Written Please contact us if for any reason you find it difficult to send Written evidence submitted by Birmingham Museums Trust

Evidence of Impact of Covid-19 on DCMS sectors

Introduction Birmingham Museums Trust (BMT) is a charity (no. 1147014) and a company (no. 07737797).

BMT manages the city’s internationally significant collection of over 1 million objects on behalf of Birmingham City Council. The collection is Birmingham’s greatest cultural asset and a priceless resource for learning, creativity, health and wellbeing, it is displayed and stored in nine museums and historic properties.

 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, city centre  Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum, city centre/eastside  Aston Hall, Aston  Blakesley Hall, Yardley  Museum of the Jewellery Quarter, Hockley  Sarehole Mill, Hall Green  Soho House, Handsworth  Weoley Castle  Museum Collection Centre, Nechells

The majority of the collection is recognised under the Designation Scheme. Eight of our sites are Accredited Museums, six are listed buildings, one is a scheduled ancient monument. We employ c.200 permanent staff plus seasonal, temporary and casual staff.

We generate over 55% of our income from commercial and private sources including visitor admissions, educational programmes, retail, cafes, catering and venue hire, fundraising and more. The remaining c40% our funding is from Birmingham City Council and Arts Council England

In 2019/20 BMT saw nearly 1 million visitors (first time visitors 47%, 25% C2DE, 22% BAME, 4% identify as disabled). Importantly BMT has the highest number of school visits of any cultural organisation in the city, engaging well over 100,000 school children from over 2,000 schools in our education programmes. There were 1.2m visits to our website and we have 230k social media followers. BMT works with some 60 community organisations annually across visits, outreach, projects, consultation and co-production. Last year over 10.7m people experienced the collection, either as visitors to our sites, through outreach to schools and groups, or at venues across the world where objects were on loan.

BMT is one of the largest cultural organisations in Birmingham and in the West Midlands. We are submitting this evidence to highlight the impact of Covid-19 on our own business, the subsequent impacts on our beneficiaries, visitors, partners, the city-centre and the neighbourhoods our buildings occupy, and the wider arts, cultural, museum, heritage and STEM (Science, technology, engineering, maths) sectors that we are active participants in.

What has been the immediate impact of Covid-19 on the sector?

BMT closed all 9 sites to the public on 18 March as a consequence of Covid-19.

BMT saw an immediate end to earned income – admissions, school visits, onsite donations, retail, catering and venue hire – with a devastating effect on our ability to operate on an ongoing basis. None of this income will be recovered, without furlough we would be unable to operate as a going concern. With the imminent ending of furlough, we will be unable to reopen without operational losses totalling £2m by March 2021. In addition to income drop there have been some stock losses (mostly perishables).

As a result of closure, our 1,000 strong volunteer workforce who support all areas of BMT’s work, from gallery interpreters to collections researchers has been suspended.

A number of crucial partnership projects designed to engage people across the community are on hold. Including:  Education, community engagement and evaluation programmes for MiniBrum, Thinktank’s new gallery for under-8s. The new £2m gallery opened in May 2019, funded by the Inspiring Science Fund co-funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Wellcome  Moving On – to engage and upskill veterans of the armed forces (funder Armed Forces Covenant Trust)  Community Pass – providing free access to Thinktank for vulnerable communities (funder ASDC)  STEM partnership project with Smallpeice Trust – delivering outreach and inreach with schools in Birmingham’s more disadvantaged communities  Don’t Settle – partnership project with Beatfreeks to engage and develop new governance roles for young people of colour at BMT  BMT hosts exhibitions led by smaller cultural and community organisations reliant on project funding from Arts Council or National Lottery Heritage Fund. Our programme for 2021/22 has been affected by planned exhibitions having to be cancelled or rescheduled, partners such as South Asian Diaspora Arts Archive have not been able to apply for project funding in Spring 2020 owing to its temporary suspension.

The indirect impact on our city and neighbourhoods:  Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery plays a vital role in bringing people into the city centre as the retail environment continues to change. It generates a significant contribution to the local economy (2018 Dippy on Tour £4.2m gross spend by visitors; 2019 Home of Metal £3.1m of economic activity by visitors).  It is not economically viable to reopen the Museums until visitor numbers return to pre-/covid levels. The reason for this is we generate over 50 % of revenue from our customers. This represents the loss of two significant city centre attractions whilst other businesses are starting to reopen.  The closure of each historic property represents a loss of community facilities including free-to-access green spaces as well as educational and family entertainment opportunities.

Impact on international partnerships:  Covid-19 has left 206 of our short term loaned objects stuck at museums in lockdown in the UK (3), Europe (2) and in the US where 201 objects feature in a major 8 venue touring exhibition, Victorian Radicals. Covid- 19 had an immediate impact on this touring exhibition which generates significant income for BMT. Its current venue Yale Centre for British Art in Connecticut was forced to cut short the exhibition, one other venue has had to pull out and another is close to doing so, unless we substantially extend the tour to reschedule. This tour was curtailed just after winning a prestigious international award, with a loss of income of $153,000.  Two Japanese touring exhibitions led by BMT on behalf of the English Civic Museums Network are facing potential delays by up to 2 years owing to the impact of Covid-19, although the Japanese sponsor is still committed.  BMT is also having to review and likely cancel its planned exhibition with partners in Bangladesh, mainly the Bengal Foundation, to mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh independence. We are exploring alternative digital outputs.

