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Helping museums in the East Midlands to serve the public better
Further Information
Museum Mentors (formerly Curatorial Advisers)
Accreditation Support for Museums in the East Midlands
Governance Structures & Setting up
Trustee Liabilities & Risk Management
Museum & Gallery Specific Guidance
Collections care, documentation & display
Audiences & Visitors (Marketing & Promotion)
Are you thinking about setting up a new museum? Have you considered other options? Is a new museum the right course of action? Or would it be better to organise exhibitions in temporary locations with partners? Or what about a virtual museum? There is nothing wrong in setting up a new museum, but they can be costly to run and are a lot more than a building with a collection of objects. Before you take the plunge make sure you have considered all of the options. The following are essential reading:
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- Big Questions, Big Answers: A guide to issues surrounding heritage development, published by the Scottish Museums Council is available to download from the Scottish Museums Council at www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/publications/publication/19/big-questions-big-answers. This takes a wider look at heritage than traditional museum displays and has a variety of case studies and suggested options. It is useful for helping to focus thinking around the kinds of activities you can undertake with heritage and what interest there might be in them. If you are seriously considering setting up a new museum, running through the 'big questions' at the back of this publication is an excellent place to start.
- The Museums Association (MA) website has a number of downloadable documents about Ethical Guidelines, Toolkits and Advice. These will help you to become aware of the ethical issues you need to be aware of when setting up a new museum www.museumsassociation.org/ethics/ethical-guidelines
The Accreditation Scheme sets nationally agreed standards for museums. . It can be used as a useful improvement and development tool for museums and helps you to plan all areas of your museum management and operation. There are many advantages to participating in the scheme; it sends out a message to the public and potential funders and partners that your museum is properly managed. Increasingly, funders want to see that museums are accredited or working towards accreditation.
The new Accreditation Standard, Accreditation 2011, was launched by ACE on October 4th at the MA Conference. The revised Accreditation Standard for 2011 is a slimmer and more user-friendly advocacy tool. Its themes are organisational health, collections and users and their experiences. The new standard is available as a download on the Collections Link website and will shortly be available on the ACE website too. Collections Trust have also created some new handouts to support the collections elements of the Standard and these are also on their website http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/
MLA will be publishing a list of funding bodies that will require Accreditation in order to award grants (includes V&A purchase grants and MA funds). HLF already use Accreditation as a benchmark and will want to know the reasons why if an applicant isn't Accredited.
What hasn't changed?
- Still a UK-wide participatory scheme
- Badged award
- Mark of a decent museum
- Shortcuts for IIP and VAQAS
- Scalable standard for the museum sector
- Existing Accreditation policies and plans remain compliant and can be developed by an agreed review date.
ACE must be able to recognise museums as 'working towards Accreditation' in order for them to get support. New paperwork defining what this means has just been launched and museums that are not currently Accredited but would like to be recognised as 'working towards' Accreditation will need to complete an 'eligibility form' and return it to Sam Rowlands with a copy of their Forward Plan and 2 year's accounts. Those museums wanting to apply for Full Accreditation from scratch will not be able to apply until the end of November.
Museums that are already Accredited do not have to reapply from scratch. They will focus on their biennial returns instead which will initially be bigger than they have been in the past.
Museum Mentors (formerly Curatorial Advisors):
In order to meet the requirements of the Accreditation Scheme, museums must have access to appropriately qualified professional staff. If there are no appropriately qualified professional staff working at the museum then a Museum Mentor can fulfil the role instead. A Museum Mentor advises and supports a museum without professional staff to achieve and maintain the Accreditation Standard. The qualifications required to be a Museum Mentor are defined in the Accreditation Standard. MLA are also in the process of producing 2 handbooks; 'Working with your Museum Mentor Handbook for Museums' and 'Museum Mentor Handbook'. The East Midlands Museum Development Team can help you to find a Museum Mentor for your site.
Accreditation Support for Museums in the East Midlands:
- Simon Davies' (Regional Accreditation Officer) contract ended on June 30th but he is working part time in a voluntary capacity on a Tuesday for the foreseeable future. He won't be travelling but can be contacted by telephone or email (0116 305 5097 or simon.davies@leics.gov.uk). He is focusing on encouraging as many museums as possible to complete and submit the 'eligibility form' in order that they may be eligible for Museum Development support in the future as well as having access to funds. He is also supporting the Regional Curatorial Advisors/Museum Mentors network.
