Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future

6Next Steps for Action and DeliveryOur urgent task isto enable archives todeliver value to allcitizens in ways thatwill enrich their lives.58 We have covered a broad landscape of actions in thisreport to present significant challenges to all those workingin archives and records management, funding bodies andkey stakeholders across the whole of the UK. While thearchives domain has a long and honourable history as anengine of discovery and research we made clear at thebeginning that our urgent task is to enable the domain todeliver value to all citizens in ways that will enrich theirlives and help them to understand better the communityof which they are a part.To give credibility to the arguments and proposalsthat have been made it is vital not merely to recommendbroad areas for possible action, but to indicate how therecommendations and actions might be given momentumtowards delivery. Such momentum invariably depends ontwo factors – co-ordination and funding. At the start of thisreport emphasis was placed on the real benefit of beingable to take a UK-wide view of the future roles andpriorities for archival collections, not least because thevalue of archival collections and the use made of themtranscends boundaries. The commitment of all fourhome nations to work towards developing the strategiesoutlined in this report lends significant weight to therecommendations that have been made. Moving fromUK strategy to UK implementation brings new challenges.Within the public domain archival policy and fundingare both devolved functions. There is no doubt that therehas been support from each of the home nations toparticipate in the work of the Task Force. However, wemust recognise that there will need to be significantemphasis on on-going consultation between all interestedparties: funding departments in the four countries andstrategic partners. Moreover, where UK-wide programmesare planned, it will be necessary to build fundingportfolios supplied from a range of sources. All of theserequirements place emphasis on formalising as soon aspossible what has been successful, as well as developinginformal mechanisms of co-operation, collaborationand communication.The Inter-Departmental Archives Committee 8 (whichproduced the Government Policy on Archives and itsAction Plan) embraces the national archive services of all