20 YEARBOOK 2026 Research Award with the Society of Architectural Historians), all reflecting the elevated status of the profession. We also could see the progress of our branch consultants as well as their potential. Appointed and funded via the National Office, they offer dedicated time and skills in liaison and support under an evolving arrangement. A welcome boost from the beginning, we immediately planned the expansion of the programme, most notably through the ensuing appointment of our newest staff member, Sarah Homer, as our branch consultant liaison and lead, adding strategic capacity and continuity in support for the branches. We also expanded the topics offered through our CPD branch partnership programmes with Placemaking and Design Codes and Fire Protection, Regulations and Enforcement, while our evolving accreditation support (MATE) sessions continue their work on promoting simpler and shorter application forms. More UK-wide branch committee meetings took place, as well as the branch-linked councils mentioned below. That ongoing, pro-active and innovative partnership with volunteers and active members started to bring structural benefits too, as more engage directly with our national and regionalised activities, taking advantage of the opportunities in our corporate plan-led strategies and investments. It is that renewed engagement that has made the difference over the year. A good case study captured in the investment in re-invigorating our council meetings, building on the simple online ‘CPD-model’, of talks from sector leads and leaders, to host our first ‘blended’ Council under the new articles, and what a gamechanging step forward that was! Courtesy of London’s Charterhouse and its chief executive, IHBC member Peter Aiers, we were able to welcome in our President, Rebecca Thompson, and Vice President, Torsten Haak, both new faces that captured the same enthusiasm for progress seen in the Charter explorations. As well as free – indeed unique – in-person CPD on the Charterhouse estate for delegates online and in person, we also took the opportunity to enhance volunteer awareness and skills in event management, by showing how our low-cost blending of the council event could be copied by branches, potentially helped too by their branch consultants! All that just marked the sense of a new spirit too expansive to describe. In a similar vein, our 2025 Shrewsbury School, on ‘Heritage in Context’ and hosted by the West Midlands branch, also marked a huge step forward in building volunteer capacity. Our ‘new school model’, inspired by Covid’s digital Schools from Aberdeen in 2022 on, evolved with the support of our board and has now begun to really reap the benefits originally sought after a few years of more and less successful experimentation. At Shrewsbury last year, we also invited trustees to take on duties there in person and so help match the new support we offered to underpin their presence there. We also invited our branch consultants along to meet each other, as well as members and officers, thereby expanding our National Office networks, capacity and resilience, while also building skills across our service leads and networks. The Shrewsbury School was a special success as, led on the ground by Angharad Hart and a brilliant branch committee, it both consolidated and advanced our new combination of online and in-person CPD for delegates. With all that it is no surprise that the event enjoyed another winning contribution by another thread in our ‘New School’ model, a networked ‘School Friend’, this time from no less an institution than the RICS, represented by Jessica Jones. Since then we have continued that progress, building on the shoulders of earlier plans and the work of volunteers – indeed the shoulders of giants! As I write we have much to do: new annual schools on the way; delivering on thoughts bubbling over into our 2025 Briefing in Parliament, ‘From Crafts in Crisis to Rubbish in Retrofit: IHBC’s Five Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’, as we join some of the dots in conservation processes; the next stages of our Charter, and the linked Corporate Action Plan, for 2026-30 to be cast out of its predecessors. Alongside the highlights mentioned earlier, there are also many other laurels that we must avoid resting on. These include our standing in government with the Charter progress, an OBE for our chair, and my own appointment to the programme board of RICHeS, the multi-million pound conservation research funding infrastructure programme that operates under Treasury oversight. Targeted advocacy for our most challenged member groups must also continue, starting with those in local government, as seen in our last Council. We should also continue to adapt and expand on transnational standards and frameworks, including European agreements, as exemplified in the adaptation of ICOMOS standards in our own practice standards. There’s lots of details to work through across all these areas, as they advance under the oversight of the IHBC board and, not least our AGMs, but given our progress over the last 29 years, I am confident we have both the capacity and the heart to deliver on all! Seán O’Reilly director@ihbc.org.uk NOTE: To follow up on the detailed background to and future progress on any of the above, simply enter the key word into the search facility on the IHBC’s NewsBlog service. RICS representative and Network Rail heritage specialist Jessica Jones speaking at the 2025 Annual School
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