FOUR MID-MONTH UPDATES
1. Minister for Heritage
1. Caroline Dinenage, the Minister responsible for Heritage, gave the opening address at our Big Update last week in a pre-recorded video. She described this as her first major engagement as Heritage Minister.

• In a warm speech, she talked about the 'astounding' work done by places of worship during the 'challenging conditions' of the pandemic, saying how this has highlighted 'the continuing value of faith buildings to our national life'.

• She reminded us how the Government has supported listed places of worship, particularly throught the multi-million pound Cultural Recovery Fund, and how the sector will continue to be supported.

• Encouragingly, the Minister said she was aware of the value that the sector places on the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, which it had previously been announced would be extended until March 2022, and she said that DCMS 'will continue to work with our partners including the Treasury, MHCLG and Historic England to make sure you are supported for the longer term'.

• She also mentioned the Taylor Review Pilot, and how it will help inform future decisions on funding and support, and invited the sector to 'keep talking to us' on this topic.

The HRBA is grateful to the Minister for taking time to talk to us, and for the helpful tone of her comments. You can read a transcript of her speech here.

2. Heritage Digital
I recently attended a Zoom seminar on 'Getting started with creating video content'. It was exceptionally good. It is now available online, and I can recommend it to anyone who feels they want to understand a bit more about producing heritage video - whether to do it themselves or commission someone else.

Amazingly, it is free of charge, provided by the Heritage Digital programme (funded by NLHF). The general website is here https://charitydigital.org.uk/heritage-digital  with lots of good things, including the offer of one-to-one support, and the link to the particular seminar I attended is here (click on the 'watch here' tab).
 
3. Rebuilding Heritage
We advertised the 'Rebuilding Heritage' programme in a previous newsletter, and I'm glad to say that five places of worship were successful in applying for the scheme.

In summary, it provides free one-to-one and group support for individuals and organisations in the heritage sector in leadership, business planning, fundraising, communications, and wellbeing. (It's funded by the NHLF and coordinated by the Heritage Alliance.) It's worth emphasising that this is not just for large outfits - I think it could well be useful to historic religious buildings which rely on tourism or property rental or venue hire - indeed, any business activity which has collapsed due the pandemic.

Applications for the next round of advice and support close on 30 March. I am told that the application process takes less than half an hour, and there is a high success rate. You can find out more, and apply, at  https://rebuildingheritage.org.uk/

4. Big Update and Organisational Updates
Finally, the Big Update slides and videos are now available on our site. Even if you did not attend, you might like to look at the Organisational Updates provided in advance by more than a dozen organisations. It's all on our website at https://www.hrballiance.org.uk/resources/talks/