Agenda item

Purpose of report:

The report provides an update on the council’s cultural services, the response to and impact of COVID-19 on frontline services. The report also provides information about future opportunities and direction of cultural services.

Mark Nuti, Cabinet Member for Communities

Marie Snelling, Executive Director – Communities and Transformation

Susan Wills, Acting Assistant Director – Culture, Libraries & Registration

1. The Chairman welcomed the recently appointed Cabinet Member for Communities to the meeting and asked what his aspirations were for Cultural Services.The Cabinet Member was excited about the work being done to improve, evolve and expand the cultural experience for residents of Surrey.

2. The report referred to income lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Members asked about the short- and medium-term implications of this for the Service and whether there were any planned savings. The Executive Director stated that the pandemic had and continued to have a major impact on the delivery of frontline Cultural Services. A loss of £1.5m over the year was largely due to the closure of many of the Service’s income generating services (for example music tuition in schools). Covid grants from central government substituted some of this loss and the Service estimated that it would need to recover approximately £800k through efficiencies the following year. This deficit was subject to change as many of the Directorate’s services depended on customer behaviour and how individuals accessed services after lockdown. Therefore, close monitoring and flexibility was important, and the Service worked with the Finance department to ensure that scenario planning could evolve with the easing of lockdown restrictions and as patterns of resident behaviour could be discerned. The Service had put in place a range of mitigating actions to recover income, if needed, and was looking at how it could diversify and increase income across a number of services. It was also looking at measures to reduce back office costs whilst increasing efficiency to ensure that front line delivery was not impacted.

3. The Service ambition was not just focused on recovery but on growing and securing additional funding for services. The Assistant Director informed Members that the Service was looking at and learning from good practice in other parts of the country by working and building relationships with colleagues from other Local Authorities and organisations such as the British Library. Overall, the plan was ambitious, but the Executive Director and Assistant Director were confident that it could be achieved. It was difficult to estimate how many years it would take to recover losses as it would depend on future public interaction with services. The Executive Director reiterated Members that comprehensive scenario planning had been undertaken. 

4. The delivery of Cultural Services was flexible during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the use of digital and technology increasing choice, accessibility and efficiency, reducing costs and improving the offer and customer usage. The Service was committed to incorporating this new, virtual way of service delivery post-pandemic and wanted to build on the online events that were quickly developed from scratch during the first lockdown. The online services enabled the Service to continue its support of children’s learning and reading in a fun and interactive way, and provided an extra resource accessible to children throughout the school day. The Service was also planning a new learning offer, which included a homework club and study spaces, and was working with the British Library Living Knowledge Network to livestream cultural events and host touring exhibitions, and with the Libraries Consortium to provide access to libraries in Essex and London with residents’ library cards.

5. The Director stated that there was a clear role that Cultural Services should play in supporting Surrey’s post-COVID-19 recovery. The Service was to focus on promoting and strengthening the cultural offer across the county to enable post-Covid recovery of local economies. For Cultural Services to play a key role in the inclusion agenda, it needed to be more strategic, purposeful, and aligned to a focus on health and wellbeing and economic recovery. The Service had an excellent working relationship with the Arts Council and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The Executive Director invited Members to provide their ideas and view of the future role of Cultural Services by email.

6. There were a range of challenges that would continue to require close management, particularly COVID-19 recovery and mitigation of lost income. There was still a lot of uncertainty as the Service was reliant on guidance from central government. The Assistant Director summarised the post-COVID-19 roadmap for Cultural Services: from 12^th April, the Heritage Centre and libraries would fully open, however  the resumption of face-to-face events was to be delayed until they could be delivered in a Covid-secure manner. On 8^th March, registration and wedding services with up to six people resumed, with up to 30 people from the 17^th May, and a lift on all limits on numbers from the 21^st June. Music tuition classes also restarted on 8^th March and, from 12^th April, group activities for the arts service, out-of-school activities and ensembles could restart, and live performances from 17^th May. The Assistant Director stressed the importance of the Service recovering well from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic  and fully reopening in a safe, Covid-secure way  as soon as permissible.

Recommendations:

1. The Select Committee notes the positive response to the current pandemic from Cultural Services to continue to provide services and support to Surrey residents.

2. The Select Committee notes the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the risks highlighted in this report as a result of these challenges and the actions being taken to continue focussing on delivery of frontline services.