Contact: Bevis Ingram 01962 847508 e-mail [email protected]

Stuart Dorward 01962 846110 e-mail [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The following decision is sought:

That the budget monitoring position be noted and that the budget allocations set out in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the accompanying report be approved.

2. Reasons

2.1 Regular budget monitoring reports are provided for the Executive Member. The first report for 2004/05 includes detailed recommendations on the deployment of resources managed as part of the Policy Fund. These will be used to deliver new initiatives designed to make the Recreation and Heritage services more attractive and accessible to a much broader range of people. They will therefore contribute to the aims of the Corporate Strategy and the Cultural Strategy for Hampshire.

3. Other options considered and rejected - not applicable

4. Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker, or other Executive Member consulted - none

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - not applicable

6. Reasons for matter being dealt with, if urgent - not applicable

Approved by: (Signature) Date: (of decision)

................................. .........................

Councillor J. Waddington

Contact: Bevis Ingram 01962 847508 email [email protected]

Stuart Dorward 01962 846110 email [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 Budget monitoring reports are presented regularly through the financial year. This is the first report for 2004/05.

1.2 The report concentrates on the final disposition of the 2004/05 budget, in particular the allocation of £300,000 of new funding provided to meet specific objectives. The report also highlights two possible areas of financial pressure this year. Detailed monitoring figures have not been presented as it is still too early in the year for these to be interpreted in a meaningful way.

2. Background

2.1 The budget proposals for 2004/05 for Recreation and Heritage were considered by the Policy Review Committee and approved by the Executive Member on 22 January. Alongside the operational budgets, the proposals allocated £633,000 to the Policy Fund to deliver new initiatives designed to make the Recreation and Heritage services more attractive and accessible to a much broader range of people and to extend the ways in which they contribute to the aims of the Corporate Strategy and the Cultural Strategy for Hampshire.

2.2 Together with the rest of the County Council's budget these proposals were agreed by Cabinet on 12 February and by the County Council on 25 February. The final approved budget included an additional allocation of £300,000 for improvements in library opening hours and other new initiatives.

2.3 Subsequently, the Policy Fund has been supplemented by retaining £305,000 of the non pay inflation allocation to Recreation and Heritage services to allow a wider range of initiatives to be supported. Further transfers totalling £238,000 have been made from the Policy Fund to service budgets to reflect permanent commitments in support of ICT infrastructure improvements. The total amount available in the Policy Fund in 2004/05 is therefore £1,000,000.

3. Allocation of the Policy Fund in 2004/05

3.1 Projects in the Policy Fund are grouped under the four headings of expanding the user base, innovation and quality, market development and staff development. These link back to the management objectives approved for the services in May 2002. In 2004/05 the emphasis will be to use the Policy Fund to support projects aimed at expanding the user base of the Recreation and Heritage services.

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

Expanding the user base (£842,000)

Within this heading the major allocations support the "Creative Hampshire" programme (£125,000), developments in the Library and Information Service including extending library opening hours (£135,000), joint working with education on sport, adult learning and youth outreach (£125,000) and a major events programme (£60,000). The remainder includes increased design and marketing capacity to support Discovery Centres, a dedicated press and publicity resource, expansion of the Trailblazers programme, funding to support work with young people in Andover and a number of other smaller projects designed to attract new users and increase usage. £61,000 will be held back at this stage to meet any need to increase grant allocations in line with inflation.

Innovation and quality (£111,000)

This includes an allocation to the Countryside Service for the definitive rights of way map review team (£50,000) and an expansion of the implementation team (£21,000), which delivers a wide range of small scale maintenance and improvement projects across all Recreation and Heritage services. There will also be continuing support for ICT development, including the completion of the archive cataloguing project.

Market development (£10,000)

This allocation will fund further research work in support of service developments.

Staff Development (£37,000)

This allocation supports actions flowing from the Departmental training and development plan. The particular emphasis this year will be on Health and Safety, customer care, the staff induction programme, equalities issues and the corporate leadership development programme.

3.3 Within these overall allocations the specific disposition of the additional £300,000 provided in the budget is as follows:

3.4 These allocations will be expected to achieve a range of direct and indirect outputs and outcomes. Within the events and Creative Hampshire programmes each project will identify specific targets relating to take up, participation etc. against which it will be monitored and evaluated.

3.5 The £100,000 additional funding provided for the Library and Information Service is expected to allow 17 libraries to open for a total of an additional 75 hours per week, an increase of 4.6%. This will improve Hampshire's position against the current national library standard on aggregate opening hours per 1,000 population. The government is currently consulting on suggested changes to the national library standards, which in many instances do not give sufficient recognition to the circumstances of non metropolitan areas.

3.6 The funding provided for local library initiatives will be used widely across the County to support small scale improvements to buildings or facilities that are likely to have a significant impact on the quality of service, often in response to suggestions from users.

3.7 The additional resources allocated to Discovery Centres will allow the project team to be expanded and help to ensure that Discovery Centre projects are advanced as quickly as possible. The revised Corporate Strategy includes the specific target of opening the Gosport Discovery Centre by Spring 2005. Target opening dates will be set for the Winchester Cultural Centre and Havant Discovery Centre.

3.8 The extra funding for marketing and market research will allow more effort to be put into targeted marketing campaigns designed to increase the use of the Recreation and Heritage services by under-represented groups.

3.9 The Map Team in the Countryside Service will be enhanced with the aim of eliminating within three years the estimated four year backlog of work associated with challenges to the definitive rights of way map.

3.10 All of these initiatives will support the aims of the Corporate Strategy and in particular those relating to maximising life opportunities for all, stewardship of the environment and improving services. They also support the key aim of the Cultural Strategy for Hampshire of increasing and broadening the use of the County's cultural services.

4. Other budget issues 2004/05

4.1 Since the budget was set the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has announced changes in its policy for funding adult and community learning that will have the effect of removing all subsidies for leisure learning courses from September 2004. This could have a major impact on the income of the County Council's Arts Centres and consequently on the Recreation and Heritage budget. A full report on the changes in adult and community learning is being considered by Cabinet¹.

4.2 The resources provided by the New Opportunities Fund to support the setting up of the People's Network were time limited. Work is being undertaken to identify the full ongoing running costs of the People's Network in Hampshire's libraries. Absorbing these costs will create some pressure on the budget this year and can be expected to have a greater impact from next year onwards. The issue of continuing support for the People's Network is being taken up nationally by library authorities.

Recommendation

That the budget allocations set out in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the report be supported and submitted for consideration by the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage.

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.

TITLE FILE