Our team have implemented a Digital Learning & Engagement Plan to engage and support audiences, and remain in contact with our volunteers and groups such as our Creative Carers. Digital engagement has remained strong throughout lockdown and some planned strands of work such as collaborations with local artists and our Inspire art competition were successfully launched as pure digital projects. We have only been able to deliver a very limited offer for schools. We repurposed the shop at Sarehole Mill as a community shop selling tinned goods, flours and fresh baked bread from the recently restored bakery. This has been generated goodwill in the local community and kept one of our sites alive during lockdown.

We have implemented a number of other income generation and audience engagement initiatives supported by a willing and dedicated staff team. Whilst these provide positive stories building staff and community morale, the income generated will make a very limited impact on our losses and the impact on the well-being of a small staff team cannot be under-estimated.

How effectively has the support provided by DCMS, other Government departments and arms-length bodies addressed the sector’s needs?

1. BMT is making use of the Job Retention Scheme and currently has 170 members of staff furloughed representing c70% of our workforce. We will need to make full use of the scheme, as without furlough (see above) we cannot trade without an unsustainable loss.

2. Arts Council England’s early decision in lockdown to extend the NPO funding round by an additional year to 2023 was a positive move and essential to BMT’s short term sustainability. The decision by the UK Museum Accreditation Scheme, led by ACE, to delay accreditation reviews by 12 months and the pragmatic advice circulated by ACE’s Government Indemnity Scheme team concerning GIS insured objects stuck in museums closed to the public was helpful.

ACE’s National Portfolio Organisation Emergency Response Fund was timely with clear guidance. At the time of writing BMT does not know whether its application for funds to cover a proportion of our financial losses and preparation for reopening will be successful. ACE’s decision to support organisations survival until the end of September 2020 (but not beyond) seems short-term, especially when (at the time of writing) there is no further funding available to support stabilisation and revision of business plans.

In so far as this affects BMT, if visitors levels do not return to pre-Covid within for example an 18 month period we have no way to make up lost revenue, leading to further losses of up to £3m in addition to the £2m mentioned above.

3. BMT has been awarded £50,000 via Birmingham City Council’s Business Grants Scheme for the 5 properties it manages with a rateable value of less than £51,000. It has not been awarded any additional funding by the City Council as yet.

4. Although it is eligible to do so as an independent charity, as yet BMT has not applied for funding support via the Birmingham City Council Supplier Relief Fund. BMT are due to make an application to the fund and are in discussions with the City Council about doing so in order for them to support the organisation as it focuses on stabilisation and recovery. The Council has been kept informed of BMT’s financial position throughout the pandemic and is aware of the challenges it faces.

5. Flexible Planning and licensing changes – BMT wanted to take advantage of the change of use legislations on hot food takeaway. The Government Amendment Order references planning units which benefit from an express consent for either A3 (restaurant/café) or A4 uses (drinking establishments). The A3/A4 areas within museums are likely to be an ancillary element of the museum and do not have express consent. The Amendment Order did not enable museums including BMT to operate as an A5 (takeaway) unit.

We have the ability to sell and deliver hot take away across Birmingham – greater flexibility in Planning regulation would have given us the opportunity to claw back income and keep our brands alive. We still request these changes to Planning Regulation to widen income generation opportunities when our museums re-open. 6. Government communications and guidelines. BMT has utilised government guidance throughout the crisis and referenced it to the public, staff and volunteers. However, at times communications have been light on detail requiring waits for follow up clarification to enable planning to proceed.

What will the likely long-term impacts of Covid-19 be on the sector, and what support is needed to deal with those?

Significant investment is required across all 9 BMT sites to ensure that they are safe and secure for staff, volunteers and members of the public alike. The organisation does not have the cash resources to be able to make this level of investment and this is a major risk to the organisation.

The business model for reopening will look dramatically different with limited numbers of visitors across all sites to meet social distancing protocols. Timed entry and ticketing will need to be introduced at the Museum & Art Gallery, which has free access. Additional signage, safety screens, PPE and barriers will be required, we will implement a one way system around the galleries and spaces whilst additional staffing will be required to ‘police’ the galleries. Our website will need significant changes, and we will incur increased costs of marketing to communicate the new operations. It is not likely that school visits will return to normal until 2021, so we are having to develop a new model of delivering cultural education programmes. On reopening, BMT will immediately incur costs of operation but without the immediate return, to the levels required, of income from admissions and trading.

