Quinquennial Review of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales Final Report Peter A Watt with Simon Delay The School of Public Policy July 2001 School of Public Policy University of Birmingham Birmingham B15 2TT July 2001 V64NMGW.doc Project Management Peter Watt, School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham Report written by Peter A Watt, with Simon Delay Core Project Team Marion Blockley Simon Delay Richard Penn Consultants Professor Michael Clarke Professor Chris Skelcher SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM Contents 1. Summary and principal conclusions and recommendations...................................................... 1 1.1. Principal conclusions ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Recommendations........................................................................................................................ 2 2. Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 5 2.1. Background.................................................................................................................................. 5 2.2. The previous Quinquennial Review ............................................................................................. 5 2.3. Terms of Reference...................................................................................................................... 6 2.4. Methods ....................................................................................................................................... 6 3. Strategic effectiveness.................................................................................................................... 7 3.1. The Museum’s achievements.......................................................................................................7 3.2. The Assembly’s strategic objectives and the Museum’s response............................................. 10 3.2.1. Public accountability.......................................................................................................... 12 3.2.2. The role of Court................................................................................................................ 14 3.3. The Museum’s relationship with the Assembly......................................................................... 23 3.3.1. The remit letter................................................................................................................... 25 3.4. Corporate planning..................................................................................................................... 26 3.4.1. Distribution of resources.................................................................................................... 28 3.4.2. The Council and the Directorates of the Museum.............................................................. 32 3.4.3. The performance of the Museum ....................................................................................... 36 3.5. Responsiveness to its customers and partners............................................................................ 41 3.5.1. Customers .......................................................................................................................... 41 3.5.2. Partners .............................................................................................................................. 43 4. Corporate Governance ................................................................................................................ 45 4.1. Financial and managerial control arrangements between NMGW and NAW ........................... 45 4.2. Internal and external audit.......................................................................................................... 46 4.3. The Audit Committee ................................................................................................................ 47 4.4. Management of Finances ........................................................................................................... 49 4.5. Conduct of business ................................................................................................................... 50 4.5.1. Contracting out................................................................................................................... 50 4.5.2. Openness............................................................................................................................ 50 4.5.3. Complaints handling .......................................................................................................... 52 4.6. Monitoring the quality and efficiency of service delivery ......................................................... 52 4.6.1. Improving efficiency.......................................................................................................... 52 4.6.2. Human resources development .......................................................................................... 53 4.7. Probity and Propriety ................................................................................................................. 54 4.8. Diversifying income................................................................................................................... 54 4.9. Managing finances effectively...................................................................................................55 5. References..................................................................................................................................... 57 Appendix A Summary, principal conclusions and recommendations of the Interim Report..... 61 Appendix B Terms of reference ....................................................................................................... 63 Appendix C Consultation document and letter .............................................................................. 67 Appendix D Actions taken by the Museum in response to the previous quinquennial review... 77 Appendix E Details of Consultation................................................................................................. 81 Appendix F BRIEF CVs OF CORE REVIEW TEAM.................................................................. 87 Tables Table 1: Membership of Court................................................................................................................... 15 Table 2: Governing bodies of National Museums ..................................................................................... 16 Table 3: Meetings of Court since 1994...................................................................................................... 17 Table 4: The appointment of members of the Museum's Council ............................................................. 22 Table 5: Meetings between the National Assembly and the Museum ....................................................... 24 Table 6: Successive remit letters Dec 1997-April 2001............................................................................. 25 Table 7: Milestones in the NMGW Planning Process ............................................................................... 26 Table 8: Key elements of the Assembly timetable relevant to the Museum’s planning process ............... 27 iii QUINQUENNIAL REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS & GALLERIES OF WALES Table 9: Distribution of resources at NMGW compared with Department for Culture, Media and Sport Review average .................................................................................................................................. 29 Table 10: Meetings of Council since January 1999 ................................................................................... 34 Table 11: The management structure of the Museum................................................................................35 Table 12: Performance targets for the National Museums & Galleries of Wales(1) - Corporate Plan 2000- 01 - 2002-03....................................................................................................................................... 36 Table 13: National Museums & Galleries of Wales’s expenditure, performance and plans...................... 37 Table 14: Comparative Museum performance on key indicators............................................................... 38 Table 15: Cost per visitor at Museum sites, 1999-2000............................................................................. 39 Table 16: Grant cost per visitor, and grant cost per educational visitor for various Museums, 1999-200040 Table 17: The Audit Committee ................................................................................................................ 47 Table 18: Tendering exercises for Museum services ................................................................................. 51 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We acknowledge the detailed support given to us by the Officers, Councillors, Court, Director and staff of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales without which this report would not have been possible. We are also grateful to all those other stakeholders who submitted written comments to our consultation exercise or gave their time in interviews to assist our study. iv SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM 1. Summary and principal conclusions and recommendations This is the