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The National Museum was established by Royal Charter
in March 1907, amended in 1993 to be known as the National
Museums & Galleries of Wales. In the words of the
Charter, the aim of NMGW is ‘the advancement of the
education of the public’. This is to be done by: |
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- the complete illustration of the natural and cultural
environment of Wales
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- the collection and elucidation of things of interest
to the above or generallyif it will advance education
and promote literary and scientific research and
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- the preparation and publication of illustrative
material in whatever form in respect of the above.
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2.
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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.
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The Council
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3.
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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:
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"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)."
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4.
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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.
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5.
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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.
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Council as Trustees
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6.
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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.
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7.
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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.
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8.
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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.
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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.
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10.
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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.
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Assembly Sponsored Public Body
(ASPB) Funding
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11.
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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.
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The Issues before the Commission
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A. Electoral Arrangements of the National
Assembly
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12.
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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).
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B. The Powers of the National Assembly
for Wales
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"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?"
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Corporate governance and the safeguarding
of public funds and accountability to the public and
to the Assembly Government.
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13.
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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.
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14.
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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.
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15.
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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.
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16.
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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.
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17.
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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.
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18.
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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.
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19.
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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.
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20.
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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!’
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21.
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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?
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22.
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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.
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23.
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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.
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24.
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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.
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25.
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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.
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26.
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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.
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| Assembly powers in relation to other
relevant matters |
| Branding |
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27.
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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.
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Cross-cutting Issues
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28.
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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.
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The Welsh Language
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29.
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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.
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30.
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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.
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31.
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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.
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Sharing the National Collections
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32.
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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.
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Relationship with Resource and
other UK-wide organisations
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33.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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NMGW April 2003 |
