Contact: Bevis Ingram, ext 7508

1. Introduction

1.1 The budget proposals for 2003/04 for Recreation and Heritage were considered by the Policy Review Committee on 23 January and approved by the Executive Member on 29 January. Following an extensive review of existing activities, the main feature of the budget was a re-direction of resources, including £846,000 to support new initiatives. Along with the rest of the County Council's budget it was then agreed by Cabinet on 10 February and by the County Council on 20 February. Members will be aware that the final approved budget contained some differences from that considered by the PRC and the Executive Member in January.

1.2 In summary, £635,000 was added to the budget for inescapable pressures and legislative commitments and it was agreed that Recreation and Heritage could retain the 1.5% savings identified (£393,000).

1.3 The purpose of this report is to approve a plan for the use of the additional resources available and outline expected outcomes, performance indicators, and monitoring arrangements. This is in line with reports being submitted for all County Council services.

1.4 This report does not look at capital. It is planned to bring a report to a later meeting with proposals for the full four year programme.

2. Additions to the budget

2.1 The approved additions to the budget are as follows :

· Improve access to the Countryside for recreational use (second phase of CROW Act) £185,000

· Fair pay issues £200,000

· Expanded ICT use to meet e-government targets, and user access to services £250,000

· Total £635,000

2.2 In addition, the 1.5% savings identified (£393,000) will be retained for use across Recreation and Heritage services. These savings were identified in the main budget report considered in January (page 13, appendix 2). They were as follows: additional income (£281,000); reduced acquisitions (£25,000); redirection of arts and sports development funding (£38,000); and efficiency savings in operational expenditure (£49,000). These will now be taken out of service budgets for reallocation.

2.3 To this should be added the £846,000 already provided for new initiatives.

2.4 Therefore the total amount for reallocation is £1,874,000.

3. Spending plans

3.1The January report on the budget identified new initiatives to be supported by redeployed funding under the four headings of expanding the user base, innovation and quality, market development, and staff development. These link back to the objectives of management approved for the services in May last year.

3.2 The provisional allocation of the £1,874,000 across these headings is as follows :

Expanding user base (£976,000)

Within this heading the major allocations support improving access to the countryside (£180,000), an expanded events programme (£167,000), a provision for increasing library opening hours (£150,000), the "Creative Hampshire" programme (£124,000) and joint working with the Education Department on sport, adult learning and youth outreach (£115,000). The remainder includes increased design capability to support Discovery Centre development, a dedicated press and publicity resource and various small scale projects.

Innovation and quality (£470,000)

The major component of this is a total of £305,000 to support ICT development in the Recreation and Heritage services including provision for an e-Government and ICT Manager and completion of the project to make the Hampshire Record Office catalogue available on the web. Other initiatives include an expansion of the Countryside Service sign shop to allow greater flexibility in carrying out small scale improvements to facilities.

Market development (£239,000)

This is primarily intended to support the Department-wide drive to improve the marketing of Recreation and Heritage services. It includes the posts of Marketing Manager and External Funding Manager approved last year and a research and marketing budget.

Staff development (£189,000)

This provision will be used to support the Departmental training and development plan and assist the recruitment and retention of appropriately qualified staff in all services.

4. Performance Indicators and outcomes

4.1 The resources allocated to new initiatives will be expected to achieve a range of direct and indirect outcomes. At the detailed level, each project identifies targets against which they will be monitored and evaluated. For example, a number of projects were approved by the Executive Member on 24 April under the "Creative Hampshire" banner. Each of these had appropriate targets on take up, participation etc.

4.2 On a larger scale, these initiatives can be expected to have an impact on use of services that will be reflected in the medium term in the relevant national performance indicators, particularly those relating to use of libraries and museums. These are published annually in the Best Value Performance Plan and are summarised below:

4.3 Further work on more relevant and precise performance measures for the Recreation and Heritage services will be carried out as part of the service planning process in the Department.

5. Recommendation

5.1 That the spending plans outlined in paragraph 3 be supported and submitted to the Executive Member for his consideration.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

Published works.

Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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