Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made at the meeting.  

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 December 2017 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

Joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Resources – Assistant Chief Executive (Stoke-on-Trent City Council)  

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Housing and Community Services (Stoke-on-Trent City Council) informing them of the predicted outturn for 2017/18 and the proposed net revenue budget for 2018/19 (Schedule 1 to the signed minutes).

The predicted outturn for 2017/18 was £718,045 against an approved budget of £746,500 which gave an underspend of £28,455. This underspend had arisen owing to  managed savings on staff and lower than expected expenditure on (i) training; (ii) transport and; (iii) supplies and services.

The General Reserve currently held a balance of £31,411 (net of Heritage Lottery bid funding commitments) and the Archive Acquisition Reserve a balance of £57,542. Members noted that the City Council were seeking approval for the release of £30,000 from the General Reserve for various capital works in the Solon Room, City Central Library, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent in order to accommodate contents of the Solon, Minton and Doulton Library Collections.

The proposed net revenue budget for 2018/19 of £864,070 represented an increase of £117,570 over the previous year. Under the Joint Archives Agreement (JAA) the percentage charged between the two Authorities was 77.41% to the County Council and 22.59% to the City Council. This ratio was based on population levels across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Therefore, for 2018/19 the County Council were responsible for £668,770 and the City Council for £195,300 and both Authorities had confirmed that they had sufficient budgetary provision to meet these costs.

However, owing to pressures on both Authorities’ total budget, it was becoming increasingly difficult to achieve the exact split according to the above-mentioned ratio. It was therefore proposed that a review of the JAA be undertaken with a view to changing the apportionment for future years.

During the discussion which ensued the Member representative of the City Council sought clarification of the reasons why apportionment of the Joint Archives Budget was likely to become increasingly problematic. In reply, an officer representative of the County Council explained that previously, elements of the County Council’s contributions had been vired from budgets which lay outside the JAA. However, this facility would be unavailable from 2019/20 onwards owing to a reduction in funding. It was expected that an additional post to be included in the JAA by the City Council would have major implications for the County Council. Therefore, a change in the JAA funding mechanism was required so that the Authority could meet their commitments.

Another officer representative of the County Council commented on the timeliness for the JAA review having regard to (i) the time which had elapsed since the previous review in 2010 and; (ii) the work undertaken by both Authorities to integrate their various collections. A report would be submitted to their next meeting giving details of a proposed workable revision to the Agreement.

In response to a question from a Member of the City Council, the Officer representative of the Authority confirmed that there would be no additional costs for them arising from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

Joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Resources – Assistant Chief Executive (Stoke-on-Trent City Council)

The Committee considered a joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Families and Communities (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Housing and Community Services (Stoke-on-Trent City Council) updating them on progress with regard to the Staffordshire History Centre Project (Schedule 2 to the signed minutes ).

The Archive and Heritage Service had submitted a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for funding towards the development of a Staffordshire History Centre comprising (i) accommodation for records; (ii) a new community exhibition space; (iii) modern search rooms and strong rooms to provide storage for an additional 25 years of future collections.

Following consideration by the HLF, a grant of £333,400 was awarded for the Development Phase of the project with a further £4m being earmarked for Phase 2, subject to a successful application to be made. Permission to commence work was confirmed by HLF in October 2016 and during 2017 several pieces of work were commissioned which were required for Phase 2.

The project was being managed by a Project Board and Team.

On 19 March 2018 various documents were submitted to the HLF for a mid-stage review including (i) a reviewed and updated Project Vision “The Staffordshire History Centre will create imaginative and exciting ways to connect Staffordshire people and their stories”; (ii) a reviewed and updated Activity Plan which gave greater detail about the activities to be delivered, set more ambitious targets and included the development of the Active Partnership initiative; (iii) an Interpretation Plan setting out new proposals for the interpretation of the History Centre; (iv) Architectural Designs for the Centre; (v) revised Business, Maintenance and Management Plans which included financial data, forecasts and anticipated maintenance costs over a ten year period and; (vi) a Conservation Management Plan.

