Category: Key update

Weekly update 17 Jun

With the easing of restrictions and the opening of outdoor spaces, zoos, and some shops, we’re now entering the early stages of life after lockdown. The ‘new normal’ may have become a somewhat overused phrase in past few months, but with social distancing measures likely to be in place for some time to come, businesses like ours – which bring people together over a shared experience – will be operating in a very different environment to that which was in place pre-lockdown.

A planned re-opening from Sat 1 Aug

From updates on the intranet and messages that have been publicly communicated, you’ll have seen we’re planning on a phased opening of the Museum from Sat 1 Aug. A small team of colleagues from across the Museum is now working to make that date a reality, with a programme and visitor offer designed to work in a Covid-secure environment.

Planning for a phased return-to-work

The Government’s Job Retention Scheme continues to provide a lifeline and changes from 1 July mean that we will have greater scope to deploy staff flexibly, using financial support from the scheme, in order to prepare for re-opening. Given we won’t be generating visitor income until August, being financially responsible in the short term in order to do everything we can to secure the Museum’s survival in the long term is a key consideration underpinning the re-opening plan.

Therefore, the Museum is looking at plans for a phased return to work for colleagues across the organisation. Managers will be in touch with each of you over the coming weeks to discuss what returning to work could look like for you in terms of return date and how we’ll need your help to run the Museum during these unprecedented times.

Team survey and consultation

As part of consulting with everyone about returning to work, you will have been invited to complete a survey asking for your views on the subject. Please do take the time to complete the survey, as the more responses we have, the more insightful the findings will be. You can complete the survey anonymously, or share your name if you’d like to be identified alongside your responses as a way of helping managers to understand your individual needs. An invite to the survey has been sent via PlanDay, or the email address the People Team hold on your record. Please do have a look for it and fill it in. The deadline for responses is Wed 24 Jun.

And, finally…

We just wanted to share with you the outpouring of public affection we’ve seen for the Museum following news about our planned re-opening. On Facebook alone, almost 68,000 people have seen our re-opening message and more than 6,000 of those have taken the time to share their messages of support with us. That BCLM has such a strong bond with its audience is testament to everyone’s hard work and their pride in delivering a meaningful visitor experience. Therefore, planning for re-opening is concentrated on creating a safe and welcoming environment for everyone where colleagues can do what they do best and immerse people in the remarkable story of the Black Country once again.

17 June 2020
A video update from Andrew
This latest video update from Andrew talks about plans for the re-opening of the Museum in August, a reminder about welfare visits to site and the latest news from AIM (Association of Independent Museums).

Video runtime is 12m 46s. Viewing over a wifi connection is recommended if you’re accessing via a mobile.

For a summary and useful links related to the highlights mentioned by Andrew, please read on:

As a reminder, if you’d like to make a welfare visit to the Museum, you’ll need to pre-book.

Here’s what you need to do:

Members of staff who believe it would benefit their wellbeing to visit the familiar place of the Museum and have a stroll around the site, can do so as long as they abide by social distancing guidelines.
- Because of the continuing social distancing rules, we will be operating it on the following basis:-
- Strictly by appointment only between 9am and 1pm
- Members of staff only (sorry, no friends or family)
- Please note there is a maximum capacity for people to attend the site at any one time – the Duty Manager will advise you as to whether there is capacity for you to attend at your chosen time
- Anyone showing the signs of any of the symptoms of covid-19 will not be allowed on site
- There will be no facilities (e.g. toilets) available on site
We ask that staff only travel the Museum if it is safe for you to do so and we politely request that you do not post any pictures or comments on social media about visiting the Museum to avoid any potential confusion for the general public about the Museum remaining closed.

To book a visit and stroll around the Museum, please call the Duty Manager number, 07788 666161, between 9am and 1pm. Please be patient, as they continue to manage the site and may not be able to answer your call immediately. Leave them a message and they will call you back.

AIM’s virtual conference – Roads to Recovery – is taking place on 18/19 Jun. If you’d like to attend any of the sessions via Zoom click here to register. Attendance is free, but you need to pre-register for your sessions of choice.

