First Watching Brief Nerves

[BAJR]

AH... in that case my advice to Thundercat is to consider the problems... and of course the insurance issues... what insurance do you have.

[drpeterwardle]

I am rather worried by this. I didn’t realise that Tundercat had said on another thread
“Please can I ask some advice, as I am interested in setting myself up as sole trader for DBAs, and I would like some advice on copyright issues. “
And there is an inference that Tundercat is will be doing a watching brief as a sole trader. If this is the case what I would say is this.
There is nothing wrong in anybody setting up their own firm of archaeologists and indeed it should be encouraged. I am against regulation of such companies because there is a culture that small private companies are a bad thing particularly amongst the larger companies, the charities and the local authority units. BUT and it’s a big but anybody setting up on their own must be able to do the job they are being contracted to do. There work must be able to withstand the scrutiny of curators.
One of the major downsides of setting up on your own is that gaining the experience to do new things is very difficult and you are stuck doing the things that you can do when you set up in business. The only was you can gain such experience is by being a sub-contractor to another firm and hence being under their supervision or hiring in somebody to supervise you.
The stakes are high when you set up on your own. Here are a few hazards involved with a watching brief.
1. Health and safety. You are responsible. If things go wrong and it affects others you may go to prison. If you are sued you have to hope the insurance company pays out if have insurance. If you are not sure about the risks involved in a particular job you are risking your own health and safety. You will have to prepare a health and safety risk assessment which will have to be approved by the contractors safety officer. The safety officer may have come across archaeology before and know what is involved. If he rejects the health and safety statement – then there will be trouble.
2. If things go wrong you might not get paid. If things go badly wrong you will get sued.
3. If you haven’t done a watching brief before you will find it difficult writing a specification and this document has to be approved by the local authority. If it is not then the development cannot start. There will be a cost to this delay.
4. When you present your spec to the curator they may not approve you as being suitably qualified because you have no experience. Indeed I would hope they would not approve somebody with no experience. In this situation you are in breach on contract and have to hire somebody else in and probably tale a loss on the job.
5. You have to guarantee things. You may well be able to get height information from the contractor it’s a 50-50 chance that such data will be related to OS datum- often the original surveyor will have use an arbitrary height. You may be able to get a contractor to hold a levelling staff but can you guarantee this in advance. The solution is to hire a reflectorless total station or a GPS system or somebody else to do the surveying. You will thus make a loss.
6. Lets consider the worst case situation (apart from an accident). You do the report and the curator rejects the report because you failed to do something. As the construction work are advanced you can no longer obtain that information. The report cannot therefore be approved and the planning condition cannot be discharged. This means the development cannot be used. For example a house cannot be occupied you are liable. A claim will be made against you. If you have PI insurance there will be a clause saying you can only do things that you are competent to do ie have experience of.
I know this is very negative and when times are hard it is very tempting to do anything to earn money but I feel people setting up on their own need to know the reality of the situation. Knowing how to do the job well on site is not enough you have to know what the process is, be able to do all these hidden tasks and administer the project.
With any development the stakes are high.
When I set up in business I took the view that it was too difficult to do field work – it required too much back up, kit and capital. I also decided it was too risky having to give fixed prices for things. Others took the opposite view did field work, small jobs to start and then built up their businesses very quickly and have been very successful. But all of us who set up in the early 90s had many years of experience as project officers before we set up on our own.
My advice to Tundercat is that by the sound of it you are not ready to start up on your own and what you need to do is to work or sub contract to others to gain the experience that is needed. Sorry to be so negative.
Peter

[trainedchimp]

well said drpete.

It's not often I agree with you, but this time you're dead right...

[BAJR]

And once again... yes.. DrPetes post showed be pinned up for all those thinking of going it alone... This is not to be attempted by a person who is not ready.... what is not ready? well... not having done a job that you are about to.

I urge Thundercat to consider what they are getting into... and read Dr Petes post very carefully

[drpeterwardle]

I think it would be useful if Tundercat could give us some clue to what kind of watching brief it is. If Tundercat has done lots of machine watching on excavations or evaluations then a rural watching brief involving the stripping of the topsoil and immediately below this layer it may well be something that Tundercat could do (which is very different to should do).
Similarly if it is for none commercial development or outside of the planning system then there are a different set of issues to consider.
If on the other hand it is an urban commercial development then this is a very different kettle of fish.
Similarly if Tundercat tells us the situation we may be able to tell him how to get out of the situation with good grace.
Peter

[troll]

No need. Troll`s been fed. :face-approve:

[Unitof1]

[SIZE=4]Hello Steve, I live off watching briefs, occasional dba, rare evaluation. very rare excavation but majority of dosh is made from giving advice to developers, if pps would kick in I would make a lot more from that source but have had some success using it to scare money out of the poor unfortunates. I expect to make a lot more if they get rid of the curators and make the planning applicants self curate but not holding my breath just yet.[/SIZE]

not sure anybody wants my advice in this thread

[Dinosaur]

It's an alternative viewpoint! Mainly just posting since people seem to have been avoiding this thread for the last 24 hours for some reason.....:face-approve:

[ex-archaeologist]

Presumably this is the alternative viewpoint.

[SIZE=4]I expect to make a lot more if they get rid of the curators and make the planning applicants self curate but not holding my breath just yet.[/SIZE]

Hmm...:face-thinks:

I think if we start to explore why development archaeology is regulated by public curators, which I would suggest is linked to something called 'the planning system', which relates to the management of landuse for the betterment of the community and society, eg. 'the public interest', boring I know, then we will veer off topic.

Regardless of the reasoning of the person who started this thread, watching briefs, how different people conduct them, and how employers train and prepare staff to do them, is actually quite a useful discussion to have on BAJR

[Unitof1]

where does pps5 say development archaeology is regulated by public curators.

I have not been allowed to call them watching briefs for specification and report writting around here for a few years which means there are no standards. I do though make sure that my contract with the landowners is for a watching brief.

6. Lets consider the worst case situation (apart from an accident). The worst case is that you miss any archaeology that is there which will be very boring. Not sure how often this has happened to me. Its a difficult thing to quantify.