NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

CORPORATE PLAN 2017-27

“At a time when identity, shared culture and civic values are increasingly relevant to us all, the
National Portrait Gallery is uniquely placed to generate a discussion by reflecting on our common
artistic, cultural and social history – in short, on what binds us together.”

OUR VISION
The National Portrait Gallery, founded in 1856 to collect and display portraits of eminent British men
and women, is uniquely placed to encourage reflection on the nature of British society, as the only
national museum focusing on British identity, individual achievement, and the impact and influence
of people making a mark on the country’s history and culture. Home to the world’s largest collection
of portraits, the Gallery is not just a museum of art, but also a centre for the exploration of identity,
achievement and citizenship, located in the world’s most diverse city.

The Gallery remains determined to continue to meet the unprecedented interest in the Gallery’s
collections and exhibition programme experienced in recent years. However we know that we will
need to transform the Gallery’s facilities and refresh the public offer through a representation of its
collections, redevelopment of the digital programme and changes to its physical spaces, if the
Gallery is to maintain its position as a vibrant, world-class institution.

The Gallery is embarking on a major renewal programme designed to transform the services it
provides to its visitors, physical and virtual, and in the way it presents and interprets its Collection.
Our ten year strategic plan, Inspiring People, places the needs of today’s and future audiences at its
heart. The renewed National Portrait Gallery will deepen understanding and enjoyment of its
remarkable collection of portraits and will broaden its appeal to the widest possible audiences. It
will do this through a transformed building that will be more attractive and welcoming. Our
collections will be displayed in innovative ways that will bring to life the stories of individuals and the
multiple narratives of British history and culture. There will be enhanced space for display and
exhibitions, which will allow us to welcome a larger number of visitors and provide a more enjoyable
and enriching experience.

A diverse programme of exhibitions and events, which will excel in all the aspects that are part of
our remit – monographic, thematic, biographical, period or medium specific will encourage visitors
to engage more actively and foster a deeper understanding. We will continue to acquire and
commission portraits of the people who are defining Britain, depicted in all media by leading artists.
We shall take a collaborative and inclusive approach to sharing our Collection and expertise as
widely as possible through programmes, digital content and publications, participation and learning
as well as national and international initiatives.

Through all of this, and with people at its heart, the transformed National Portrait Gallery will have
an even greater reach and relevance in order to reflect both Britain’s past and present, now and in
the future. The period of this Corporate Plan will be an important step in delivering this
transformation.

Dr Nicholas Cullinan
Director

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OUR MISSION

The Gallery’s overall aim (derived from the provisions of the 1992 Museums and Galleries Act) is:

 To promote through the medium of portraits the appreciation and understanding of the
men and women who have made and are making British history and culture, and
 To promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media,

and in doing so the Gallery will encourage engagement with portraiture to a wide ranging and
increasingly diverse public by conserving, growing and sharing the world’s largest collection of
portraits.

OUR VALUES

The Gallery’s pursuit of its mission will be underpinned and framed by the following values:

 Welcome, inspire and engage audiences

 Embrace and champion inclusivity and diversity
 Provide a forum for challenge and debate
 Illuminate British history and culture and encourage discovery and participation
 Build and share knowledge of the Collection
 Deliver excellence in everything the Gallery seeks to achieve

OUR AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The Gallery has articulated its statutory aims further and established eight Strategic Objectives
through which it will pursue and deliver them. These Corporate Objectives are:

1. To extend and broaden the range of audiences for the National Portrait Gallery and its work
through participation and learning activity, a higher national and public profile, and an
effective communication strategy.

2. To develop the Collection, creating opportunities for acquisition and commission, while
improving its care and conservation.

3. To increase the understanding of and engagement with the Collection and the art of
portraiture through outstanding interpretation, research, exhibitions and displays, learning
publishing, regional and digital programmes.

