National Museums Liverpool Strategic Plan 2015-2018

Contents

Page

1. Foreword

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2. Who we are and what we do

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3. Our mission

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4. Our values

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5. Strategy Statement

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6. Strategic Objectives for 2015/16

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7. Strategic Objectives for 2016/17 and beyond

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APPENDICES A - Key achievements 2014/15

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1. Foreword 1. The primary audiences for this Plan are National Museums Liverpool (NML) staff and Trustees, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and NML‟s partners and supporters. 2. This 3-year Plan contains much uncertainty. Nonetheless, it outlines NML‟s priorities for the period, and how we expect our activities to meet our strategic objectives. 3. After a decade of continuous growth in visitor numbers, the strong underlying pattern was maintained in 2012 (which was our busiest year to date, with more than 3.4 million visits). As a result of cutbacks in levels of activity, during 2013 visits began to decline, and numbered 2.7m (down on 2011 and on 2012). Visitor numbers for the period 2014/15 stabilised, though we anticipate further decline in numbers this year as we continue to cut back our activity. 4. The current period of national austerity has lasted several years, and is proving extremely challenging for NML, given our role as a national museum service based in a regional city. In all, cuts in our Government grant since 2010/11 have amounted to a reduction of c 25% in real terms. DCMS officers and the Chancellor have warned us that more reductions are expected over the next few years. 5. Owing to difficulties in finding alternative sources of funding, this pattern of budgeting has resulted in major changes to the way we work, on the social and economic impacts we are able to have, and on our international work. 6. Notwithstanding the loss of more than 130 posts, we have striven to improve aspects of our work that underpin our massive (5-fold, 2001-12) audience growth. In this we have had great support from NML staff, who have proved over the past few years that they can respond to new challenges and demanding targets, while maintaining the highest professional standards. We would also like to acknowledge the huge contribution our volunteers make to ensuring that NML provides a great service to our public. 7. Nonetheless, NML‟s Board of Trustees and Executive Team are determined to maintain the best service we can. We will strive to generate income from sources other than central government; indeed, we are prioritising income generation in all suitable areas of activity. We will develop a new co-ordinated marketing and commercial strategy, and a new fundraising strategy. 8. We believe that NML remains a world model of best practice in terms of providing an energetic, high performance, inclusive national museum service.

Prof Phil Redmond CBE Chairman

Dr David Fleming OBE Director

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2. Who we are and what we do 1. National Museums Liverpool (NML) is one of the world‟s great museum organisations. We hold in trust and safeguard some of the world‟s most important museum collections, which are universal in their range. 2. We are core-funded by central government, and we are the only national museum service in England based wholly outside London, so we have a unique fourfold role –we are the main museum service for Liverpool and Merseyside; we are the North West‟s largest cultural organisation; and we operate at both national and international levels. 3. Having played a pivotal role in the cultural, educational and economic life of Liverpool and the North West for more than 150 years, our success can be measured in terms of how well we combine this local and regional role with our national and international responsibilities. 4. NML comprises eight museums: International Slavery Museum (ISM), Lady Lever Art Gallery (LLAG), Merseyside Maritime Museum (MMM), Museum of Liverpool (MoL), Sudley House (SH), UK Border Force National Museum, Walker Art Gallery (WAG), and World Museum (WM).

3. Our mission: To be the world’s leading example of an inclusive museum service (“inclusive” means available to all, regardless of age, ability, background or other factor or characteristic which might limit a person‟s access to what we do)

4. Our values: 1. We are an inclusive and democratic museum service; we aim to maximise social impact and educational benefit for all - museums change lives. 2. We believe that museums are fundamentally educational in purpose. 3. We believe that museums are places for ideas and dialogue, that use collections to inspire people; we do not shy away from controversy. 4. We believe in the power of museums to help promote good and active citizenship, and to act as agents of social change: we believe in the concept of, and campaign for, social justice. 5. We believe in the importance of sustainable development and we have a role to play in the conservation and protection of the built and natural environment. 6. We believe in seeking out new opportunities and innovative ways of working, so as to keep our public offer fresh, relevant and challenging.

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5. Strategy Statement Liverpool‟s cultural offer, including its museums, is without parallel in any regional city. But National Museums Liverpool operates in a city region which continues to struggle with a host of social and economic problems. NML operates in this hugely challenging environment, and we carry a very great responsibility in terms of delivering first class museums that, as part of a wider pattern of cultural and educational provision, can enhance wellbeing, confidence and social connectedness. In a period of public spending reductions this responsibility grows even greater, and NML can help mitigate the social consequences of adverse economic conditions. We are committed to facing up to this social responsibility, and our determination to provide free access to our museums (in line with Government policy), to programme our museums so that the content represents a diverse audience, allied with the highest quality standards and enormous variety, is at the core of this commitment. We will, over the next few years, continue to do our best to: 1. widen participation in our activities, thereby fulfilling our social objectives, especially by attracting diverse audiences 2. offer educational opportunities to people of all ages and backgrounds 3. achieve economic benefits through developing cultural tourism, and by helping build a strong image for Liverpool and the city region 4. pursue research programmes that lead to greater knowledge about our collections, and promote the exceptional quality of our collections 5. improve our visitors’ experience by upgrading our buildings, displays and facilities, offering quality and variety 6. create a culture that motivates our team, enabling us to work effectively only through the commitment of staff do we achieve success. 7. increase the diversity of our workforce 8. be alert to political, economic, social, and technological change to ensure we remain focused and relevant 9. work increasingly in collaboration and partnership with other agencies – education, arts, business, public bodies, Non-Governmental Organisations 10. behave in an ethical manner at all times, promoting sustainable practices 11. manage risk in a positive and effective manner 12. use our resources wisely, providing real value for money Page 5 of 23

