Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision report

Contact name: Janet Smith

Tel: 01962 846154 Email: [email protected]

1. Executive Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to endorse the response to the recent Government consultation on the future of publicly funded archives services entitled: Archives for the 21^st century.

1.2 Further, it is to approve the approach being taken by Hampshire's archives service in responding to the challenges facing the archive sector which are highlighted in the consultation document.

2. Contextual information

2.1 The first government policy on archives was published in 1999. In subsequent years the environment in which archives services operate has changed beyond recognition as a result of the digital creation and use of information.

2.2 The Government has now issued for consultation a new draft policy on the future of publicly funded archives services - principally those in local authorities and universities - as `a call to action for their parent organisations'. The policy document has been issued jointly under the signatures of ministers from the Department of Communities and Local Government, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Justice, reflecting the three government departments with a responsibility for the management and delivery of archives services.

3. Key elements of the policy

3.1 The consultation document outlines the power of archives to:

· Shape community and local identity

· Create the framework for our democracy

· Provide a stimulating environment for individual, family and lifelong learning

· Support evidence-based policy making and accountability

3.2 It states that publicly funded archives have a vital role to play in the communities they serve, contributing to local democracy, social policy, education, history and culture and sets out a strategic vision for their sustainable development across England and Wales.

3.3 It outlines the challenges facing archives services in their core tasks of maintaining the historical record and helping people to access and understand it.

3.4 The document sets out five key recommendations to help create a more sustainable archive sector participating actively within the many diverse communities served. These are:

· Fewer, bigger, better - working towards increased sustainability through partnerships and shared services.

· Strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce.

· Co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information so that it is accessible now and remains discoverable in the future.

· Comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to digitised archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them.

· Active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of identity and place within the community.

3.5 It outlines a model for excellence for publicly funded archives services.

3.6 The National Archives, MLA and CyMAL: Museums Archives and Libraries Wales commit themselves to working together to develop strategic leadership for the archive sector, to broker greater understanding of the value of and need for archives, and to promote the contribution of archives to local democracy and accountability, learning and culture and to a sense of identity and place for local people.

3.7 Following the consultation period, which ended on 12 August, a final policy will be published in autumn 2009, accompanied by an implementation plan of the key actions that will result. Both will be shaped by responses to the consultation.

3.8 The consultation draft document is attached to this report as Appendix 1.

4. Summary of Hampshire's position

4.1 The draft policy is to be welcomed as a clear and useful analysis of the challenges facing local authority archives services and setting out approaches to meeting them. Hampshire's archives service has already to a considerable degree identified these challenges and, in partnership with other services within and beyond the Department of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs (CC&RA), is working to address them.

4.2 The policy draws attention to the inconsistencies of service provision and inequalities of funding across local authority archives services in England and Wales. Hampshire County Council has over many years invested significantly in its archives and other heritage and cultural services. HCC's archives service's current four star status resulting from The National Archives self-assessment process, and its 99% overall satisfaction in a recent national survey of visitors to British archives, show how such investment translates into strong performance and positive outcomes for the benefit of the county's residents.

4.3 The draft policy identifies the need for archives services to actively demonstrate where they add value to policy targets and it encourages co-operation with other cultural, learning and information partners. This endorses the approach being taken by CC&RA to ensure that services in Hampshire work together, and also in partnership with adult and children's services and others, to maximise their potential for contributing to the achievement of the County Council's corporate objectives. The archives service contributes significantly, for example, to adult and community learning, to improving educational attainment in schools, to social cohesion work and to increasing participation and strengthening communities.

4.4 Many archives services are constrained by inadequate buildings which put collections at risk and limit collection development. Hampshire Record Office, purpose-built in 1992, provides ideal conditions for the storage of, and public access to, archives although it cannot provide the most stringent conditions required today for archive film material. Built with 20 years' growth space, it is likely to exceed expectations if the County Council's modern records are soon transferred to a corporate storage facility which is under consideration as part of the corporate review process. However, the building is likely to reach capacity within the next ten years. As funding for extensions or new builds will be hard to find in the foreseeable future for any archives service, the draft policy rightly recommends that services look for resource-sharing partnership opportunities with other local authorities, universities or organisations.

