Accreditation in Historic Building Conservation: The Work of the Edinburgh Group: Fid-Bau Portal

Accreditation in Historic Building Conservation: The Work of the Edinburgh Group

Maxwell, Ingval / Heath, David / Russell, Paul

A variety of United Kingdom conservation accreditation schemes have emerged over the past eleven years. Promoted by the professional bodies, and accepted as relevant by the grant-aiding bodies, each was intended to improve the abilities and competencies of individual professionals to operate on grant-aided projects in the field of building conservation.

Whilst common in their intentions, sufficient differences exist in the requirements, management, and administration of the schemes to warrant a review of how they might be brought into a common framework, so that the various processes of accreditation might become more unified and the resulting standards be more universally accepted.

Underlying this need for commonality is recognition that ‘commissioning clients’ need assurance—from all participating professional bodies—that they can appoint a practitioner (for the lead professional role in grant-aided cases) on a clear understanding that the accredited individual, has been assessed to a common level of competence in conservation work, irrespective of discipline.