During her presentation of the report the Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that all project costs had been reviewed and compared against those included in the Round 1 bid. Assuming that the bids for matched funding were successful it was considered that the project remained both affordable and deliverable. A total of £614,000 match funding had already been secured and a further £336,000 was being sought.

The outcome of the mid stage review was expected to be received from the HLF by the end of April 2018 and depending on the outcome, a Stage 2 bid would be submitted prior to their 14 June 2018 deadline.

During the discussion which ensued Members thanked officers from both authorities for the work they had undertaken to date in supporting the mid stage review. The Deputy Chief Executive informed them that the HLF had reduced funding available to support projects going forward and therefore the next bidding round was likely to be very competitive. Commenting on the review in general she said that various external partners had been involved and the process had been detailed and thorough. In response to a question from the member representative of the City Council, she said that in the event Stage  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

Joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Resources – Assistant Chief Executive (Stoke-on-Trent City Council)

The Committee considered a joint report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Families and Communities (Staffordshire County Council) and Director of Housing and Community Services informing them of the 2018 review of the Service’s Forward Plan “Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive and Heritage Service Vision” and detailing the predicted performance outturn against the targets which had been set (Schedule 3 to the signed minutes). A copy of the proposed revised forward plan was appended to the report for Members’ information.

The Forward Plan 2015 – 2025 had been approved by the Committee at their meeting on 26 March 2015. Whilst the Archive service had previously worked to a three year planning cycle, the scope of the current plan had been extended to cover ten years having regard to the time needed to deliver some of the changes required and its role in achieving the transformation of the service.

The proposed revised plan included:-

·         Updated context headlines in order to reflect progress made by the service since 2015 and changes which had occurred including closure of the Lichfield Record Office on 1 January 2016.

·         Updated list of Partners who worked with the service to reflect the changes which had occurred following the transfer of the Shugborough Estate to the National Trust on November 2016.

·         Inclusion of a new section on the project vision, aims and objectives for the Staffordshire History Centre (SHC).

·         Inclusion of Information on collections, buildings, outreach, volunteers, partnerships and resources with current statistics and key achievements.

With regard to “Developing an Active Partnership Approach” Members noted that the joint working with the William Salt Library Trust had been strengthened by the adoption of a shared vision. In addition, new partnerships had been identified with local groups across the County and City and following engagement with stakeholders regarding future ways to interact with the service, a new Staffordshire History Centre Network was proposed. To date over 47 groups and organisations had agreed to support the project in some way.

Work was progressing on the establishment of a Development Trust in order to continue fundraising activity, in support of the History Centre, following the ending of the HLF grant.

During 2017/18 an estimated 7,800 hours had been given to the Archive and Heritage Service by volunteers in to support the delivery of the Annual Activity Plan.

With regard to “Resilience and Sustainability”, five matched funding bids had been to submitted to support the work of the service one of which had been successful, two had passed the first stage application process and a further two were still to be considered. In addition a further four bids were being developed for submission in 2018.

A major depositor event was held in November 2017 to showcase the SHC project and encourage donations. A further depositor had made a separate approach to the service and was making a donation of £100,000 towards the project. In addition Friends of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service continued to fundraise in support of the service focussing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

The Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Families and Communities undertook to liaise with the Chairman regarding a possible change to the calendared date for the next meeting of the Committee, having regard to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s deadline for submission of a Phase 2 grant application for the development of the Staffordshire History Centre.     

RESOLVED – (a) That, if required, the next meeting of the Committee scheduled for Thursday 14 June 2018 2018, 10.30 am, City Central Library, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent be brought forward to an earlier date.  

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”.

RESOLVED – 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 12 A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972, indicated below.

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PART TWO

(exempt paragraph 3)

RESOLVED - The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 16 December 2018 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.