1.  THE YORKSHIRE & HUMBERSIDE MUSEUMS COUNCIL

e Yorkshire & Humberside Museums Council (YHMC) is the regional strategic, development and advisory body for museums and galleries in the Yorkshire and Humberside region. The Council, which was founded in 1963, is a membership organisation which represents nearly 200 local authority, university, regimental and independent charitable trust museums.

  1.2  The main activities of the Council include the provision of advice and information, in-service training, the administration of Government grant aid for museum projects, and representation of its members' views at regional and national level.

  YHMC encourages museums to work together through a variety of regional initiatives such as marketing schemes, collection surveys and museum education projects.

  The Council also provides a strategic overview and independent advice to many external bodies such as the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Regional Government Office.

  1.3  The Council is a limited company and registered charity. Its work is overseen by an annually elected Board of Management, which is advised by a professional Joint Advisory Panel. On a day-to-day basis the Museums Council is managed by the Director, who is a museum professional. YHMC receives its core funding from the Museums & Galleries Commission.

2.  ROLE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND

  2.1  Since the establishment of the National Lottery, YHMC has had extensive involvement in the awards process both with the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and with potential applicants in the region.

  2.2  Based on a regional overview and long-term knowledge of the history of individual members our specific experience includes:

—  Advising applicant museums, galleries and related organisations on the development of projects which may form the subject of applications to HLF.

—  Acting as statutory expert advisers to HLF on relevant projects from the region. This may include site visits, brief assessments, preparation of detailed advisory reports on projects and subsequent discussions and follow-up on points of detail with HLF and applicants. The cost of this work is reimbursed by HLF. Approximately 60 projects have been assessed to date.

—  Liaison with other organisations and individuals who are acting as advisers to HLF.

—  Carrying out the role of project monitors in certain instances, generally where awards have been made for smaller schemes. This may include site visits, monitoring reports and liaison with specialist contractors. The cost of this work is also reimbursed by HLF.

—  Advising HLF both formally and informally on changes to policies, procedures and published information. This includes regular liaison both in writing and in person with a range of HLF staff.

  YHMC has not been an applicant itself for HLF funds.

3.  IMPACT OF HLF FUNDING ON THE MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES SECTOR

  3.1  HLF has had a tremendously beneficial impact on the sector. It has enabled the implementation of many long-cherished schemes to improve collection care, public access and educational potential in museums.

  3.2  Museums of all types and sizes in the Yorkshire and Humberside region have benefitted from over 40 HLF awards. These range from the major national institutions such as the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford and the National Railway Museum in York, through larger local authority sites such as Wakefield Museum and Normanby Hall in Scunthorpe to tiny volunteer-run organisations such as Cawthorne Victoria Jubilee Museum near Barnsley and Hedon Museum near Hull.

  3.3  HLF funding has provided access for people with disabilities, proper facilities for schools, renewed exhibition galleries and improved storage areas. Funding has also assisted the purchase and conservation of objects and specimens which would otherwise have been lost in the public domain.

  3.4  The funding has been especially valuable for local authority museums which have had minimal or no capital budgets for many years. This has been a major problem, especially as over 70 per cent of the UK's museums are housed in historic Listed buildings where maintenance and construction work is particularly costly.

  Funding has also been invaluable for small voluntary groups, especially to bring community museums up to modern standards in areas such as proper access for people with disabilities.

  3.5  However, many museums have found it difficult to raise the partnership funding required, especially for projects over £100,000. Often, this has been based on geographical accident rather than heritage merit. Those museums fortunate enough to be situated in areas which qualify for EU Structural Funds have been able to access partnership funds relatively easily, while even Designated Museums with internationally important collections such as those in Leeds and York have found it extremely difficult or even impossible. Even more flexibility by HLF to take account of these very real problems would be inordinately helpful.

  3.6  The Sports Council Lottery Fund has developed partnership funding policies which include calculation of indices of deprivation. This has led to lower and more flexible partnership funding requirements for projects located in areas of greatest need. Such strategies may be a useful model for HLF in the future.