AIM has published a Joint Statement of Intent for the Heritage Sector calling for a step-change in how the sector addresses racism. Click here to view the statement. The Museum fully supports this statement as a member of AIM.
15 June 2020
Public statement on BCLM’s planning for re-opening

The following statement has been posted on the news page of the BCLM website and a status posted on Twitter to update visitors on our planned opening date in light of recent announcements (as of Wed 10 Jun) from other visitor attractions regarding their plans for opening.

“Following ongoing Government announcements regarding re-opening of open spaces, and now wildlife attractions, we are aware that some people may assume BCLM should now reopen too.

Unfortunately this is not possible. BCLM is an accredited museum, so in accordance with Government guidance we would have not looked to re-open any earlier than Step 3, currently 4 July 2020.

Whilst we are lucky to be situated on a 26-acre largely open air site, the nature of our Museum and visitor day out, lots of small properties and close interactions with historic characters and other staff, means we need to take more time to make sure we are safe place for staff and visitors; so we will remain closed until our planned phased re-opening on 1 August 2020.

We are very busy planning the reopening, which places great emphasis on the health and safety of both visitors and staff, and have been delighted by the very large and positive reaction to our visitor survey about these measures.

Once we do re-open, we will have new health and safety measures across the Museum including limiting visitor numbers. We need time to plan and install these new measures in order to ensure that we are prepared, so that we can open safely and we can stay open.

As a Museum that prides itself on being at the core of our community, and relying on visitor income for over 90% of our funding, being closed for nearly three months at this point means we must be measured in the way we begin to incur large costs again. The Government’s Job Retention Scheme has been a lifeline to us during this period and our planned reopening will allow us to create, once again, a fun day out for our visitors balanced with our fiscal responsibilities.

We completely understand the pressing needs of zoos to re-open more quickly than museums as their fixed costs have not reduced during the lockdown period due to their commitment to the welfare of their animals. Their need to create income again is particularly understandable.

Please respect our decision to remain closed at this time, and we look forward to welcoming you back to the Museum in August.

In the meantime, be safe, and keep connecting with us via our digital channels.”

Ends.

10 June 2020
Weekly update – 09/06
As you will no doubt have seen in the press in the past week, a number of attractions boasting considerable outdoor spaces – notably the National Trust – are beginning to welcome visitors once again, albeit with limited capacity and amended procedures in place. We are keeping a close eye on how these organisations are undertaking the task of welcoming visitors back safely and how this is being received by the public to help inform our own plans.

We are now giving considerable thought as to how reopening might look for us and are working to a provisional reopening date of Saturday 1 August to make the most of the summer holiday period. As you’ll understand, this can’t be ‘business as usual’, and may not be for some time, so we are looking at a phased return for colleagues with furloughing continuing for some past this point.

In light of these plans, a number of colleagues who have continued working over the past 11 weeks have now been furloughed to allow others to return and help with detailed planning and preparation in areas such as programming, operations and our audiences. We’d like to reiterate our thanks to those colleagues for keeping the Museum ‘ticking over’ whilst closed.

We reported last week the encouraging response to our visitor survey which we’ve undertaken to ensure we understand how our visitors feel about returning to the Museum and what will make them confident of a safe visit. Summarised below are some of the headline findings which we will be taking into consideration:
- 73% of respondents would choose to visit in the first three months of reopening (33% within the first month)
- The following measures would making the majority of visitors feel much more comfortable about visiting:
  - hand sanitiser at entrance and around site;
  - one-way flow/one-in-one-out in buildings;
  - online booking only to reduce admissions queues;
  - timed admission slots to limit number of visitors onsite;
  - extended opening hours to limit number of visitors onsite.
- Whilst overt safety measures (e.g. protection screens) are deemed acceptable in modern areas of the site, respondents wish these to be more sympathetic in historical areas to try and retain the experience where possible.
The safety of the team is of course paramount in our preparations and so we need to know your thoughts, ideas and concerns about returning to work and us reopening. Do look out for our staff survey which should be in your inboxes or via Planday in the next week. Your input will be hugely valuable so please do take the time to complete and return it.