- Technical support will be provided by Elaine Sansom, the new MLA Accreditation Advisor for the East (covering the East Midlands, South East and East of England). Working 3 days a week and providing email and desk-based advice and support. Will complement what the MDOs are doing across the UK. This is a temporary arrangement until March 31st 2012, we do not know what form Accreditation support will take after that. Elaine can be contacted on 07972 457256 or elaineconsult@f2s.com
Sources of information about Accreditation:
Collections Link (www.collectionslink.org.uk)
Collections Trust (www.collectionstrust.org.uk)
Arts Council Guide to accessing the on-line system
Governance Structures & Setting up
Setting up Voluntary and Community Sector Groups
http://www.valonline.org.uk/orc/starting-group
Governance & organisational Structures (Governance Hub):
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications/gostructures
Your Guide to VCS Legal Structures
http://www.valonline.org.uk/orc/governance-legal
Co-operative UK – Simply Legal
CC22 – Chosing and preparing a governing document
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
GD1 – Model Memorandum and Articles of Association
GD2 – Model Constitution
GD3 – Model Trust deed
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
Good Trustee Guide - http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
Trustee Recruitment Toolkit
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
CC3 – The Essential Trustee
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
CC30 - Finding New Trustees
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
Good Governance – A code for the Voluntary and Community Sector (summary version also available):
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
Learning to Fly: Piloting your local voluntary or community organisation:
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
Tending Your Board
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
What management committees need to know:
http://www.trusteenet.org.uk/files/What%20Management%20Committees%20Should%20Know.pdf
CC60 – Hallmarks of an effective Charity
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
Trustee Liabilities & Risk Management
Reducing the Risks – A guide to Trustee Liabilities
http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/governance-leadership-resources-publications
Museum & Gallery Specific Guidance
RR9 – Preservation and conservation
RR10 – Museums and Art Galleries
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/ccpubs3.aspx
Heritage Lottery Fund: www.hlf.org.uk
Arts Council England: http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/funding/
Big Lottery: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/
PRISM Fund: http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/support/grants/PRISM
V&A Purchase Fund: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/puchase-grant-fund/
Association of Independent Museums: AIM operates three easily-accessible grant schemes to help members with sustainability, conservation and training. They are:
http://www.aim-museums.co.uk/interact/grants.asp
Old Possum's Practical Trust: offers small grants of between £500-£5,000 for projects which seek to 'increase knowledge and appreciation of any matters of historic, artistic, architectural, aesthetic, literary, musical or theatrical interest. The charity does not normally support individuals but rather organisations involved in these fields of interest. These are the Trust's preferred areas for support. Applications for other areas will be considered in the light of the Trust's purposes.' Further information at http://www.old-possums-practical-trust.org.uk.
Greggs the bakers - Regional foundation for grants programme: To support charitable organisations through the provision of small grants of up to £2,000. For further information or to see the criteria, how to apply for any of the grants and where to send your application, visit: Website: www.greggsfoundation.org.uk/regionalgrants.html
East Midlands Airport Community Fund: Financial assistance, up to a maximum of £2,000, is available to community groups for projects having a long lasting community and/or environmental benefit in the areas most affected by the airport’s operations. Priority is given to applications that demonstrate that they will bring the community closer together through facilities for sport, recreation and other leisure activities together with projects that demonstrate environmental improvement, heritage
conservation, environmental education or those that encourage and protect wildlife. Preference will be given to projects which benefit the local community (or a substantial section of it) and not to groups of an exclusive nature. For further information please contact the Community Fund Administrator, East Midlands Airport, Building 34, Castle Donington, Derby DE74 2SA. Telephone: 01332 818414
Trusthouse Charitable Foundation: currently makes over 300 grants a year and one of their policies is to accept applications from local and national charities or not for- profit organisations which are addressing issues in needy rural areas. ‘Rural’ in this context means cities, towns, villages and areas with 10,000 or less inhabitants. They are interested in, for example, projects providing transport for the elderly, disabled or disadvantaged; contact networks for young disabled people; projects which encourage a sense of community, such as community centres and village halls; employment training schemes especially those promoting local, traditional crafts; projects addressing issues such as drug/alcohol misuse or homelessness. For more details visit their web site at www.trusthousecharitablefoundation.org.uk or telephone 020 7264 4990.
Awards for All: should now be easier to apply for. From November 2009, the Big Lottery has introduced some important changes to Awards for All. For details visit: http://www.awardsforall.org.uk/
The ‘It’s Your Community’ Awards Scheme: provided by the ‘Conservation Foundation’ in partnership with O2 to help support projects designed to improve local environments.
The programme has four main project groups, but other ideas from outside these areas will be considered. The project areas are: Community Places (reinvigorating community, amenity and recreation areas); Community People (helping bring people together); Community Pride (restoring a sense of pride); and Community Landscape (improving the natural environment, for example, planting trees). Funding is limited to applications wishing to receive a minimum of £100 and a maximum of £1,000, but is not designed to provide top-up funding for larger projects. Applications for match funding will be assessed on a case by case basis. Local amenity groups, parish and village councils, schools, youth clubs, heritage groups, environmental and conservation groups and Individuals are all eligible to apply. Applications can be made online at www.itsyourcommunity.co.uk Decisions on applications made within 28 days.
