{"id":28368,"date":"2020-11-26T12:28:42","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28368"},"modified":"2020-11-26T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-26T12:30:43","slug":"heritage-fund-blog-update-from-ros-kerslake-were-backing-the-heritage-sector-to-adapt-and-thrive-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=28368","title":{"rendered":"Heritage Fund blog update from Ros Kerslake: We’re backing the heritage sector to adapt and thrive again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ros<\/a>As everyone around the UK face the challenges of responding to COVID-19 amid varying guidance and restrictions, the Chief Executive of the Heritage Fund, Ros Kerslake, shares The Fund’s latest plans to support the heritage community.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

…Our role in supporting heritage is truly UK wide…<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

…Our mission now is to support the heritage sector to consolidate its recovery…<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

The Heritage Fund writes:<\/p>\n

As everyone around the UK faces the challenges of responding to COVID-19 amid varying guidance and restrictions, our Chief Executive shares The Fund’s latest plans to support our heritage community. Eight months into the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the outlook for our health and our economy remains deeply uncertain. A steady rise in the rate of infections, resulting in national and local lockdowns, means that the path to recovery in the heritage sector \u2013 in common with so many aspects of our national life \u2013 is fraught with difficulty and challenge.<\/p>\n

\u2018With ongoing national and global instability, on behalf of The National Lottery Heritage Fund team, I want to do what I can to give a degree of certainty and confidence to the partners and stakeholders we work with regarding our funding plans for heritage over the next 18 months or so. Our role in supporting heritage is truly UK wide. Across every part of the UK, our country and area teams have been working side by side with local heritage organisations to support them through this most difficult of times.\u2019<\/p>\n

What we’ve done to date<\/h2>\n

\u2018Since March of this year, all our efforts at The Fund have been focused on supporting heritage across the UK to adapt and respond to the immediate impact of COVID-19. Heritage organisations have risen admirably to this challenge: finding new, safe ways of opening with social distancing measures in place to welcome people back through the summer months and embracing new digital ways of working to find and engage new audiences. In March, to support these changes, we pressed pause on the funding of new projects and moved all our efforts and resources to our emergency response. It\u2019s been no small feat. By the end of this financial year, The Fund will have distributed almost \u00a3600million into the sector. That\u2019s roughly double our usual annual amount\u2019 [she said].<\/p>\n

From a standing start, we have \u2013 in addition to maintaining \u00a31.1bn of support for projects to which we were already committed \u2013 successfully launched three large investment programmes:<\/p>\n