Take care and keep safe.
9 June 2020
Weekly update – 03/06

The end of last week saw an update from the Chancellor regarding many of the policies that have been put in place in response to COVID-19, including the Job Retention Scheme. As you’ll all be aware this scheme has been a lifeline to many organisations, including our own, so we were pleased to see more flexibility being added (from July employers will be able to, where appropriate, start to invite teams back on a part time basis to the benefit of both organisations and employees) and the ongoing commitment to keep the scheme in place until October.

In order to meet the criteria for the changes in the coming months we have needed to swap around some of the members of the team who have been unfurloughed during April and May. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been working hard behind the scenes to keep the Museum and our livestock safe and running in a strange but necessary way, who have been producing content for our audience, existing and new, to respond to and who have been the frontline to many queries we received be that from visitors or staff.

And we’d also like to thank those of you who are furloughed for your continued support and positive ideas and comments in response to the communications we’ve been sharing with you and when you’ve been engaging with the Museum. The most recent way has been with the well-being visits to the Museum which started this week: this idea (which came from a member of staff) has been really well received so please do make use of this if you’d like to – see details here if you missed it.

On Friday we sent our visitor survey to our database and also posted the links on social media and our website asking our visitors/supporters about their views on how we can best welcome them back to the Museum when we reopen – we are currently hopeful for an August reopening, subject to further Government guidance at the end of June. The response has been amazing – over 3000 individuals have taken the time to reply and share their views. We’ve also been heartened by the very positive comments on social media to the initiative. We haven’t forgotten about the staff survey we previously discussed so keep your eyes out for this in coming weeks.

Take care and keep safe.

3 June 2020
Weekly update – 27/05

On Sunday we all heard the good news from the Prime Minister that the country is continuing with its path to ‘unlocking’ with the positive announcement regarding retail shops allowed to re-open from the 15^th June. Whilst this doesn’t directly affect us in terms of our Museum work it does show progress in the right direction.

Last week Abby and Kev met at the Museum and, while keeping to social distancing measures, filmed the first in a new series of films taking our audience remotely around different properties, as voted for by our social media followers.

I think we can all agree this video is a great success in many ways; not least that it’s had over 10,000 views since it went live on Friday and is already in top 10 of all organic videos we’ve posted. Well done team!

Last week also saw some important coverage for the Museum in The Times. Not only was Andrew quoted about the difficult time independent museums have been facing but Tristam Hunt, the director of the V&A, specifically mentioned BCLM and the amazing work we do to engage under-served audiences. BCLM ‘attracts the highest working class audience attendance of any museum in the country. It reaches the sort of audience which big state-backed schemes so often fail to attract. It educates. It includes. It brings local pride’. And it’s thanks to all of you that our peers can talk about us in such glowing terms.

Onto this week’s activity; which sees us issuing our visitor survey which will help understand their views on coming back to see us when we reopen and also an exciting project with Black Country Studies Centre and Wolverhampton University as more of the site is to be Matterport scanned. Matterport is a 3D Camera technology used to scan 4K virtual tours. They are able to capture a 99.99% accuracy scale scan of the space and will allow us to do many activities with the scans including giving our audience a feel for the museum again, while they can’t take step a foot inside. We partnered with them before to scan the Cast Iron Houses ahead of their take down for Forging Ahead so it a fantastic next step to be able to capture more the site.

And finally we have received great news from Jeni-May; Rudy James Shakespeare, was born on the 11^th May, we wish all of them well.

Take care and keep safe.

27 May 2020
Weekly update – 20 May
It’s Wednesday, officially the hottest day of the year so far, and with the warmer weather the Museum has quite literally started to blossom.
In other news, we continue with the planning for re-opening. To aid this we will be asking for your thoughts on returning to work via a staff survey which will be sent out by email and planday in the next couple of weeks. Please do take this opportunity to tell us your thoughts, concerns and suggestions for how we can help you to feel confident and safe to return to work. We understand that this will be different for everyone and so we want hope to hear from as many people as possible. In addition we will also be sending out a survey to our visitors and members, to get a better understanding of their plans for re-visiting the Museum.

