C O N T E X T 1 3 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 3 43 Notes from the chair All politics is local. So is all heritage And so to work. Since my election in June I have worked with colleagues within and without the institution to analyse and assess the key challenges the heritage sector faces at this difficult time. Jobs, particularly in the public sector, have been a major concern, with a third of conservation officer posts being lost since the recession began. I too was swept up in that and know it’s no laughing matter. Good advice is available on the IHBC website to help those facing job cuts to readvocate the case for retaining conservation officer posts. For those who find themselves out in the private world, a concern is that listed building owners appear unwilling to pay for the heritage advice specified in paragraph 128 of the NPPF. Unlike the archaeology world, our market is too immature, with most owners holding on to the traditional view that as they are charged with the burden of looking after the nation’s heritage, the least the nation can do is to have a conservation officer ready at the town hall to take their call for help.Yet, as we know, many services have been cut to just one hard-pressed officer. Indeed, a quarter of councils now have no specialist heritage advisor at all. I dread to think what crimes are being committed to the nation’s heritage in these areas. Ugly incidents continue to be reported to the IHBC, most notably the member and conservation officer fighting his case against wrongful dismissal through the employment tribunal. His crime? Reporting to his boss a listed building that without authority had had its windows changed to uPVC. Unfortunately the building was owned by a councillor. It is difficult to convey the shock and isolation experienced by our members when faced with these circumstances.We will be writing to the tribunal. This raises an interesting point for the IHBC.While we are a professional body with clear charitable aims, we are not a trade union.While self-evidently true, I suspect that in the past that argument has held us back from intervening to support our members faced with such adversity. In my view unless we support our members, we can not deliver our charitable aims. After all, it is you at the coal face in whatever sector you work in who are responsible for the day-to-day actions that protect our heritage.We can and should do more. While intensely difficult for the individual member facing redundancy, I worry about the long-term effect on the status of our profession. As research by our national office has revealed, a large proportion of job cuts have fallen at a senior level. I assume that, as this befalls those on higher pay, they offer for the manager the biggest ‘saving’. Yet cutting off the head leaves the body with no leadership, and no access to the invaluable experience built up over many years of practice. Those left behind face the combination of greater workloads and no mentoring or readily available advice. They also pick up on the subliminal message that there is no reliable career path for conservation professionals. Coupled with notably poor pay, I worry that this will discourage the talented from choosing heritage as a career. Perhaps the government is hoping to rely on the untapped pool of unemployed graduates? In mulling over these and other challenges, the director and I called other elected and senior officers of the institute to a brainstorming session in July. I, more than most, am deeply suspicious of ‘blue-skies thinking’ and other mangerialist nonsense. But, to the great credit of those present, and Seán’s guiding hand, this proved that rare beast, a strategy-setting session that was both imaginative and practical. Four clear ideas were formulated which developed into a paper presented to IHBC council in September. 1. Increase capacity within the national office to outsource valuable but routine work (such as collating each week’s Newsblog), releasing the director for more strategic work. 2. Drill down into the huge body of statistics and data that we have collected over the years to create a body of research notes and practice and guidance papers for members and others to use. 3. Put in place a supportive programme to assist current affiliate members to become full members, in line with the relevant motion from Jo Evans, our past chair, agreed at the last AGM. 4. Strengthen capacity to better advocate the heritage case, where possible in partnership with others. These ideas will take time to deliver and will go forward into the Corporate Plan for 2015–20. Nevertheless, and mindful of the need for action, the director identified an unspent modest surplus from 2012
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