2013 Yearbook

14 Y E A R B O O K 2 0 1 3 PLAN-LED PROGRESS SEÁN O’REILLY, IHBC DIRECTOR Anyone responsible for corporate planning knows that the annual review is a time of particular trepidation, at least until the report is signed off. In a small organisation such as the IHBC, with our complex texture of priorities, resources, limitations and ambitions, analysis is seldom sufficiently precise to encourage total confidence about the year end. That said, when preparing the national office’s annual review for the most recent meeting of our board, the IHBC’s council, I was delighted that 2011–12 showed strong progress. In the IHBC’s planning we measure our progress against the objectives identified in our current corporate plan for 2010–15, or ‘ cp10 ’. After widespread consultation, cp10 was adopted by our AGM and, as chief executive, I use that document to gauge progress when providing quarterly updates to the board. The planning principle is simple (although the reporting is more complex), but achieving targets – which is hugely dependent on capacity and circumstance – is highly challenging. THE NOS CONSERVATION STANDARD Thankfully, our most recent progress report, the second in our five-year by some 50 per cent (in terms of member numbers), to include members with an income of less than £17,500, up from £12,500. The changes to hardship support help those who are most deserving. Now, rather than subsidising membership costs based on a person’s role (retired, student, in part-time employment, etc), we offer special assistance for those in need who can demonstrate support for our charitable objectives, provided they are reasonably able to do so (see www. ihbc.org.uk/join/join.html for more information on our concessionary rates and hardship support). Our support for membership applications has also progressed well, with a pre-registration process bringing more clarity to the application procedure and more efficiency to the assessment procedure. Meanwhile, the introduction of online registration of applications for membership and, as I write, online payments, have further developed our digital infrastructure. Indeed, most recently the introduction of email job alerts has both enhanced awareness of opportunities for members and reaped huge rewards by attracting increasingly diverse roles. As trustee roles, bursary placements and tenders are increasingly among the notices that find their way there, we have now re-titled the jobs page, pithily, as ‘Jobs etc’! Importantly, these and other developments supplement the same good value, high quality services of old: our exemplary consultations; our research activities centred on local authority capacity; our journal, Context and this Yearbook ; events including the schools and branch activities as well as networking and support of the ‘Branch Connection Days’; the Gus Astley Student Award; and the NewsBlogs. All are progressing in line with or ahead of plans in cp10 while subscription fees have simply matched inflation. plan, confirmed considerable success across a range of our core activities as well as some achievements remarkable not only in themselves but for having been delivered so early in the life of the plan. Securing the national occupational standard (NOS) for conservation, a nationally recognised description of conservation skills, was a clear if little-appreciated highlight for staff in the national office. Targeted for achievement in year five, which was felt to be ambitious in itself, NOS has been delivered in the second year of our plan, making it an exceptionally satisfying early win. Dividends of the NOS conservation standard were quickly reaped, with vocational qualifications in place as I write. Mapping the NOS against the IHBC’s membership criteria, our Areas of Competence, brings the institute into a sharp spotlight across our pan-disciplinary spectrum of interests. Less sexy than when we led some ¼ million professional memberships in the joint professional response to the draft heritage bill in England back in 2007, the NOS conservation standard is ultimately much more important for the stability it brings to our members and their professional concerns in these turbulent times. With a sector-wide UK agreement on conservation skills achieved, we can now work towards greater clarity in their articulation, assessment, dissemination and promotion. MEMBERSHIP SUPPORT At the other end of the spectrum of our corporate interest sits the delivery of public good in our role as a charity. Improved targeting of our subsidies for low-waged members reflects our charitable status by helping those most in need. Changes included the introduction of hardship support as well as fairer subsidies for those on lower wages. In particular, subsidies for concessionary rates were extended

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=