13. augment our resources wherever we are able. In pursuing a strategy of combining significant audience growth and diversity with the highest levels of professionalism, and commercialising our activities wherever we can, we acknowledge that this has radically changed the culture of NML, and has created a challenging working environment. This environment is characterised by regular review of the way we do things, by the pursuit of new ideas and methods, and by the constant re-examination of traditional museum practices. Our success in terms of massive audience growth, combined with rising standards of collections care, demonstrate the validity of this approach, and our advice is sought widely on how to manage a modern, changing and impactful museum service. The next few years will be characterised by more change, to how we do things, and to the service we are able to provide to the public, as we continue to adjust to the diminution of the resources available to us. It is in our capacity to manage ourselves imaginatively, while continuing to align ourselves to our Values, wherein our future success lies. A list of our key achievements for 2014/15 can be found in the Appendix.

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6. Strategic Objectives for 2015/16 With reference to our Strategy Statement at the beginning of this Strategic Plan, our major priorities over the next year are: 1. To strive to deliver an excellent, socially inclusive, entrepreneurial and sustainable museum service. 2. To continue to mitigate the effects of funding cuts by controlling costs 3. To manage the reduction in scale of NML, while striving to maximise our public impact. 4. To implement a new income-generation strategy and develop a new strategy for increasing philanthropic support for NML 5. To develop appropriate partnerships which offer strategic development opportunities, regionally, nationally and internationally. The key drivers in our achieving these objectives are the need to provide a basic level of care to our collections, and the need to ensure that the public has continued access to these collections through being able to use our museums. While during the course of the year we will see further change to what we do and how we do it, these drivers will remain at the core of our efforts. We need to refocus efforts onto augmenting our income and pursuing productive partnerships; at the same time as doing all we can to maintain morale among our staff and volunteers.

Context NML is reshaping and reorganising our service. All the following objectives will be pursued in light of this. Staff numbers have been reduced over the past four year by an estimated 25%, or 1 in 4 staff, and this process will sit at the centre of our continued efforts during 2015-16. Our Strategic Objectives have been expanded to offer greater detail in the sections below. The sections are organised alphabetically and have an equal priority throughout the organisation:1. Advocacy We will: 1. Develop an impactful advocacy strategy for NML, to ensure that all our key stakeholders are informed about our work, successes and ambitions; we will work with supporters, including Trustees, Foundation Trust members, Patrons and donors, to advocate NML. 2. Raise our education and community health profile so as to better engage across the whole of government, beyond DCMS e.g. Education, Health and Home Office. 3. Seek to maintain a national and international leadership role, through appropriate representation, media activity, print, social networks etc. 4. Widely publicise and build upon House of Memories to ensure that we maintain its Page 7 of 23

high profile with the public, carers, stakeholders and funders.

2. Audiences We will: 1. Strive to reach our target of 2,500,000 visits, with an emphasis on hard-to-reach audiences, but also on developing commercial trading activity. 2. Implement a new model for exhibitions delivery, to ensure maximum public benefit and to attract local, national and international audiences; as well as continuing to develop the potential for increasing income from exhibitions (through increased touring of NML-generated exhibitions; partnerships with commercial exhibition producers and partnerships with other museums). 3. Build engagement with the health and social care sectors, beyond the House of Memories training experience 4. Continue to develop audiences via digital platforms and social media 5. Develop our marketing strategy with the travel trade sector

3. Buildings We will: 1. Implement Year One of the 2015-20 Capital Strategy, looking at all aspects of our Estate and including 3 key strands: Capital repairs; Rationalisation; and Development. We will strive to minimise running costs and capital repairs liabilities, and continue to develop our trading potential and visitor offer. 2. Capital repairs: we will undertake the programme of infrastructure improvements and capital repairs works needed to maintain the steady state; ensure statutory compliance, and maintain the normal operation of our buildings for us to meet core objectives i.e. the safety of staff and visitors and care of the collections. 3. Rationalisation: we will continue the rationalisation of office accommodation across the estate and condense staff accommodation and operational functions, making best use of the Midland Railway Building; Picton Stack at the WAG, and WM spaces. We will continue to decant collections and other functions from the North Street warehouse. The decant of archives will commence during the year subject to arrangements with the British Library at Boston Spa. We will commence investigations into the potential to dispose of ancillary miscellaneous buildings within the wider NML estate – notably The Oratory and County Sessions House 4. Development: at the LLAG we will complete the South End galleries project in early 2016. At the MoL we will commence the remedial works to the external steps and terraces and flat ceilings with a view to completing works in 2016. At WM we will commence the redevelopment and expansion of the Ancient Egypt galleries; and we will commence design and planning works for the expansion and improvements to the ground floor shop and café to increased earned income; at the MMM we will continue to develop the specification for the off-site production kitchen and identify properties for lease.

