Conservation Officer

Job Description

Organisation: Leicestershire County Council

Work Location: The Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland, Long Street, Wigston, Leicestershire LE18 2AH

Worker Category: Fixed Location Worker

Salary: £35,451 - £39,165

Working Hours: 37 Hours per week, Monday - Friday with occasional evening and weekend work by prior arrangement.

Contract Type: Permanent

Closing Date: Sunday 16th November 2025

Interview Date(s): Week commencing 15th December

About the Role

Are you looking to use your existing archive conservation skills in a busy local authority record office?

Culture Leicestershire is Leicestershire County Council's heritage, libraries, participation and learning service, our vision is to 'Create space to spark imagination, celebrate communities and enhance wellbeing' through access to our rich collections, staff expertise, buildings and engagement programmes.

We are looking for a new Conservation Officer, based at the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland and working within the Collections and Conservation team. You should be a qualified archive conservator with the skills, knowledge and experience to lead on the preventive and remedial conservation treatments of the Record Office's important collections. You will support the preservation of the Record Office and wider heritage collections including having knowledge of the monitoring and control of environmental conditions, emergency planning and salvage, packaging and handling and the standards expected of Accredited collections.

Although the role has no direct staff management responsibilities you will be able to support and supervise the work of volunteers and other members of the team when they are engaged in basic conservation activities. We expect you to play a vital role in the operation of the Record Office and the wider Culture Leicestershire services in order for us to deliver our vision of a vital, engaging and responsive heritage offer to the public.

For information on our approach to the recruitment of ex-offenders, please see our policy statement.

About You

To apply for this post, you must:

Hold a recognised qualification in Archive/Paper Conservation which reflects the nature of the collections held in public record offices and demonstrate a high level of skill in archive conservation practices
Have knowledge and experience of assessing, recommending, carrying out and documenting/recording a wide range of archive conservation treatments
Have knowledge and experience of managing and operating environmental monitoring and control systems
Have knowledge of preservation and conservation theory and practice, including issues and techniques, document and object handling and reprographics and digitisation techniques
Have knowledge and understanding of emergency planning and salvage response for collections
Knowledge of Local Authority Archive, Local Studies and Museum collections, and national accreditation standards for their preservation, care and conservation
Have a high level of interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.

You must also have an understanding of, and commitment to, equal opportunities, and the ability to apply this to all situations.

In addition, we also expect you to share our commitment to our values and will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.

Reasonable adjustments will be considered for applicants with a disability.

This post is covered by Part 7 of the Immigration Act (2016) and therefore the ability to speak fluent English is an essential requirement for this role.

Interested in Flexible Working?

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below. This may include requests for term-time working, part-time hours, compressed hours, flexible start and finish times, home/remote working, etc.

Every role within the Council has a defined working style which determines where they can work. The worker category applicable to this post is detailed in the above advert. You can find out more about our worker categories in the Our Working Styles page on our career site.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact:

Philip Warren, Collections & Learning Manager

Telephone: 0116 3053423

Email: philip.warren@leics.gov.uk

How to Apply

Leicestershire County Council is an inclusive organisation which is on a journey to embed and celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion at every level. We warmly welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, as having a diverse workforce with different perspectives and ideas is fundamental to our values and enriches the services we offer our communities. We particularly welcome applicants from Ethnically Diverse and LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities to create a balanced workforce and one that reflects the communities we serve. Applicants with a disability who meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above will be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme.

To apply for this job, please click on 'Apply Now'. You will need to upload a supporting statement as part of your application which explains how you meet the criteria listed in the 'About You' section above. For more information, see the How to Apply section on our career site.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Employee Service Centre: https://emss.org.uk/support.

By applying for this post, you agree to our Terms and Conditions.

About Us

About Leicestershire County Council

Leicestershire County Council is a Disability Confident, Menopause Friendly, Mindful Employer, Fostering Friendly, Forces Friendly, and Cycle Friendly organisation. In August 2021, we also signed up to the Race at Work Charter. We are strongly committed to promoting equality and opportunity, championing employee wellbeing and investing in staff training and development.

Our aim is to work with communities and partners to deliver public services that make Leicestershire the best possible place to live and work for everyone. Our employees play a key role in supporting this goal and helping us deliver the vital services we provide to the people of Leicestershire.

For further information on what it's like to work for us and the benefits we offer, please refer to the following:

Our Recruitment Process
Our Organisational Values
Our Employee Benefits
Working for Us