The IHBC’s new Branch Committee Bulletin has been issued, updating our Branch committees on strategic developments and current priorities, while if you want to find out more just check the NewsBlogs or contact your Branch Officers or the IHBC’s National Office.
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IHBC Director Sean O’Reilly writes:
I’m delighted to be able to update you once again on key current matters from the IHBC’s National Office, as we extend our support for our hard-pressed volunteers.
Please feel free to circulate this Bulletin to your Committee or more widely through your Branch network and communications.
As ever, more detailed updates and mainstream IHBC news appears in our NewsBlogs service, so please do use also that service for further details.
Perhaps the most important matters to be aware of just now are:
- Formal permission granted to apply for a Charter HERE
- IHBC members of all categories have been notified of or next AGM, on 7 January 2026, from 5.30PM for a 6PM AGM start, all as outlined HERE
- New appointments and arrangements for our extended regional Branch Consultant network are concluded, as outlined HERE, are noted below.
Branch Consultants update
Our new Branch Consultant support infrastructure has grown since I wrote to you last, and we now have seven consultants in place. Details are appended below, while each typically covers 2 Branches with an annual average of 2 hours per week allocated to each Branch. I’m also delighted we can announce a new link-role in this network, as IHBC Full Member Sarah Homer has agreed to serve as our Branch Consultant Liaison, to help connect this regionally dispersed team. Sarah also has longstanding experience of being a volunteer at Branch Committee level, so she is especially well-placed to take on this role.
As a reminder of this Branch support, it consists of a small, flexible network of part-time, heritage-linked consultants to help our Branches and volunteers. Each IHBC Branch Committee now has access to a dedicated consultant – contactable via a dedicated email address – to help and advise on how best they can access and take advantage of the IHBC’s national resources, services and networks, as well as to help on adding capacity in critical areas as agreed.
Please remember that we are still developing this model, and that time is the Consultant’s limitation too. Also, each is encouraged to add voluntary contributions to their paid roles as suits and where relevant. So please do engage, invite and welcome your new (or old) Consultant into your meetings and events: their attendance at CPD events is in their own time, with the National Office paying event expenses, so under these arrangements their presence in your local communications – online or in person, and subject to capacity – costs your Branch nothing, but adds hugely to the networking opportunities in any event, training or otherwise.
Also, our guidance on this is evolving, with priorities to include • Encouraging blended events • Comms and updates where required • Supporting immediate Branch needs agreed with the National Office with, currently, • Branch Business Plans and related matters the priority as per below. So please do connect with your designated Consultant and – to maximise the IHBC’s reach – encourage sharing, promoting and liking their IHBC Social Media posts (and our!) where you can, especially on our default social media network LinkedIn.
If you have any queries on if or how this network can help your Branch, please do email your Consultant direct, or contact Sarah Homer or indeed myself as, currently, the National Office lead in this initiative.
Council Update
I’d like to especially and personally thank our President, Rebecca Thompson, for her stalwart chairing of our most recent Council, where arrangements and discussions were complicated by last minute changes to our programme and digital services. On the digital side we needed to limit the access following a recent intrusion into a joint event hosted by the IHBC on Zoom. This was an unfortunate first for us and – as far as we have heard – for our wider networks. As our Council was just over a week away when it happened, we needed to act urgently and, perhaps, with an excess of caution, but we’re sure you’ll appreciate our immediate priorities.
Given those circumstances, Council concluded its business reasonably successfully, as will be reported on in the minutes. At the same time we are still looking at how best to respond to any systemic weaknesses in digital platforms or protocols, and will be reporting to the next Board, at the end of the month, while also upgrading guidance for our volunteers, with some immediate guidance available HERE.
IHBC Schools: 2025 Shrewsbury School and Home Page launch for #IHBCNewcastle2026 – 18-20 June 2026
Our 2025 School Shrewsbury School feedback was consistently positive across both online and in-person delegates, with 95% rating it Excellent (at 59%!) to Good, and 80% intending to attend the School in Newcastle either in person (56%) or virtually (24%). So, as delegates now have received their CPD-linked recordings, noted HERE, there’s even more chances for those benefits to be enjoyed.
Our 2026 School, #IHBCNewcastle2026, is making great headway already too, with the web home page launch noted and linked HERE, not least thanks to our enthusiastic volunteers in our North Branch. And while much of 2026 is still under development, we know it will offer the same breadth of access (in person and online) and the quality CPD that members have come to expect. And do remember too – and pass on – that we encourage all to promote the event on your social media, especially LinkedIn.
Branch Events opportunities
Our School Reception sponsor VELUX is still keen to sponsor local Branch events between the Schools – up to about 5, and ideally linked to the 2026 School theme of ‘Adaptive Reuse’. This offers the opportunity to reduce rates to events as well as, depending on format, the chance to discuss products in the context of IHBC CPD. VELUX is an IHBC Recognised CPD Provider and RIBA assessed, with fliers linked on the main options: a 15 minute pitch in a sponsor-type role, and a 30-45 minute event (including Q&A) for a more substantial linked CPD programme.
