ED Quarterly Report April 2013
Key highlights
During Diversity Week event this year we launched a series of campaigns focusing on
key topics; this commenced with mental health focusing on dispelling myths,
disclosure and support. Following a talk in January a session on depression is
planned for June
Archus the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) staff forum and the LGBT
History Project have created a substantial index of records. During LGBT history
month in February; a revised research guide was launched, resources were added to
our library catalogue and a new physical exhibition highlighting our work in this area
was displayed at TNA and will be used as a roving exhibition across the country.
Podcasts of talks were included in an LGBT „mini-series‟. Staff from across TNA
presented papers at the Brave New World and United Kingdom Archives Discovery
conferences on terminology, language and user tagging. LGBT records are being
tagged to make them more searchable in Discovery.
„Files on film‟, the Diverse Histories film competition, is due to be launched in June.
Records will be used to highlight Diverse Histories including women, LGBT, BME,
disability and mental health. Friend‟s of The National Archives will fund a further film
project „Undiscovered Treasures‟. The project will make 5 short films showcasing
stories within underused collections, showing how working with records creatively can
attract new audiences.
ARK has received a new collaborative doctoral award. The project will explore the
stories of women and children affected by the British civil wars in the 1640s and
1650s, as told through the petitions in SP 20. These petitions allow us to understand
how women perceived their rights to financial support from the state by demonstrating
strategies used by and on behalf of war widows and orphans in the north of England
to obtain relief and safeguard property. The project will produce resources for the
National Civil War Centre at Newark Museum for exhibition.
Two members of staff have been recruited for the Wellcome funded „Death, dirt and
disease‟ project, to begin in June. The project which was awarded a Wellcome grant
of around £100,000 will catalogue a selection of records in MH 13, recording social
conditions of the 19th century which cut across class, gender and age.
The second cohort of Opening Up Archives trainees completed their training, with all
going on to further employment in the heritage sector. The third year cohorts are due
to start in May. The trainees came from a huge round of over 1000 applicants. The
round one Opening Up Archives was submitted to HLF for a decision in May.
Work on community archives continues with a potential shift in focus from LGBTspecific collections to mental health which will align with TNA's recent Diversity
campaigns. ASD has also established a positive partnership with the Audience
Agency to be demonstrated by a series of free workshops for the wider sector to
extend the reach of archives across new and more diverse communities.
A total of 50 project partnerships have been established across London and regional
cities for the Caribbean Through a Lens (CTAL) project since it commenced in 2012.
34 London and regional community outputs have been delivered for the project,
including with charities, educational organisations, libraries and High Commissions.
Online visitors = approx. 50,000, exhibition visits to date = 68,000, workshop
participants nationally = 3,500, including 88 participants at the Caribbean March
Mash-Up event held at TNA. A CTAL landing page was launched in February 2013
showcasing a sample of the community outputs. Further outreach activity is scheduled
for July-October 2013 including publication of an online education resource. Formal
evaluation of CTAL is underway. A talk on Guyanese political activist Cheddi Jagan is
scheduled for May 21st.
The Through a Lens campaign culminated in Q4, with the release of Australasia,
Middle East and Mediterranean generating over 1.5 million views. The addition of the
Through a Lens images meant that our Flickr account had over 3.6 million views in
2012-13 (since the account was created in 2009 we've had just under 7 million views
in total, which means that last year accounted for more than half of our total activity).
Gus Casely-Hayford's talk on his book Lost Kingdom’s of Africa for the Writer of the
Month promotion proved a great success with approx 40 attendees and positive
feedback. Books supplied to the bookshop sold out during the book signing.
An extensive data quality exercise is being carried out on the naturalisations database
of HO 334. This will improve accuracy and swiftness of research to assist those who
require copies of their British naturalisation certificates.
Ongoing
„England‟s immigrants‟ now has 50,000 names in the database with 14 counties
completed. Cornwall and the Cinque Ports in Kent show an interesting range of
resident aliens. Some work on early gypsies is also emerging from project
correspondence. The project is being actively publicised through social media.
Scanning of MH 47 is nearly complete. Transcription and Quality Assurance work by
ARK staff is on-going. The project has contributed blogs about the inclusion of
“Enemy Aliens” within these records, highlighting another diverse group that can be
researched. An article has also been published in the Friends April magazine.
The Gold Coast 1900 cataloguing project is complete and available on Discovery;
Your Caribbean Heritage volunteers have catalogued 12 volumes of correspondence
so far; the HO 42 project has recently passed the User Participation board to expand
the time period of the project.
The development of a Special Educational Needs programme continues in
consultation with an SEN specialist and SEN and two new schools, (Meadowgate and
Brook & Willow) who are now booked in for visits. We are currently devising sessions
which will be promoted on the website, under a newly developed page on SEN
workshops.