4. To make the Gallery a national hub for sharing ideas and expertise about portraiture with
a dynamic centre for learning in London and a skills sharing network across the country.

5. To create a digital presence which connects, inspires and engages audiences where digital
is not seen as the remit of a single department to one where all teams have digital activity as
a core part of their working strategy.

6. To maximize the financial resources available through both public and private sector
support, trading and licensing and through the effective management of the Gallery’s assets
and resources.

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 7. To develop staff as an essential resource through the extension of staff diversity, training,
development and learning programmes, upgraded internships, work experience and a
volunteer programme.

8. To physically open up the Gallery to make the Collection and programme more visible,
accessible and welcoming and to bring the buildings, technical and managerial
infrastructure of the Gallery to the highest standards, including processes, systems,
collection storage and staff accommodation.

DCMS - ADDITIONAL PRIORITIES

These aims have been confirmed in the Gallery’s Management Agreement with the Department for
Culture Media and Sport as part of the arrangement through which the Government will support the
activities of the Gallery. As well as these Corporate Objectives, the 2016 Management Agreement
included some additional priorities set by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport that he
wished the Gallery to adopt over the period of the 2015 Spending Review:

 to ensure that free entry to the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery will
continue to be made available and to protect the world-class collections and front-line
services of the museum;

 to continue to pursue commercial and philanthropic approaches to generating revenue

which will complement grant-in-aid funding, and to seek innovative cost sharing solutions
with other Arm’s Length Bodies to maximise these additional sources of income;

 to take a strategic approach to partnership working and to seek out opportunities to work
across the UK with other museums, cultural and third sector partners;

 to prioritise access to arts and culture for disadvantaged young people and communities;

 to work with DCMS to engage internationally, especially with high priority countries as
indicated by Government;

 to give a high priority to supporting the delivery of the outcomes of the Culture White Paper.

The Gallery believes that the Secretary of State’s priorities align well with our own Corporate
Objectives and will be delivered by the Gallery’s overall vision for the next ten years.

THE GALLERY TODAY

The Collection
 The Gallery holds the most extensive Collection of portraits in the world and begins in the
early sixteenth-century with the great Tudor courts and continues through to the present
day with contemporary portraits, which aim to reflect the diversity of modern day Britain.
 The Gallery’s portraits provide a uniquely varied and engaging way to understand the many
stories of Britain. These portraits, and the expertise that the Gallery employs to share them,
are a vital part of the nation’s heritage.
 Unique to the National Portrait Gallery is its commissioning programme. Each year the
Trustees agree a small number of outstanding individuals who should be recognised through
the creation of a portrait. This is a growing Collection, a permanent and public record of
those who have made and continue to make an impact on British culture and society.

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  Recent research has shown that although visitors experiences are largely positive there is a
perception that the presentation of the Collection in our London gallery is inconsistent and
in some areas ‘old-fashioned’.
 Research has also highlighted that new approaches to interpretation can increase visitor
engagement with the Collection and that there is scope to make portraiture more appealing
to a wider audience.

Audiences
 Over the past fifteen years the number of visits to the Gallery has doubled to over two
million each year. The significant successes that prompted this increase in visitor numbers
have identified limitations to future growth caused by a lack of resources including the
pressing need for a fit for purpose Learning facility, the ability to extend the national
programme to reach more people across the UK, a website that needs updating and
restructuring to reflect audience needs, with deeper levels of information on the Collection
and an interactive approach, as well as a more consistent standard of interpretation across
the galleries.
 Audience research indicates that the Gallery attracts new audiences and has strong
international appeal with visitors from overseas now accounting for around 40% of visits.
Enjoyment and satisfaction levels are high, with 98% rating their visit ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.
 However, research has shown that some non-attenders hold negative perceptions about the
Gallery, reinforced by feelings about ‘portraiture’ generally and a Collection that is believed
to lack diversity.
 The increase in visitors from overseas is welcome but the Gallery recognises the need to
further grow and develop UK and local audiences.
 The Gallery therefore wishes to extend and broaden our audiences further and find ways to
connect with non-attenders and re-connect with lapsed visitors.
 Although the Gallery’s audience has become more diverse in recent years our aspiration is to
increase this diversity and to reach new and under- represented groups.

