Social Value and Public Benefit
Archaeology enables people to reach back in time, connect with the generations who have lived in their local area before them, understand how landscapes have changed and transformed, and to imagine new futures.
In this way, communities can re-connect with their environment and neighbours, develop their skills and career opportunities, improve their wellbeing and boost local tourism and the economy. Our specialist teams have experience developing strategic and thoughtful project designs in collaboration with our clients and local partners to realise these benefits and contribute to a project’s social value metrics and reporting systems (e.g. National TOMs, Thrive).
Project Design and Audience Mapping
Our archaeological engagement teams are experts in designing programmes that meet community priorities and client targets to deliver measurable and proportionate social value. Strategic design, informed by desk-based research and community and stakeholder consultation allows us:
- To identify and mitigate barriers to engagement,
- To collaborate with local partners and ensure a sustainable legacy,
- To measure public impact and evaluate our activities,
This ensures we effectively and efficiently facilitate meaningful change, delivering public value for money.
Image: Impact Aim infographic from the A66 Heritage Community Engagement Plan, 2023
Testimonial
“I would just like to express my admiration of the work you have so far put into the A66 outreach package and your vibrant ideas. I (and I think I speak for the rest of my team too) were very impressed. I think we will be delivering a potentially text book package of work built on these efforts.”
Alan Ford, Associate Archaeologist, AtkinsRéalis
For society: Teacher Encounters
Ahead of National Highways’ A66 Northern Trans-Pennine development scheme, Oxford Cotswold Archaeology was invited to support a career development project for Year 9 teachers in Cumbria. The project aimed to demonstrate how different disciplines within the construction industry could enhance and enliven the national curriculum. As a result, teachers know how archaeology can support their teaching practice and have a better understanding of the pathways into archaeological employment for their students. Follow the link to read more about the project, and download the resources.
Image: a flint arrowhead
For the economy: Apprenticeships
Oxford Cotswold Archaeology has collaborated with Cirencester College to offer apprenticeships in archaeology, and currently have three candidates working towards their Level 3 NVQ in Archaeological Practice. These candidates have been deployed on the A417 Missing Link mitigation works, where they have collectively spent over 750 hours deployed on the project. They have worked across all aspects of the archaeological process including excavation and post-excavation, uncovering prehistoric and Roman archaeology, participated in finds identification experts with our in-house specialists and have been on field trips to Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall.
Image: an apprenticeship candidate recording a section
Testimonial
“It is a more affordable option for learning: when looking around this apprenticeship stood out as being completely different to everything else advertised.”
Apprenticeship Candidate
For the environment: Waste and Carbon Reduction
We are committed to helping our clients meet their environmental objectives. At Sizewell C we are supporting waste reduction targets by stockpiling excavated soils for re-use. Any remaining soils will be spread across existing low-grade arable land to create ‘Sandlings vegetation’ (a mosaic of dry grassland, heathland and scrub), helping to support environmental diversity. We are also contributing to carbon reduction targets by transporting teams to site on minibuses, facilitating carpooling and using eco welfare units which have solar power and reduce water consumption.
Image: archaeologists recording features on site
Want to learn more?
Learn more about how we are delivering social value.