Accreditation advice

Arts Council England administers the Museum Accreditation scheme, where you'll find guidance documents on the scheme as well as eligibility and how to apply.

In the first instance and before completing an eligibility questionnaire, please make sure that you contact the Museum Development Officer for your area of London on our contact the team page.

The latest return schedule for invitations and deadlines has been published up as far as September 2024. We expect there'll be a further update later in 2024.

If your museum is not yet on the list, you don't need to wait for this update to begin preparing for your return, especially if you know you have policies and plans that are due for a review or update soon.

See maintaining the requirements of the Accreditation standard between returns to see what you can prepare in advance.

Museum Development Officer teams across the country provide advice on accreditation in their region.

In London, the officers provide this support as part of their role and currently can do this with online meetings, emails, phone calls or site visits.

The following officers can offer localised guidance on the accreditation process:

Yvette Shepherd provides general support and advice for museums in the following boroughs in south and west London: Harrow, Brent, Hammersmith and Fulham, Ealing, Hounslow, Hillingdon, Richmond upon Thames, Kingston upon Thames, Merton, Sutton, Croydon, Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley.

Helen O'Hara provides general support and advice for museums in the following boroughs in central and east London: Camden, Islington, Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Wandsworth, Lambeth, Southwark, City of London, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering.

Ben Travers provides general support and advice for museums in the following boroughs in north London: Barnet, Enfield, Haringey and Waltham Forest.

• Introduction to Accreditation video with details on what accreditation entails, how to make the first steps and what support is available
• Accreditation: Getting started (and the technical bits) recorded webinar has tips about applying using the online Grantium system
• Collections Trust has forward planning good practice case studies, as well as examples of policies and a template with the required wording of a Collections Development Policy
• Association of Independent Museums produce best practice guidance documents and toolkits like the Hallmarks of Prospering Museums' toolkit