Section H · Summary of organisations and their current activities

Over the past twenty years there has been a considerable change in attitudes to historic buildings and learning. In the words of one experienced correspondent, ‘Twenty years ago, the challenge was to try to wake up private owners, the National Trust and English Heritage to the potential of Historic Buildings for educational purposes.

Nowadays, that battle has long been won …’ Government departments, and in particular the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) consider learning issues within the built environment, and notably creating better physical and intellectual access, to be a priority. In December 2001, DCMS and the then Department for Transport and Local Government Regions (now Office of the Deputy Prime Minister) jointly published A Force for Our Future, outlining government policy on the historic environment. The report made recommendations on realising the historic environment’s educational potential.