FAME has written to ALGAO about charges for archaeological advice and information. The letter can be viewed here:
Author: Doug Rocks-Macqueen
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Southport Group opens online consultation on initial findings
The Southport Group has launched an online video consultation to gather opinion on the initial findings of a series of workshops, held in January 2011, to explore ways of improving the sector’s ability to deliver the requirements of PPS5.
Audiences can choose to watch all or just some of the four half-day workshops that took place at the Museum of London in Docklands, each focussed on a different aspect of delivering benefit in relation to significance.
Broadly the Workshops focussed on 1) quality and standards, 2) publication and participation, 3) access to archives and information, and 4) research and collaborative working.
Historic environment practitioners took up an open invitation from the Southport Group (issued through sector networks and associations) to participate in the workshops. Agenda for the discussion in the workshops were set by the Southport Group, and over 40 people attended each workshop.
Participants were first invited to contribute to an hour-long round-table discussion in groups of five or six, directing their conversation towards a specific question or questions on the agenda. A rapporteur reported on each table’s discussion to the wider group, focusing on issues and barriers to delivery in the context of each question, and on possible solutions or products to enable improved delivery of PPS5 requirements.
Summaries and video recordings of the workshops, plus details of the consultation are available on the Southport webpage at http://www.archaeologists.net/Southport.
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Job Losses in Archaeology, January 2011
The latest survey of job losses in archaeology shows a significant fall in the number of people employed in archaeology in the second half of 2010, and a continuing decline in business confidence for 2011.
The survey, carried out by Landward Research Ltd on behalf of FAME and the IfA, covers the period July 2010-January 2011 and includes for the first time data from ALGAO on employment numbers in local government advisory services.
It shows that there are now fewer people employed in archaeology than at any time since surveys began in January 2009. The total number of 5,827 employed in the UK represents a fall of 7.6% since July 2010. Of these, 3189 work in development-led archaeology – a fall of 13.1% since July 2010 and 21% below the August 2007 peak.
The proportion of businesses expecting to maintain their current staff numbers fell sharply in the three months to October 2010, but recovered slightly in the last quarter of the year. The proportion expecting market conditions to deteriorate increased in every quarter of 2010. The overwhelming majority of businesses now expect conditions to worsen in the next year, and most expect some archaeological practices to cease trading.
For the seventh quarter in succession, the skills needed to conduct and contribute to invasive field investigation were reported as those most frequently being lost.
The full report may be viewed here.
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FAME responds to Greater Manchester threat
FAME has written to the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to express its concern over the proposed closure of GMAU and the future provision of archaeological advice in Greater Manchester.
Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit
The Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) was concerned to learn of the proposed closure of the Greater Manchester Archaeological Unit (GMAU).
FAME represents around 50 archaeological businesses providing advice and specialist services to commercial clients and developers throughout the UK. Its members have been actively engaged in archaeological excavation, recording and publication in Greater Manchester for many years.
This work has only been made possible through the advice and expertise of GMAU in informing local planning decisions, promoting sustainable growth and protecting the historic environment of the area. In the thirty years since it was established, GMAU has been instrumental in highlighting the international importance of Greater Manchester’s industrial heritage, and at the forefront of promoting community engagement and regeneration through the historic environment.
Through its support for GMAU, AGMA enables the local planning authorities of Greater Manchester to meet their obligations, under Planning Policy Statement 5: Planning for the Historic Environment and the draft National Planning Policy Framework, to have access to expert advice and to maintain or have access to a Historic Environment Record (HER). It also enables them to implement those historic environment policies set out in their statutory Local Development Frameworks and emerging neighbourhood development plans.
Any interruption to the service provided by GMAU would have serious consequences for the archaeology of Greater Manchester, those businesses who record and interpret it and those local residents and communities who benefit from it.
It would also have a serious impact on our clients in both the public and private sector, who depend upon timely and expert advice and an up-to-date HER to provide greater certainty before planning applications are determined, and to reduce the risk to them of costly delays and disruption once planning consent has been granted and development is underway.
Whilst we fully understand the budgetary pressures currently facing local government, we are very concerned by the potential consequences of the closure of GMAU, and ask for your reassurance that there will be no interruption either to the maintenance of the HER or to the provision of specialist archaeological advice in Greater Manchester.
Yours sincerely
Adrian Tindall MA FSA MIfA
Chief Executive, Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers
Anyone concerned about future archaeological provision in Greater Manchester should write to Chris Findley, Planning Lead, Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, chris.findley@salford.gov.uk
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Localism Bill Response
FAME has provided evidence to the Public Bill Committee on the Localism Bill:
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FAME sponsors IfA Conference session
For the first time, FAME is sponsoring a session at the annual IfA Conference. With the theme Understanding Significance, the conference and training event will take place at the University of Reading, from 13-15 April 2011.