The Building
 The recent increases in visitor numbers have identified limitations to future growth caused
by the physical limitations of the building and a lack of resources in some areas
 Public spaces and facilities have been under considerable pressure and particularly at peak
times, the Gallery is fully stretched.
 The approach and exterior of the building constrains footfall and falls short of many
expectations of a modern gallery entrance, and problems with navigation and wayfinding
diminishes the quality of the visit experience
 The Gallery’s ambition is to improve and develop our building and facilities to meet and
exceed the expectations of our visitors

Exhibitions and Public Programme

 The Gallery has developed an outstanding reputation for its displays, exhibitions and special
projects.
 Themes range from the work of the world’s greatest artists and photographers to projects in
partnership with young people and local communities. Prestigious competitions like the BP
Portrait Award and the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize run annually to discover
and promote the best new talent in portraiture.
 Major exhibitions like Hockney, Freud, Vogue 100 and most recently Picasso Portraits have
shown the need, both artistically and financially, to extend outside the Wolfson Gallery into
the Lerner Galleries and create a temporary exhibition space which is able to hold its own
with the other major museums and galleries.

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National and international
 The Collection is shared across the UK through long-term regional partnerships, touring
exhibitions, collaboration projects and long and short-term loans
 In 2015/16 the Gallery loaned works to 32 UK venues, excluding long-term loans, and 12
venues overseas. More than 500,000 people across the UK encountered portraits from the
Collection through collaborative projects with partner venues.
 The Gallery aims to increase and develop the range of partnerships and projects across the
UK and identify future directions for the Gallery’s work internationally including having a
programme of touring exhibitions

Sustainability
 Like other national museums, the Gallery is supported both by government and increasingly
by a large number of individuals, companies, trusts and foundations, as well as by the
receipts from ticketed exhibitions, shops, catering and events.
 The Gallery has responded well to reduced support from Government and other key sources
of funding and continues to look at ways to generate income

Digital
 The Gallery’s audience is not restricted to visits to the Gallery itself - accessing the Collection
and other portrait resources via digital platforms is popular with over 4.99m unique users of
the website. The Gallery’s social media and e-communications platforms have around
650,000 followers and subscribers (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).
 The Gallery had worked hard over the last twenty years to achieve a great deal without
major investment in digital development and has managed to put a range of core digital
services in place.
 However, the lack of ongoing investment has placed it in a position where important parts of
its digital offer are now feeling outdated when set alongside many of its competitors.

Delivering the Objectives in a challenging environment

The Inspiring People: Transforming the reach of the National Portrait Gallery project initiates the
Gallery’s ten year vision and will provide the strategic blueprint for the Gallery’s activities over the
period of this Corporate Plan. It comes at a time when the Gallery’s ability to raise funds is secure,
but stretched. In recent years the Corporate, Individual Giving, Trusts and Foundations and
Membership teams have been doing exceptional work and raising between £3-4m per annum
(significantly increasing with campaigns such as the Van Dyck appeal).

Across individuals and grant making trusts/foundations the Gallery should have the network and
ability to secure major gifts of £1 million plus. Many discussions with those with the potential to give
have already taken place at Director-level. Central to the success of the major donor strategy will be
the planning between the Director, Deputy Director, Senior Trusts Manager and the Head of Major
Gifts on major donor strategy and activity.

The Gallery is confident that this support base will play a substantial role in helping the Gallery to
realise the Inspiring People project and to raise the £35.5m target. The project has a comprehensive
fundraising strategy in place, through which it has been able to secure a number of high value
pledges, and is in the process of forming a Capital Campaign Board. A major batch HLF bid was
submitted in November 2016 and the Gallery heard in June that the bid had been successful. This
excellent result has provided an important platform on which the Gallery can now take forward its
fundraising campaign.

