IHBC Yearbook 2022

R E V I E W A N D A N A L Y S I S 17 DIRECTOR’S UPDATE GETTING THE JOB DONE SEAN O’REILLY, IHBC DIRECTOR O VER THE past year and more we’ve been extremely busy right across the huge variety of interests and networks that shape the built and historic environment, its care and conservation. At the same time we are looking ahead, not only at underpinning a new constitution and delivering a new Corporate Plan , but also at our latest priority: how to mark the 25th anniversary of the IHBC. We want to mark our founding as the interdisciplinary professional body accrediting our members’ multi- disciplinary conservation practice. Yet that must take place alongside another special objective: to understand how our unique legacy can best inform our next steps in our evolution. To progress this work we must also contend with the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and its own legacy, all of which remain a major concern. To start, and to keep everyone up to speed on plans, you can check out our anniversary ‘hub’ site at ihbc25.ihbc. org.uk . Reflecting on the evolving pandemic, weathering its depredations may be best taken as a sign of our resilience as an organisation. First, we successfully called on staff and volunteers to ‘step up’ and help ease the potential downturn arising from COVID-19 with more flexible working and more independent activities. Later, we underpinned our recovery by drawing on the unexpected surpluses from the pandemic-imposed contractions in spending. That meant we could invest in our volunteers and regional branches in particular, as we launched a ‘pandemic recovery’ allocation last September that included an extra year of easy-access budget funding to each branch. As part of that recovery, we also invested in a dedicated branch support officer, Jude Wheeler. In that role she has been charged first with addressing the most urgent needs across our volunteer networks – not all of which have been pandemic- related – and then with establishing the role as a dedicated contact point. It is early days for many to notice this change, but over the coming year I anticipate a lot more awareness of our newest plans. If all that reflects the more historic challenges, the IHBC’s new priorities for the future are best summarised in the current Corporate Plan 2020–25. These include advancing our advocacy through the IHBC- supported Conservation Places and People All Party Parliamentary group (APPG). Now that their first inquiry is concluding, we will be looking at the issue of local government capacity in the next stages of this APPG’s programme. Promoting the huge environmental benefits of the practice of conservation specialists, including our members, is also a leading objective. It may be a familiar meme for us, but we are finally getting to grips with how to generate wider acceptance and appreciation. The achievements of our IHBC@ COP26 programme during the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference are well known and covered both in our journal Context and in these pages, as well as in our NewsBlogs and other digital resources. Devising the IHBC@COP26 ‘Helpdesk+’ showed how we could establish our own heritage priorities and presence at the scale of a global COP. The low- cost, innovative design allowed us to combine a number of services and strategies in one initiative that sat as centrally as any on the COP’s agenda. In particular, we were able to: • extend accessibility to the IHBC’s advocacy, not least through our new and hugely popular podcast suite ( see page 89 ) • generate publicly-focussed re-casts of core IHBC policy and practice resources, especially around conservation’s inherent sustainability • offer a hub to encourage and enable other heritage bodies to address climate change during the event, and several took the opportunity to get involved, including BEFS, SPAB and Heritage Trust Network. Also at the forefront of our new ambitions is the advocacy for our practice standards and encouragement for the wider recognition of our accreditation. Although a long- standing and fundamental aim for us, our interdisciplinary fundamentals