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Last edited 09 Feb 2026

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IHBC planning for growth with Corporate Plan development

[edit] Planning for growth, so grow with us by volunteering, just let us know!

The IHBC has recently secured permission to seek a Charter, while delivery of our 5 Parliamentary Commitments is under way and Branch Consultants are in place, and much more too, so we’re now calling for volunteers to help, and grow your skills with us! IHBC Chair David McDonald OBE said:

"Your institute is growing! From our Charter progress to our standing across our members’ diverse communities of practice and networks, we are opening new opportunities and enhancing or even establishing impacts and credibility.

Now we want to grow our substantial network of volunteers even more, and make it a core part of our future by building on our long tradition of volunteer-led planning and delivery."

Remember too that volunteering with the IHBC is great for your career, often as the most cost-effective way to expand your skills as our online SelfStarter explains, and as highlighted on its ‘Volunteers and Careers’ panel HERE.

And whether you are working or retired, you can be sure that any help you can give the IHBC brings huge public benefit, a structural theme in our Corporate Plans since 2007, as outlined HERE. Of course such activities also enhance personal wellbeing.

So if you are interested in any voluntary position in the IHBC – from starting out as an early career practitioner exploring the landscape of conservation to serving as a senior trustee able to offer us your substantial experience – please do come forward and expand your skills and enhance your networks as a volunteer with us.

We are a complex organisation, so if you are keen you can scope and explore any roles most easily by following the links under the ‘About’ dropdown on our website. You can also contact members of our National Office network. And for a more personal explorations you can go to your Branch or any Board, Committee or panel lead in your area of interest.

If you are unsure where to start, you can simply email our Support lead Sarah Homer, at ihbc .org.uk support@ihbc.org.uk, or our Director Seán O’Reilly at ihbc.org.uk director@ihbc.org.uk.

[edit] IHBC opens Corporate Plan 2026-30 (‘CP30’) development with CP25 consultation

IHBC’s members and prospective members are asked to feed back on the summary review of our Corporate Plan for 2020-25 – ‘CP25’ – presented at our September Council, to help inform plans for our Corporate Plan for 2026-30 (CP30), with initial responses encouraged by 28 February 2026.

Prospective IHBC Members: If you are not an IHBC member but have an interest in our work and would like to contribute to the consultation contact Lydia Porter at ihbc .org.uk admin@ihbc.org.uk for further details

IHBC Chair David McDonald and IHBC President Rebecca Thompson have written to IHBC members as follows:

"In 2025 the IHBC’s Board agreed that our new Corporate Plan, the guiding document that will take us to 2030, should build on our outgoing plan, the Corporate Plan for 2020-25, more familiarly, ‘CP25’. CP25 offers the perfect start for planning this next phase in our development, especially as we continue progress on our Charter while facing unknown outcomes there. So we want to take a light-touch look at what individual members – and Branches as appropriate – think of our work over those last few years and before.

"A new review of ‘CP25’… for consultation has been produced to offer an initial summary indication of both progress to date and plans for the future. Early drafts have been presented to our Council and Board, and in general we believe progress has been impressive, even before the pandemic-linked challenges faced at its launch. Of course there are also new opportunities, only some of which are recognised in CP25 and its review.

"These last encompass governance, including prospects of a new constitution and new corporate body should a Charter be sought and secured; new priorities in Parliaments across the UK, as represented already by our Parliamentary Briefing and our linked ‘5 Commitments’; our expanded volunteer support offered by new regional Branch Consultants, and expanding the opportunities in our CREATIVE Conservation Fund.

"We are acutely aware that, alongside our ambitions, our core priority must remain as it has been from the start: to maintain and improve all our familiar and fundamental services to the IHBC’s growing community of Conservation Professionals and their networks.

"As usual in our consultations, members – including prospective members of all categories – may freely feed their thoughts on this introductory consultation document to Branch officers; to our committees and representatives, as well as to our trustees and other officers, all as suits. However for us to capture your personal thoughts most effectively we do also encourage use of the dedicated Consultation Form HERE. With your help we can all make our new plans as ‘fit-for-purpose’ as our current planning has proven to be."

One cautionary note to bear in mind when considering the consultation document: for any issues that you might not be familiar with, please do first see what we may have said about them using the search facility in our NewsBlogs or our other web resources or member communications. A simple search there will likely offer you an adequate background, even for the more nascent projects or programmes.

If you still have questions on detail or fact, please do feel free to contact in the first instance the IHBC’s ihbc .org.uk director@ihbc.org.uk.’

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