Archive Conservator

Buckinghamshire Council; Aylesbury; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Part time

Job summary

Join Buckinghamshire Council as a Conservator and play a vital role in preserving the county's archival heritage. This part-time position involves practical conservation work, managing volunteers, and preparing collections for relocation. If you have a background in conservation and a passion for history, this is an exciting opportunity to make a difference.

Benefits

Health and well-being initiatives

Flexible working arrangements

Discounts on various Cafés and restaurants

Generous Pension Scheme

Qualifications

• Proven experience in conservation techniques relevant to local authority archives.
• Experience managing volunteers to achieve project goals.

Responsibilities

• Deliver practical conservation and preservation work on archival documents.
• Create and monitor volunteer projects to further preservation work.

Skills

Conservation techniques

Volunteer management

Education

Post-graduate diploma in Conservation

Job description

As Conservator with the Buckinghamshire Archives Service, you will have a key role in helping to preserve and make accessible the county’s archival heritage. The Service has records that cover over 800 years of Buckinghamshire’s history, which are made available to the public in its Searchroom (Aylesbury) and online via the Virtual Searchroom.

• Part-time: 22 hours a week. Working pattern to be agreed with the hiring manager. The Salary is £20,206.70 - £21,020.70 pro rata of the advertised amount.

About us

The Archives Service is a small, innovative team, committed to delivering an excellent service for Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes’ residents. We have an SLA with Milton Keynes City Council and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust to manage their archives. The Service’s work is built on a foundation of excellent standards for customer care and collections management, irrespective of format. It works in partnership with other organisations to reach out and meaningfully engage with the county's diverse communities. The Service actively promotes its collections, so they are an authentic source for celebrating and researching Buckinghamshire's rich history and heritage. Buckinghamshire Archives focuses on the four E's: engage, excite, educate and empower. The Archive Service will relocate from Aylesbury to High Wycombe during the summer of 2026, so this will be an exciting time to join the Service and help us prepare for the move.

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally.

About the role

This role will deliver practical conservation and preservation work on the archival documents held by the service, and to record this appropriately. The Service uses a matrix to determine priorities for conservation work. In addition, the role will include the creation and monitoring of volunteer projects that have clear goals to further the preservation work of the Service. The post holder will train staff and volunteers, so they have the necessary skills to deliver their work. Working alongside other professional staff, the post holder will have a significant role in ensuring collections are ready to be transported, as part of the relocation to a new site. Further details of the role can be found in the job description.

Fixed

As a ‘fixed’ worker, you’ll spend most of your time in the same location, which will likely be a fixed office or location where your role is performed. Typically, you’ll be based in the same location as the rest of your team, because you provide a particular service from that fixed location or need access to information there.

About you

You will have a post-graduate diploma or master’s degree in a relevant Conservation area and proven experience of following good practice in conservation techniques relevant to a local authority archive. You will have proven experience of managing volunteers to achieve success and experience of carrying out comprehensive condition surveys of archival collections and creating reports based on those surveys.

Further details of the role can be found in the job description.

This post is covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore applicants are required to declare:

• All unspent cautions and/or unspent convictions

We reserve the right to close the vacancy once we have received sufficient applications, so please be advised to submit your application as early as possible.

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Our Communities directorate works across the county to deliver a number of the key customer-facing services that our residents, businesses and visitors rely on every day.

This directorate includes a wide range of services, including:

• collecting and disposing of waste and recycling
• maintaining our roads and Rights of Way network and parking
• ensuring the delivery of school transport, and supporting sustainable travel including public bus services and School Crossing Patrollers
• managing Country Parks
• leisure facilities, museums, theatres and libraries, as well as developing our Cultural Strategy
• licensing, cemeteries and crematoria

The customer is central to how we develop and deliver all of these services, which help promote our rich and vibrant culture and special environment.

We are looking for enthusiastic, ambitious and committed individuals to join our team and help us to continue to make Buckinghamshire a great place to live, work and visit. This is an exciting time for us as we bring together the services previously run by five separate councils before Buckinghamshire Council was created. Whilst making major changes to contracts affecting residents across Bucks, we continue to focus on delivering great customer service. You will join us on our journey of continuous improvement - whether that’s through developing strategies and ways of working or delivering services on the ground, every person in Communities is a valued member of the team.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.