We submitted our application to Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund on Monday 18May. A decision is expected on 30 June, and if successful this will provide financial assistance through to end of September. We continue to look for longer term sources of income of which will aid us through the winter period.

Tom and Abby continue to produce some excellent content about the Museum to put on our social media sites. As a reminder, here are the ways you can access this:
- History at Home. We have been producing interactive resources centred around current KS2 themes, including PowerPoints and videos on a range of topics. You may have seen this week that we have asked the public to vote for a building, and a short virtual tour of the winning building is being produced featuring our very own Kevin Cooksey. There will be a linked activity for kids to do at home. Resources can be found here: https://www.bclm.co.uk/history-at-home/history-at-home/1.htm
- Black Country Studies Centre – Lockdown Learning. From bricks to poetry, you can find short videos and blog posts from the experts here: http://blackcountrystudiescentre.co.uk/news.
In other news, some small bits of maintenance work have managed to continue whilst allowing for social distancing. Two workmen from Martin Evans Construction have been on site all week and have finished off the new compost bays, one at the back of the Trap Shop and the other in the wooded walkway at the rear of the additional horse paddock. These replace the bays which were previously in the compound behind Old Birmingham Road.

We are another week into the lockdown, and we hope that the slight easing of restrictions has lifted your spirits somewhat. If you are struggling at all, please remember that you can email [email protected] or utilise the Employee Assistance Programme. In addition, some of you may have a seen that a new 24 hour advice line has been launched to help people in the Black Country cope with the uncertainty of the Covid-19 outbreak. The advice line managed by the Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council (WVSC) in conjunction with the Black Country Healthcare Partnership will provide critical emotional support for local residents. For more information about this new service visit WVSC website.

Take care and keep safe.
20 May 2020
Update from Andrew – 13th May

Following the government announcement on Sunday, we now know that the Museum will remain closed until the end of June and the majority of staff will remain furloughed. Our hope at this point is that we would be able to open in-line with Step 3 of the plan (which lists hospitality, leisure and public places), the earliest date for which is 4^th July.   We know however that this will be conditional on each step of the plan having the desired effect of reducing the spread of the virus (and achieving the government’s five tests for easing lockdown), as well as BCLM being prepared and able to manage the health and safety requirements including social distancing and enhanced cleaning.

Some of you may have seen the announcement yesterday from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak, which confirmed that the government will extend the Job Retention Scheme until the end of October. This is welcome news and adds more clarity to our situation. There will be no changes to the scheme until end of July and from August through to October the scheme will have greater flexibility, allowing us to bring back furloughed workers on a part time basis if that is necessary to allow for a smooth transition to opening. Further information on the alterations to the scheme will be available at the end of May and we will of course keep you updated on these developments in due course.   We will now look at different financial models to work out the best way of re-opening which allows us to make use of the financial support available.

Despite the uncertainty of a fixed opening date, we continue to work hard on planning for re-opening, so that when the time comes we are in the best possible position to welcome you and our visitors back to the Museum. Part of this involves working with other organisations such as those in the Heart of England Attractions Group (including Warwick Castle, Sea Life Centre and Lego Discovery Centre, RAF Museum Cosford and Ironbridge to name a few), on safety measures that we can put in place.

Later today we will publicly announce that we have made the decision to cancel the 1940s weekend which was scheduled for 11/12 July.   Too much crucial planning time has been missed for this event to take place, even if the Museum were able to open. We have chosen not to reschedule for later in the year as we know this event works best in the summer and there is also no guarantee that the many of the re-enactors and entertainers would be available for a different date later in the year.    We are asking all those who have purchased tickets to the 1940s evening event if they would like to donate the cost of their ticket to the Museum – as many arts organisations are also doing.

All other workshops, events and activities have been cancelled to the end of June – we will make a decision on whether events scheduled in July can go ahead based on when the Museum is able to re-open and that sufficient social distancing measures can be put in place.   All school bookings have been cancelled to the end of the school year and group bookings up to the end of June.