4.5 A growing backlog of uncatalogued archive material is a national problem. Hampshire is fortunate in having addressed this issue vigorously in the past, and the backlog here is relatively small. However, like all archives services, Hampshire has a large quantity of material requiring conservation treatment to make it fit for production to the public. Whilst the digital development of the service is essential in order to widen participation, it must not be at the expense of cataloguing and conservation; all are essential for increasing public access to archive collections.

4.6 The need for archives services to broker effective partnerships in order to make better use of resources is unarguable. In addition to the partnership working already strongly under way with colleagues in museums, libraries, arts and countryside services, and with other HCC services, the archives service has forged external partnerships with Winchester City Council, the Chapter of Winchester Cathedral, Screen South (the screen agency for the south east region) and works regularly with Winchester, Southampton and Bournemouth Universities. The draft policy suggests that partnerships should lead to `fewer, bigger, better' services; while agreeing that the development of joint services on shared sites may be appropriate in some areas, it is important to recognise the value and importance of retaining close links with local communities, as evidenced by the success of the current Living Links community archives project. A balance needs to be kept between the efficiency of shared centralised arrangements and the value of close contact with the communities served.

4.7 The policy document rightly states that strong leadership and a skilled workforce are essential for the sector. Hampshire's archives staff have taken advantage of MLA's Strategic Planning and Fundraising programme to develop senior managers' skills in these areas, alongside participation in the Hampshire Own Grown Future Leaders programme. A national initiative to bring together several of the different national organisations into a single body is welcomed as this will in future provide a single strong voice for the sector to engage with government in order to connect archives effectively with public policy.

4.8 The challenges of managing archives and information in a digital age are urgent and critical. Unless action is taken now, information created today will be lost ad the county's history will be poorer in the future. Archivists are also addressing the issue of how to preserve digital archives in order to ensure that they remain accessible and readable into the future, but to solve this problem on a large scale will require significant investment. This is most likely to be achieved through resource-sharing partnerships at regional or national level.

4.9 The records managers at Hampshire Record Office are playing a key role in the design and implementation of HantsFile, to ensure that the electronic records of the County Council are properly managed and retained; some of these will become the county's digital archives in the future. The draft policy emphasises more than once the importance of retaining the link between the records management and archive functions, endorsing the arrangement in Hampshire.

4.10 Hampshire's archives service is taking advantage of today's new digital environment to transform the service through digital delivery via its online catalogue and the provision of images online. Almost all of its catalogue descriptions are now accessible on the web and over 10,000 historic photographs and 5,000 local history sources are also available online. Experience in Hampshire supports the policy's statements about the growing public expectations for immediate access to archive content online. Meeting that demand on a larger scale will require commercial or non-commercial partnerships with the potential to generate income to help support future service development. Negotiation with potential partners is currently under way in Hampshire.

4.11 The document's model for excellence for publicly funded archives services encapsulates many of the priorities and objectives of Hampshire's archives service. However, for this to be achieved consistently across all local authority services will be difficult within existing resources. Unless additional funding can be found for the sector, akin to the investment made in regional museums through the Renaissance programme, disparities in archives service provision across the country will continue.

4.12 Archives services are largely invisible in the performance and assessment regimes developed for local government, such as the National Indicators and Local Area Agreements and Comprehensive Area Agreements. The small size of the sector makes this inevitable, but it is consequently essential to ensure that the contribution of archives to broader cultural and social outcomes is demonstrated and evidenced. The approach being taken within CC&RA for performance arrangements and evidencing outcomes will support this.

4.13 The full response made to the consultation document is attached to this report as Appendix 2.

5. Conclusion

5.1 Archives for the 21^st Century provides a useful analysis of the archives sector and a good framework for the future direction of publicly funded archives services.

5.2 The work being undertaken by Hampshire's archives service, and the integrated cross-service working embedded within the Department of Culture, Communities and Rural Affairs, indicate that Hampshire is responding appropriately to the critical challenges facing archives, is in line with government thinking and is, in many ways, ahead of the game.

6. Recommendations

6.1 That the Executive Member endorse the response to the Government's consultation draft `Archives for the 21^st Century' on behalf of Hampshire County Council. This is set out in Appendix 2.

6.2 That the Executive Member approve the approach being taken by the archives service - endorsed by the draft policy - to develop digital services and address the issue of digital archives preservation, to create more online content, to support the County Council's electronic records management system, and to maintain and extend partnerships within and beyond Hampshire County Council in order to exploit its collections to provide learning and cultural opportunities that meet the needs of Hampshire's communities.

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