Accreditation
Nationally agreed standards for museums in the UK
By becoming Accredited, museums demonstrate to the public and to funders that they manage their collections to an agreed standard for the benefit of society, that they engage with their users, and that they manage public resources ethically and prudently.
New Accreditation Returns Schedule
Arts Council England has published an interim schedule for returns covering the period to the end of 2023:
The schedule comprises a first batch of returns invitations from December 2022, and a second from July 2023. If your organisation is not due to be invited within these first two batches, you don’t need to do anything now. Just wait until the full schedule is released with invitation dates from January 2024.
To read the latest update about the Accreditation Scheme, along with the latest update for the Frequently Asked Questions, including deadlines to be aware of please see the link below.
Museum Accreditation can be seen as a toolkit to ensure you have everything in place to give the museum a secure future.
Accreditation covers three areas:
- Organisational health
- Managing collections
- Users and their experience.
The scheme is run by Arts Council England. If your museum is new to the scheme you will need to find out if you are eligible in the first instance by speaking with our Advisor (see below).
Contact the SE Accreditation Advisor
Philip Claris, Accreditation Advisor
07483 163706
Philip has prepared the following fact sheets to help you to understand and translate the Accreditation Standard , and in particular what documents are required:
Accreditation Standard Mapping Final (Word)
This document will help you to map the 2011 Accreditation Standard with the latest version published in 2018.
Accreditation Required Documents (Word)
This document lists the documentation required in order to complete a full submission for Accreditation.
Guidance and Resources
The main Accreditation guidance can be found on the Arts Council website and on the Collections Trust website.
MDUK have created 4 video resources on the Accreditation Scheme which you can view on their website.
- Accreditation Webinar: Getting Started
- Accreditation Webinar: Organisational Health
- Accreditation Webinar: Managing Collections
- Accreditation Webinar: Users and their Experiences
