End of phase report

The key deliverables of the plan are:

• A framework in which to publish and promote an action plan for charity archives including the establishment of an inter-disciplinary steering group.
• A set of best practice case studies.
• Guidance around archives management issues, including an advocacy document for charity archives, and associated training or events.
• A mechanism to monitor and mitigate charity archives at risk.
• A map of archive services that collect charity archives for use in research and for consultation when responding to charity archives at risk.
• A PhD on charity archives at risk.
• A set of case studies of accredited charity archive services.

Phased approach

• The project has adopted a phased approach to allow for limitations in capacity within The National Archives, and the archives and charity sectors.
• Phase 1 has concentrated on developing and publishing the plan, and developing a mechanism for risk monitoring and mitigation.
• Phase 2 will focus on developing guidance, resources and training, and begin to engage with umbrella organisations.
• Phase 3 will seek to embed this work with decision makers and regulators.
• A number of activities are ongoing including: providing support and engagement to charity archives/collections; encouraging charity archives to apply for and retain accreditation; and liaising with networks and initiatives. This work will continue throughout the phases of the project.

Steering group

We carried out a cross-sector call out to establish an inter-disciplinary steering group to support The National Archives with this project. This was an important step in ensuring that the group is representative of all of the issues affecting charity archives and recordkeeping.

We were able to establish a strong group of individuals with a diversity of voices. There are currently 13 members of the group, not including staff from The National Archives. The group includes representatives from the academic, voluntary and archive sectors, as well as those who have worked within charities or have been users of charity archives. We were also able to appoint a number of specialist advisors to the project with backgrounds across the voluntary, legal and civil service sectors.

This process enabled us to establish a network of interested parties with which we will share updates and learnings.

The steering group has been hugely valuable thus far and has allowed for a more dynamic approach. For example, we are in the process of setting up a working group to explore the possibility of carrying out a pilot project to support engagement between local voluntary sector infrastructure groups and local archive services in order to encourage local collecting of charity records.

Action plan

We carried out consultation with the steering group and other key stakeholders from across the voluntary, academic and charity sectors to create and publish the action plan. We have promoted the project internally and externally and received positive feedback.

Crisis Management Team for Charity Archives

Charity archives have long been undervalued and at risk. This vulnerability has peaked in recent years with the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis bringing about immediate and long-term losses of income in the voluntary sector that are resulting in restructures, mergers, and insolvency.

As a result of this, we decided to prioritise establishing a crisis management process for charity archives at risk. We consulted with the steering group and other key stakeholders such as the Records at Risk Group and the Crisis Management Team for Business Archives, and agreed that the Charity Archives Development (CAD) steering group, led by The National Archives, will act as a Crisis Management Team for Charity Archives. Information on this work is now available on the The National Archives website and other key stakeholder websites, and we have carried out co-ordinated promotion across social media channels.

Since the start of the project we have supported 12 charities experiencing challenges that were resulting in risks to their archives. The team is currently supporting 4 live risk cases relating to high profile charities. Work is ongoing and updates will be provided on the outcomes of these cases in the next report.

A highlight has been supporting one large national charity with the creation of a simple retention schedule that led to the retention and transfer of important current, semi-current and archival records to the organisation’s records management facility before the closure of their London HQ. As a result of this work the organisation has been able to appoint an archivist to work on the collections in order to facilitate their eventual transfer to a suitable collecting archive.

This work marks an important step forward in The National Archives’ support for one of the most vulnerable parts of the archive sector. In the future, we plan to engage with stakeholders and regulatory and receivership bodies; utilising our experience and research to work with the Records at Risk Group to advocate for the development of standards of recordkeeping for registered charities.

Collaboration with UCL and the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership

We continue to collaborate with colleagues at University College London (UCL) and the Archiving the Mixed Economy of Welfare project. This collaboration has been strengthened through a successful joint application to The National Archives’ Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) programme for a fully funded PhD on charity archives at risk.

‘Charity and voluntary archives at risk: Conceptualising and contextualising a neglected archives sector’ will seek to better understand how and why charity archives are at risk, what these risks are, how these differ between regions and how risks to records can be reduced. The project will examine past interventions, look at case studies of record-keeping practice and explore what measures can be put in place to mitigate risk. Collaboration is at the heart of this research and will be integrated into all aspects of the project. Working alongside Archives Sector Development, the research will be practice-based and involve close engagement with a range of stakeholders across the voluntary sector. This research will contribute directly to the CAD plan and examine The National Archives’ strategic role in supporting organisations.

The collaboration is proving to be extremely fruitful; providing opportunities for joint working, sector engagement, and dissemination through academic conferences and papers.

Documentation & mapping of collections

As part of the PhD project, our student has recently embarked on a 6 month placement at The National Archives in which he will be supporting us to create a map of archive services that collect charity archives. This work will be essential for encouraging research and responding to charity archives at risk.

Although the tool will be designed for internal use by The National Archives, findings from the data analysis will be disseminated via:

• A meeting with the CAD steering group
• The National Archives CAD webpages
• A research article for academic publication. Previous identified publication sources include: Archives and Records or Archival Science.
• A webinar to be run as part of the CAD project
• An internal knowledge sharing event with the wider Archives Sector Leadership department (ASL) team at The National Archives
• Tool included as part of the British Academy project event to take place later in the PhD project.

We will also use this work as the basis for developing a learning exchange between archivists in different sectors, in order that collecting archives can frame and contextualise charity collections, and increase access and use.

Sector support and engagement

Within Archive Sector Leadership we continue to provide support and engagement to charity archive services and collections through our regular engagement work.

The number of enquiries relating to emerging and established charity archive collections has increased in recent years. The reasons for this are likely two fold: there is increased demand due to the issues within the voluntary sector, and there is increased awareness of The National Archives’ support for charity archives resulting from this project.

Liaison with networks & initiatives

We continue to support and liaise with key networks within the charity archives space including the Charity Archives and Records Managers Group (CHARM), the Voluntary Action History Society and the Archiving the Mixed Economy of Welfare project. All of these groups are represented on the CAD steering group, which acts as a useful bridge between initiatives and encourages collaboration. We are also a member of the Documenting the HIV/AIDS epidemic: a survey of HIV/AIDS archives in UK steering group.

The project is on track and has made important steps forward in achieving its overall goals. Phase 1 has established a solid foundation for the project moving forwards, however capacity and resource limitations within The National Archives, the steering group, and the wider voluntary and archives sectors means that its future success is not guaranteed.

It is important that the momentum of the project is maintained, and internal and external support continues. Internal staff changes within The National Archives could impact project delivery; to counter this, a clear plan of activity has been created for the next year. This plan will focus on supporting PhD research, the placement mapping project, and carrying out the initial research required to develop guidance, resources and training; building on our successful Management Framework for Retention and Transfer for Charity Records and Archives.