Working with a new network of partners

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The National Skills Sharing Partnership - involving staff at 4 locations (Belfast, Nottingham,
Plymouth, Sudbury) followed by a further 8 locations, to create a learning network and deliver
programmes involving exchanges, mentoring, seminars and internships at each location with a focus
on identity and representation around 'What is a Portrait?'. It will draw on the Gallery’s collections
and partners' own collections for exhibition collaborations and content will be created and shared
widely.

Through identifying and working with partners across the UK and internationally, in a number of
different types of organisations and locations, the National Portrait Gallery will create a network of
champions who will bring different audiences, expertise and perspectives. They will mix portraits
from their own collections and those from the National Portrait Gallery Collection to encourage a
deeper understanding of people and place. This will extend the impact and reach of the Gallery’s
Collection and allow more people to participate in shaping and forming the priorities for our work.

Developing the National Portrait Gallery into a dynamic centre for learning in London that will also
serve as a national hub for sharing ideas and expertise about portraiture
This Learning Centre will provide a number of much needed, world-class learning experiences and
spaces for schools, families, young people, access and community groups and adult learners to
participate in the Gallery programme of activity. Digital content and blended learning will be integral
to the pedagogy and reach of this activity. Beyond the dedicated Learning Hub itself the ambition is
to create dispersed learning experiences across the Gallery supported by digital content and
technology.

Creating an on-line portrait resource that will offer unparalleled levels of insight and access for all
users – both in the UK and across the world
Through an enhanced website users will be invited to contribute to and explore portraits and the
stories that they tell in new and innovative ways. The website will adopt the themes developed
through the content and interpretation strategy and use these to encourage a broad range of
audiences to visit and engage with the site.

Physically opening up the Gallery to make the Collection more visible, accessible and welcoming
Much needed work on the exterior of the Gallery building, the Entrance Hall and the Ondaatje Wing
Main Hall will ensure a more prominent public entrance; improved visitor access to the building; a
more personalised welcome to the Gallery and better visitor flow. Changes to Gallery spaces,
including in the East Wing, will result in a transformed presentation of the Collection.

Raising revenue
The project will bolster the Gallery’s capacity to maximise financial resources through public and
private sector support, the catering franchise, trading and licensing and through the effective
management of the Gallery's assets and resources.

Capital and core

Separate to the need to raise the £35.5m for the capital campaign will be the requirements of the
Gallery outside of the project to increase self generated income including from retail, ticket receipts,
touring activity, catering franchise as well as from individuals, trusts and companies. This ‘mixed
economy' approach needs to ensure no over-reliance on either charitable or commercial income.

DCMS
The DCMS have approved the first stage of our business plan and have indicated that the Gallery can
proceed to the next Outline Business Case (OBC) stage.

The following pages demonstrate how the Gallery will deliver its eight strategic objectives over the
next five years.

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Strategic Objective 1: To extend and broaden the range of audiences for the National Portrait
Gallery and its work through participation and learning activity, a higher national and public profile,
and an effective communication strategy.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Hold a broad ranging programme of temporary charging exhibitions and free displays
together with innovative presentation and creative interpretation taking into consideration
ways to make exhibitions more sustainable and cost effective, and mixing more popular with
more specialist subjects.

 Complete the work to convert Rooms 30 and 31 into a temporary exhibition space. The
Gallery’s two temporary exhibition spaces going forward to be the Wolfson plus Lerner
Galleries on the Ground Floor, and Rooms 30 and 31 from 2020.

 Develop a charged exhibition and free displays programme during the Inspiring People
project build that will attract audiences to the Gallery and mitigate some of the decrease in
visitor numbers during building work.

 Create annual collection based free displays in the Porter Gallery to promote deeper
engagement with the historic, modern and contemporary collections.

