Making Museum Accreditation work for you
January 31, 2025Emmie Kell, Director of Museums and Cultural Property at our Accreditation Partners Arts Council England, looks ahead to review and redesign work for the Accreditation Scheme.
At its core, Museum Accreditation is about supporting the museums and galleries which make such a difference to people and communities across the UK. That’s why we are always looking for ways to improve the experience museums of all shapes, sizes and expertise have when using Accreditation to forge stable and sustainable foundations.
We know that your operating environment is really challenging at the moment. You have told us that Accreditation should function as a useful check and challenge, and we are determined to ensure that is the case.
That’s why, during 2025, we will work with you to understand and review where we can improve your experience of Accreditation, and how we can increase the value of participation over the coming years.
This review will not impact access to the Accreditation Scheme, which will remain open throughout the entire process.
We will work to better understand both the function and form of Accreditation. We want the process to be as effective and intuitive as possible for colleagues putting their time into completing it. Likewise, we want to ensure it reflects both your organisation and UK partners’ priorities – in areas ranging from equality, diversity and inclusion to environmental sustainability.
Recently, with colleagues in Museums Galleries Scotland, Northern Ireland Museums Council, and the Welsh government, as the UK Accreditation Partnership, we published improved applicant guidance for Museum Accreditation in relation to the 2018 Accreditation Standard, which remains unchanged.
Understanding that we need to improve the usability and accessibility of Accreditation will guide our work going into this review. It has already informed the guidance refresh and website redesign to make it easier to find the most useful information.
This approach – one of co-design, user-focus, improved communication and collaboration – will guide us as we get underway with a wider review of Accreditation in 2025. We have secured significant investment from DCMS to undertake this work and are excited to work with you throughout this year to ensure that we have the most effective Accreditation Scheme possible.