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4. Collections We will: 1. Ensure that our collections are stored safely and securely, by improving the management of our storage facilities and undertaking basic care; continue discussions at a national level re opportunities which may flow from national storage initiatives being promoted by DCMS – BFI (film and media), NHM (miscellaneous), Science Museum (large objects) and assess whether efficiencies and improved access can be achieved. 2. Continue to develop, research, publish and interpret the collections, and undertake fieldwork, to maintain our professional and academic eminence and to make them more representative of society at large; to deliver grant-funded projects relating to LGBT collections; to develop slavery-related collections; to seek grant funding, private and commercial funding, donations and sponsorship to acquire collections, undertake research, fieldwork, and publication and also undertake consultancy work on an earned income basis. 3. Expand the loan of collections nationally and internationally, with cost recovery and commercial charging, to enable us to conserve and promote them. 4. Complete the collections research and interpretation for the LLAG South End Project – opening 2016; the WM Egyptian Gallery – opening 2016, the Cheshire Hoard project 2016 and for the NML- wide exhibitions programme. 5. Develop a more comprehensive programme of exhibitions from NML‟s own collections and to design a commercial model for touring these exhibitions within the UK and abroad. 6. Continue and expand international relationships and support Government diplomacy agendas and the GREAT campaign through loans, exhibitions, consultancy and participation in international collaborations and research; seek funding from international partners, British Council and other organisations. 7. Build upon the Mayas: revelations of an endless time exhibition at WM; and plan for a reciprocal exhibition of NML‟s Roman collections to be held in Mexico in 2017. 8. Continue to digitise collection databases and images to enable greater access to NML‟s collections online and generate earned income through increased image sales and print on demand technology e.g. LGBT and Ancient Egypt collections.

5. Education We will: 1. Aim for every Merseyside pupil to participate in our formal education programmes. 2. Maximise our educational impact; develop an education income generation strategy; develop a marketing plan for schools and develop more effective promotions for family events and activities. 3. Ensure that our most „hard-to-reach visitors‟ are represented within our education and community developments. 4. Work in partnership with the regional networks of schools, colleges and voluntary sector education providers, endeavouring to maintain young people‟s participation with our informal education and community outreach programme. 5. Develop the House of Memories training programme across health, social care and housing sectors. Page 9 of 23

6. Efficiencies and effectiveness We will: 1. Continue energy saving and sustainable initiatives, and reduce our carbon footprint. 2. Review the operating systems and processes for managing administration and financial activities within NML, to ensure that they are fit for purpose. 3. Use IT as an enabler to deliver organisational objectives and cost savings, and implement IT enhancements to drive reductions in support costs. 4. Stabilise our new Payroll and HR integrated system and move forward to optimise and embed the functionality of the system to the best advantage of the organisation. 5. Review long term loans, commencing with Maritime Archives, and assess their status with a view to renegotiating terms of retention by NML, or returning them to lenders. 6. Renew the NML visitor counting system to ensure we have reliable and up-todate data to inform effective visitor analysis and development. 7. Maximise the outputs of collections research and development for exhibitions by developing a modular system of exhibition design for ease of touring for commercial hire. 8. Establish a staff Ethics Committee to advise NML, ensuring we are alert to all ethical considerations of our activities.

7. Income and Fundraising We will: 1. Deliver NML Trading Ltd profit, in line with business plan projections. 2. Develop and implement a grants and donations fundraising strategy, aligned closely to the capital programme, House of Memories, exhibitions programme and other strategic priorities; identify opportunities to increase philanthropic support for NML through digital giving and the development of long term relationships with potential donors and benefactors in the UK and internationally, in line with the DCMS Ten Point Plan for Philanthropy. 3. Increase cash donations from visitors through our donation boxes and through trialling new approaches to maximise visitor donations; increase further our Membership scheme. 4. Deliver income generation profit targets agreed as part of our Income Generation Strategy, through projects such as: Increasing income through touring exhibitions and commercial loans of objects, using our digital assets and collections, selling images for reproduction, selling management skills, research, and fees and charges. Implementing business models for Education income generation and building upon the House of Memories project to progress it with an increasingly commercial focus. Page 10 of 23