 The Gallery will work towards increasing visits incrementally from 2m to 2.5m by 2025 and
will reach a more diverse range of visitors. The Gallery’s communications strategy will match
its ambitions ensuring effective engagement with existing and new audiences including
through press, new media channels and social media, publications and targeted learning
programme activity in order to increase awareness of the Gallery and attract a wider
audience, and aiming to increase the proportion of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME),
lower socio-economic groups, young people, families and overseas visitors.

 The Gallery will review and develop its brand strategy.

o Promoting the Gallery through a vibrant temporary exhibition and displays
programme, the communications programme, including marketing,
o To develop further the initial series of international tours of the Collection

 Develop the National Programme with the National Trust, North East and South West
regions and cities, finding more consistent resources to allow longer-term planning and
linkage with the Subject Specialist Network, researching new and different partnerships.
o To undertake a series of temporary displays and collaborations with partners
o To revise the National Programme to reflect the Inspiring People activity
programme.
o To seek opportunities to work with other cultural organisations across the UK.

Strategic Objective 2: To develop the Collection, creating opportunities for acquisition and
commission, while improving its care and conservation.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Present British history through individual achievement, alongside discussions around

national identity and representation in Britain today, placing the National Portrait Gallery at
the heart of British cultural life. The Gallery will re-present and interpret the Collection to
strengthen this position.

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  The Gallery will review the provision of interpretation across the whole Gallery for the first
time in over 30 years.

 Through the development of an audience focused content and interpretation strategy, the
portraits will be re-presented and re-interpreted in new ways, both within and beyond the
Gallery. This approach will maintain a focus on chronology but introduce cross collection
themes that will help audiences explore multiple narratives of British history and culture.

 Seek opportunities for important loans to fill gaps in all periods in the permanent collections
particularly of under-represented groups and professions.

 Continue with the ongoing programme of acquisitions and a select number of innovative
commissions of portraits in all media with a continuing emphasis on the social and cultural
diversity of the sitters.

 Continue with the action plan for conservation work at the Gallery, taking account of limited
resource and sustainability issues, to improve and enhance the Collection’s care,
conservation and storage. This will include a programme of condition surveys of works held
in storage and on display at partner venues and to inform changes as part of Inspiring
People.

 Consider selective transfers (via loan or de-acquisition) to other public institutions of a

limited number of portraits which do not meet fully the collecting parameters of the Gallery.

 Investigate potential external conservation collection partnerships focusing on the

photograph and works on paper collections and review onsite storage.

 Complete the Spoliation project to fully record works with incomplete provenance records
between 1933 – 1940.

Strategic Objective 3: To increase the understanding of and engagement with the Collection and
the art of portraiture through outstanding research, exhibitions and displays, learning (or learning
programmes) publishing, regional and digital programmes.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Implement a planned programme of creative interventions and temporary displays within

our permanent Galleries as part of new approaches to interpretation across the Gallery

 Undertake a programme of research on portraiture to strengthen the Gallery’s reputation as

a centre of excellence for research into and understanding of British portraiture, seeking
partnerships and other means as appropriate including AHRC funded PhD studentships.

 Continue to create outstanding temporary exhibitions and displays (with national and
international collaboration and partnerships), offering diversity of material and broader
interaction, and emphasising links between exhibitions and ongoing research around the
Collection and within a tighter framework for managing costs.

 Continue the high quality publishing programme, balancing exhibition catalogues and
collection-related books with titles reaching a wider audience.

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 o To undertake the development of series of publications for children
o To research the market for digital publications to assess the feasibility of developing
a programme of digital based publications.

 Keep under review the Creative Commons Licence and digital image sizes on the web site to
maintain widespread, non-commercial use of the Collection.

 Develop a new Learning and Participation strategy


o To develop a framework for project management
o To establish a new cycle of review and evaluation of larger scale learning and
participation projects and programmes to inform current work and the approach to
Inspiring People.

