F 5 · Partnerships
The historic environment is rich in buildings and sites, in the possession of very many owners. The number of staff on sites tends to be small, in comparison to the larger museums. There is no historic site with the hundreds of professional staff of the British Museum or the Natural History Museum, which is capable of providing leadership or at least guidance for the museum sector as a whole. In the heritage world, even such large organisations as the National Trust and English Heritage enjoy only limited staff capacity in relation to the numerous sites they look after, and this capacity is spread over very large areas. Lack of co-ordination between historic sites, and between historic sites and other bodies, is common. As this report illustrates, this situation is changing, but there is a long way to go.
A further problem arises from the fact that so many heritage sites are in private ownership. The question of private individuals possibly benefiting from public funding makes collaboration, particularly over financial matters, potentially difficult.
There are three main issues:
 the lack of a champion, or convenor, for the heritage sector
the need for heritage sites to pool their resources
the benefits of shared initiatives to assist users, and particularly schools.
Existing partnerships
There are of course many positive examples of lively partnerships.
The National Trust is planning to extend the range of its partnerships. Over some years it has developed a Heritage Partnership Scheme between schools and historic buildings. As an example, two schools have ‘adopted’ Wallington Hall in Northumberland. The two schools (if possible of very different types) make frequent visits to the house to study various aspects. The children gain a sense of ownership and identification with the house – one of the most important secrets for involving new audiences in historic buildings. Another approach is collaboration between several schools, urban and rural, who make seven or eight visits to a historic property in a year, with each school making their own contribution to the partnership.
Houghton Hall in Norfolk has collaborated with the Norfolk Education Advisory Department on the development of an education service. At Sutton Hoo the National Trust has worked with the British Museum on loans and on presentation of the objects. English Heritage is working closely with the Historic Houses Association on developing education programmes for country houses.
The Welsh Schools Heritage Initiative, a voluntary initiative by schools, brings together a number of schools in collaboration with the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in Wales, to consider how best schools can use the historic environment.
Notable examples of collaboration include the Brontë Parsonage Museum with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Clarke Hall’s Action on Literacy programme; Bagshaw Museum’s Winter Stars; and the Whitby Abbey project, bringing together the Abbey and a local school.
Creative Partnerships
This is a prominent example of institutions being brought together. A government-funded programme, it gives schoolchildren in deprived areas across England the opportunity to enhance creativity in learning through developing long-term partnerships with the cultural and creative sectors including museums and galleries, libraries and archives, architects, artists and designers, theatre companies and orchestras, and historic buildings. The pilot scheme was begun in April 2002 (with a budget of £40 million) and extended in June 2003 with a further budget of £70million. Phase Two began in April 2004.
The majority of schools involved are primary but Creative Partnerships also works with secondary, special and specialist schools as well as Pupil Referral Units, Youth Services and Hospital Schools. To date students have enjoyed almost 3.5 million hours of Creative Partnership activity. It is the first nationally co-ordinated programme in the world for developing creative learning through cultural partnership. On the other hand, while historic buildings are in principle part of this scheme, the programme is primarily targeted at the arts. The situation that has arisen seems to be characteristic of a general failure within the cultural world to appreciate how much the historic environment is able to contribute to creative activities as to many fields of learning.
English Heritage
English Heritage has been active in engaging in partnerships with other organisations in the education field, and currently works with Creative Partnerships, the Churches Conservation Trust and the Civic Trust. Its collaboration with the Historic Houses Association is discussed elsewhere.
Collaboration
The sector would benefit from further organised collaboration on a large scale. While many sites or organisations enjoy specific skills, few of them have the capacity to create major initiatives. In collaboration they could achieve much more than they can hope to on their own. By contrast, the museums and galleries sector has much more vigorous mechanisms for joint working, including the Museums Libraries and Archives Council and its regional branches, the Museums Association, the Renaissance in the Regions hubs, and voluntary bodies such as the Group for Education in Museums. There are no equivalent bodies in the heritage sector for sharing best practice, disseminating guidance and discussing strategies.
During the colloquia organised for this report, participants regularly commented on the value of meetings which brought together representatives of organisations working in the heritage field to exchange information and discuss problems. We found that while, for example, a number of historic properties in a rural area might be organising interesting activities, they tended to know little about what else was on offer in the locality. Parish churches are often even more isolated.
While large organisations are aware of the activities of their peers, there are relatively few examples of joint initiatives in marketing, shared resources, or joint communication with schools or colleges. Often this situation is exacerbated by a perception of other properties as competitors.
In the absence of LEAs and subject advisers, historic sites and their relationship with schools and adult bodies have no champion. English Heritage and CABE (in England), Cadw, Historic Scotland the Historic Houses Association, the Heritage Education Trust and other bodies are all capable of taking on this role but they are all hampered by limited resources. One way forward, in regional terms, may be through the Regional Heritage Forum. For example, the East Midlands Regional Heritage Forum already brings education officers from historic sites together and aims to create new networks.
This problem is less applicable in Scotland, which enjoys healthy communications within the heritage field and where lively partnerships flourish. In Wales there is a considerable degree of shared information within bodies involved with heritage learning in the context of a growing interest in all-Wales activity following the creation of the Welsh Assembly and a concern on the part of many Welsh people to rediscover their roots. One important point is that partnerships must be natural and organic. Some funding organisations have forced bodies to work together in order to qualify for funding - this can have a negative effect.
Heritage Link
Heritage Link is able to address some of these problems. Established in 2002 in response to Power of Place, this is an umbrella group formed by non-Government bodies in the heritage sector, to co-ordinate the voice of the voluntary organisations concerned with the historic environment. Funded primarily by English Heritage and membership subscriptions, it aims to influence policy, underpin advocacy and increase capacity by providing a forum for members to formulate and promote policy on core issues, and provide a network of information to support members in their work. It operates a fortnightly exchange of information about issues in the heritage world within the UK, and organises events and working parties to consider major issues. Heritage Link is not particularly focussed on learning issues but these are included among the material that it circulates.
Advisers for schools
One problem that faces the development of partnerships and the sharing of information on the schools front is the near-disappearance of Local Education Authorities and the devolution of resources to schools. Where LEAs survive, for example in Lancashire which has a particularly impressive record, they continue to do valuable work in this field. Birmingham City Council actively uses its Education Authority, a factor which has helped Aston Hall, a major Elizabethan house in the suburbs of Birmingham with an outstanding education programme, to build up partnerships with schools and other bodies.
In the absence of guidance from advisers, many schools and teachers may feel isolated and in need of guidance, particularly in relatively unfamiliar fields such as the historic environment. They may tend to cling on to what is immediately available, such as the National Curriculum’s guidelines. Sports England and the Arts Council of England do provide advise for users: this is something that could be extended to the historic heritage.
Packages for schools
If resources are made available for more staff at sites, then LEAs or English Heritage should take over the fund-raising and planning of off-site activities and market them to schools as a total package, so that the work required of schools is limited to their having to make bookings. All the risk assessment can be done by qualified education staff. This sort of approach would not undermine the value of training for teachers, but would reduce the organisational burdens.
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