Our training etc. lead, Angharad Hart, at training@ihbc.org.uk, and your Branch Consultants, are available to help guide on how to take advantage of such initiatives, so please do get in touch if you want core sponsor funding to keep an event’s costs down.
CPD Branch Partnership: Reminder & update
Our CPD Branch Partnership initiative offers hosting Branches access to expertise and funding towards speaker costs. You can see more on the website, including guidance and terms, and for more detailed advice please contact our lead here, Angharad, at training@ihbc.org.uk.
Following the initial success of the Branch CPD Training Pilot, the model has now been extended to include three new priority topics; Placemaking and Design Codes delivered by Dave Chetwyn, Fire Protection and Regulations delivered by Steve Emery and Enforcement delivered by Bob Kindred. Now successfully operating and on offer across the UK, these topics join three existing topics that are still available: Retrofit with John Edwards, Conservation Engineering with Ian Hume, and Conservation Legislation and Curtilage with Charles Mynors. We are also in discussions with potential speakers to offer a further two topics on Building Regulations and Conservation Legislation with details pending.
Branch returns, fees, finance and Branch Guidance Page
Having closed our Financial Year at the end of September, at this time of year Branch returns from each Branch are always a priority for our Administrator and Company Secretary Lydia Porter, as she gathers the data for our accountants. It is even more complex this year as a more in-depth review of finances across Branches is required. So please do all you can to help your Branch Treasurer gather the necessary records, and – as Lydia has said on the Branch Returns etc.:
- Please get the completed and signed return and statements to me as soon as possible after 30 September, but certainly by 30 November 2025. Without ALL the returns the accountants can’t start work on preparing the accounts and that can have a very serious knock on effect.
If you need more guidance contact Lydia direct, and if you need more support, let your Branch Consultant know and they’ll discuss options with the National Office.
Late membership renewals are also closing soon, with further reminders out! Our fees – despite their comparatively low cost – can be a challenge for members, even with the extensive support we offer, as noted below. So, where possible and while thanking members for their support, if you can remind members of the great value we offer, even as a top-up to other (invariably more substantial) professional fees. As our Charter discussions lift our profile and standing too, today there’s more reason than ever for members (and others) to invest in us to support their career and interests.
Remember too – and do please pass this on if fees are presented as an issue – that there are further reductions through tax relief (which may need to be claimed from HMRC), and reduced rates for lower incomes, all outlined HERE. There is also advice on our Fee Support webpage HERE, and if you know of anyone in need of support, please do direct them to these pages or to our officers and consultants.
Indeed, as sign of our commitment to value-driven services and support for members, our Treasurer reported to the last Board that ‘… 20+ years after the IHBC raised core fees to £80 pa to pay for a Director, the current fee, at £150, is only £3 above the Bank of England’s inflation-adjusted rate for 2004, and even that is primarily a consequence of rounding-off’. And as fee payments are ‘now recognised for tax relief by HMRC, the actual cost to most members paying tax is well below the equivalent to the 2004’. Given the spectrum of fee-support for low-income today, as well as services, support and recognition on offer, the IHBC offers remarkable value for money to anyone who cares about their job or about conservation.
As ever too, it is useful if you can remind members that any changes of address or employment contacts etc. should be noted to our Carmen Moran, our Membership Services Officer, using the form HERE.
The IHBC’s Branch Guidance webpage has lots of useful resources and links, but has so much it can be hard to navigate, especially when in a rush. If there’s any specific guidance needed, please do get in touch with your Branch Consultant, or myself or others in the National Office.
MATE Accreditation sessions piloting simpler and shorter application forms: Next stages
As we digest the conclusions of the very successful (and free!) themed MATE Accreditation sessions in operation since Christmas, as part of our piloting of the evolving new application forms, I can confirm that more will be planned for the coming months.
As our Chair says of the new accreditation forms, the ‘changes simplify access to our practice standards by minimising those procedures that underpin our assessment of competence in interdisciplinary conservation practice’. Additionally, we will be exploring enhanced guidance and approaches to accreditation so, as we extend our MATE service, accredited members can access some unique CPD opportunities, so all members will be encouraged to attend as and when suits.
More online sessions are planned for November & January and, as we are keen to plan opportunities for Branches to hold MATEs, if there is likely to be interest in your Branch please get in touch at professional@ihbc.org.uk.
Please do keep an eye on our NewsBlogs for details of future sessions, and do also encourage anyone interested in developing their membership with us to take a look at our newer streamlined forms.
Wider developments and feedback
Those above are just a few of the new developments we will highlight to all Branch Committees in future Bulletins.
Our NewsBlog update on ‘IHBC’s new ‘Board insight’… NewsBlogs etc on recent achievements’ also summarises some more recent achievements as highlighted to the Board. Of course our news service and linked publications will carry the most up-to-date information, so please do keep up to date using those.
In the interim please feel free to email me on any of the points above, or indeed on any matters you’d like addressed here or elsewhere. If I’m not the best person here to respond, I’ll be sure to pass it on to the right lead.
Cheers, and as ever our thanks and appreciation for the hard work done by you and your volunteers and colleagues.
See the IHBC October Branch Committee Bulletin
See more on and links to IHBC Branches
