I've been to a number of public records offices and they vary in quality. I am wondering if anyone knows whether there are any regulations governing the standards of the work their staff do? I've found some relating to how they keep documents but I am more concerned about the standard of assistance and advice from staff. I have had three experiences of unhelpful offices and some more positive ones elsewhere. Though none of the negative experiences were in Gloucestershire they were related to my looking for information for families who had moved from the F of D to other parts of the country. In one case I went to an office a considerable distance away from the city where I live, and found the door closed and the place inaccessible despite it having opening times. I did get an apology in that case as it should have been open, but though they said I could make an appointment to go back it is too far away to go there again (they didn't offer to find me the information I was seeking though!) Is there any kind of regulatory body?
I think people need to be aware that the Who Do You Think You Are? programmes on the ITV give the impression that staff will bend over backwards to help people to conduct family history research when in fact the reality is different.
I also experienced the curator of an art gallery making derisory comments about an artist when I don't think it was her place to do so.

I've been to a number of public records offices and they vary in quality. I am wondering if anyone knows whether there are any regulations governing the standards of the work their staff do? I've found some relating to how they keep documents but I am more concerned about the standard of assistance and advice from staff. I have had three experiences of unhelpful offices and some more positive ones elsewhere. Though none of the negative experiences were in Gloucestershire they were related to my looking for information for families who had moved from the F of D to other parts of the country. In one case I went to an office a considerable distance away from the city where I live, and found the door closed and the place inaccessible despite it having opening times. I did get an apology in that case as it should have been open, but though they said I could make an appointment to go back it is too far away to go there again (they didn't offer to find me the information I was seeking though!) Is there any kind of regulatory body?
I think people need to be aware that the Who Do You Think You Are? programmes on the ITV give the impression that staff will bend over backwards to help people to conduct family history research when in fact the reality is different.
I also experienced the curator of an art gallery making derisory comments about an artist when I don't think it was her place to do so.

You might want to start here Local Government Ombudsmen

http://www.lgo.org.uk/

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Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

It comes down to character and personality of the particular archivist, supposedly passionate about historical records. Any amount of regulations or training will not change 'a sows ear into a silk purse'. In all the years I travelled down to Gloucestershire County Records, I don't remember anything negative or unhelpful. When I moved on to Gwent/Monmouthshire at Cwmbran, they were somewhat less, despite having a Welsh surname.

I've not had a bad experience in either Wales or Gloucestershire but I have in other parts of the country. I didn't really want to be so heavy handed as to complain to an ombudsman though.
I think some of them need training on how to work with customers! One told me "You'll never find it" in relation to something I was looking for through old newspapers, but I found it within an hour or two! Her comments might have made someone else give up on the search!

Having been a regular user of record offices for over 40 years I can report that while there are still some "black holes" the overall standard has risen dramatically. The one consistent thing is that the range of services provided and attitude to customers is enormous.
When I started researching the attitude was that no-one but "serious researchers" had any right to access the records which were basically to be preserved and preferably not looked at by the general public.(I thought I was fairly serious at the time being a history student.)
The situation now is generally that public access is the most important part of a good record office and I know several which reach very high standards of customer service where individuals go far beyond what is expected of them. The best ones have published policies on what can be expected and policies, for example, on replying to enquiries which they pride themselves on fulfilling.
All record offices have been subjected to huge cuts in staffing and resources and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future but this does not excuse badly trained staff and unhelpful attitudes which are still to be encountered in some of the biggest and most well funded as much, if not more, than in the small and under funded.
Last year we had occasion to visit 2 large and 2 small archives which we had not visited before. The 2 smaller ones (one of which was chronically underfunded & understaffed but served a huge county)were very helpful and knew their records well. Of the larger ones, one had staff that were unhelpful in the extreme and some that were more helpful but the atmosphere was not user friendly, the other was also not user friendly although the staff were more helpful.
As in all organisations the senior managemanent are usually the ones who set the tone.
There are standards for archives, some relating to the storage of archives, and there are also awards.
If you want to complain you should first contact the archive concerned and if that gets no response try the local council which funds it and often have their own performance standards.
I don't know whether I have added anything useful to the discussion but I thought it might be useful to share these thoughts and experiences.

I deal mainly with two ROs over a hundred miles apart. One has an open and relaxed attitude to the material although help is sometimes no more than looking things up in their online catalague. The other is the opposite although the attitude varies enormously within that RO, mainly between the "public" side and the "serious researcher" side.