The Leche Trust: give grants to charitable trusts for various things including:
1) Assistance with conservation in all aspects, including museums, and encouraging good practice in the art of conservation by supporting investigative and diagnostic reports.
2) Preservation of buildings and their contents, the repair/conservation of church furniture. Especially Georgian buildings.
3) Preservation of rural England - countryside, towns, villages, historic landscapes.
There is no application form and the initial approach has to be made by letter (not email), with accompanying evidence of the project (relevant supporting papers, budgets, etc.). The Trust meets 3 times a year - the next deadline is April 20th for a June meeting/decision. For more information visit www.lechetrust.org
The Foyle Foundation: has 2 grant schemes:
· Main Grants scheme: supporting Arts + Learning, which offers grants of between £10,000 and 100,000.
· Small grants scheme: For charities with a turnover of less than £100,000 pa. Grants awarded are usually between £1,000 and £10,000.
See www.foylefoundation.org.uk for more information.
Derbyshire Community Foundation: an excellent vehicle for local organisations wishing to support the Derbyshire community. For many organisations, it can be difficult to know how best to support the local community. The Derbyshire Community Foundation makes it easier by providing a tangible local funding stream which acts as an informed and professional channel for those wishing to support the enhancement of the local community.
There are a number of different grant funds under the umbrella of the Derbyshire Community Foundation. For further details visit www.derbyshirecommunityfoundation.co.uk/grants/grants_main.html
Daphne Bullard Trust: Grants of between £300-£1,000 are available for projects aimed at the conservation or display of dress or textiles where there is a long-term material benefit to a collection or project. Application can be made at any time using the form available on the Museums Association website. Further information at http://www.museumsassociation.org/funding/daphne-bullard-trust
Kathy Callow Trust: awards grants of up to £1,000 to small museums to help with the costs of social history conservation projects. Projects could include an exhibition, improving collections storage or running workshops for people connected with museums. Grants are restricted to smaller galleries or museums with an annual gross revenue expenditure of less than £600,000 and the total sum available each year is approximately £1,000 . The trustees particularly welcome applications on the following aspects of social history conservation:, the disadvantaged in society, women, the sea, industrialisation, and small localities.
Further information at http://www.museumsassociation.org/funding/kathy-callow-trust
Esmee Fairbairn Collections Trust: run by the Museums Association, focuses on time-limited collections work outside the scope of an organisation’s core resources. Through this fund the MA will award approximately £800,000 per year to museums, galleries and heritage organisations with two grant rounds per year. Organisations can apply for sums between £20,000 and £100,000. Projects that are eligible to apply to the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund include research into collections, conservation, collections review and initiatives to develop the use of collections. Successful projects will include work that is developmental, leaves a post-project legacy, is innovative and potentially sector-changing. This is a highly competitive fund, 85 museums applied for the first round in 2011 and only 7 (8%) were successful. Further information at http://www.museumsassociation.org/collections/18022011-esmee-fairbairn-collections-fund
Further Information about Fundraising:
Collections care, documentation & display
Collections Link www.collectionslink.org.uk
Collections Trust www.collectionstrust.org.uk
Museums Association www.museumsassociation.org (sets ethical standards relating to -collections issues)
ICON - www.icon.org.uk
Conservation Register www.conservationregister.com
Touring Exhibitions Group www.teg.org.uk
National Council for Archives www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Culture Grid http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/
AIM Focus Paper: Learning in Smaller Museums
Group for Education in Museums (
Volunteering England www.volunteering.org.uk
Voluntary Arts Network www.voluntaryarts.org particularly for free downloadable VAN Briefings which are short, succinct publications which provide up-to-date and relevant information for voluntary arts groups and those who work in them. VAN briefings cover a wide range of issues relevant to the museum sector.
Museums Association www.museumsassociation.org
Arts Council England www.artscouncil.org.uk
MLA www.mla.gov.uk
Audiences & Visitors (Marketing & Promotion)
Guardian Kids in Museums manifesto and awards www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk
Culture 24 www.culture24.org.uk
Museums have a responsibility to create a safe environment for employees, volunteers and visitors through undertaking risk assessments on their building and activities and ensuring that they have public and employers (if you employ staff) liability insurance. There is a lot of additional helpful information on the Health & Safety Executive website www.hse.gov.uk although some of it tends to be tailored towards larger organisations. This page is a good starting point http://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/index.htm
Health & Safety Policy: Small museums with less than 5 employees or that are voluntary run are not legally obliged to draw up a health and safety policy but are strongly advised to do so because it sets out responsibilities and procedures for ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved with your organisation, including your visitors. This Health and Safety policy doesn't need to be long and complicated. There is a sample template on the Health and Safety Executive website that you can use to create it. This template also includes a section for your risk assessment so you can record everything in one document http://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/write.htm
Risk Assessments: The aim of a risk assessment is to be able to demonstrate that potential problems were identified, and most importantly, that steps were taken to lower risk. Risk assessment is a systematic review of premises and activities with the potential to cause harm and damage. There are 5 steps to producing a risk assessment:
- identify the hazard
- decide who or what may be harmed and how
- for each hazard, evaluate the chance, big or small, of harm actually being done and decide whether existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done
- record the significant findings of risk assessment, such as the main risks and the measures you have taken to deal with them.
