Dull but very necessary task: ACCREDITATION

Ok, just finished a job that I’m glad is out the way, for now. Accreditation interim returns just submitted. But now I have a list of jobs I have to do for our completed returns which are due for the full treatment next year. These include: writing and implementing a care and conservation plan and updating our disaster plan.

The accreditation stuff is not the most exciting part of my work (in my opinion) but I recognise that it is very necessary. Unfortunately, I can't spend all day tinkering around with interesting objects!

The Accreditation Scheme sets nationally agreed standards for UK museums. It is administered by Arts Council England. Achieving the award shows the Egypt Centre measures up, meeting the guidelines on how it is run, how it looks after its visitors and the service it provides its visitors. There are several sections we have to show we match up to: organisational health (is our governing body suitable, our workforce acceptable, do we have a forward plan, etc.); ownership of collections (this one is a bit weird for us as we don’t own most of our collections, more on this below); collections care and documentation; users and their experiences.

Most of the objects in the Egypt Centre are not actually owned by us but are on long term loan. Most are borrowed from the Wellcome Trustees but others are from Woking College, and the British Museum. Because they are on a long term loan we have a special agreement drawn up whereby we agree to care for the collections but the Wellcome Trust wont ask for them back.