7.1 What is the efficiency improvement? How will the efficiencies be made? National MuseumsScotland Staffing - reduction in numbers across a variety of areas including photographers, visitor services and better use of temporary staff (£130k) Procurement - savings to be found in specific contracts (maintenance costs, print costs, IT books) as well as better use of Government contracts in providing IT hardware and telephony and use of newer technology (£117k) Other areas - further initiatives identified so far include bringing IT consultancy work back in house, improvements to management of site cleaning and more effective management of gallery maintenance (£48k) Work ongoing to identify further efficiencies including potential to include sponsorship and other self generated income. National Galleries of Scotland Improved Working Practices - modernisation and improvement of working practices including more efficient shift patterns for security staff perhaps leading to reduced head count; combining IT and Finance under one head of department who is pushing forward modernisation agenda; strategic review of HR needs and capabilities (£150k from 09/10) Shared Services - continued collaboration with other National Collections in various groups - good progress made in areas of Health & Safety, HR policies, training. Likely storage efficiencies if Granton master plan goes ahead. Efficiencies derived from membership of wider NDPB group - group approach to benchmarking corporate services eliminating individual 'benchmark club' fees for example. Tighter budgetary control - Move to zero based budgeting to challenge historical expenditure ensuring resources directed to most important services; examples of redirected spend include £75k of marketing budget previously used for free bus service; efficiencies found in press team redirected to more productive e-marketing and new media initiatives.; no longer presumption that a vacancy will be backfilled and this policy will enable a better management of headcount and anticipates efficiencies of around £190k pa due to natural attrition; appointment of estates manager as programme manager for Portrait Gallery project without backfilling post also likely to deliver efficiencies of around £60k. Green initiatives - already realising significant efficiencies with new boilers using 36% less gas than old ones; also set targets for improvements in carbon emissions, water consumption, waste disposal, transport amongst others. Meeting these targets will of course result in efficiency savings in the longer term. Work ongoing to identify further efficiencies including potential to include sponsorship and other self generated income. Acquisition of D'Offay Collection Recent acquisition saw a half share of world renowned modern art collection (valued at £125m) for £10m. This purchase filled a major gap in the National Galleries of Scotland's Collection (modern/contemporary art) which they might otherwise have expected to use their annual £1.3m purchase grant to fill. There is therefore a re-occurring efficiency of £1.3m derived from the D'Offay acquisition as their purchase grant can be allocated to other priorities within the Galleries. This has been discussed and agreed with the Efficient Government team though discussions are ongoing with a view to articulating further, greater efficiencies relating to the acquisition itself. National Library of Scotland NLS has incorporated efficiencies as part of its business planning process to ensure that senior managers take responsibility for delivering savings. NLS has produced a property Asset Management Plan to ensure that the can generate efficiencies from their property costs (maintenance, storage, security, energy etc). Conducting a strategic organisational review to identify staffing efficiencies and developing a people strategy aimed at creating flexibilities to meet the Library's developing role. Part of this includes a review of pay and grading structure to be carried out in 2008/09 to ensure reward strategy meets best value criteria. Will also look to increase income generation as well as continue to work with other National Collections on shared services. Work ongoing to identify further efficiencies including potential to include sponsorship and other self generated income. Through the initiatives listed above the National Library of Scotland is expected to deliver at least 2% of its running costs in 2008/09 which would equate to some £270k. Scottish Museums Council Review of recruitment processes (£10k pa by year 3); Review of delivery of Learning and Access Development support to sector (£15k pa by year 3); Reorganisation of premises and move to open plan offices (£27k pa by year 1); Review of Internal IT and ICT development support to sector (£12k pa by year 3). Scottish Library and Information Council SLIC have a very good track record of joint working and shared services including sharing staff, accommodation and office costs with CILIP in Scotland (Scottish librarian's professional body) since 1996/97. The shared expenditure for staffing, office costs, IT, joint website over the past 3 years accounts on average 45% of expenditure total £323,704. CILIP in Scotland pays approx 40% of this cost. This is based on staffing complement and activity. CILIP in Scotland also provide HR support and Payroll functions for some staff via CILIP, London. In addition SLIC also have an agreement with the Centre for Digital Library for Research where they share IT architecture, including a library management system, which reduced the costs greatly for the partners involved. In terms of looking forward SLIC also intend to - use shared video conferencing facilities to cut travel costs by some 20/30%;
- Look at further sharing of office facilities with government agencies (£10/15k);
- Reduce printing and postage costs by moving to full on line environment (£8k)
All of these initiatives/elements combined would see the Cultural Collections deliver £2.240m in the year 2008/09. |