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The Institute of Historic Building Conservation


The mark of the conservation Professional

   

IHBC Annual School - Manchester 2017
Transport Infrastructure -
the backbone of civilisation

Thursday 22nd to Saturday 24th June 2017
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Manchester School Report - Context Issue 151, September 2017
Click to view

1.

Introduction

1.1

The IHBC Annual School is the principle platform for training and professional development for historic environment conservation specialists. It is the IHBC’s flagship national annual event drawing delegates from of IHBC members, non- member conservation professionals and the broader sector.

1.2

The 2017 Annual School was held in June 2017 in Manchester. The 2017 Annual School was themed around the rich legacy of transport infrastructure, exploring both its continuing role as a future driver of change and economic growth as well as its impact upon historic places.

1.3

The emergence of transport networks brought massive physical change to the urban and rural landscape and the structures associated with road, river, canal, rail and air transport continue to shape the world around us. New modes of transport and communication were critical to the industrial revolution and ongoing expansion continues to stimulate economic, social and cultural exchange and interaction. Much of this accumulated historic transport legacy survives and remains in operation, often adapted to serve new needs and sometimes reinvented and converted for new purposes.

1.4

As the birthplace of the industrial revolution and now heralded as the beating heart of the Northern Powerhouse, Manchester and the North West was a fitting location to experience the legacy of historic transport infrastructure and consider the potential impact that ambitious new projects might have upon the historic environment. The region is home to a wealth of pioneering and iconic transport structures, from the world’s oldest surviving passenger railway station in Castlefield, Manchester; Liverpool docks, now a key part of the Maritime Mercantile City World Heritage site; the Bridgewater Canal, the country’s first industrial canal; to twentieth century motorways, bus stations and airports.

1.5

The Day School explored the development and significance of historic transport infrastructure and the impact of new infrastructure on historic environment. Four transport infrastructure themes on Railways, Water, Roads and Air were used to outline the development and impact of transport networks to the rural and modern urban landscape of nationwide interest.

1.6

The IHBC’s Annual School is the main event in the diary of conservation specialists from across the private and public sectors, and representing skills that range from archaeology, history, policy, legislation, financial management, and project management to design.

1.7

Context, the journal of the IHBC, is a main source of record which will endure beyond the event. The Annual school edition of Context is made available freely to the public on the IHBC web site and the report of the 2016 School can now be seen by all at http://ihbconline.co.uk/context/146. The 2017 School can be seen at http://ihbconline.co.uk/context/151. Alongside this material the web site also carries Annual School resources in perpetuity (https://www.ihbc.org.uk/manchester2017/index.html) including programmes, speakers presentations and feedback details ensuring that the key aspects of the School are available for open public reference and future research. This ensures the educational benefits of the School are available to all not simply IHBC members or those who attend.

1.8

The objectives were to
  • Provide a 3-day course in June 2017 of focused training for conservation professionals which include a series of different training methods including lectures, visits, networking etc.
  • Provide training for at least 100 delegates
  • Provide the opportunity for delegates to obtain up to eighteen hours of Continuing Professional Development.
  • Develop IHBC branch networks and volunteer capacity to a professional standard of training delivery.
  • Reinforce the importance of the IHBC Annual School in the annual training calendar of conservation professionals

2.

Monitoring success of the training capacity of the School – meeting the IHBC competences

2.1

The IHBC Annual School helps members’ meet the IHBC’s Areas of Competence and maintain these competencies. These Competences are the key membership criteria of the Institute and Annual School programmes are developed to cover as many aspects of them as possible. The Competences are shown in the table below (with more information available at http://www.ihbc.org.uk/1main_pages/membership.html). The Areas of Competence are, however, equally relevant to non-members, conservation professionals and other built environment professionals.

2.2

The Professional Area of Competence informs and shapes conservation advice and conclusions, and is the most important and most challenging for applicants. The Practical Areas of Competence correspond to how we achieve conservation, by evaluating, managing and, as appropriate, changing places. These Practical Areas correspond respectively to cultural disciplines such as history or archaeology; to ‘place management’ and regeneration specialisms such as planning; and to design and technical solutions provided by architectural, engineering, urban design and project management skills sets (http://www.ihbc.org.uk/skills_support.htm).

2.3

The IHBC’s four Areas of Competence, as represented in the model conservation cycle, in figure 1 below, represent members’ inter-disciplinary skills – the overarching ‘Professional’ Area of Competence, and the three Practical Areas: ‘Evaluation’, ‘Management’ and ‘Intervention’.

Figure 1 IHBC Conservation Cycle and Areas of Competence
IHBC Conservation Cycle and Areas of Competence
IHBC Conservation Cycle and Areas of Competence

2.4

For conservation professionals including IHBC members and prospective members, issues around significance lie at the heart of the first of the IHBC’s ‘Practical Areas of Competence’, Evaluation. Significance also underpins advice and decision across all the IHBC’s Areas of Competence.

2.5

The matrix below (figure 2) explains how the 2017 Annual School provided training to meet the IHBC Areas of Competence and also dealt with the theme of the school. It shows that the Annual School sessions provided training options to cover all of the IHBC Areas of Competence whilst giving specific training on the School theme of “Transport Infrastructure”. It is possible using the various options available for delegates to further develop all or some of their competences.


