From this Monday, 17th April, the Museum’s impressive new Learning Centre will open within the renovated ground floor of Rolfe Street Baths.
From this date, the Museum’s Business Welcome Administrators (Tracy and Lana) will relocate to a desk within this Learning Centre, which will operate as both a Business Reception for the Museum and an information point for the Learning Centre itself.
The new location for all parcel deliveries and collections will now be this desk, which can be accessed with your staff card via the original, automatic glass doors at the entrance to Rolfe Street Baths.
All colleagues are reminded to collect parcels as soon as possible after notification of their arrival, as there is very limited storage space available.
Further policies and instructions will shortly be issued to colleagues advising of new requirements for Business Visitor and Contractors sign-in, as well as scheduling of on-site deliveries – all of which will be co-ordinated through Business Reception.
The Museum was pleased to welcome Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday 24 February as part of English Tourism Week 2023.
English Tourism Week, led by VisitEngland, celebrates the contribution of tourism to the UK economy and shines a spotlight on organisations, like the Museum, that offer great experiences for visitors.
The Prime Minister, who hadn’t previously visited the Museum before, had an exclusive first look at the next phase of our new development, met colleagues from across the Museum, went behind the counter at Hobbs, and hosted local councillors in the Elephant & Castle.
Speaking after the Prime Minister’s visit, Andrew Lovett (Chief Executive) said:
“We were very pleased to welcome the Prime Minister to the Museum. The choice of BCLM was championed by Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands. It coincided with English Tourism Week and provided an opportunity to highlight our latest developments and some of the Costumed Characters associated with the new storylines, some of whom the PM was delighted to meet.
“It also showed that public-sector investment in the Museum, including from the Culture Recovery Fund, to get us through Covid, was sound. I was pleased to let the PM know how strongly we were bouncing back after Covid.
“On behalf of the Museum, I want to thank everyone who was directly involved with the visit, in the planning and during, and to all staff who make the Museum successful and therefore, readily attractive to such high profile visitors.”
Andrew received a personal message from our local MP, Marco Longhi, who said that the team at the Museum makes him feel proud to be the MP of the area. Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, also shared that “The Museum team were brilliant”.
After his visit the Prime Minister said:
“It was wonderful to visit the award-winning Black Country Living Museum today. I met some brilliant people and managed to experience the delicious chippy.
“The Museum received a government grant of £2.56 million through the Culture Recovery Fund and it’s great to see it thriving so they can continue to employ uniquely skilled staff in the West Midlands.
“It’s so important to invest in places that define culture in all corners of the country, providing jobs and supporting the wider community. My focus is on growing the economy and places like Black Country Living Museum in Dudley will help do exactly that.”
Photographs from the visit:
The PM and Marco Longhi MP pull pints in the Elephant & Castle.
The PM walks along Old Birmingham Road.
The PM meets schoolchildren visiting the Museum.
The PM with Dr Paul Belford (Chair of Trustees), Carol King (Director of Programmes) and Andrew Lovett (Chief Executive).
As we continue to work on developing a new strategy for the Museum for 2024 onwards, now is your chance to get involved and tell us what matters to you.
Alongside all the great things we currently do, we have identified six ideas we’d like to get your input on by completing a short survey by clicking on the link below.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of one of our longest-standing BCLM Community Advisory Panel members, Joanne Prescott.
Joanne joined the panel in 2015 and has been an integral member for over 7 years, also working for the local authority, Dudley Council and UCAS. Joanne’s contribution to providing external expertise and opportunities to link into new networks has been invaluable. Joanne was passionate about Black Country history, and a great advocate in sharing a wealth of knowledge with the Museum.
Joanne passed away after a short illness, which she endured with great courage and cheerfulness.
Her peers and the Community Engagement Team will greatly miss her.
Last week we welcomed Laura Jones, Assistant Events Delivery Manager. Laura brings a wealth of knowledge with over 10 years’ of event coordinator experience from notable organisations. Laura will work alongside both Joe Whitehouse our Events Manager and the Enterprise team in the delivery of the Museums events and associated hospitality.
We are also very pleased to welcome back Demi Whitehouse, Enterprise Team Manager (Compliance). We are delighted to have Demi back in the Enterprise Team.
Farewells
Claire Robinson has secured an exciting permanent role with the Royal Air force Museum as their Exhibitions and Interpretation Manager. Claire leaves with our sincere appreciation for her hard work and our good wishes for her new role.
Tom Law, Cleaning & Porterage Manager, will also leave us in early April after nearly 5 years at BCLM. Tom leaves us to take on a role as Operations Coordinator with Trades 24/7 and will be greatly missed by all the team.
Nathan Poole from the Cleaning team left earlier this month, we wish Nathan all the best for the future.