8. Partnerships We will: 1. Network locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, in order to create opportunities for NML to deliver our Objectives, e.g. develop our partnerships with organisations such as Homotopia, Anti-Slavery International, Clatterbridge Cancer Centre. We will open up engagement with regionally-based charities where appropriate. 2. Further develop NML‟s formal strategic partnerships to enhance our reputation and impacts, and to stretch our resources further, and maximise opportunities for selling skills and generating other income opportunities 3. Follow up with work undertaken on behalf of the Mayor of Liverpool on the city‟s cultural heritage so as to ensure that NML‟s strategic efforts and those of the Mayor are aligned, especially in the light of regional devolution and the development of the Northern Powerhouse 4. Support the UK Museums Association in its efforts to represent and advocate museums across all four home nations, in particular in the implementation of the Museums Change Lives vision for UK museums, that so closely reflects the inclusive approach to museum development of NML, and the revision of the MA‟s Code of Ethics. 5. Continue our successful international partnerships with the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM), the Social Justice Alliance of Museums (SJAM), the Museum of International Democracy in Argentina, the Taiwan National University of the Arts, and ICOM and INTERCOM. 6. Continue to develop our relationships with Leicester Museums Studies Department (including the MOOC); and with locally-based universities i.e. Liverpool Hope University, John Moores University and Liverpool University. 7. Work with partners to support destination marketing, secure funding, improve infrastructure and increase footfall on Liverpool‟s waterfront, at William Brown Street and in Wirral, via the Liverpool Waterfront Business Partnership, St George‟s Quarter, Wirral Business Network and liaison with Border Force. 8. Maintain strong relationships with disadvantaged community networks that experience social injustice (lack of opportunity, education, means, access, skills development and employment).

9. Team We will: 1. Consolidate new structures across NML to enable the achievement of our organisational priorities. 2. Endeavour to protect staff morale against a background of job losses and cutbacks in our service, not least through open and transparent communication. 3. Ensure workloads are manageable in order to ensure that NML does not overreach. 4. Explore opportunities for skills development and training for our staff; increase training budgets and develop internal coaching and training programmes to ensure that staff who have changed role as a result of restructuring are developed in their roles. and also to develop other priorities in health and safety, disaster recovery, handling of collections, and management and fundraising. 5. In consultation with our trade unions, explore how best to reconcile increased volunteer opportunities with the loss of permanent jobs. Page 11 of 23

6. Look at the social consequences and impacts of volunteering, especially on lonely, isolated and vulnerable people, as part of our strategy for social inclusion and changing lives 7. Recruit a number of new Trustees for NML.

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7. Strategic Objectives for 2016/17 and beyond Our priorities over the next three years are to: 1. maximise our number of visitors 2. stabilise NML at a new level of funding, while endeavouring to have as great a social and economic impact as possible. This will mean looking at all methods of reducing costs. 3. explore all opportunities to enhance our earned income and donations to NML, including admission fees to special exhibitions 4. track developments relating to, and participate fully in, the development of the Northern Powerhouse and other issues arising out of the devolution of political powers from Westminster NML is about the people of Liverpool city region and the North West of England, as well as being a museum service that reflects world cultures and issues, and we will ensure that we are central to the creation of plans and strategies for our city and region. This Plan is subject to in-year review when Objectives for the year and beyond will be reassessed, based on further intelligence on Government funding and other emerging policies.

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APPENDIX

Key Achievements 2014/15 1. Advocacy We had 1,887 media mentions throughout the year, worth £7.3m in estimated advertising value (EAV). This was 4% up on 2013-14. We are delighted to have won the following awards:  Museums and Heritage Awards 2014 - National Educational Initiative (House of Memories Northern Model)  Visit England awards 2014 – Best Tourism Experience (Titanic & Liverpool: The Untold Story)  NIACE Adult learners week Regional Award – House of Memories Northern Model  CorpComms Digi Awards 2014 – Best Corporate blog (NML Blog)  Merseyside Woman of the year – Carol Rogers (work on House of Memories project)  European innovate dementia awards – Best professional innovation (My House of Memories app)  Family go Live nominations – WM  The OMD Dazzle ship won as the Most Innovative Enterprise in the ACE (Association of Cultural Enterprises) Best product awards We were highly commended in the following awards:  Alzheimer‟s Society Dementia friendly Awards  Webby awards – NML website in the cultural institutions category We were shortlisted for the following awards:  Northern Digital Awards 2015 - Best app (My House of Memories)  M&H awards 2014 – Events category (NMLT Christmas Party offer)  Liverpool Regional Tourism awards 2014  Large Visitor attraction (MoL)  Outstanding Customer Service (Simon Breedon & Dave Brown)  Excellence in Business tourism (NMLT Conference and Events)  CorpComms Digi awards 2014 – Best Consumer website (NML website redesign)  National Lottery National Treasures – MoL  National Lottery Good Causes – MoL  Northern Digital awards – My House of Memories app  CIPR Inside story awards – Best Intranet (NML intranet redesign)  Wirral Tourism awards – Outstanding Young Person of the Year (Sadie Weedon) We launched a new e-newsletter to keep partners, stakeholders and business contacts up to date with NML developments. The Latest e-blast is sent to a wide range of subscribers each month. Norman Lamb MP headlined the official launch of My House of Memories app at the House of Commons. More than 150 guests, including Culture Minister Ed Vaizey MP, Andy Burnham MP, Steve Rotherham MP, strategic health, social care, housing and Page 14 of 23