Figure 2
INDICATIVE MATRIX OF IHBC COMPETENCES AND THEMES ADDRESSED:
IHBC DAY SCHOOL 2017
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3.

Ensuring feedback from School delegates

3.1

To ensure maximum delegate feedback delegates are directed within two days of the end of the School to an electronic survey form. This approach, first used in 2009, has proved to be very successful. It simplifies the process of submitting feedback for delegates, allows them to make any additional comments with ease and has been shown to deliver more responses than paper feedback forms. In recent years feedback from around 50% of delegates has been sought.
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4.

Annual School Delegates

4.1

Attendance at the Annual School over the past decade has been consistently good and in 2017 the School attracted 186 delegates (103 Day School and 83 Full School).

4.2

Although the event is organised by the IHBC and is a key annual event for its members it provides training for non-members and all those with a professional interest in conservation. The Annual School continues to provide important training opportunities for those outside the Institute. In 2017 21.5% of the School delegates were not members of the IHBC, demonstrating the School’s wider appeal.

5.

Monitoring success of training capacity of school – delegate feedback

1.1

Conference content and CPD value
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1.2

Delegates were asked to rate the Day School presentations and the results are shown in Figure 4.
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1.3

Apart from specific comments on individual presentations the general comments made by delegates showed delegates found the talks useful and relevant.

1.4

The generally high level of satisfaction is backed up further by the very encouraging data in figures 5 and 6 which reveals that 89% of delegates felt the School met their training requirements completely or sufficiently and that 100% felt the School was invaluable, very useful or useful.
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1.5

The School offered a series of study tours and visits on Thursday and Saturday. The tours received very high praise and 99% of delegates rated their tours as Excellent or Good and none felt it was Unsatisfactory (Figure 7).
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6.

Conference organisation

6.1

Delegates were asked to rate the organisation of the conference and the booking arrangements. 99% of delegates rated the organisation of the School as good or excellent (see figure 8).
  • The Summer School was up to the high standards we expect of IHBC
  • The organisation was superb.
  • Seemless organisation as always
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6.2

The booking arrangements were likewise rated as good or excellent by 97% of delegates (Figure 9)
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7.

School venues and events

7.1

The Day School was held in the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI and delegates rated the venue well with 95% feeling it was a good or excellent venue and none feeling it to be unsatisfactory (see figure 10).
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7.2

The welcome Reception was held in Manchester Town Hall, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, and opened in 1877. The Town Hall, which was listed Grade I in February 1952, is regarded as one of the finest interpretations of Gothic revival architecture in the world. The building faces Albert Square to the north, featuring the Albert Memorial (Grade I listed) and St Peter’s Square to the south, home to The Cenotaph (Grade II* listed, Edwin Lutyens). The reception held in the Town Hall and 90% of those who attended felt it was Excellent or Good.

7.3

The IHBC Annual Dinner held in the Museum of Science of Industry was very popular with 95% of attendees feeling it to be excellent or good (Figure 12)
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7.4

The accommodation at Manchester Jurys Inn was rated by 100% of those who used it as excellent or good (Figure 13)

8.

Overall conference experience

8.1

Delegates rated the overall experience they had at the conference and its usefulness highly with 94% rating it as good or excellent. (See figure 14).
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9.

Manchester

9.1

To assist in considering future events delegates were asked about their experience of visiting Manchester. 88% of delegates had been to Worcester before and 100% of delegates, whether first time visitors or not, intend to visit Manchester again (Figure 15)
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10.

Conclusion

10.1

The IHBC Annual School 2017 achieved the following:
  • Provided a 3-day course in Manchester in June 2017 of focused training for conservation professionals which include a series of different training methods including lectures, visits, networking etc.
  • Provide training for at least 100 delegates – 186 people attended the Day School
  • Provided the opportunity for delegates to obtain up to eighteen hours of Continuing Professional Development.
  • Developed IHBC branch networks and volunteer capacity to a professional standard of training delivery.
  • Reinforced the importance of the IHBC Annual School in the annual training calendar of conservation professionals.
  • Was rated as good or excellent by 94% of delegates
  • Offered training which met the CPD requirements of 89% delegates completely or sufficiently
  • Was found to be invaluable, very useful or useful by 100% of delegates

10.2

The IHBC’s Annual School has been operating successfully since before the foundation of the Institute in 1997, and is developed from the Schools pioneered by the Association of Conservation Officers and operated effectively each year since the mid 1980’s. The Annual School is the principle platform for training and professional development for historic environment conservation specialists. It is the IHBC’s flagship national annual event drawing from customer base of IHBC members, non-member conservation professionals and broad sector interests.

10.3

The proceedings of 2017 Annual School have been described in some detail in Context the journal of the IHBC (Issue 151 September 2017) and this is a main source of record that will endure beyond the event. The Annual School edition of Context is made available freely to the public on the IHBC web site. Alongside this material the web site also carries Annual School resources in perpetuity (https://www.ihbc.org.uk/manchester2017/) including programmes, speakers presentations and feedback details ensuring that the key aspects of the School are available for open public reference and future research.

10.4

The successful delivery of the 2017 School has reinforced the importance of the IHBC Annual School in the annual training calendar of conservation professionals and provided the opportunity for delegates to obtain quality, focused Continuing Professional Development.