Lancashire Archives and Local History Strategy 2022 - 2025

Foreword

The Lancashire Archives & Local History service collect and preserve Lancashire’s unique and irreplaceable archives and make them available for people to use and enjoy. Our Accredited Archives service provides access to 900 years of historic records and supports the care of archives and local history collections across Lancashire for future generations.

With our comprehensive archives collection and highly skilled team, supported by The Friends of Lancashire Archives, volunteers and partners, we can proudly boast a very strong cultural presence here in Lancashire. This strategy builds on the previous strategy for libraries, museums, culture and archives covering 2019-24 and expands it to incorporate the County Council’s corporate priorities of delivering better services; protecting our environment; supporting economic growth; and caring for the vulnerable.

The vision for our archives within this framework is for a service to collect and preserve Lancashire’s diverse heritage and to make it accessible to everyone through high quality cultural experiences.

County Councillor Peter Buckley

Cabinet Member for Community and Cultural Services

Our vision, purpose and values

Here at Lancashire County Council we are helping you to make Lancashire the best place to live, work, visit and prosper as well as being the place where everyone acts responsibly.

The above is the vision of Lancashire County Council and forms part of the county council’s planning and performance framework. Lancashire Archives & Local History contribute to the vision through the goals and objectives that will be detailed in this strategy.

Archives provide connections to our communities which create a sense of place and help to celebrate Lancashire as a great county in which to live and work.

The goals and objectives detailed in this strategy will help Lancashire Archives to deliver the vision of the County Council.

Our purpose

Enriching lives in Lancashire

We enrich people’s lives across Lancashire on a daily basis by providing a vibrant and modern archives service.

We have a positive impact on people’s lives, through the information we provide and the experiences we offer both virtually and face to face.

Our purpose is to offer information, inspiration, and connectedness and to strive to create opportunities for all.

Lancashire Archives aim to provide access for everyone to quality resources, knowledgeable and customer-focused staff and a welcoming space.

Inspiring people and communities to explore their heritage: promoting and continuing to collect Lancashire’s archives while preserving them for everyone to use and enjoy, now and in the future

We fulfil our core purpose by:

  • Making effective arrangements for the ongoing development and long-term preservation of Lancashire’s archives and local history collections
  • Ensuring Lancashire’s archives and local history are accessible to new and existing users from all communities
  • Inspiring learning and creativity through archives and local history.

Our values

Supportive

We will support our customers and colleagues, recognising their contributions and making the best of their strengths to enable our communities to flourish.

Innovative

We will deliver the best services we possibly can. We are always looking for creative ways to do things better, putting the customer at the heart of our thinking and being ambitious and focused on how we can deliver the best services now and in the future.

Respectful

We will treat colleagues, customers and partners with respect, listening to their views, empathising with them and valuing their diverse needs and perspectives. We aim to be fair, open, and honest in all that we do.

Collaborative

We will listen to, engage with, learn from and work with colleagues, partners, and customers to help achieve the best outcomes for everyone.

Strategic priorities - our goals

Lancashire Archives & Local History have four strategic priorities which will help to meet the County Council’s vision of enriching lives in Lancashire.

