Annual Accounts 2011-2012 (pdf - 973 kB) - Royal Botanic Garden ...

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh - Annual Report and Accounts for the year to 31 March 2012
of the Scottish Government. The Board of Trustees and Senior Management feel that this was a
very valuable exercise both in demonstrating what the RBGE has to offer and in documenting
the diversity of the Garden’s contribution to society. Building on the success of this format of
plan a revised and slightly simplified version was developed for the forthcoming year, FY
2012/13, (http://www.rbge.org.uk/assets/files/about_us/Corporate%20Plan.pdf).
The RBGE employs our adapted version of the Balanced Scorecard (a strategy formulation and
performance management framework in common use across the globe) which is organised into
five perspectives (Scottish Government National Outcomes, Impacts, Activities, Resources and
Governance) and translates our mission and strategy into achievable objectives and measures.
It is a framework for communicating the mission and strategy internally and externally, and uses
measurements to drive RBGE’s current and future success. The perspectives of the Scorecard
allow a balance between both short and long term objectives, and between the ultimate impacts
we desire and the contributing activities and inputs. In the RBGE’s Strategy Map our objectives
from the Balanced Scorecard are linked to show the cause and effect relationships between
RBGE’s Impacts, Activities, Resources and Governance. These are shown to be aligned
upward to contribute to the eleven Scottish Government’s National Outcomes in order to help
make Scotland a better place to live and a more prosperous and successful country.
Additionally, the strategic objective costing model makes it possible to report to the Board and
Scottish Government where our organisational efforts were being directed and the impact those
efforts make on the Strategic Objectives by matching up the input and output costs of the
objectives and their associated KPIs.
To track progress against these objectives performance measures were identified by RBGE to
provide evidence of achievement; these are reproduced in the table below. What can be seen is
a successful year for the RBGE. Visit numbers were above both target and last year’s
achievements. We retain serious concerns about our carbon footprint which is caused by our
aging and inefficient glasshouse structures. Although feasibility studies have been carried out to
support an application for a major capital grant, of around £40m, from Scottish Government for
our Masterplan project, capital funds are in short supply and although Scottish Government
have been unable to fund this work for the time being, £1.5m was released in FY 12/13 to fund
planning and early enabling works. We wish to carry out this project to comply with Scottish
Government’s “Green Agenda”, to meet CO 2 emission targets, and to reduce running costs at
the RBGE. As with the £15.7m Gateway building, investment will lead to enhanced income
generation.
Our strategy during the last year has been to continue prioritising income generation over
traditional botanic garden activities to meet the reduction in public funding of £500K in FY12/13
and potential further reductions. This has been highly successful with very significant income
streams arising from these activities. A Voluntary Exit Scheme was approved and funded by
Scottish Government during the year to permit a limited number of staff to leave early thereby
generating cash savings during the next financial year. Twenty seven members of staff applied
for the scheme and twenty accepted the offers.
Performance Management
Directly linked to the Corporate Plan, RBGE employs a performance management system, the
Executive Strategy Manager, which has been in use since FY10/11 and is primarily to assist
the Senior Management Group with its decision making. Information is put into the on-line
system by appropriate managers and staff across the organisation and reviewed on a monthly
basis by Divisional Directors and then by the Senior Management Team. A reporting format
has been developed and used to generate reports to the Board of Trustees bringing together
current risk assessment, performance measures and the identification of strategic issues that
require a response.
The staff performance management process ensures that the RBGE’s goals are reflected in
individual staff members’ forward job descriptions, annual objectives and career development
requirements. Midyear and end of year meetings with Reporting Officers ensure that objectives
remain on course for completion. Staff record the time they have spent on different activities in
an on-line system integrated with the Executive Strategy Manager so that RBGE can now
report on the costs of meeting its specific objectives.
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