1.  SUMMARY OF MAIN POINTS

  1.1  Science Centres/Museums play an important role in educating and engaging the public in science issues. Millions of people visit Science Centres/ Museums each year, and more people visit museums each year than go to a live football game. Lord Sainsbury of Turville addressed the 2002 ECSITE Conference in London, saying that "science centres and museums can play a key role in [...] helping to forge a more confident relationship between science and society". Science Centres/Museums like the Thackray Museum in Leeds play an important role in helping the public understand science, providing a neutral platform to education, discussion and debate about scientific developments.

  1.2  Science Centres/Museums make vital contributions to government agendas, including:

—  The promotion and take-up of STEM subjects among young people.

—  Links with the HM Treasury's Science and Investment Framework 2004-2014, Next Steps.

—  Supporting the UK economy by influencing career decisions towards taking up science subjects.

  1.3  In order to support the long-term future of Science Centres/Museums, their financial sustainability is vital. Financial sustainability links to the availability of adequate funding, fit-for-purpose organisational structures, workforce development, and strategic development.

  1.4  This memorandum recommends that:

1.  The contribution of Science Centres/Museums to government agendas and society, and the educational impact of Science Centres/Museums on adults and children/young people are being acknowledged by the government

2.  Funding is provided to support the strategic organisational development of Science Centres/Museums, including organisational capacity building, leadership development, and workforce development.

3.  Advocacy activity is directed at non-government and government funders to support the future development of Science Centres/Museums

4.  Full Cost Recovery is promoted and applied across the range of funding available to Science Centres/Museums.

2.  INTRODUCTION TO THE THACKRAY MUSEUM

  2.1  The Thackray Museum in Leeds is the largest medical museum in the North of England. It is second only to the new Wellcome Museum in London. The Museum's collection is one of the largest and broadest collections of medical equipment in the UK, consisting of over 50,000 objects, books and documents relating to medicine and healthcare. The Thackray maintains high standards of professional delivery.

  2.2  The Thackray Museum is situated in an area of high social and economic deprivation in East Leeds. The area has been the target of a number of regeneration and community development initiatives, and is currently an SRB5 area and an area of Neighbourhood Renewal.

  2.3  The Thackray's extensive galleries, temporary exhibitions and educational material offer a visitor friendly approach to exploring healthcare and medicine through time. Our award-winning museum attracts circa 75,000 visitors a year and has an annual turnover of about £700k. Our main audiences are: school visitors, with groups coming from as far afield as Scotland, Northern Ireland, the South West of England, and the Isle of Man; general visitors; and conference users. We are one of the major tourist attractions in Leeds. Through our networks, we cooperate and share experience with a wide range of stakeholders in Yorkshire and beyond. We contribute to a range of government agendas, including:

—  Encouraging the public to enter into dialogue with science.

—  Lifelong Learning by providing access to visitors of all ages.

—  Social Inclusion by engaging local communities from Harehills and Burmantofts, both amongst the most deprived wards in terms of the Index of Deprivation and Levels of Health in England.

—  Aim Higher, encouraging young people from deprived areas to go to university, through engagement with local schools.

—  Promoting STEM (science, technology, engineers and maths) subjects.

—  Science teacher support through teaching/learning materials, teacher placements at the museum, and cooperation with companies from the medical supply trades.

  2.4  The Thackray Museum's permanent exhibitions engage the public in the history of medical science in a series of lively, award-winning galleries, which aim to challenge visitors' views about health and medicine past and present, by encouraging exploration of the museum's collection. The methods of interpretation and presentation bring the potentially complicated subject of medical history well within the reach of adults who may have no previous knowledge of this area of history, and of children who can explore hands-on interactives that explain different physical abilities and skills.

  2.5  The museum also provides a deeper, scholarly level of engagement with the subject for those who wish to develop their interest further. By exploring medical history through various perspectives, visitors are encouraged to engage at their own levels, and to question science to facilitate their understanding of the development of modern medicine and healthcare.

  2.6  In addition to hosting both permanent and temporary exhibitions, the Thackray Museum engages in a range of activities aimed at encouraging debate and discussion about medical science topics, providing advice, support and materials for teachers, delivering outreach projects in the local communities, and supporting students from Leeds universities in their research at graduate, post-graduate and PhD levels.

3.  THE ROLE OF SCIENCE CENTRES IN PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND ATTRACTING YOUNG PEOPLE TO SCIENCE SUBJECTS AND SCIENTIFIC CAREERS

3.1  Overview

  3.1.1  Science Centres/Museums are open to the general public. Their audiences reach from academic researchers to people who are simply looking for a good day out, from students on school visits to hard to reach groups participating in outreach activities. Their educational offer includes exhibitions with interactive content, publications that are easy to understand for the non-specialist, outreach work with and in schools, and generally the promotion of science.

