Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2013 be agreed and signed by the Chairman.

Joint report of Director for Place and Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Adult and Neighbourhood Services

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director for Place and Deputy Chief Executive and the Director of Adult and Neighbourhood Services informing them of the predicted outturn against targets set in the Joint Archive Service’s Annual Service Plan (Schedule 1 to the signed minutes).

The Service Plan sets the annual targets for the performance of Joint Archive Service. These targets work towards the overall achievement of the Archive Service's current three-year service objectives, which are set out in its Forward Plan, 2012-2015, approved by the Joint Archives Committee at its meeting on 23 February 2012. The key achievements included:

(i)            integrated onsite and online customer experience;

(ii)          innovative online presence which showcases Staffordshire’s archives;

(iii)          engagement with Staffordshire’s communities to strengthen their identity and place;

(iv)          celebrate and discover Staffordshire’s history;

(v)            a sustainable high performing service which provides leadership for the Archives and Heritage sector;

(vi)          improving and promoting user access to Staffordshire’s archive collections;

(vii)        delivering high quality care of Staffordshire’s archive collections; and

(viii)       extend volunteer working to provide new opportunities for people to increase their skills and increase access to collections.

The Head of Archive explained what was involved for the Service to achieve approval as a Place of Deposit following a query from Mr Parry.  The Committee noted that the way the archive service was being used was changing and Staffordshire was introducing new technology to keep pace with these challenges.  It was show-casing good work nationally through high profile television programmes and had a reputation nationally as a good archive service. The Vice-Chairman in the chair thanked staff for the work they had done to receive the approval as a Place of Deposit as it was a significant achievement together with the work they had done to show-case Staffordshire. 

The Committee noted that overall the performance of the Archive Service had remained strong with success in attracting grant funding resulting in several projects. Added to that work had progressed very well on the major change project to centralise the county sites. Finally the core work had not been neglected and had continued to make steady progress.

RESOLVED - That the report on the predicted outturn against the targets set in Joint Archive Service’s Annual Service Plan be received and noted.

Joint report of the Director of Finance and Resources and the City Director of Corporate Services

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Finance and Resources and the City Director of Business Services detailing the current predicted outturn for 2013/14 for the Joint Archive Service and to consider the revenue budget position for 2014/15 (Schedule 2 to the signed minutes).

Members noted that the latest revenue outturn forecast showed an anticipated underspend of £6,275 at the end of the financial year which would be transferred to the general reserve at the end of the financial year.  The current balance on the General Reserve was £73,573.  The Archive Acquisition Reserve had a balance of £62,342 towards the purchase of new collections. 

Members noted that the proposed revenue budget for 2014/15 was £681,140, an increase of 1.94% on the current year, and noted that under the Joint Archive Agreement the total cost of the service was currently apportioned between the two authorities at 77.31% (County) and 22.69% (City), based on the June 2011 population estimates.  The proposed revenue budget had been apportioned on this basis and the County’s proposed share of the costs was £526,590 and the City’s £154,550.  Both authorities had sufficient budgetary provision to meet these costs.

RESOLVED –  (a) that the current predicted outturn for 2013/14 be noted;

(b) that the revenue budget proposed for 2014/15 be approved and submitted to the County Council for consideration.

The meeting will be held in Stoke-on-Trent (venue to be confirmed)

RESOLVED – That the next meeting of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Joint Archive Committee be held on Thursday 19 June 2014 at 10.30 am in Stoke-on-Trent at a venue to be confirmed.

The Chairman to move:-

“That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 indicated below”.

That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 indicated below.

(exemption paragraph 3)

RESOLVED – that the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2013 be agreed and signed by the Chairman.