22 C O N T E X T 1 4 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 5 RICHARD WATSON The National Trust’s building conservation volunteers The volunteers guiding visitors in National Trust houses are well known, but among the trust’s 62,000 volunteers are others who are involved in conserving its buildings. The National Trust involves around 62,000 volunteers in its work every year.With paid staff numbering around 6,500, this means there are approximately 10 volunteers for every member of staff. In 2014/15 our volunteers donated over 4.5 million hours of time, worth an estimated £41 million to the trust. Our vision for volunteering includes the goal of having volunteers involved in all areas of our work.Most people think about the volunteers in our houses who help visitors understand the stories, but we have volunteers already involved in many areas. To illustrate some of the ways we involve volunteers in conserving our buildings, here are a number of case studies from the last two years. Roger Cayzer is a volunteer supporting our head of buildings, Rory Cullen, and our apprenticeship scheme project manager, Liz Long.With a long career working mainly with historic buildings, a former regional building manager and project manager with the trust, Cayzer brings a real depth of knowledge. Being an ex-member of staff is a great advantage when it comes to knowing his way around National Trust systems and strategy. One of his roles is supporting theTraditional Building Skills Bursary Scheme, funded from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.The NationalTrust is the lead partner, other partners being Cadw, the Welsh Government, English Heritage, the Construction Industry Training Board and the National HeritageTraining Group. Cayzer uses his network of internal and external contacts to find apprenticeship placements throughout all trust regions. The scheme has been very successful, taking participants through their National Vocational Qualifications, with many gaining a Level 3 in heritage.With over a 90 per cent success rate, most have been offered permanent contracts on completion of their training or have been snapped up by conservation contractors to fill their own skills shortfall. Cayzer also acts as a mentor, trainer and speaker on building conservation. He works alongside staff to run internal and external courses, on car park design guidance (a big topic in the trust), for example.The external organisations include the Prince’s Foundation, SPAB, the Painting and Decorating Association, the Chartered Institute of Building and other professional bodies to deliver training in more specialised areas. He is currently part of a European-wide project looking at how heritage asset managers are awarded accreditation. The project addresses this need by developing a model of certified vocational education and training for those working in the heritage sector that reflects the high degree of conservation involved in their roles. In part of the trust’s London and South East Region we have a team of 12 volunteer building surveyors who carry out condition surveys across our let estate. This covers our cottages and farm houses, rather than the large mansions.The project, which has been running for the past 20 years, is coordinated by Frances Williams, who is also a volunteer. Williams maintains the record of when properties were last surveyed and gives each volunteer two properties to visit. The team arranges with the tenants to carry out the survey and send their reports back toWilliams, who updates the records. The paid building surveyors then Many participants on working holidays enjoy the novelty of doing something different and learning a new skill. (Photo: National Trust/RichardWilkes)
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