FAME is sponsoring the opening session on the Southport Group: towards a revitalisation of professional practice, chaired by MOLA Managing Director and FAME committee member Taryn Nixon, Chair of the Southport Group. (more…)
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Job Losses in Archaeology, July 2010
The latest survey of job losses in archaeology shows a slight increase in the number of people in archaeological employment over the three months from April to June 2010, but a significant decline in business confidence for the forthcoming year.
The report, carried out by Landward Research Ltd on behalf of FAME and the IfA, estimates that around 6,500 people were working in professional archaeology in July 2010, an increase of 4.3% on the previous quarter. Around 3,700 were working in development-led archaeology, an increase of 7.8% on the previous quarter but still 9% below the August 2007 peak.
The proportion of businesses expecting to maintain their current staff numbers fell, with the proportion expecting market conditions to deteriorate rising significantly. Unlike at the start of 2010, most businesses expected conditions to worsen in the next twelve months, with the overwhelming majority expecting some archaeological practices to cease trading.
Even though some employers found it difficult to recruit fieldworkers, for the fifth quarter in succession the skills needed to conduct and contribute to invasive field investigation were reported as those most frequently being lost.
The full report may be viewed here.
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Making PPS5 work: realising the benefits of planning-led investigation of the historic environment
Announcement of open workshops on improving practice
24/25 January 2011
Historic environment practitioners are invited to participate in a series of free open workshops. These will explore ways in which the historic environment sector across England can increase the benefits of planning-led work for the public, for the development sector and for the historic environment sector itself.
Each workshop will focus on a different aspect of understanding and sharing the significance of the historic environment and will cover the diverse needs of the built, buried and underwater resource.
Workshop discussions will lead to a report, to be published in April 2011, setting out a road map for change.
Further details of the agenda for each workshop are available at www.archaeologists.net/Southport. Please let us know if you have any comments on these agendas by writing to the email address below.
To book your place, please email southport@archaeologists.net, by 10 January 2011 indicating which of the four workshops you wish to attend. Workshops are free to attend but spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. You are welcome to attend one workshop or several.
The venue for all the workshops will be the Museum of London Docklands
There will be four workshops, as follows:
24 January
10.00-1.30 Workshop 1: How to achieve better quality in delivery (Chairs Peter Hinton, Stewart Bryant)
2.30-6.00 Workshop 2: How to achieve better opportunities for public participation and involvement in decision making, and improved quality of publication and dissemination (Chairs Mike Heyworth and Matthew Slocombe)
25 January
10.00-1.30 Workshop 3: How to achieve proper compilation and transfer of archive material and improved access to archives (Chairs Duncan Brown and Hedley Swain, to confirm)
2.30-6.00 Workshop 4: How to achieve a better research focus in delivery, and how to address fragmentation in the sector (Chairs Chris Gosden, Adrian Tindall and Frank Kelsall)
At a later date, a fifth workshop of invited delegates from the property sector will ask how we are to achieve clearer focus on the needs of the client (funding) body in terms of product and proportionality.
These seminars are an initiative of the Southport Group see www.archaeologists.net/Southport for more details.
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FAME meets the Minister
FAME Chief Executive Adrian Tindall joined a delegation from The Archaeology Forum to meet John Penrose, Minister for Tourism and Heritage, at DCMS on 16 November. The delegation also included Pete Hinton of IfA, Mike Heyworth of CBA and Stewart Bryant of ALGAO(UK).
It provided an opportunity to emphasise the wide public interest in the heritage and the contribution it makes to localism, and to outline some of the challenges currently facing the profession, including the impact of English Heritage funding cuts, the threat to local government historic environment services, and the fragile state of the archaeological market.
The meeting was an opportunity to raise the profile of FAME and its members with central government, and to highlight our role in implementing PPS5 at the ‘sharp end’ of development-led archaeology. FAME reiterated the vital role of local government archaeologists in identifying developments with potential archaeological impact, without whose work many of its members would find it very difficult to remain in business. We also emphasised the fragile nature of an archaeological market in which many of the practitioners were charitable or not-for-profit organisations, yet found themselves operating as small and medium enterprises in a commercial environment. Many were finding it increasingly difficult to deliver the expected public benefit, in line with the government’s vision and objectives, in an increasingly competitive market.
It proved to be a very constructive and positive meeting. The minister showed an encouraging familiarity with PPS5 and an awareness of many of the issues raised. He agreed to consider redrafting the DCMS draft statutory guidance on HERs and publishing it as guidance for local authorities, and made it clear that he would welcome further representations from the sector in the future.
