mutually tolerant population at ease with the ethos of bilingualism and proud of the diversity of its heritage and surviving linguistic traditions. Training session for tutors teaching Welsh to adults are being introduced by the Education Department. These will introduce museum resources and explore ways in which our sites and Outreach service can be used to teach Welsh as a second language.

Sharing the National Collections

32.  

NMGW attaches a high priority to making access to its national collections easier. We are doing this by improvements to our own website and by participation in the Cyfoeth Cymru Gyfan - Sharing Treasures partnership website initiative. In addition, we have initiated a partnership programme with local museums and galleries to take exhibitions of the national collections. We will seek to develop this by active participation in CyMAL, the National Assembly organisation which has been set up to promote the interests of local museums, archives and libraries across Wales and which will replace the Council of Museums. The relationship of this organisation and Resource (which has replaced the Museums & Galleries Commission in England) needs to be defined.

Relationship with Resource and other UK-wide organisations

33.  

NMGW welcomed the creation of 'Resource', and alongside it 'CyMAL', and looks forward to the concordat between them. It will be inevitable that 'Resource', despite its 'arms length' from Westminster, will respond to issues generated in England. As Resource develops its work with 'CyMAL', we must be aware of the potential and the dangers of transferring models from one context to another. Wales has representation on 'Resource's advisory body, but it is not yet clear how this is to be reciprocated.

The economy of museum and gallery work is generally UK wide. Where separate examples of 'national' practice are appropriately developed, good practice must still be exchanged. Closely related schemes should be harmonised. These would include initiatives such as 'partnership' working between "nationals" and "regional" or "local" partners, and the development of targeted outreach and access work, such as that created by the joint DfES/DCMS grants schemes for education and outreach initiatives. The impact of varying funding levels available in each home country should be minimised. Where DCMS funds are used to match Trust and Foundation funding they in effect remove Welsh (and Scottish and Northern Irish) museums and galleries from the scheme, unless cross-border mechanisms can be found.

Resource is beginning to address international contexts. This is extremely welcome, and it is vital that it ensures that London-based or England-based international organisations, whether 'inbound' such as Visiting Arts, 'outbound' such as the British Council, or 'networking' such as UNESCO, ICOM and EU programmes such as Gruntvig, are open for access by, and access to, Wales.