Community

Our annual programmes are only achieved through an extensive network of partners in the community; local arts and heritage organisations, individual volunteers and business supporters, of which it is only possible to give a few examples here. Heritage Trust staff worked with Jersey Arts Centre, Jersey Tourism and the Société Jersiaise to deliver the 1204-2004 programme. Jersey Tourism and the National Trust for Jersey joined us in promoting an extended Cider Festival in October. We worked with Jersey Tourism and the Jersey Tour Guides Association to develop the Bronze Badge course for tour guides.

The contribution of volunteers increased significantly in 2004. Tours and demonstration sessions delivered over 26,000 hours of interpretation to visitors at our sites. Our conservation volunteers gave over 1,700 hours. The value of this contribution to our work is enormous - in knowledge, experience, time, and skills. The level of this contribution is one of the strongest signs of the strength of support for heritage in Jersey.

Business support for the organisation also increased during 2004. Sponsorship of programmes and our Business Associates Scheme provided nearly £80,000 of support. Heritage Trust staff developed eleven sponsorship agreements worth £74,000 for the 1204 programme.

Partners

The Jersey Heritage Trust is committed to a programme of work with national peer organisations and specialists in order to ensure we continuously develop our standards and quality of work. Curatorial, education and design staff undertook important work with other museums and heritage organisations nationally. The Brothers-in-Arms exhibition was produced with Royal Armouries, the British Museum, the Museum of London, and Medieval History Magazine. We consulted expert advisers at the formative stages of the Liberation 60 oral history project, on the Apple Programme and the Cahun catalogue project.
Review of the Mont Orgueil project by national archaeologists, historians and buildings experts continued. Staff presented papers at British Museum Neolithic conference and attended the Museums Association Conference, the Group for Education in Museums conference, and the International Conference of Maritime Museums.

Governance and people

The board of trustees focused their efforts on resolving the funding problems faced by the Trust. Management gave much time to this matter, and the potential consequences of failure to achieve sustainable funding levels. As a result the Governance Committee met only once in 2004 and the Investors In People reassessment was delayed for a year. Issues relating to the enclosure of the Tudor Hall dominated the work of the ‘Mont Orgueil Cost Control Group.’ A great deal of management time was given to help staff at the Jersey Archive keep their focus on the day-to-day running of the service when jobs were threatened by the financial difficulties, and to managing the redeployment of staff whose posts had been made redundant. Jersey Heritage Trust continued to invest in staff training and development with 1.7% of payroll allocated in this way.

Funding

During 2004 the Jersey Heritage Trust faced difficult decisions concerning funding of the organisation. Over the five years to 2003 the number of tourists coming to the Island fell by 27 per cent. Inevitably this affected footfall figures and revenue income from admissions charges. At a difficult time for public finances in Jersey the level of our grant was also under scrutiny. Over the years the Trust had responded to this situation by taking steps to reduce expenditure and increasing income by efficiency savings, cuts in non-income generating services and increasing charges. During this period we also reduced the payroll by 10 per cent and increased admission charges by 25 per cent. But despite these cuts, we still faced a revenue shortfall of £300,000. Negotiations with the Education Sport and Culture Committee continued until agreement was reached in August for a level of funding necessary to sustain the Trust over the next three years, on the basis of an agreed programme of changes.

In anticipation of this, several staff vacancies were left unfilled with the result that when it became necessary to make cuts in public opening hours at the Archive it was possible to offer alternative employment to those directly affected. At the same time we aimed to introduce a year-round programme of events at all sites designed to promote family access, appeal to local audiences and increase local use of sites. We believe that we found a solution which is affordable and sustainable in the long-term and one that meets the ever-increasing demand for more diverse and higher quality programmes on Trust sites.