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:
Dear IHBC Branch Committee Officer/Representative,
I’m delighted to update you once again on key current matters from the IHBC’s National Office, as we continue to expand our support for our hard-pressed volunteers alongside our many other priorities.
Please feel free to circulate this Bulletin to your Committee or more widely through your Branch network and communications as preferred.
As ever, more detailed updates and mainstream IHBC news appears in our NewsBlogs service, so please do also use that service for further details.
Perhaps the most important matters to be aware of just now are:
- The National Office is undergoing substantial re-organisation, reflecting new investment in strategic support and enhanced corporate standards linked to our Charter exploration. Most notably for now are the staff changes, with new roles and email contacts – the last to be advised, so use current ones for now – including:
- Angharad Hart, coming in as a full-time staff member with a new title Education & Outreach Executive Officer
- Fiona Newton, reducing her time as a member of staff to 3 days a week from 4, and with a specific focus on supporting the Policy and the Membership and Ethics Committees as our Policy & Membership Executive Officer
- Lydia Porter is now formally an IHBC staff member, having been part of the service support from our publication partners Cathedral Communicators. As that publications business has been sold, she has joined us as formally in our virtual National Office – with the same roles as before but now in a full-time capacity (up from c.90%) . She will retain her title of ‘Administrator’ though as she is also our Company Secretary, this is another useful consolidation in our National Office infrastructure.
- We plan our next online Branch Connection Event for 22 January 2026, 2pm – 4pm, with details below and HERE
- The recent AGM elected new Board members and advanced core business, including around the Charter explorations, as noted below and on our NewsBlogs.
- New appointments and arrangements for our extended regional Branch Consultant network are secured as planned and as outlined HERE and below.
- We are all delighted with the news of an OBE for our Chair, David McDonald, another sign of our growing recognition and standing, also reported on below.
- IHBC’s 2025 Parliamentary Briefing launched our ‘research-led ‘5 Commitments to Help Heritage Skills in Conservation’’, and highlighted a range of plans, some of which are especially relevant to Branch Committees:
- A more inclusive strategy for network and sector engagement alongside more energetic but appropriate political advocacy, especially across devolved governments and administrations, and wider conservation-related interests, regional and local as well as national
- A renewed focus on support and advocacy for and on behalf of our Conservation Officer and local conservation service interests and their roles in regulatory processes, which will be a focus of our next Council
- A new network supporting leads on conservation education, training and learning programmes.
Also, I’d like to offer… notice on our new member consultation, linked HERE, to help us develop IHBC’s next Corporate Plan. We are seeking feedback on a ‘light-touch’ review of our existing plan, ‘CP25’ to inform corporate planning to 2030, with responses encouraged before 1 March.
Given this busy programme, I am also especially conscious of the need to build even more capacity across our Institute, especially around our volunteers. So, I am exploring a pan-IHBC call for volunteers across all our activities. The call would highlight benefits and opportunities from both the professional side – such as CPD, new skills, career progress and networking – and the personal, from social benefits to good mental health and supporting the public benefits central to our work as a charity. If you have any initial thoughts, concerns or suggestions, please do feel free to email me direct.
Key issues to note for now – some of which will be familiar to more longstanding recipients of this Bulletin – are listed below.
Online Branch Connection Event, 22 January 2026, 2pm – 4pm
The IHBC’s National Office is calling for at least one representative from each Branch Committee — with more Committee members also very welcome — to join us for an afternoon of updates, discussion and shared learning, noting too that all counts as IHBC CPD.
The session will feature:
- Key updates from the National Office, from Branch-related guidance and best practice for events to learning resources and Branch support including
- Schools
- Branch Guidance and its evolution, with priorities to include • Understanding copyright considerations • Managing security for online meetings • Preparing risk assessments • Supporting immediate Branch needs agreed with the National Office • Appropriate political advocacy (including soft power of the Honours nominations) and related matters.
- Opportunities for cross-Branch networking and partnerships
- A structured discussion and feedback session to help shape how we continue to liaise with and support Branches in the year ahead.
If there is any more you might want to bring up please just do let us know: just email Sarah Homer at support@ihbc.org.uk
Also, if you are an IHBC Branch Committee member who would like to attend on behalf of your Committee, do check with them so we can be sure at least one representative attended for each Branch.
Of course we’d be delighted to meet as many Committee members as would like to attend.
Council Update
The Draft Minutes of our most recent Council, on 8 October 2025, reported formally on the successful conclusion of business and CPD there. It was also summarised in the NewsBlogs service, where it reminded members that those Draft Minutes introduced a new format still very much in evolution. We want to simplify the recording process while enhancing the interactive benefits of Council meetings themselves, so please do feedback on them, in this case direct to Angharad Hart at training@ihbc.org.uk or at IHBCCouncil@ihbc.org.uk.