  1. Engage with all our customers and potential audiences by having an Archives and Local History offer which is well resourced, accountable, and creative for everyone now and in the future:
    1. We aim to raise awareness of Archives & Local History services and their benefits to ensure wider community engagement.
    2. We will be ambitious and committed to improving the quality of our Archives service.
    3. We will provide a high-quality Archives service, operating in line with The National Archives Accreditation Scheme standards, which will support service development and meet the needs of local communities.
    4. We will be inclusive and reflect the diversity of the local communities and our wider audiences, working alongside other teams in Cultural Services.
    5. By raising awareness and expanding the range of Archives services on offer, we will increase the number of local people who benefit from the skills, resources and opportunities available in archives teams to improve their quality of life and fulfil their potential through participation, creativity and learning.
  2. Preserve Lancashire’s memory by providing community access, building a sense of place and identity by actively collaborating with partners for mutual benefit:
    1. We will continue to use our archives to preserve Lancashire’s memory.
    2. We will build and maintain a sense of Lancashire’s identity through the collection and preservation of physical and digital archives documenting the county’s history.
    3. We will place archives at the centre of a collaborative network of partners both within the county council and the wider local and business communities, for mutual benefit, encouraging and expanding existing networks with onsite partners, volunteers, friends groups and Lancashire’s thriving education sector.
    4. We will ensure better access to our collections by improving and accelerating digital access to collections and collection information and increasing historical and interpretive content on our website.
  3. Support resilient communities, using Archives & Local History spaces and collections to ensure that customers are healthier and have a better quality of life:
    1. We will use the archives to deliver services that ensure customers are healthier, have a better quality of life and are resilient and well connected.
    2. We will stimulate our customers’ and our communities’ mental wellbeing through our offer of venues, services and utilising our collections to help to build better resilience, overarching health and quality of life.
    3. We will provide a range of learning opportunities allowing the people of Lancashire to realise personal and shared ambitions.
    4. We will work with our partners to offer a wide range of opportunities, which will support the citizens of Lancashire to obtain employment and provide them with the skills to grow and flourish in the workplace.
  4. Provide an innovative and sustainable Archives service, which is flexible and adaptable to respond quickly to changing circumstances and works collaboratively across LCC’s Cultural Services offer:
    1. We will be adaptable and innovative to future proof the Archives and Local History services. We will keep up to date with national and local trends as well as maintaining a good understanding of our local communities and audiences.
    2. The Archives will be environmentally responsible and innovative in our approach to the climate emergency. The National Archives recognises that cultural organisations should lead the way in their approach to environmental responsibility.
    3. We will ensure that our workforce have the right blend of skills, competencies, attitudes, and behaviours to face the future with confidence. We will attract, retain, and develop talent from diverse backgrounds by providing opportunities which encourage young people into the workplace.
    4. We will endeavour to make the Archives as financially sustainable as possible.
    5. We will use digital technology to provide better access to our collections for all and to widen the range of engagement and interpretation that we provide.

How we will measure our performance

We have established different ways of measuring our performance.

We will:

  • Produce an Operational 2-year Forward Plan and ensure that the strategy is delivered.
  • Create and review annual plans within the framework of this strategy. This will ensure that we deliver a service which is relevant to the individuals and communities of Lancashire
  • Contribute to the annual report for Cultural Services
  • Have key performance indicators for all areas of our strategy which are reviewed annually
  • Continue to benchmark all aspects of performance against other local authorities and the wider archives and heritage sectors
  • Monitor our services by using both data and the experiences of our communities and audiences in line with The National Archives, Archives Accreditation Scheme
  • Measure our performance against our financial budget each year
  • Review progress and make any additional actions needed to implement the strategy

Background papers, statutory information and standards

This strategy has been informed by and supports the message and ambitions of the following key documents:

  • Archives Unlocked, The National Archives’ strategic vision for the archives sector
  • Lancashire Archives, Forward Plan, 2019-2023
  • Our strategy for Libraries, Museums, Culture and Archives 2019 – 2024, LCC 2019
  • Let’s create: Our Strategy 2020 – 2030, Arts Council England, 2020

Statutory and legal basis for Lancashire Archives

Lancashire Archives serves as the corporate memory of Lancashire County Council. It provides archive services to Lancashire County Council and its constituent authorities under sections 224 and 226(5) of the Local Government Act 1972. It exercises the county’s powers in respect of historical, private and business records under the terms of the Local Government (Records) Act, 1962, amended by the 1972 Act.

It also provides an archive storage service for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council under a service level agreement, renewed annually. Its core functions are carried out within a complex legal framework that includes:

  •  Public Records Acts 1958 and 1957
  • Law of Property (Amendment) Act 1924 and the Manorial Document Rules 1959
  • (amended 1963 and 1967)
  • Tithes (Copies of Instruments of Apportionment) Rules 1960-1963
  • Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 (amended 1992)

Lancashire Archives also works within the legal framework of the:

  • Equality Act 2010
  • Local Government (Access to information) Act 1985
  • Data Protection Act 2018
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Environmental Information Regulations 2004
  • Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015

Standards

These specifications and standards define best practice for our archive service:

  • EN 16893:2018 Conservation of Cultural Heritage
  • PAS 197:2009 -Code of practice for cultural collections management
  • British Standard BS4971:2017-Conservation and care