Transforming Warwickshire’s Heritage and Cultural Services
A number of innovations are being introduced to make Warwickshire’s Heritage and Cultural Services fit for the future.
The transformation of the service will see it extending online access and opening up opportunities for greater community access and involvement of the voluntary sector.
The changes will be brought in over the next three years as part of a revamp of Heritage and Cultural Services after Warwickshire County Council’s February budget set a 30 per cent saving of its controllable budgets by April 2014. This means reducing annual running costs by £413,000.
Warwickshire’s Archives and Museums play a key role in Warwickshire life, safeguarding our heritage for the use and enjoyment of future generations as well as all those who live and work in the county.
Arts and Heritage Education services develop and provide opportunities for people to participate in, and learn from the Warwickshire’s rich culture and heritage. Archaeology and Ecology services protect and enhance our historic and natural environment.
In meeting the challenge of reducing costs, we aim to protect our front-line services and our irreplaceable collections of archives and artefacts as far as possible.
We will be re-structuring to make reductions in our management and administrative support teams, and streamlining front line teams at the County Record Office and Museum services.
We will also be reviewing what services and facilities we offer from the museums at Market Hall and St. John’s, focusing on what makes Warwickshire special, and looking at participation, learning and activity spaces.
The proposals reflect the changing needs of communities and service users, and will improve opportunities for volunteers, online services and information. Working within and alongside Warwickshire’s communities will continue to be a high priority, as will harnessing heritage and culture to stimulate economic regeneration.
Regrettably, some service areas will be cut, including the temporary exhibition programme at the Market Hall Museum in Warwick, and five posts will be lost through redundancy between now and 2014.
Warwickshire County Councillor Colin Hayfield, Portfolio Holder for Customers, Workforce and Partnerships said: “The scale of the changes we plan to make is huge, and there have been some difficult decisions to make. We have tried to minimise impact on our users, and to maintain posts where possible.
"We will continue to offer high quality services and opportunities for all to engage with Warwickshire’s culture and its rich historic and natural environment.”