This approach reflects another change under the new National Office arrangements noted above. Angharad and I will work with our President Rebecca Thompson to further develop Council as we grow, and the new style of record – as a key reporting mechanism for the wider membership – will evolve to support that plan.
At the same time, it’s worth remembering that we are still examining options to address weaknesses in digital event platforms and linked protocols, while also upgrading guidance for our volunteers, with some immediate guidance available HERE.
Charter update
Following the approval to submit a Petition for Charter, our recent AGM adopted the following resolution:
That Members agree to the preparation of a Petition for Charter to be submitted to the Privy Council Office following review and approval by a subsequent AGM under the Institute’s Articles of Association, to include the Charter text, Byelaws and Regulations as required.
We will progress this accordingly, but do remember that any final decision is subject to approval first by voting Members in the context of a General Meeting (or Annual General Meeting), and – if approved there – then by the Privy Council.
There is much to be done yet, including measures to support and underpin any transition to a Chartered body – from branding and corporate re-registration to, most especially, a review and cross-check of our current Articles. These are ‘Charter compliant’ but, as we know after working with them for 5 years, not quite ‘Charter-ready’. Our Petition for Charter Working Group will lead on the next steps, reporting to our new Board while the member consultation on our corporate planning noted above offers an early opportunity for members to feed in on these matters.
Branch Consultants update
Our new Branch Consultant support infrastructure is still bedding in, with seven consultants in place and lots of infrastructure for bedding in the role happening behind the senses, all ably co-ordinated by our Branch Consultant Liaison and lead here, Sarah Homer. Details are appended below, with each Consultant typically covering 2 Branches, with an annual average of 2 hours per week allocated to each Branch.
Please do remember that this Branch support service is still evolving. Currently it consists of a small, flexible network of part-time, heritage-linked consultants to help our Branches and volunteers ‘on the ground and in the background’ as needed. This means all Branch Committees 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.
Additionally – and for now most important – all have been tasked with enhancing our communications and contacts with Branches, not only for activities such as the Connection Event above, but for Council, updates such as this, regional networks and other relevant matters.
I should say to that informal feedback to date has been very positive, from Branches that have availed of this support as well as from our Consultants. Those Branches that have not needed such support have been happily and usefully working away on their programmes without needing to call on these services (or raise attendant costs) so Consultants can maximise their time where most needed.
Where useful, please do continue to engage and include your Consultant in your meetings and events, remembering their attendance at CPD events is in their own time, with the National Office paying event expenses, and their presence in your local communications – online or in person – costs your Branch nothing. Their presence, as representatives of the National Office, also can add hugely to the networking opportunities in any event, training or otherwise.
Feel free to connect with your designated Consultant online too and – to maximise the IHBC’s reach – encourage sharing, promoting and liking their IHBC Social Media posts (and ours!) where you can, especially on our default social media network LinkedIn and on any Jobs etc adverts there.
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 at branchlink@ihbc.org.uk, or indeed myself as the National Office lead in this developing this initiative.
IHBC Schools: Including#IHBCNewcastle2026– 18-20 June 2026
As previously noted, our 2025 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, will follow this model very closely. Already it has its own exciting content confirmed too, including (as early notice for Committees!) Anna Keay OBE welcoming delegates – representing the Landmark Trust’s historic leadership and proactive strategies and award-winning designs tied to the conference theme of Adaptive Reuse.
Huge thanks again are due to our enthusiastic volunteers in the host North Branch in helping us advance content so well, as well as Angharad in co-ordinating all and ensuring we tick the best possible CPD boxes we can, given our resources. Now that we know most of the content, we also know 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.
MATE Accreditation sessions piloting simpler and shorter application forms: Next stages
As we digest the conclusions of the very successful themed MATE Accreditation sessions in operation before Christmas, as part of our piloting of the evolving new application forms, I can confirm that more will be planned for the coming months. Again Angharad will take the lead on organising these, with Fiona advising and contributing.
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 after our January event – now booked out – and we plan a core service for MATEs on a rolling quarterly basis from February. 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 with Angharad at training@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, including – for Supporters – our Affiliate stage of support.
Branch Events opportunities
Our School Reception sponsor VELUX is still keen to sponsor local Branch events between the Schools – 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, while fliers are available on the main event 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 five new priority topics; Placemaking and Design delivered by Dave Chetwyn, Fire Protection and Regulations delivered by Steve Emery, Enforcement delivered by Bob Kindred, Building Control and Regulations delivered by Anthony Gwynne, and Heritage Appeals delivered by Alexandra Fairclough. 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.
Branch finances and Branch Guidance Page
Having provisionally closed our Financial Year at the end of September, we are once again looking at our end of year arrangements. This is a complex issue – though the report to Board is available on request and approval – but a change to an end-of-March date will help reduce new duties that volunteers might otherwise have faced.
We’ll keep you in touch on that as things clarify, but please bear with us during these changes.
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.
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
Seán
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