4  STRATEGIC ISSUES

  4.1  Up to now HLF awards have been solely applicant-led. There has been no structured assessment of needs in the sector, no clear strategy for the future and no formal evaluation of the impact of previous awards.

  4.2  A high priority is therefore for the HLF to undertake a proper audit of provision and need, to inform future strategy.

  It would be useful for HLF to indicate more clearly its policy on levels of future anticipated funding availability on a sectoral and/or geographical basis.

  4.3  There is some concern that there may be a sufficient co-ordination at regional level between different sectors of HLF interests, as well as other Lottery distributors and their expert advisers. When advising on a museum application, it would be helpful to know what other projects are being planned in the vicinity.

  4.4  In the museums sector, there is a particular need to develop a Strategic Initiative on Documentation as a long-term goal. Improved public access to collections, more innovative interpretation and better educational opportunities depend, in the first instance, on comprehensive documentation of all museum collections.

 5.  POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

  5.1  Decision-making by HLF has sometimes been perceived as being rather of an ad hoc nature in the past. As the organisation grew and evolved there appeared to be a regular "moving of goalposts" for applicants, often without adequate prior warning either for advisers or applicants. There has also occasionally been a lack of consistency in the processing of applications.

  5.2  However, day-to-day relationships between YHMC staff and HLF staff have been close and excellent, with an obvious willingness to take advice from the regional and specialist perspective.

  5.3  Communication with both potential applicants and expert advisers has improved considerably over the last six months and much of this can be attributed to the success of the newly-established regional teams within HLF.

  5.4  A particular area of concern, however, is the role and membership of the Expert Panels at HLF. There appears to be little or no turnover of members, some of whom have been retired from active employment in the sector for many years. As the museum world has experienced considerable change over the past decade, Panel members may not have a sufficient breadth of experience for current needs. Specifically, there appears to be an absence of knowledge and experience of the local authority museums sector.

  5.5  The new application/information packs are written in a clearly understandable and user-friendly way. However, applications require a formidable quantity of policy papers and other documents even for small projects. This is particularly intimidating for small independent (especially volunteer-run) museums.

  5.6  The application process should be streamlined for small organisations. YHMC recommends that Registered Museum status under Phase 2 of the Museums and Galleries Commission's Registration Scheme for Museums in the UK should be used as a sufficient demonstration of standards in small and volunteer-run museums.

  5.7  YHMC's member museums greatly value and support the Council's wide-ranging role in the Lottery application process. Considerable staff resources have had to be diverted into advising museums on potential Lottery projects. This major element is not recompensed in any way by HLF, which gains from YHMC's work through a lower requirement for liaison with applicants as a result of better prepared applications.

  5.8  The dual role of advising museums and HLF is seen as a valuable service. As the process is carried out with complete transparency and honest communication with all concerned, no real problems have arisen. However, it may be helpful for HLF to formally acknowledge YHMC's input at all stages of the application process.

 6.  THE FUTURE

  6.1  YHMC welcomes HLF's new policy to channel more resources into smaller projects and non-national museums away from the South-East.

  6.2  YHMC congratulates HLF on its success to date, but emphasises that much more still remains to be done. In particular, we recommend that funding for capital projects, especially for work to improve museum building fabric and energy efficiency, should continue to be given the utmost priority. There is still a tremendous backlog of capital needs in order to ensure the survival of important heritage material for future generations.

  Investment in building improvements and Building Management Systems will cut future energy and maintenance costs. This, in turn, will release additional funds at a local level to enhance public access and develop innovative activities. Such a strategy will also contribute to sustainability.

  6.3  Revenue funding to maintain new or extensively refurbished capital projects should also be made available.

  6.4  Preserving and providing access to the heritage is a dynamic and creative process. New facilities bring new opportunities not only for today's audiences, but also for future generations. Much still remains to be done. YHMC would welcome a commitment from Government that heritage will remain as one of the "good causes" in the future.

June 1998