  3.1.2  Far from dumbing down science, Science Centres/Museums are uniquely placed to remove intellectual, gender, age and socio-economic barriers so that everybody has access to science. In doing so, Science Centres/Museums contribute to the government's agenda to increase the up-take of STEM subjects and to attract young people to science. They also make valuable contributions to the continuous personal development of science teachers and the provision of out of school science activities.

  3.1.3  The Thackray Museum is dedicated to the exploration of medical sciences. It takes a strategic approach to the development of science provision, working in partnership with schools, science advisers, commercial companies, Higher Education, MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives) Council, the Cultural Consortium, and other strategic agencies. With its activities, the Thackray Museum contributes to the regional and national governments' agendas through direct engagement with the public. Our research shows that our activities can change the perceptions of individuals towards science, and encourage them into wanting to know more. We have been successful in removing the barriers that prevent young people from taking up science subjects.

3.2  Strategic Role

  3.2.1  Science Centres/Museums play a strategic role in achieving government agendas and priorities, particularly around generating a future workforce for a science based economy in the UK. Field work and science activities with objects play a vital role in enthusing young people about science subjects, and enable Science Centres/Museums to contribute to the government's regional and national agendas, including Aim Higher, as well as to the Regional Economic Strategy and the promotion of STEM subjects.

  3.2.2  The Thackray Museum takes a strategic approach to generating an interest and appetite for more science, particularly when working with young people. This involves not only removing barriers, but also changing perceptions and providing continuous personal development opportunities for those who teach science in schools and Higher Education. Positive experience through exposure to science at an individual level can lead towards an improvement for the wider UK economy in the long term.

  3.2.3  The Thackray Museum thus fits into a wider environment of partnerships and networks, cooperating towards a shared aim—to increase the take-up of science subjects by young people, which can lead to greater numbers of students studying science at university. More science students will provide more qualified employees for the UK's industry, and more much needed innovation that enables the UK to compete in the global economy.

  3.2.4  More specifically, the Thackray Museum contributes to the Government's priorities as published via the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology's (OST) website. We have a track record of delivering best practice to support the OST priorities of developing the science workforce and public engagement:

SCIENCE WORKFORCE

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

  3.2.5  The Thackray Museum links in with the HM Treasury's Science and Investment Framework 2004-2014, Next Steps. One of the three broad areas that the Government aims to address if the UK is to create an effective ecosystem for innovation is to make "STEM subjects more attractive to students, to ensure a highly skilled and diverse workforce to drive future innovation and growth." The Thackray Museum achieves this by delivering science projects aimed at children.

  3.2.6  Our strength lies in that we can expand and extend the science provision of schools through a wide range of activities, eg after school clubs (SciFly) and support for teachers who tell us that they find it difficult to develop science related classroom activities. In addition to making science a more attractive subject, pupils who engage with science subjects in the museum are often reported to gain confidence and enjoyment of science subjects. Both confidence and enjoyment of science are vital contributors of a young person's decision whether or not to pursue science as a career.

3.3  A network of partners

  3.3.1  Far from working in isolation, Science Centres/Museums operate within strategic networks and partnerships. The Thackray Museum works within a network of partners, including:

—  SETNET—working with Science Ambassadors.

—  MLA Yorkshire, the regional development agency for museum, libraries and archives—delivering STEM and Strategic Commissioning projects.

—  Regional Business Education Partnerships across the region, eg North Yorkshire.

—  Higher Education—Leeds University (PhDs; student placements) York University, CNAP (Centre for Novel Agricultural Products), Royal Society of Chemistry.

—  Schools—teacher placements.

—  Medical Research Council.

  3.3.2  Under point 6.21, the Science and Investment Framework recognises the importance of working in partnership with key stakeholders, including employers, universities, science centres, learned societies and Research Councils. The Thackray Museum has been demonstrating to young people some of the exciting and inspiring opportunities that studying science can lead to. We have been working in partnership with Huddersfield University to offer children from Harehills, one of the most deprived boroughs in Leeds and indeed in the country, the opportunity to visit a university lab. The children were able to engage in discussions with `real life' scientists from the university, and could even do their own experiments in the laboratory.

  3.3.3  We are also currently developing school outreach materials in cooperation with the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), to support their education programme. IOM3 aim to increase knowledge about medical plastics, and the Thackray Museum is working to provide Key Stage 3 education boxes which will enhance the debate about the use of plastics amongst young people.

  3.3.4  In his oral evidence before the Science and Technology Committee in 2005, Bill Rammell states that "one of the things we need to do [...] is better get across to young people the benefits of studying a science subject". Phil Willis, Chairman of the Committee, suggests in the same session that "you need inspirational teachers in front of youngsters, in order to stimulate that demand for them to carry on with it, particularly studying the hard sciences, physics and chemistry". It is the Thackray Museum's great strength to enable teachers to inspire young people both in the classroom and on site in the Museum. We provide extensive resource materials for teachers. We have also had many teacher placements at the Thackray where student teachers work directly with the museum's education staff to find out how the museum's resources (collections, expertise) can be used to enhance class-room teaching. We constantly consult with teacher groups to make sure that our provision is at the forefront of best practice.

