Heritage Training for Planning Authorities

From 17th July to 22nd August 2025, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) asked planning authority staff and other stakeholders to help us shape the future of a new Heritage Training Course for Planners. The survey was part of wider Training Needs Analysis (TNA) by The Diffley Partnership, helping us to ensure that development of the course is informed and supports planners in decision-making.

We asked you to help us understand the skills, knowledge and support planners need when managing change in the historic environment.

The survey set out to:

• Identify gaps in confidence and capability across key heritage planning tasks, including using policy, assessing significance and applying guidance
• Gather views on priority learning topics for a new national heritage training course
• Understand how planners currently access advice, what challenges they face, and which areas of heritage practice feel most complex
• Explore preferred delivery formats to ensure training is accessible across Scotland

We received 80 survey responses from across Scotland’s planning authorities and related organisations, and engaged with a further 27 stakeholders in online workshops.

The results highlighted several clear themes:

Strong interest and clear demand

• 91% said they were likely to enrol in a future course
• Respondents worked mainly in development management (70%) and deal with heritage considerations regularly (often daily or weekly)

Mixed confidence levels

You reported:

• High confidence using local guidance and working with specialist colleagues
• Lower confidence applying Managing Change guidance, Planning Advice Notes, and interpreting setting consistently
• Difficulty balancing heritage significance with NPF4 climate ambitions

Clear priority learning topics

Topics rated “very important” included:

• Retrofitting historic buildings and places and mitigating impacts to heritage
• Identifying and assessing impacts, climate change and adaptation, heritage and the green economy, and re‑use of underused/derelict buildings were consistently the highest‑ranking needs

Challenges with significance and designations

• You most frequently rely on designation documents (86%) but want clearer guidance for undesignated assets and more consistency around interpretation
• Confidence was lowest for less common asset types: marine heritage, underwater remains, and battlefields

Overall, you want a course that is practical, consistent, clearly explained, accessible online and rooted in real examples of managing change.

We worked with The Diffley Partnership who analysed these results in combination with workshop feedback to shape a set of recommendations. These recommendations will be used to inform the development of the new heritage training course. The recommendations include:

Purpose, Scope and Audience

• Clarifying the target audience an scope of the course, ensuring that it is designed primarily for planning authority staff while recognising varying levels of experience and differing confidence across roles
• Refining the purpose of the course to focus on empowering planners to inform decision-makers, reflecting survey findings that many planners are not the final decision-makers but need confidence and clarity to support consistent outcomes

Course Relevance

• Ensuring the course will directly reflect what planners do day-to-day, with content tied to real tasks such as assessing impacts, balancing policies, preparing reports, consulting specialists and navigating designations
• Prioritising learning topics that respondents rated most important including retrofitting historic buildings, mitigating and assessing impacts, climate change adaptation, and opportunities for reuse and the green economy

Ensuring Effectiveness

• Designing a modular course structure, enabling planners to learn in manageable chunks and tailor content to their needs, experience levels and work pressures
• Conducting a pilot phase to test modules with a small group of planning authorities, gather feedback and refine the course before full rollout
• Emphasising inclusivity and accessibility, noting the need for flexible timing, recorded content and sensitivity to workload pressures

Based on the recommendations, we will:

• Develop targeted learning outcomes that reflect the capabilities planners need most
• Design the course and its modules around realistic, scenario-based learning ensuring content is practical and relevant
• Prepare for a pilot phase for Module 1
• Continue to engage with participants and stakeholders, to ensure the course is impactful
• Work with external partners and specialists to review and sense-check content.