Sadly Departed
Our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of colleagues who sadly departed over the last month:
Joanne Prescott (Community Advisory Panel Member, from 2015 to 2023)
National Lottery Heritage Fund has made a significant investment in our brand new 1940s-60s development BCLM Forging Ahead. As our way of saying a big “Thank You” to our visitors and supporters, we are giving National Lottery players the opportunity to visit the Museum for free with two free entry days* on Sun 19 and Thu 23 Mar.
We’re also asking all staff to become UnChained Annual Pass champions for our upcoming National Lottery Open Days! As the general public are visiting us free of charge, we’re asking you to promote our UnChained pass to anyone you may interact with on Sun 19 and Thu 23 March. Be sure to tell visitors that if they purchase a full-priced ticket, they can return for 12 months completely free of charge!
Tickets for the National Lottery Open Days must be pre-booked in advance via our website. Visitors simply need to show their valid National Lottery play (either an in-app play, scratch card or Lottery play) along with their timed entry booking slot on arrival.
As there are a number of elected Staff Consultative Forum Representatives whose term is coming to an end, we would like to invite nominations for the following constituent posts:
Enterprise (including F&D, Retail & Admissions) x 1
Historic Characters x 2
Maintenance x 1
Casuals x 2
The Forum plays a key communication and discussion role in many significant matters affecting all colleagues across the Museum. Dates of the SCF meetings for this year can be found here.
If you would like to be considered as a Staff Consultative Forum Representative, you will need a colleague from the same constituency as you to propose your nomination and the name of another colleague, again within the same constituency, who seconds the nomination. Unsure about which Constituency you fall under? Find out here.
The closing date for nominations has been extended to Friday 17 March. Elections will be held following this date if we have multiple candidates for a single role.
To put yourself forward, please complete and return a nomination form (which can be found here) to the People & Culture team (based at Canalside) either by hand, deposited in the black post box outside the People & Culture office, or via email to [email protected]. All employees are eligible to apply, with the exception of the Leadership Team. Casual Workers may only apply to represent the Casual Worker constituency.
As a reminder, the current Staff Consultative Form Representatives are:
Constituency
Staff representative(s)
Administrative, Specialist & Managerial
Joe Whitehouse
Lisa Bates
Enterprise (F&D, Admissions, Retail)
Pam Woodall*
Carla Jasper
Historic Characters
Lee Adams*
Dan Williams*
Greg Dunn
Maintenance
Matt Hunton*
Casuals
David Ball*
Vacancy x 1
*First term coming to an end therefore constituent post up for nomination.
Under the terms of the Staff Consultative Forum Constitution, representatives can stand for two terms. Current representatives who are reaching the end of their first term and would like to stand for another term will be required to complete the usual nomination process and will be subject to election if necessary.
The Museum is currently developing a new Strategic Plan, which will set the direction of the Museum for the next five years, identifying what we want to achieve and allocating resources to make this happen. Our people, you, are our most valuable resource and we want to hear your thoughts and suggestions on what’s next for BCLM.
The closing date for the in-person consultation on Tuesday 21 March is this coming Tuesday, 14 March. The session will consist of a number of groups undertaking different activities across the site for 2-3 hours between 10am and 4pm (exact times TBC). For those on casual or hourly paid contracts, if you wish to participate you will be paid for your time at your usual hourly rate.
If you are unable to attend but would like to share your view, a short digital survey will be available via the intranet for completion over a two-week period from 27 March – 7 April. Paper copies of the survey will be available to complete and post in boxes dotted around the site.
Carolyn Sankey & Vicki Stanley Co-Directors of Development
Two new calendars have been set up to help facilitate access for colleagues to the new Forging Ahead buildings, during the period from handover by Balfour Beatty, to opening the buildings to visitors.
The calendars are:
Forging Ahead Town
Forging Ahead Industrial Quarter
Following handover from Balfour Beatty, access inside buildings will need to be booked via these calendars.
Duty Managers will be responsible for Managing the calendars and accepting / declining access.
Balfour are due to handover keys to the Town this Monday, 6 March, so bookings will be open from Tuesday 7 March.
The Industrial Quarter is due to be handed over in a couple of weeks – exact date to be confirmed.
Balfour will still be with us for the next few weeks, finishing off and snagging, so we do need to be careful when managing access. Please do not be disappointed if your access request is declined.
When making your booking:
Please clearly state in the subject line which building(s) you require access to;
Please be accurate with the time you need access from / to;
Please include in your message the nature of the work you are doing and whether you need sole access, or if it might be possible for another Team to be working in the building alongside you.
Keys for access will need to be collected from Duty Managers.
Fire safety measures – e.g. extinguishers and signage will not initially be in place in all buildings. Your Teams will need to be familiar with the location for fire exits and how to raise the alarm in the event of an emergency. Please ask Duty Managers to brief you if you are unfamiliar with either of these points.
Please note – we will not be providing contractors with keys. Duty Managers will be unlocking and locking for them. Please do not hand keys to any contractors.
For more information, please contact Jonathan White (Engagement Operations Manager): [email protected]
