The sector research operations of the IHBC, the UK’s lead body for built and historic environment conservation specialists, include monitoring Conservation Officer (CO) and related posts in England, and while recent data suggests in some parts of the country a slight easing of pressure on these services, it should be noted also that this may only indicate a short-term pause in public service cutbacks.
Bob Kindred, the IHBC’s Research Coordinator, said: ‘The Institute will shortly publish an annual update of the local authority conservation jobs market in England for 2014, and will continue to do so annually each January from now on.’
‘The IHBC has been monitoring these local authority salaries and job descriptions since 1998. The database now documents nearly 1,600 posts advertised since then, and probably represents the single most substantial body of data on the evolution of England’s local conservation services over the last two decades.’
‘The monitoring process now offers extensive and invaluable information on trends, necessary qualifications, skills and service structures. Much of this helps validate the Institute’s periodic and parallel Local Authority Conservation Provision [LACP] research and analysis, much of which has been supported by what is now Historic England.’
‘Recent figures on the jobs market confirm that, although there was a dramatic fall in the number of advertised posts in 2010 and 2011, the market has recovered year on year since. Encouragingly, the numbers of local authority vacancies in the first quarter of 2015 are higher at that point than for several years.’
‘Furthermore, while overall, advertised salaries have remained pretty static, the posts are predominantly full-time and permanent. This is in sharp contrast to last year where only half of the posts were full-time and/or permanent.’
‘With uncertainty over public finances after the election, the Institute continues to compile quarterly status reports on the local authority job market.’