technology leaders attended the event. Press attendees included influential dementia blogger Beth Britton and Museums Journal‟s Sharon Heal. Our Executive Director of Education and Visitors was awarded an MBE in the New Year‟s Honours List 2015 for Services to Museums. This was achieved as a result of the House of Memories project. 2. Audiences We attracted 2.7m visits to our museums. There were in excess of 2m visits to the website in 2014/15 compared with 1.8m last year (an increase of 9%). This reflects the fact that despite smaller exhibitions, and fewer visits to the museums, our investment in website redesign and in making more of our collections available online, is paying off. 183,289 children and young people took part in NML‟s education programme during the year (a 2% increase on 2013/14). We opened 25 exhibitions across our museums. Particular highlights included: 

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In March 2015 MMM commemorated the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania with a brand new exhibition. Lusitania: life, loss, legacy tells the story of the city‟s most loved ship and the passengers and crew who sailed aboard her on the tragic last voyage. The John Moores Painting Prize at the WAG, which benefited from a linked BBC documentary. Rossetti’s obsession: images of Jane Morris at the LLAG brought together compelling examples of this pictorial obsession. Visitors to WM were invited to find out fascinating facts and come face to face with live snakes at Sssnakes Alive! This hugely popular family exhibition far exceeded its visitor target and attracted more than 200k visitors First World War: Reflections on Liverpool’s Home Front was timed to open in conjunction with centenary of the First World War. The exhibition at the MoL celebrates the contribution the city‟s Black soldiers made to the war effort as well as looking at daily life in Liverpool between 1914 and 1918. From the 1860s until the late 1960s more than 100,000 children were sent from Britain to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries through child migration schemes. At the MMM, On their own – a collaboration between the Australian National Maritime Museum and NML - tells the emotional stories of the children. Liberty Bound – in partnership with the St Helena government, this was the first exhibition to look at the recently-discovered graveyards of 'liberated' Africans on the island Only in England at the WAG explored the influence of photographer Tony RayJones on other photographers, such as Martin Parr, from the 1970s to the present day.

We refocused our digital strategy and created a new set of goals for social media and the blog for 2014/15. We are actively engaged in growing our social media activities and during the course of the year we gained 11,677 Twitter followers and 11,571 Facebook likes. We now have 58,647 followers on Twitter and 40,470 on Facebook. New developments this year included the development of our presence on Pinterest and the creation of an Instagram account for the WAG. Page 15 of 23

We held a series of successful events for Light Night on 15 May. Both the WAG and the MoL stayed open late and welcomed almost 3,000 additional visitors. Among the attractions was the opening event for the Grayson Perry: the vanity of small differences exhibition at the WAG. We produced new video content to engage audiences online, covering subjects as diverse as House of Memories, our legacies programme and the LLAG South End development. We developed the presentation of our collections online, with a particular focus on the WAG collections in 2014/15. This included redesigning the home page, adding a new section for works on paper, and the addition of a new „videos and installations‟ page, which reflects a growing area of the collections. We delivered the Communications and Marketing Plan for the initial phase of the LLAG South End galleries development. This included information and signage for existing visitors as well as a campaign comprising digital, print and advertising to highlight the development to new audiences. The campaign will continue throughout 2015 until the project launch in March 2016. 3. Buildings We delivered a programme of maintenance across all our buildings with more than 1,700 requests for reactive maintenance completed within the year. We were delighted to receive HLF Stage 2 funding for the South End Galleries project at the LLAG. This will breathe new life into galleries last refurbished in the 1960s, including the Wedgwood Room and the Napoleon Room. As well as providing better access to the magnificent collections, the refurbishment will enable us to offer new spaces for commercial hire. The professional team has been procured; the main contractor has commenced on site and, with the stripping out of the 1960s interventions having been undertaken, the task of bringing the architecture back to its former glory has commenced. The project will be complete in 2016. Major infrastructure works were undertaken at the LLAG to enable and enhance the South End galleries project. This included replacement of the roof and roof lights to the galleries and south end of the Main Hall; clearing of risers to enable services and cable runs and major fabric repairs to the external of the building, repointing, painting and cleaning of the stonework. A programme of works to enhance trading facilities and commercial hire for events has been developed in conjunction with NML Trading Ltd (NMLT) to ensure that we continue to remain attractive to visitors and commercial clients. Closer working with NMLT as a result of the Director of Commercial Operations joining the Executive Team will ensure that we plan and develop our buildings to make them more flexible for use across the organisation in the future. As part of a plan of works to consolidate office and workshop accommodation across the estate as a result of both the reduction in staff numbers and the need to upgrade facilities, the decant of the North Street building commenced in year with the relocation of the joinery and mount making workshops to previously under-utilised spaces within the Midland Railway Building. Continuing this, a Project Archivist has been appointed to commence the planning of the decant of NML Archives collections currently housed in low quality storage in the North Street building. Talks have commenced with the British Page 16 of 23