Two new work experience placements have been recruited by the Document Services
Department through the Education Business Partnership, LB Hackney. A student
from Clarendon School, for students with moderate learning difficulties had a
successful placement in March. The National Autistic Society (NAS) is providing a
free training seminar for managers. An article in TALK magazine promoted the NAS‟
Undiscovered Workforce campaign. As a result of our work in this area, local schools
are keen to place students on the Autism Spectrum at TNA with two starting
imminently. Staff attended open days at local schools to help make students aware of
the role of the National Archives
The archives services accreditation pilot is still at the assessing stage, with full
participation from across a range of archives in the sector. Twenty organisations have
completed the pilot process, and will provide full feedback. The draft standard is now
finished on target. Three new case studies were published on our website
highlighting; a project a Plymouth Record Office to archive the lives and histories of
the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Community in Plymouth, a project
working on Community History archives at Sandwell Archives Service and developing
learning programmes for schools and communities at the Bishopsgate Institute.
The first round application for the Catalyst project has gone to the Heritage Lottery
Fund. The National Archives aims to support 400 archive services across the UK to
create a cultural shift to embed strategic fundraising as a core activity within archives.
TNA will work with national strategic partners in Wales (CyMAL), Scotland (SCA) and
Northern Ireland (PRONI). Training will provide a better understanding of funding
sources and skills needed to employ a range of techniques to improve fundraising and
income generation. This supports our wider advocacy role to support the work of
archives to widen participation through developing audiences and best practice. We
await the outcome in May.
ASD's 'Archiving the Arts' programme, which will engage with the cultural heritage
sectors and with archivists and arts practitioners, is currently in its early planning
stages and has already established a potential need to reference arts activities across
diverse communities.
Monitoring
Schools – taught sessions
Onsite education sessions taught this quarter:
42.62% schools with above average intake of students for ethnic diversity
21.31% schools with above average intake for social inclusion
Virtual education sessions taught this quarter:
5% schools with above average intake of students for ethnic diversity
11.66% schools with above average intake of students for social inclusion
This business year has seen us meet our onsite targets. Our online targets have been
lower this year with our virtual sessions below the 17% target for schools for ethnic
diversity. A timeline is in place for the new database and booking system that will
incorporate a reporting system allowing TNA to target schools for ethnic diversity and
social inclusion. The project‟s estimated delivery is July 2013.
Staff – employed
In March 2013 the Executive Team reviewed existing Dashboard indicators for diversity.
It was decided that ethnicity and disability at grades G+ would not be graphically captured
for Dashbard purposes for 2013-14. Any significant changes will be provided by the
Equality & Diversity Manager following analysis of data provided by HR.
Number of FTE staff for Q3 = 606. FTE at band G+ = 64
BAME:
78.3% of staff declaring
20.8% declared as BAME
0.9% at Grade G+
Disability
66% of staff declaring
10.4% declared as disabled
0.5% at Grade G+
Women:
51.75% declared as women
46.59% at Grade G+
In November last year we encouraged staff to update their personal details including on
diversity, the TUS supported this. In January we began an awareness campaign about
mental ill health, including attitudes towards this in the workplace. At 2011/12 year end
data showed the following for declaration; 21.3% BAME, 6.3% disabled, 47.9% women
and 46.4% Grade G+ women. There is a very significant increase on last year in the
number of staff declaring as disabled up by 4.1% to 10.4%.
Onsite Customers March/April
Online customers March
Completed surveys = 479
Age:
under 16: 0.21% (1)
16- 4: 10.02% (48)
25-34: 12.73% (61)
35-44: 9.81% (47)
45-54: 15.45% (74)
55-64: 21.92% (105)
65-74: 22.55% (108)
75+: 7.31% (35)
Ethnicity:
Asian: 2.93% (13)
Black: 3.83% (17)
Chinese: 1.58% (7)
White: 88.51% (393)
Mixed ethnic background:1.35% (6)
Any other ethnic group:1.8% (8)
Disability:
None / not applicable: 85.18% (385)
Mobility – getting around: 4.65% (21)
Hearing: 2.43% (11)
Eyesight: 2.88% (13)
Dexterity: Using hands / fingers: 1.33% (6)
Learning: (e.g. dyslexia) : 1.55% (7)
Mental health: 0.66% (3)
Other (please specify): 1.33% (6)
Fully completed surveys = 2,119
Age: (2140 responses)
Under 16: 0.1%
16-24: 0.7%
25-34: 1.2%
35-44: 3.7%
45-54: 11.4%
55-64: 33.7%
65-74: 35.4%
75+: 13.7%
Ethnicity: (1931 responses)
Asian: 0.3%
Black: 0.2%
Chinese: 0.0%
White 95.1%
Mixed ethnic background 0.8%
Any other ethnic group: 3.5%
Disability: (2132 responses)
None / not applicable 68.0%
Mobility – getting around 10.6%
Hearing 7.5%
Eyesight 5.2%
Dexterity – using hands / fingers 2.8%
Learning (e.g. dyslexia) 0.9%
Mental health 1.1%
Other (please specify) 3.9%