Strategic Objective 4: To make the Gallery a national hub for sharing ideas and expertise about
portraiture with a dynamic centre for learning in London and a skills sharing network across the
country.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Develop a dynamic centre for learning in London that will also serve as a national hub for
sharing ideas and expertise about portraiture.

 Provide, through the new Learning Centre, a number of much needed, world-class learning
experiences and spaces for schools, families, young people, access and community groups
and adult learners to participate in the Gallery programme of activity.

 Digital content and blended learning will be integral to the pedagogy and reach of this
activity.

 Beyond the dedicated Learning Hub itself we will create dispersed learning experiences
across the Gallery supported by digital content and technology.

 The National Skills Sharing project will have developed museum skills via projects exploring
identity and diversity directly benefiting over 91 trainees (13 internships, 48 placements, 30
mentoring exchange partners) and sharing experiences more widely digitally through
networking groups

Strategic Objective 5: To create a digital presence which connects, inspires and engages audiences
where digital is not seen as the remit of a single department to one where all teams have digital
activity as a core part of their working strategy.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Completely refresh the Gallery’s digital platforms in the coming ten years inviting users to
explore portraits and the stories that they tell in new and innovative ways.

 Create an on-line portrait resource that will offer unparalleled levels of insight and access for
all users – both in the UK and across the world. Users will be invited to contribute to and
explore portraits and the stories that they tell in new and innovative ways.

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  Continue to develop the understanding of the Gallery’s Collection through digitisation,
cataloguing and associated programmes and services, and continue to extend and enhance
the amount of information available digitally on portraits in the Collection.

 Implement the Digital Strategy, subject to funding, to include planning the redevelopment of
the website, as well as developing digital projects online, covering both major developments
and quick wins.

 Enhance knowledge of the collection through collections data analysis and enhancement
and digitisation programmes.

Strategic Objective 6: To maximize the financial resources available through both public and
private sector support, trading and licensing and through the effective management of the Gallery’s
assets and resources.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Continue to take forward the Inspiring People fundraising strategy including finalising
recruitment to the Capital Campaign Board. Through individual, trust and foundation and
some corporate support raise £35.5m for Inspiring People by March 2019.

 Develop the Patrons, Exhibition Supporters and other individual giving programmes to
ensure they remain attractive and lead to deeper donor relationships and further regular
giving.

 Continue to grow the support from Membership and to maintain a base line of minimum
14,000 during the building work and a maximum of 18,000 by 2022.

 Increase the Portrait Fund, growing the Fund with a target of £10m by 2017/2018.

 Cultivate high net worth individuals capable of making major gifts (£250k+).

 Maximise the potential for income generation of a new digital presence and redeveloped
building, including new retail and private hire spaces and extended catering.

 Make effective use of the new Customer Relationship Management and Ticketing System
(CRMTS) to improve marketing to existing audiences to increase first-time visitors to
exhibitions and improve conversion rates of visitors to customers.

 To maximise the opportunity to increase income through the catering franchise in

partnership with the franchisee and to undertake a retender of the franchise in 2018.

 Develop and extend our print editions and print on demand business.

 Continue to expand publications sales in the UK and export trade. Increase co-publishing
deals with international partners following implementation of the Gallery’s touring
exhibitions strategy.

 Continue to proactively market the Collection for image licensing and to represent portraits
from other key collections.

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  Continue to research, develop and, where appropriate, commission designers to produce
new Collection-based ranges for the shops and online, in order to reduce dependency on the
exhibitions programme.

 Explore how the Gallery can benefit from the new museums and galleries tax relief.

Strategic Objective 7: To develop staff as an essential resource through the extension of staff
diversity, training, development and learning programmes, upgraded internships and a volunteer
programme.

In the period 2017-22 the Gallery will:

 Undertake an Employee Survey in 2017-18, and thereafter every 2-3 years, and take action
on the results of the survey.