- review the assessment from time to time, and revise if necessary.
See Five steps to risk assessment,
There is a risk assessment template included in the Health and Safety Policy template http://www.hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/write.htm The main types of risk are:
- fire
- water damage
- theft
- accidental damage/vandalism
- building awaiting restoration or under construction
- slips, trips and falls
- grounds maintenance
- manual handling
- substances hazardous to health
- moving machinery
- food safety
- noise
Fire Risk Assessment: Following the Government's Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order in 2005, a 'responsible person' must take 'reasonable steps' to reduce the risk from fire and ensure people can safely escape if there is a fire. The Order applies to virtually all premises and every type of building, apart from private homes. What you need to do under the Order:
- carry out a fire risk assessment identifying any possible dangers and risks
- consider who may be especially at risk (e.g. someone with a disability)
- get rid of or reduce the risk from fire as far as is reasonably possible and provide general fire precautions to deal with any possible risk left.
- ensure that there is protection if flammable or explosive materials are used or stored
- create a plan to deal with any emergency
- review your findings when necessary
You can download 'A short guide to making your premises safe from fire' here http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/fire/regulatoryreformfire and there are lots of other helpful documents and examples on the
First Aid: The
As a minimum, you are recommended to have
- a suitably stocked first-aid box (details in First Aid at Work);
- an appointed person to take charge of first-aid arrangements;
- information for all employees giving details of first-aid arrangements.
Under the Regulations, you do not have a legal duty to provide First Aid for the public when they visit your premises but HSE strongly recommends that you include them in your First Aid provision.
Accident Reporting: The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995, commonly known as RIDDOR 1995, require the reporting of certain specified work-related accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the proper enforcing authority. The purpose of the regulations is to enable the enforcing authorities to identify where and how risks arise and to investigate serious accidents. These regulations apply to all work activities, but not to all incidents. Under the regulations an employer is required to notify the enforcing authority if there is an accident (including acts of physical violence) connected with work, and the accident results in:
- A fatality to anyone
- A major injury to employees/volunteers
- An employee having to take more than three consecutive days off work
- An injury to non-employees that requires hospital treatment
- One of the specified dangerous occurrences
- Death of an employee/volunteer within one year of being injured.
The easiest way to report an incident is to call the Incident Contact Centre on 0845 300 99 23. You will be sent a copy of the information recorded and you will be able to correct any errors or omissions. Generally speaking the notification should be by telephone as soon as possible giving brief details about the organisation, the injured person and the accident. The organisation must keep records of reportable accidents for at least three years, generally, in an Accident Book. A photocopy of the form submitted to the enforcing authority is acceptable. This must include the date and method of reporting; the date, time and place of the event, personal details of those involved and a brief description of the nature of the event or disease.
Public Liability Insurance: It is strongly recommended that any organisation that own or controls premises, holds public events or has any dealing with the public takes out public liability insurance. It can be extended to protect the organisation against claims from volunteers arising from injury or sickness as a result of negligence by the organisation. In general, however, it protects the organisation for claims by third parties, including service users and members of the public for death, illness, loss, injury or accident cause by the negligence of the organisation.
Health & Safety Executive www.hse.gov.uk
http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/jobs/job_titles_jobid.htm
Local Enterprise Partnerships are locally-owned partnerships between local authorities and businesses that play a central role in determining local economic priorities and undertaking activities to drive economic growth and the creation of local jobs. They are also a key vehicle in delivering Government objectives for economic growth and decentralisation, whilst also providing a means for local authorities to work together with business in order to quicken the economic recovery.
- D2N2 – The Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire LEP
- http://www.d2n2lep.org/
- Greater Lincolnshire LEP http://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/business/lcc-services-for-business/economic-regeneration/enterprise-development/local-enterprise-partnership-lep
- Northamptonshire LEP http://www.northamptonshireep.co.uk/northamptonshire-local-economic-partnership
- Leicester & Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) http://www.llep.org.uk/
Green Museums Toolkit http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/leisure_tourism/museums/community_museums/greenmuseums.htm
Museums Association guidance on sustainability in museums http://www.museumsassociation.org/campaigns/sustainability/sustainability-report