4.  FUNDING FOR SCIENCE CENTRES/MUSEUMS

4.1  The funding available to science centres from central Government

  4.1.1  There has been major investment in some Science Centres/Museums in the past. The National Lottery contributed with a £250 million investment to build new centres. A further £250 million was invested by a variety of other public and private sources. The UK's flagship science museums, including the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, are funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. In addition to these large players in the field, however, there are a number of medium-sized and small Science Centres/Museums that receive no government or Millennium funding.

  4.1.2  The Thackray Museum is a medium-sized centre, and one of a small number of non-national museums with a science remit as its central focus point. The Thackray Museum is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, governed by a board of trustees. The museum receives no government funding, neither from central nor from local government. Where the Thackray Museum's work fits into a government priority, we can sometimes bid for grants, rarely directly, but more often through intermediaries that distribute funds through grants schemes, eg MLA Yorkshire and Research Councils. All our funds are self-generated; we rely on a strategic mix of financial sources which include:

—  Income from our own conference centre.

—  Income, although small, from our shop.

—  An annual grant from the Thackray Medical Research Trust.

—  Grants from trusts and foundations to support revenue costs.

  This puts us in a deceptively safe position, which requires us to be constantly alert to new funding schemes becoming available, and to be flexible enough to access them.

4.2  Alternative sources of funding

  4.2.1  Generally speaking, alternative sources of funding available to Science Centres/ Museums can be categorised into:

—  Central government fund (see above).

—  Grants from trusts and foundations.

—  Income from trading and commercial activities.

—  Lottery funding.

—  European funding.

—  Private philanthropic donations.

—  Commercial donations and sponsorship.

  4.2.2  Grant funding is more often than not awarded for specific projects which aim to achieve a defined result within a defined timeframe. Grants are given to a variety of projects that include research, public engagement, work directed at specific audiences like community groups, women or children, or specific subjects. For the Science Centre/Museum, applying for grants often means that priorities have to be adapted to the funders' priorities, rather than the Science Centre/Museum's own plans. In the worst case, this can lead to mission drift, where the money chased determines what the Science Centre/Museum does. It leads to short-termism, lack of financial sustainability as well as loss of strategic direction.

  4.2.3  However, fundraising and commercial activity does not have to distract a Science Centre/Museum from its core mission, but can help to create a flexible organisation capable of responding to current issues, improving the quality of its services, and working in consultation with its audiences so as to offer the best possible services to the public.

4.3  Ways of supporting the long-term future of science and discovery centres

  4.3.1  Funding available to Science Centres/Museums is fragmented rather than strategic, with money available for clearly defined revenue or capital projects, aimed at the delivery end. However, to be financially sustainable, healthy organisational structures are necessary for the long-term survival of Science Centres/Museum. This includes the development of:

—  Organisational structures that support commercial activity.

—  Governance structures that enable an organisation to be flexible and to respond to government agendas.

—  Workforce development towards the skills and competencies required to fulfil the Science Centre's/Museum's vision.

  4.3.2  To support the long-term development of Science Centres/Museums, it is important to recognise that funding in itself does not lead to a long-term future. As long as funding is directed solely at the delivery end of Science Centres/Museums, it will not have a long-term impact, but continue to encourage fire-fighting rather than strategic development. Only a healthy organisation can deliver best practice and quality outcomes. A healthy organisation is one where the governance structures, the organisational culture, its values and the skills set (the competencies) of its employees all support the core mission and strategic direction of the organisation.

  4.3.3  With more funding directed at supporting strategic organisational development which is directed at capacity building instead of delivery, the long term future of Science Centres/Museums can be supported.

  4.3.4  Where short term projects are funded, Full Cost Recovery should be applied to fund the real costs of a project. Without Full Cost Recovery, elements of core costs, including staff costs, are artificially removed, leaving the Science Centres/Museums to struggle to find even more funds to cover their core running costs.

5.  RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE SELECT COMMITTEE

  Science Centres/Museums have to be recognised for the vital contributions they make to science and society. In order to secure the future of Science Centres/Museums, it is recommended that:

1.  The contribution of Science Centres/Museums to government agendas and society, and the educational impact of Science Centres/Museums on adults and children/young people are being acknowledged by the government.

2.  Funding is provided to support the strategic organisational development of Science Centres/Museums, including organisational capacity building, leadership development, and workforce development.

3.  Advocacy activity is directed at non-government and government funders to support the future development of Science Centres/Museums.

4.  Full Cost Recovery is promoted and applied across the range of funding available to Science Centres/Museums.

June 2007