Library at Boston Spa to see if they can offer a suitable repository for the archives, thus delivering efficiencies across DCMS bodies. The decant of the archive collections from the building will commence towards the end of the year. Other collection and storage areas in the building will be addressed on a rolling basis from 2016 onwards. NML was one of five organisations which participated in the National Audit Office review of the management of the wider DCMS and ALB‟s estates Approaches to Estates Management, February 2015, and was selected because of diversity of the collection of buildings for which we care. The review team found that NML‟s management of the estate is robust. 4. Collections As part of the organisation-wide Making Choices restructuring, collections management, conservation and curatorial divisions have been integrated under the management of relevant museum directors who hold responsibility for the collections. This will enable greater integration of work programmes and ensure that resources are aligned across the divisions towards public outputs. NML was very successful this year in attaining external funding totalling in excess of £700k for collections-related research and collections development and display from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund, DCMS Wolfson, NERC and other academic sources. This allows NML to maintain Independent Research Organisation status. Collections development funding will enable us to expand our collecting activity, acquisitions and research in LGBT material, and Slavery collections. The LLAG South End Development project was awarded £1.262m from HLF(Stage 2) in September 2014. This will enable the redevelopment of the South End galleries and research and redisplay of Lord Leverhulme‟s outstanding collections of 18th century English furniture and female portraiture; Chinese ceramics, Napoleon collections, Victorian and early 20th century sculpture and the world‟s best collection of Wedgwood jasperware. The capital project is on plan and our aim is to reopen the galleries to the public in early 2016. Progress in digitising the collections and making them available through the NML website continued throughout the year and included the catalogue of mediaeval ivories; highlights of the WAG painting collection, the Ratoff studio ceramics collection and botanical plant models. Curatorial research and input to the development of the exhibitions programme remains a priority and notable exhibitions in the year generated from NML‟s own collections included: Turner: travels light and landscape from our superb collections of paintings, watercolours and prints by JMW Turner at the LLAG; at the MMM Sail Away: Liverpool Shipping Posters; and an important new display Lusitania: Life Loss & Legacy in commemoration of the catastrophic sinking of RMS Lusitania during the First World War; and at SH the programme of costume displays bring animation to the historic house with this year‟s exhibition Drip Dry: Synthetic Fibres in Fashion featuring outfits from NML collections dating from the 1920s to the present day. Curatorial input into developing the exhibitions programme with partner organisations helps us to forge strong working relationships with national and local organisations most notably perhaps at the MoL where the partnership with Homotopia continued with the inspirational April Ashley: Portrait of a Lady exhibition; From There to Here: the hidden history of people with learning difficulties in Merseyside in partnership with Page 17 of 23

Wicked Fish performing and creative arts company, and Now +Then: three decades of HIV in Merseyside created by Sahir House. At the ISM Liberty Bound: slavery and St. Helena presented recently-discovered burial sites containing the remains of „liberated‟ enslaved Africans on the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. This was produced in collaboration with the Government of St. Helena, the Museum of St. Helena, the Department for International Development (DFID) and Dr. Andrew Pearson. The above are examples of an open and collaborative approach to partnerships that characterises our work and is, we believe, essential to the vibrancy of our museums and their relevance in society. Contemporary collecting and fieldwork continues in line with NML‟s Collections Development Policy and during the year we received generous donations from the public and benefactors. Notable accessions include two important paintings formerly owned by the Lever family under the Acceptance in Lieu of Inheritance Tax by HM Government and allocated to the LLAG: A Tuscan Girl by William Holman Hunt, and A Votive Offering (The Late Roses) by Lawrence Alma-Tadema; and Untitled (Dollhouse), 2002 by Yinka Shonibare, presented by an anonymous donor through the Contemporary Art Society. This is probably our busiest year to date in terms of loan activity with 3,764 objects from across our collection areas being loaned to museums within the UK (145 venues) and internationally (22 venues). The major loan of 140 pieces of Wedgwood jasperware and other items from NML‟s collections from the LLAG to the All Russian Museum of Decorative Art in Moscow saw the world‟s finest collection of this material being displayed alongside Wedgwood‟s magnificent Frog Service of Catherine the Great during the UK-Russia Year of Cultural Cooperation 2015. 5. Education Our Education and Visitors teams produced a creative and engaging cultural education programme throughout the year for schools, children and young people, adult learners, older people, families and community groups. A summary of activities are described below. New education resources have been created including; Legacies of Transatlantic Slavery for secondary students, a Battle of the Atlantic self led trail, When I was Little intergenerational resource for grandparents and grandchildren, and new Memory Suitcases. The ISM received funding to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta with a Teach the Teacher study day and Schools Parliament event. An events programme for Sssnakes Alive! exhibition at WM attracted significant numbers of visitors. Over 4,000 visitors engaged with events each weekend. The Meet me at the Museum initiative at the MoL and WM engaged isolated older people in reminiscence activity using handling objects, film and music. An extensive education and community programme continues at the LLAG following the success of the Stage 2 HLF. For the majority of participants, the engagement represented their first visit to the LLAG. Marking the 15th Slavery Remembrance Day Commemorations, BAFTA award winning Director, Amma Asante, director of the film Belle, delivered the inaugural Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture. Page 18 of 23