 Improve staff sick absence rates by training line managers in conducting return to work
interviews and referral to specialist staff.

 Include the preparation of revised Visitor Services standards for use by front of house staff.

 Develop a Volunteer Policy as part of the Inspiring People project and establish for the first
time a full -scale volunteer programme enabling a wide range of individuals to gain new skills
and work experience at the Gallery.

 Develop a policy on apprenticeships, interns and work experience and specifically work
towards achieving the Government apprenticeship target.

 Increase the diversity of staff particularly in specialist and management areas in order to
match better the populations from which staff are recruited.

 Provide the opportunities, support and training to enable staff to develop their skills and
competencies. Build towards achieving a goal of more than 25% of general staffing and 10%
of specialist and managerial staffing being from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)
backgrounds by 2019, in order to match better the regional and national population bases
from which they are recruited.

 Monitor changes in the HR department following the review of the team/function to ensure
that these are embedded and the function supports the continued development of the
Gallery.

 Review the approach to pay and benefits to meet CS requirements and ensure the Gallery
attracts and retains high quality and high performing staff

Strategic Objective 8: To physically open up the Gallery building to make the Collection and
programme more visible, accessible and welcoming and to bring the buildings, technical and

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managerial infrastructure of the Gallery to the highest standards, including processes, systems,
collection storage and staff accommodation.

In the period 2017-2022 the Gallery will:

 Commence the Inspiring People project with the implementation of a number of planned
enabling works as well as recruiting the team of consultants who will deliver the project.

 Open up the facades and entrances of the building to make the Collection more visible,
accessible and welcoming.

 Undergo much needed work on the exterior, the Entrance and the Main Hall to ensure a
more prominent public entrance; improved visitor access to and through the building; a
more personalised welcome to the Gallery.

 Create a new Learning Centre which will provide a number of much needed, world-class
learning spaces for schools, families, young people, access and community groups and adult
learners to participate in the Gallery programme of activity. Beyond the dedicated Learning
Hub itself the ambition is to create dispersed learning experiences across the Gallery
supported by digital content and technology.

 Make changes to Gallery spaces, including the new East Wing, which will result in a
transformed presentation of the Collection.

 New temporary exhibition spaces will improve the facilities for world-class exhibitions and
programming.

 Develop the input and capability of the Trustees to support the overview of the organisation
through governance development.

 Continue to improve and develop IT infrastructure through a process of integration and

rationalisation, including the implementation of an intranet (subject to funding) as well as
improving resilience to cyber threats.

 Strengthen procurement practices and processes, and seek more sustainable and efficient
use of resources, with the commitment to further reduce the Gallery’s energy use.
o To include the development of a contracting and Procurement Toolkit for use across
the Gallery.
o To include the preparation of a planned maintenance programme for the Gallery’s
estate.

 Improving efficiency of rights clearance, particularly for exhibition loans and commissioning
of new works, ensure that appropriate resources, systems and relevant documentation are
put in place.

 Complete the implementation of the Customer Relationship Management and Ticketing

System (CRMTS) and develop the working practices around the application. Embed a set of
key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure the benefits of the system are realised.

 To improve the Gallery’s records management processes and address the longer term
storage requirements of the Photographs Department and Archive & Library, as well as
preparing for the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation.

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Risk Management

The Introduction has already described the risks and opportunities arising in the economic, social
and political environment in which the Gallery has to operate. These, and other risks identified as a
potential threat to the successful delivery of the Gallery’s key objectives, are compiled into a
Corporate Risk Register. The Gallery’s senior management, the Audit and Compliance Committee
and the Board of Trustees review this register quarterly to ensure the risk profiles remain
appropriate and the controls identified to manage the risks remain adequate and proportionate.
The Corporate Risk Register is underpinned by more detailed departmental risk registers which the
heads of department and their respective departmental teams regularly review during the year. The
Gallery’s risk management processes are also reviewed regularly by Internal Audit.

