Initial Report                                 Home > Your Say
 
Introduction
The responses
Main findings
Headline themes
Our aims
Future opportunities
Scale of funding
Future priorities
Distinctive approach
Wider benefits
Access to funding
Application process
Local Support
Mentoring & sharing
Clarity & transparency
Volunteering
Partnerships
Public involvement
Next steps
Appendices
Questions
Respondents
Download
pdf format (300 KB)
Our consultation
The HLF Consultation(now closed)
 
 
 
Our Heritage. Our Future. Your Say.
Public involvement

The consultation highlighted our recent work with Citizens’ Juries and asked respondents to comment on how we should best increase public involvement in our work in future. There is clearly some enthusiasm for this, with many respondents appreciating the broadening of the heritage constituency that HLF has already achieved through the projects it has funded.

    ‘HLF has made a massive difference in two ways. It has allowed community based groups to do excellent things through engagement with heritage and it has encouraged traditional heritage organisations to develop the way they think about and work with people and communities.’
    County museums manager

All the proposals (see Appendix 1) were welcomed to some degree, though people clearly favoured increased use of broadcast media (152 respondents, 44%), greater public involvement in projects (151 respondents, 44%) and greater participation in decision-making through widening recruitment to our committees (148 respondents, 43%). Public meetings were the least popular option (92 respondents, 27%). This support was qualified in several cases by a reluctance to see broadcast media used for decision-making and observations that we should not increase the requirement for public involvement in project development if this places a disproportionate burden on the applicant.

In particular, people highlighted the need to balance public opinion with that of experts, and would welcome more opportunities for the public to engage with experts in order to give informed views on complex issues. This of course accords well with the thinking emerging from the recent conference on Public Value and the sector’s commitment to developing a more inclusive approach to heritage.

    ‘We welcome HLF’s commitment to greater public involvement in the heritage decision-making process. We recognise the benefits of the approaches you have identified to ensure a balanced view of heritage (lay person viewpoint alongside the expert viewpoint).’
    Grants manager, national natural heritage conservation charity
 
Case study: British Museum Great Court, London
Award: £15,555,000
Synopsis: Visitors young and old can enjoy an amazing wealth of treasures as they discover the British Museum’s collections with the help of HLF’s support for the Great Court project. A series of grants has enabled the restoration of the round Reading Room, repairs and conservation of the Smirke courtyard, with a spectacular glass roof, and the creation of an education centre to cater for the quarter of a million schoolchildren who visit each year. With its blue and gold domed ceiling, the Reading Room is both awe-inspiring and accessible, open to everyone for the first time since 1857.