A programme of events to support the John Moores Painting Prize 2014 including artist talks was delivered at the WAG. Ongoing partnership activity at the Museum of Liverpool with Homotopia included a programme of events themed around April Ashley Portrait of a Lady, and a wreath laying for Transgender Day of Remembrance. The Seized! Education team collaborated with Everton in the Community as part of their „Safe Hands‟ Project. The programme supports offenders through rehabilitation and the transition from imprisonment to freedom. As part of Black History Month, a series of thought provoking talks took place at the ISM including Julia Immonen from the Row for Freedom Campaign to raise awareness of child trafficking. 500 Brownies and 89 leaders participated in a sleepover at the WM, with activities including Meet the Mummy and Planetarium shows. The Seized! education team organised Public Service Days attended by over 300 pupils from nine colleagues across England and Wales to find out about careers in public service. As part of Light Night, the WAG hosted the Dot Art Schools exhibition, while the MoL welcomed Biennial artist Ali Harwood who ran public art workshops throughout the evening. The MMM education team hosted an event with Australian National Maritime Museum curator Kim Tao, and a screening of Ken Loach‟s film Oranges & Sunshine. 6. Efficiencies and effectiveness To manage on-going reductions to our funding, we have continued to develop our Making Choices programme which is focused on reorganising NML and how we work in line with the revised funding base whilst aiming to maintain sufficient flexibility to respond to opportunities. NML has now lost 137 posts between 2010 and 2015 improving financial sustainability and demonstrating NML‟s resilience in the face of reduced funding. The new HR and Payroll system has been effective from 1 April 2014 and is working well operationally. In 2015-16 NML will exploit the system to ensure advantage is being taken of its capabilities. The new IT Virtual desktop environment has been rolled out across NML to provide Windows 8 functionality to all NML staff to reduce IT support costs and improve efficiency and flexibility for staff The IT Disaster Recovery Solution was tested in March 15 and results were excellent, the test demonstrated that we could recover IT systems within 6 hours of a disaster. Minor actions resulting are being implemented and the next target is to recover the IT systems within 3 to 4 hours. A new multi-functional printing solution is now in place to simplify and improve printing across NML, whilst giving full visibility of volumes to reduce costs. Page 19 of 23

A new budgeting process has been put in place to agree budgets earlier. It will be effective from 16/17. Other financial reporting processes have been improved during the year enabling more effective monitoring and forecasting of revenue budgets including projects and restricted income. Improvements to reporting are part of an ongoing process to adapt to continuously changing requirements. Planning for rationalising office accommodation continues with the decant of workshops into vacant space at Midland Railway Building. Planning for the decant of the archives and collections store at North Street commenced and discussions with the British Library at Boston Spa for the relocation of archives and printed materials are underway. A new process for environmental monitoring which devolves data collection and monitoring as well as calibration and servicing of the monitors at a local venue or store level is now in place. During the period the Estate Management Department secured a Power Purchase Agreement (export contract) for the CHP plant at the MoL and is now receiving income from electricity generated on site and provided to the grid. NML is the first public sector organisation with charitable status, generating income from the export of electricity, under a Public Private Partnership arrangement, using an Energy Services Contract. 7. Income and Fundraising We have refocused on income generation during the year by creating an Income Generation Team made up of Executive Team members. This reflects the fact that income generation is a strategic priority for NML and highlights its importance at the highest level in the organisation. Plans are in place to generate additional contribution to NML through new models, for example selling NML skills, charging for educational visits, developing exhibitions with touring income potential. Achievements in income generation during 2014-15 are:  32% of NML‟s gross income was self-generated in 2014-15 (includes £4m NMLT income; £1.6m restricted income from capital and revenue projects (mostly LLAG and Border Force) ; £2m donated assets; £1.5m MoL legals; £0.6m House of Memories and exhibitions; £0.3m fees and charges; £0.2m donations. These definitions of gross income are in line with those used in other national museums.  NML‟s self-generated income was £6.4m in 2014-15 (excluding MoL legal income and donated gifts).  NMLT made a £416k net profit, significantly surpassing its profit targets for the year.  NMLT income increased to £3.8m in 2014-15 from £3.5m in 2013-14.  In winter 2014 NML started selling electricity back to the National Grid from the Combined Heat and Power plant which services the MoL.  Project income of £191k was recognised in the year from the Department of Health towards the House of Memories dementia programme. This funding was largely to deliver the My House of Memories app and training programme to Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group.