The Museum’s board of trustees met last Thursday for the fourth time since we closed, and they continue to be updated on the situation on a weekly basis.

I’m thankful that we haven’t faced a serious issue with the health of staff, but I am aware that there are hidden pressures, not least on people’s mental health. Please don’t forget that if you have any queries or require any support that you can always email [email protected].

Take care and best wishes

Andrew

13 May 2020
Update from Andrew – 6 May

Another week has passed since our last communication and I hope you and your friends and family are keeping well. Please do encourage your colleagues to read these updates each Wednesday as they will be the main communication from the Museum.

Our attention is now turning to re-opening the Museum and whilst we don’t know exactly when this will be or what will be expected of us, we can make some assumptions that allow us to plan ahead. Hopefully the government’s update this Sunday will allow us to do this with more clarity. In all of this pre-opening planning we will prioritise the health & safety of staff, doing everything possible to make you feel confident and safe to return to work. For visitors, we are considering ways to adapt our interpretive and operational approach to allow visitors to maintain social distancing and minimize touch, whilst not detracting from positive visitor experience. Of course it would be wrong for us to try and plan this on our own and so the Museum is participating in discussion with other organisations via the National Museum Directors Council Planning and Mobilisation Group and we are also receiving updates from other industry bodies including the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, which is contributing to our thinking.

The financial situation remains a challenge and whilst we’re pleased to have received the first payment from the Government’s Job Retention Scheme, there are still large monthly costs to be covered which will utilise all of the Museum’s reserves. Unfortunately some of the other support measures announced by the government are not suitable for the Museum – including the Business Loan Scheme; and whilst a number of lottery funders have announced emergency grants, organisations are not permitted to apply for more than one of these. However, please be assured that we are doing everything we can to access financial support that will allow us to get through this crisis. An application to Arts Council England’s Emergency Response Fund will be submitted next week for funding that will hopefully support us up to the end of September and we continue to lobby government for further long-term support via the Association of Independent Museums and DCMS.

We appreciate that this is a difficult and unsettling time for everyone and it is hard at this point for us to confirm anything with much certainty. The situation remains fluid, and the Board is being kept up-to-date on a weekly basis. What we do know is that there is much affection and love for this wonderful Museum and we are doing our utmost to navigate a way forward so that we can re-open our doors and welcome visitors once again. We continue to look for the positives in the situation – and having a large 26 acre site will hopefully mean we are in a better position than some to re-open and maintain social distancing.

As mentioned earlier, we hope that following the government’s next announcement we will begin to have a clearer picture on the timescale and plans for reopening, and in the meantime please take care and keep safe.

Andrew

6 May 2020
Weekly update – 29 April
We’re now on week six of the Museum being closed to the public and as we mentioned in last week’s update, the Museum will continue to remain closed until the Government advises that it is safe for us to re-open. We hope that you are keeping safe and well and are finding ways to stay connected with family and friends in these challenging times.

In spite of the difficult times we all face, life does go on here at the Museum and our non-furloughed staff are working away to ensure that things tick over. Some have even begun to pick up new skills – Martyn from the Maintenance Team has taken on the job of resident lawn mower so that we don’t come back to a jungle!

And, as of this week, work has now been completed on the pathway to the new Canalside offices, and smart new railings and lighting have now been installed.

The Locksmith House continues to be diligently cared for by Andy Middlebrook who is dropping in a couple of times a week to check in.

You’ll notice that we are putting out more content and learning resources– so far we have explored themes of childhood, coal mining and the canal network. Keep an eye out next week for the highly topical ‘health and hygiene’ mini-documentary as well as on our Twitter page later on in the week when our researchers will be talking about their favourite objects for BBC’s #MuseumsatHome.

We know that many of you have kindly been working hard to support the NHS. We know how passionate our staff are, and it has not gone unnoticed. A particularly special thank you this week to Hayley and Janet, who between them have made scrubs, ear protectors, and more.
We will continue to update on a weekly basis so please ensure that you check back soon, and in the meantime, stay safe.
29 April 2020