BMT commissioned visitor sentiment feedback to inform our plans for reopening after the Coronavirus lockdown. Over 1,400 people responded. In summary visitors are positive about returning and they expect changes to manage safety, but they are less likely to visit if popular experiences or galleries are closed or restricted, and they are likely to spend less in the shop and café. We forecast a significant drop in visitor income from tickets and retail spend, we envisage that all our museum sites will have reduced opening hours or new business models to remain financially viable. As stated over this and next financial year we may see losses of over £5m.

Research with head teachers shows that many schools will not consider school trips to our sites until early 2021 as a result of Covid-19, therefore we are in the process of converting our onsite school sessions into outreach.

Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum is the leading centre for STEM engagement in the West Midlands and along with over 40 members of the UK Association for Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC), has joined the Science Centres For Our Future campaign (#ScienceCentresForOurFuture), which is calling on the government to set up an Emergency Resilience Fund to urgently grant £25 million in Emergency Resilience Funding to secure the future of the UK’s world-class network of regional Science Centres. At a time when science is so important and with major global challenges ahead from both Covid-19 and climate change, Science Centres like Thinktank provide our regional cities and towns with crucial opportunities to access science, in an approachable and engaging way, helping to inspire our next generation of scientists and engineers.

We form a wider regional eco system of visual and performing artists, smaller arts organisations and networks. BMT works with a significant number of smaller companies providing them with both a venue, and important revenue streams, these will inevitably fall away should BMT fail or need to reprioritise its spending.

If the West Midlands is to have a future in a post Covid-19 world, a thriving cultural sector is critical and central to this and BMT is at the heart of the offer. Without the larger cultural organisations such as BMT, the whole sector will start to break down and the region will become poorer both culturally and economically as a consequence.

Support needed by BMT and the wider arts, culture and heritage sectors:  Funding to support: extra costs associated with re-opening  Investment to support business planning and the creation of new more agile business models  Significant investment in digital infrastructure to support flexible working and improve visitor experience and engagement (website, e-commerce, ticketing systems, data management, communications etc)  Significant support from government for local authorities including Birmingham City Council who are major funders and stakeholders in BMT and other arts, cultural and heritage organisations What lessons can be learnt from how DCMS, arms-length bodies and the sector have dealt with Covid-19?

Cultural organisations (like BMT) who have been most successful in adopting government agendas to be more financially sustainable and less reliant on public subsidy are the organisations now most affected by the Covid-19 with their futures most at risk.

At this time of limited capacity too many networks and organisations have been/are trying to undertake impact assessments. Many DCMS sector organisations including BMT, deliver across several sectors, we have regularly been asked to contribute to public consultation with overlapping agendas. This valuable work needs to be more effectively channelled to avoid repetition and ensure the comprehensive data collected has long-term value.

The current global crisis had demonstrated the crucial role of networks and BMT would like to highlight and thank the following organisations and networks for the excellence of their response to Covid-19.  The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) has been a committed and ceaseless advocate for its membership and the wider tourism and attractions industry. ALVA has provided strategic and practical support from day one of the crisis, been an invaluable source of information, commissioned and shared visitor sentiment data with the sector, and held insightful and practical webinars with hundreds of attendees to support planning across its membership and the wider sector. Of any organisation, it is ALVA that has best recognised the diverse needs and requirements of DCMS sector organisations.  The Association of Science and Discovery Centres (ASDC) has served as an essential network for discussing shared issues and concerns, joined up approaches to lobbying at a local and national level, and critical learning from national and international science centre partners who have already reopened and are tackling the issues of safe access in hands-on environments designed for learning through touch.  The English Civic Museums Network and National Museums Directors Council have played critical roles for museum leaders to work collectively on advocacy, benchmarking and communicating with the DCMS/government, media and the public.

Business Continuity and Emergency Response Planning on national, regional and local scales need to be fully integrated into England’s government and arms-length organisations with a flexible three stage approach – emergency response, stabilisation period, and business planning and rebuilding. Opportunities to rebuild differently should be considered to further social justice, equality and environmental sustainability.

How might the sector evolve after Covid-19, and how can DCMS support such innovation to deal with future challenges?

More funding for digital engagement and enabling organisations to make the most of their assets – including driving increased non-footfall related revenue. Regional organisations don’t have the resources to make the level of investment required and that is holding the sector back.

Redistribution of funding so that it accurately reflects the impact and significance of cultural offers.

Support (funding and expertise) to allow cultural organisations to diversify their income streams so they are less reliant on public subsidy and footfall into physical sites.

Organisations that are prudent and have a robust reserves policy shouldn’t be the first to be punished in times of crisis. If anything they have demonstrated strong leadership and have acted responsibly so should be supported first and foremost.

Closer working between DCMS other government departments including:  Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) - in supporting science centres and the vital role of STEM engagement to enable the public to better understand the world around them and support more young people to pursue STEM careers.  Department for Education – to emphasise the importance of out of school and cultural education as part of a balanced curriculum.  Department for Housing and Social Care – emphasise the link between access to culture and improving mental health and wellbeing  Trade and Industry – to utilise the industrial history as inspiration for future development