Written by Prof Michael Lewis, Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme
A strength of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is that it is a partnership project, managed by the British Museum in England, involving over 100 local and national organisations. Across England and Wales, the PAS now has 70 staff, of which a majority are fulltime Finds Liaison Officers (FLOs) supported by part-time Finds Liaison Assistants (FLAs). These are all employed and hosted locally, which brings many advantages, especially in terms of support and opportunities. It would obviously be tricky to directly manage locally based staff from London, so PAS staff within local museums and other heritage organisations benefit from the support and opportunities they offer. For example, FLOs based within museums are well placed to highlight the PAS through objects on display and museum outreach events, whereas those within organisations that host Historic Environment Records (HERs) benefit from the knowledge of their colleagues in terms of understanding finds within a landscape context and supporting archaeological interventions, such as the excavation of in-situ finds. But wherever they are based, FLOs will have wider connections. FLOs in museums should work closely with their HER colleagues, and those within an HER team will work closely with museum colleagues across their area. As such the PAS partnership is a spider-web of connections, with FLOs (in particular) being part of national, regional and local teams, making good use of all the opportunities that brings.
Obviously, for FLOs, being part of a ‘national’ PAS team is important. Within their local organisation there might not be anyone else doing exactly the same work, so being in touch with other FLOs, the Scheme’s National Finds Advisers and Central Unit in London is essential. Likewise, FLOs need also to connect with their local colleagues. They will be part of a local team, that will consist of colleagues that have great knowledge and experience. Whilst FLOs can take advantage of these networks of wisdom, being part of several ‘teams’ can present challenges also, not least in determining priorities of work. It might, for example, be a great opportunity to work on a local display that highlights the work of the PAS or work on an excavation following the discovery of an important find, but these could take the FLO away from their everyday tasks, such as the identification and recording of finds, which is an essential component of the work of the national scheme. Therefore, FLOs have to be extremely well organised and be realistic about what they can achieve. Just as importantly they need to manage expectations, especially of members of the public offering finds for identification and recording, but also their work colleagues. In short, being an FLO is a busy and exciting job, but one that needs many skills.
The PAS is currently in a good place in terms of its funding. In the context of Treasure reform (i.e. changes to the Treasure Act 1996 and revisions to the Treasure Act Code of Practice, implemented as of 30 July 2023), the Scheme has been recognised by the Government as having a fundamental role in the processing of Treasure. But more than that, the PAS is key to UK heritage protection, offering a mechanism to record public finds to advance knowledge. This data (recorded onto the PAS database) is key to anyone wishing to understand the relationship between finds types or understand archaeological finds in a landscape context. The PAS in England is funded as part of the UK Government’s grant-in-aid to the British Museum, which is granted to the organisations that employ FLOs and other PAS staff. The funding available increased from £970k to £1.326M in 2022-3 as part of the 2021 spending review. Even so, this funding does not cover the complete costs of the PAS. All local partners, to a greater or lesser extent, make a cash and/or in-kind contribution to the Scheme. They make this contribution because they value the role of the FLO and the contribution PAS makes to the archaeology of their local area, county or region. In short, this funding enables the PAS to extend its reach, as it would be impossible for the British Museum to run all these posts on the Government grant-in-aid alone. If this partnership nature is a strength of the Scheme it also exposes its vulnerability. The PAS works on all the partners working together and continuing to contribute. Therefore, if one partner is to leave the Scheme this creates a hole that is hard to plug, especially as new partners might not be able to make a cash contribution to support an FLO post.
Though the PAS partnership model is somewhat vulnerable and might (nowadays) be impossible to set up from scratch – especially in the current economic environment – it is a model that spreads risk, a risk that would be almost impossible for one partner to live with alone. It also enables local partners to employ posts that contribute to the work of their organisations at a fraction of the costs if they were to do this alone. Likewise, for the British Museum, it benefits from leading the largest community project in Europe, that connects with people across England, and benefits archaeology across the UK. In short, the PAS highlights the benefits of partnership working, for the benefit of all, especially the public.
