Agenda item

To authorise the Director of Borough Economy to approve and adopt Sandwell Museums and Arts Service Forward Plan and Policies in order to progress a submission from Sandwell Museums Service towards achieving full accreditation status.

Agreed that approval be given to the Director of Borough Economy to approve and adopt Sandwell Museums and Arts Service Forward Plan and Policies as detailed below in order to progress a submission from Sandwell Museums Service towards achieving full accreditation status – as part of Arts Council England’s (ACE) national Museum Accreditation Scheme.

Approval was sought to authorise the Director of Borough Economy to approve and adopt Sandwell Museums and Arts Service Forward Plan and Policies in order to progress a submission from Sandwell Museums Service towards achieving full accreditation status – as part of Arts Council England’s (ACE) national Museum Accreditation Scheme.

Reasons for recommendations

Sandwell Museums had full accreditation before 2015 for 3 of sites. But this was downgraded to provisional accreditation status as the Forward Plan and Museum Policies had not been approved and adopted formally by the Cabinet. Achieving full Museum Accreditation status would support those involved with a museum service to deliver high quality services that are open and accessible and help people interact with the collections and protect/conserve them for the future while also ensuring people are at the centre of services and monitoring quality services to communities and users. The Museum Accreditation scheme does this by making sure museums manage their collections properly, engage with visitors/key stakeholders, and are governed appropriately. It also opens-up opportunities for museums such as external funding opportunities and new partnerships – giving reputational confidence to potential donors (collections/funding) and other key supporters.

Alternative options considered 

The current service is provisionally accredited and there is an option to allow this to elapse and no longer be an accredited service. This is not recommended as there are clear benefits to achieving accreditation including the increased ability to raise external funding to support the service and the potential ability to support recruitment of staff and volunteers and to increase learning from other accredited museum services.

Agreed that the Director of Borough Economy be authorised to approve and adopt Sandwell Museums and Arts Service Forward Plan and Policies in order to progress a submission from Sandwell Museums Service towards achieving full accreditation status – as part of Arts Council England’s (ACE) national Museum Accreditation Scheme.