Agenda item

Report of the Head of Centre.

Members were informed that progress in the period 2011-14 had been very good. The Committee received a report on 2013 performance at its meeting in May 2014 and noted the strong financial performance and significant achievement. As at the summer of 2014 the Centre performance remained broadly in line with budget.

Income generation remained strong despite a challenging economic back drop and delivery costs had been effectively constrained.

In recent years the Centre had delivered its services at what is effectively capacity level for the physical and human resources of the Centre. The prospects of maintaining this in the future were very good given the exceptionally high levels of service user satisfaction. Flexibility and diversity of provision had been crucial to success and were likely to continue to be important factors in coping with the impacts of curriculum reform and other changes in the operating environment.

Members noted that staffing remained the crucial controllable determinant of income as well as expenditure. It was also the resource that determined the degree of success in the delivery of mission and achievement of the objectives in this Plan; retention and successful succession planning would continue to be of crucial importance.

Officers informed Members that subject to funding it was hoped that Officers could: · significantly increase biological recording and the utilisation of this important data

· pair subject expert Associate Tutors with dynamic and highly skilled ‘new generation’ tutors (this should build the field skills and taxonomic/ecological expertise of the latter and the capacity for continuation of this learning long into the future and ‘freshen’ presentational styles in the short term).

· tower and low ropes project.

· ICT technology (extract from development fund application).