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Fundraising achievements are summarised below. Total fundraising recognised in the financial statements in 2014-15 was £1.6m – this is included in the self-generated income of £6.4m above. (The main components of this fundraising income relate to LLAG refurbishment i.e. £0.9m, mostly HLF and DCMS/Wolfson; and Border Force income of £0.2m to support the Border Force National Museum.) Our donations boxes have raised £194k a fall of 3% against 2013-14 in line with a fall in visitor numbers. We secured major trust and foundation funding support for our capital developments and public programmes (cash and pledges, not necessarily recognised in the financial statements in 14/15), including:  £1.262m from HLF towards the South End Development at the LLAG. This formed part of the total £1.4m total award. We previously secured £149k as part of our HLF first-round pass.  £50k from J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust awarded towards the LLAG South End Development.  £25k from The Charles Hayward Foundation towards the South End Development at the LLAG.  £20k from Sir Siegmund Warburg‟s Voluntary Settlement towards the South End Development at the LLAG.  £20k from The Henry Moore Foundation towards the South End Development at the LLAG.  £300k towards our Ancient Egypt Gallery improvements from the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund.  We secured £225k from the HLFs Collections Fund towards the ISM Transatlantic and Contemporary Slavery Collecting Project.  The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund awarded £92k towards Pride and Prejudice. This project will identify, research, understand, digitise, catalogue and highlight previously hidden or marginalised LGBT objects, within the collections of: MoL, NML‟s Art Galleries (WAG, SH and LLAG) and Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove.  We were awarded £10k towards ISM‟s Our Modern Magna Carta project by the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee.  Andrew and Liz Collinge pledged £13k towards the South End Development at the LLAG.  Prof P and Mrs A Redmond pledged £50k towards the South End Development at the LLAG  Health Education North West confirmed £20k funding for a House of Memories Hospital Trust (acute care model).  Liverpool City Council confirmed £30k funding for a House of Memories „Buddy‟ programme. Barnett Waddingham also agreed to support the „Buddy‟ programme at £6k.  The Department of Health approved an NML and Mersey Care NHS Trust partnership application to support the development of My House of Memories app in the South East of England. They have awarded £80k. The project will deliver six half day training sessions for museum partners, health and social care partners.  All of our Patrons (five) and Corporate Members (four) have renewed for another year.  We launched two public appeals for the LLAG: the Centenary Club and Patrons‟ Circle. The LLAG South End appeals have raised to date: £17k. This represents 114 Centenary Club members - £11k and four Patron‟s Circle members - £6k. Funds raised will support our South End Development at the LLAG. Page 21 of 23

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Rathbones agreed to hire three maritime paintings. We received legacy bequests amounting to £28k The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art has awarded us £10k towards a curatorial research grant to create the Online Dictionary of the Liverpool Autumn Exhibitions and Spring Exhibitions (1871-1938).

8. Partnerships NML has a strong influence over Liverpool‟s city cultural plan to achieve economic benefits through developing cultural tourism, and by helping build a strong image for Liverpool and the city region in line with the government‟s Northern Powerhouse agenda. The multiple award-winning House of Memories has continued to grow, training 7,000 carers across Liverpool and the UK and expanding partnerships across health, housing and social care. The Department of Health is supporting the further roll out of House of Memories with the programme being taken to the South East region including the British Museum, Cinema Museum, Bexley Heritage Trust and Brighton Royal Pavilion and Museum. A new version of the My House of Memories app, created with support from people living with dementia, was released with over 3,000 downloads to date. The app features classical music performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The ISM has become a third party Reporting Centre, an initiative with the Merseyside Criminal Justice Board to help increase the reporting of hate based behaviour. As part of our Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund application we have developed a partnership with Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove in order to develop our LGBT collections. The Happy Older People Network membership has grown to over 140 professionals and community leaders, helping to support the work of the Liverpool‟s Mayoral Lead for Older People to establish age-friendly cities activity in Liverpool. The WM co-hosted this year‟s National Aquarium Conference. This prestigious event involved 1,220 delegates from British public Aquaria. Liverpool City Council have awarded funding to develop a House of Memories „Buddy‟ programme to support the local community that cares for the growing number of people living with dementia. 9. Team NML continued to restructure the organisation to maximise delivery to our visitors within the boundaries of the reduced funding available. In 2014-15 this resulted in the removal of 42 posts. We continued with a recruitment freeze and recruited internally for vacancies where possible.

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A 1% pay increase was awarded to most staff in line with the government‟s pay remit. Our lower graded staff received an average 6% pay increase. A further 0.9% non consolidated payment was paid to all staff in January 2015. We continue to coach, train and develop our teams to maximise and prioritise our resources within the context of reshaping NML and ensuring we are able to maximise opportunities in the future. We also try wherever possible to secure external funding to further support the development of our staff From December 2014 the Director of Commercial Operations for NMLT joined the Executive Team, highlighting the increased importance of commercial activities within NML.

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