Local Authority Historic Environment Online Learning Community Development

The contractor will provide Community Management and Community Evaluation services for a new online learning community for local authority heritage staff during a 6-month period. The online community will be created in the Heritage Workspace network www.khub.net/web/historicengland , which uses the KnowledgeHub platform Welcome - Knowledge Hub (khub.net)

From our research we know that there are around 850 people working in these roles in local authorities, so on average around 2.5 people per local authority. Expertise is therefore thinly spread, and an online community provides an opportunity to share and solve common problems, ask and answer questions and build their professional networks, particularly at a moment of change in practice.

Participation in the new community will complement the roll-out of training in new practices for heritage staff in local authorities. This will be based on the forthcoming Historic England Advice Note on adapting historic buildings in response to climate change. This is due out in July. See https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/climate-change-historic-building-adaptation-consultation/ for further details.

Aim for the contract is to develop a well-used and valued online community of local authority heritage staff, and relevant Historic England staff providing opportunities for peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, asking and answering questions, finding and accessing relevant resources. Objectives: this contract will deliver the following two workpackages: - Workpackage 1: To design and deliver between four and six (4 to 6) engagement activities using appropriately the features of the online community. Workpackage 2: Review progress with the online community. Two reviews will be undertaken by the contractor, using the Historic England Online Communities Review toolkit published on http://www.historicengland.org.uk/online-communities