Budget (2017/20)

2017-18 2018-19 2019-20

£000 £000 £000
Grant in Aid 6,634 6,634 6,634
Self-generated income 24,415 14,585 10,919
Trading company income 3,379 3,197 3,126
Total resources expended 20,617 20,778 20,455
Transfers and carry forwards - - -
Net surplus/(deficit) 13,811 3,638 224

Budget commentary

The Corporate Plan Budget has been prepared in order to deliver the Trustees’ view that the Gallery
should maintain the quality of its offer to the visiting public and to ensure the Gallery’s finances are
sustainable into the future – (taking the view that the grant-in-aid position is unlikely to improve
beyond this Parliament). This has presented a stern challenge. The Gallery has planned to meet this
challenge by investing to extend and strengthen its income generating capabilities, as well as in
delivering the Inspiring People project. The self-generated income figures for the first two years of
the Plan period include a large element of fundraising income related to the Inspiring People project.
The project, when it is implemented, will provide the Gallery with a sustainable financial platform for
the longer term.

Senior management see three key risks to the 2017-20 Corporate Plan budget:

 Maintaining levels of self-generated income and keeping costs down within the Gallery’s
core running cost budgets. The Gallery is responding to this risk by strengthening its own
income generation, as well as reviewing elements of its core cost base. The successful
implementation of the Inspiring People project will be important for the Gallery by providing
it with the means to secure a more financially sustainable future.

 The UK’s decision to leave the European Union also presented risks to the Gallery, mainly
resulting from its impact on the value of sterling against other currencies. The Gallery has
already experienced some of the consequences of the fall in sterling’s value, particularly in
the costs of transportation relating to the loans borrowed for its exhibitions.

 In the wider economy, the fall in the value of sterling since June 2016 has caused an increase
in general inflation well above the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee target of

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 2%, (for CPI inflation), which if it continued would generate more pressure on the Gallery’s
core cost base and budget.

Key Performance indicators

Listed below is a set of Key Performance indicators which, together with the progress in
implementation of the objectives listed earlier, the Trustees and Senior Management will review in
order to assess the Gallery’s overall performance. Most indicators are to be reviewed quarterly, but
some are to be reviewed annually.

Visitor numbers Achieve target set out for each year

2017-18 – 2 million
2018/19 – 2 million
2019/20 – 1.8 million
2020/21 – 1.3 million
2021/22 – 1.5 million
Visits by overseas visitors Aim to have at least 40% total visits by overseas
visitors
Visits by BAME and young people Aim to have at least 10% total visits by BAME and
8% by children and young people
Educational activities for children To aim to achieve 50,000 facilitated and self-
directed visits to the Gallery by children each year.
Visits by families Families to make up 12% of visitors.
Website visits Aim to achieve 10% increase year on year.
Collection digitisation programme To programmed timetable
Membership numbers Increase to target and maintain target of between
14,000 -18,000 by 2022 and 20,000 by 2027. –
Patrons numbers To increase Patrons to 120 Patrons by 2018/19.
Major donor income To deliver annual budgeted target.
Arts and Humanities Research Accreditation to be maintained during period of
Council (AHRC) analogue status* Corporate Plan
Visitor satisfaction scores Increase to set target (90%) and maintain
E-commerce revenue To achieve and maintain a target of at least 6% of
total sales deriving from on-line sales.
Sales per Customer To maintain a Sales per Customer rate of at least
£10 through the period.
Diversity of staff Improve diversity level to a set target -25% of
general staffing and 10% of specialist and
managerial staffing being from BAME backgrounds
by 2019.
Staff Turnover* Compare to sector standard
Staff sickness rates* Compare to sector standard
Media coverage of the Gallery Favourable or unfavourable/extensive or light.
Coverage in social media Favourable or unfavourable/extensive or light.
(*performance reviewed on an annual basis)

February 2017

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