Over the last 11 years a variety of UK professional body Accreditation Schemes have emerged. Promoted by the professional bodies, and accepted as relevant by the grant-aiding bodies, each has had the intention of improving the abilities and competencies of individual professionals to operate in the field of building conservation on historic buildings grant aided work.
Whilst common in their intentions, sufficient differences existed in their requirements, management and administration to warrant a review of how they might be brought into a common framework so that the various processes might achieve a more unified approach and acceptance of resulting standards.
Underlying this acceptance of commonality was the recognition that “Commissioning Clients” needed to be assured (by all participating professional bodies) they could appoint a practitioner (for the lead professional role in grant-aided cases) on a clear understanding that the accredited individual (irrespective of discipline) had been assessed to a common level of competence in conservation work.
This has led to the establishment of a UK wide forum concerned with specialist professional registers, known as the Edinburgh Group which has been working under the chairmanship of Historic Scotland. It includes, for architects throughout the UK, the Register of architects Accredited in Building Conservation (AABC), a specialist register for members of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS), a specialist Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), register and a general register of members of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC). Specialist registers are also proposed for Structural and Civil Engineers and Building Site Managers. Agreement has been reached on arrangements to transfer the running of the AABC register to the RIBA, with important safeguards relating to standards which might from time to time require independent scrutiny.
Having identified a common curriculum for continuing professional development and agreed on common standards for resisters, the Group now needs to move on to an operational footing, adopting a monitoring and policing role, It therefore requires an operating base independent of statutory bodies in the Home Countries. It has been formally proposed that COTAC should provide the necessary administrative base and secretarial support.
The Group supported by Historic Scotland and in conjunction with Heriot-Watt University, has set up a website to provide assistance and guidance to practitioners presenting their experience to various professional institutes in order to gain accreditation in building conservation.
Understanding Conservation link
This is not a course and does not provide an easy route to accreditation. It seeks to influence the individual’s way of thinking and provide a self-assessment regime that will assist them in compiling an appropriate body of evidence to demonstrate accrued knowledge across a range of projects. It is structured around five skill sets based on and condensed from abilities adopted in the ICOMOS Education and Training Guidelines. It is pan-professional, covering architects, engineers, surveyors, planners etc.
The site is in the public domain, so is free to use and has both browse-able and log-in accessibility. A facility to add notes within the log-in section is currently being developed. In the future, the ability to link direct to professional institutes for assessment purposes is intended. It provides a diagnostic tool, which will help to build portfolios required for accreditation assessment and offers the opportunity for self identified CPD.
Further development of this site had been delayed by the Office of Fair Trading enquiry initiated by a disgruntled architect into the AABC/RIBA accreditation scheme based on the Edinburgh Group Framework. As this has now been cleared, the future looks very positive, particularly being based on ICOMOS guidelines, providing potential international dimensions. Historic Scotland has or is in the process of preparing Technical Advisory Notes (TANs), Research, Study and Conference reports covering each of the 14 key ICOMOS competences in the guidelines.