SUBMISSION TO THE SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY ON THE SKILLS CAPACITY WITHIN LOCAL GOVERNMENT TO DELIVER SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGY TRAINING FORUM

 

Submitted by Dr Mike Heyworth MBE, Chair, Archaeology Training Forum

 

 

1. This document has been prepared for the Communities & Local Government Select Committee inquiry into the skills capacity within local government to deliver sustainable communities. It has been written by Bob Croft of the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers, on behalf of the Archaeology Training Forum whose chair is Dr Mike Heyworth.

 

2. The Archaeology Training Forum (ATF) is a delegate body which represents all those organisations which have an interest in the issues of training and career development in archaeology. Members of the Forum include the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers UK (ALGAO), the Council for British Archaeology (CBA), English Heritage (EH), the Environment & Heritage Service in Northern Ireland (EHSNI), Historic Scotland (HS), the Institute of Conservation (ICON), the Institute of Field Archaeologists (IFA), the Institute for Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS), the Royal Commissions on the Ancient & Historical Monuments in Wales and Scotland (RCAHMW & RCAHMS), the Society for Museum Archaeologists (SMA), the Standing Committee of Archaeology in Continuing Education (SCACE), the Standing Conference of Archaeological Unit Mangers (SCAUM), and the Subject Committee for Archaeology (SCFA). Other related organisations contribute to the work of the ATF, including the Creative & Cultural Skills (the Sector Skills Council for the Creative & Cultural industries), Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for History, Classics & Archaeology, and the Prospect Trade Union.

 

3. The ATF was constituted in 1998 to review the present provision of training in archaeology and to co-ordinate future strategies to meet the profession's training needs. The Forum exists to:

· keep current training provision by member bodies and others under review

· seek to ensure that funding for training from whatever source is distributed according to need within a framework of priorities

· work towards the alignment of existing and proposed training sessions and units, sponsored or run by bodies represented, into a series of related programmes accessible to all members of the profession and to interested amateurs

· work towards agreement on the validation of training units and their integration within a widely accepted professional career structure.

 

4. Over the past ten years the ATF has supported and encouraged many organisations, local authorities and agencies to ensure that staff continue to receive appropriate professional training on the historic environment. In recent years the importance of the historic environment as a key element of the sustainability agenda has been clearly identified in planning guidance and in local authority planning policies. National guidance documents from bodies such as English Heritage (Power of Place 2000) and government departments such as DCMS in the White Paper Heritage Protection in the 21^st century (DCMS 2007) has added further weight to the argument that the historic environment is part of the very fabric that underpins a sustainable community.

 

5. We are supportive that a review of skills capacity within local government to deliver sustainable communities is needed and agree with the main list of issues you have identified for this inquiry but would however like to suggest that the topic of planning and the historic environment is added to the list. It is now widely accepted that the historic environment is a fundamental building block of any sustainable community. We suggest that the inquiry should also examine the issue that local authorities need appropriately skilled staff to advise on the historic environment. Over the past thirty-five years local authorities in England and Wales have expanded their heritage services to have professional archaeological staff giving advice to planning colleagues on applications that affect the historic environment. There are many examples where heritage-planning skills have developed and expanded to become an integral part of best practice in "sustainable planning". The influence of Government Planning Guidance in PPG 16 (DoE 1990) and PPG 15 (DoE 1994) is now embedded in the development plan system delivered by local authorities. In spite of this success it is not a time for complacency. Development pressures continue to increase and there is a continual need to ensure that local authority officers and councillors are trained up to make informed and sustainable planning decisions.

 

6. We believe that there is a skills gap within local government to deliver the wide-ranging concept of sustainable communities. We support the need for continued professional development work through bodies such as those represented by the ATF as an integral way forward in communicating and offering advice to planning staff and local councillors.

 

7. English Heritage has established an advisory partnership: Historic Environment Local Management (HELM) (see http://www.helm.org.uk/), and this partnership has started to address the need for the training of local authority councillors to help with decisions that will enhance neighbourhood development, strengthen community action and secure quality and distinction at the local level. This work is starting to have an impact on the built environment but more work is urgently needed to ensure that this initiative is expanded and developed in conjunction with bodies such as ALGAO and IHBC.

 

8. Local authorities have a pivotal role to play in ensuring that appropriately skilled historic environment officers are available to make recommendations and advise on decisions that affect the historic environment. We believe that there is a shortage of skilled local authority officers and local councillors who are sufficiently well trained to influence local planning committees on the importance of the historic environment to sustainable communities. An audit of skilled staff and members is urgently needed in order that government and local authorities are best placed to deal with the current situation and the proposed changes that may be brought about by a new Planning Bill and a Heritage Protection Bill. It is widely anticipated that the proposed Heritage Protection Bill for England and Wales is likely to impose additional duties and responsibilities on local authorities and it is therefore essential that appropriate training is given to local authority staff and councillors by bodies such as English Heritage and other partner organisations.

 

9. The ATF strongly supports the need for this Inquiry and would be happy to present additional information to the committee. We believe that the skills and expertise within the range of ATF members could help the planning sector to address the identified skills gap.