News Update for London's Museums
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@LondonMusDev E-update for London’s Museums – 08 March 2021 Team update: Rachel Crofts, MDO: Audiences, is now on maternity leave and her maternity cover will be in post after Easter. Until that time, please send any audience related enquiries to [email protected]. My (Alec Ward, MDO: Digital and Communications) wife and I are also expecting, with our baby due on 19 March. I will be taking 2 weeks paternity leave when little one arrives, so there will likely be a 2 week break in our weekly newsletter sometime soon. Last week the Chancellor announced the budget for 2021, which includes some provisions relevant for the sector. There will be an extra £300 million made available through the Culture Recovery Fund. The government will also provide £90 million for government-sponsored National Museums and cultural bodies in England. The Furlough scheme will be extended until September, with government continuing to provide 80% of workers’ salaries, capped at £2,500 per worker, per month. The 5% reduced rate of VAT is also being extended to 30 September 2022, with a subsequent interim rate of 12.5% in place for the six months to April 2022. Eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will pay no business rates for three months, with up to 66% relief for the rest of the year. You can find further information in this Museums and Heritage Advisor article. In addition the Mayor of London has announced proposals to invest £5m to support the eventual reopening of central London. As outlined in the ‘roadmap’ for England to move out of lockdown, museums will be able to reopen no earlier than the 17 May. The government has published the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’ document, which outlines the plan in more detail. The move out of lockdown is reliant on four conditions which must be met before moving on a step – so these dates should be used as guides for the time being. Applications are open for the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s ‘National Lottery Grants for Heritage’ with funding available from £3,000 to £5million. The impact of Covid-19 means that the NLHF has revised their approach to what they will fund. They have created a supplementary document that sets out their Priorities for National Lottery Grants for Heritage for 2021-22. You can also explore their Outcomes and Good Practice Guidance for more information about what they expect from projects. The NLHF has detailed guidance for three levels of funding - grants from £3,000 to £10,000, grants from £10,000 to £250,000 and grants from £250,000 to £5million. You can find more information, and apply, on their website. Arts Council England’s relaunched National Lottery Project Grants have been designed to help fund organisations, creative practitioners and freelancers as quickly as possible. New supplementary guidance for museums can be found on their website. In addition, from 5 October until March 2021, NPOs will be eligible to apply to National Lottery Project Grants for activities over £15,000. Further details about the National Lottery Project Grants can be found below and in this video. On Wednesday 28 April we will be running an online session on ‘Disposals during COVID-19’. This session will take a scenario approach to explore a variety of disposals issues and themes including collections management and documentation, legal and ethical considerations. Small groups will each be given the opportunity to discuss a different scenario, and will then feedback thoughts and/or questions to a panel for open discussion with all participants. You can find out more about the session, and book a place, on our website. We have a new series of Marketing training courses in our Digital Futures and Skills Plus training programmes, including Strategic Marketing Planning, Re- engaging with your Audiences and PR – Demystified. We have new video resources on our YouTube channel. These include recordings of the first session from our 6 part series on ‘Developing an Inclusive Museum’, as well as ‘Podcasting for Museums’ and tutorials including ‘Developing a Strategic Approach to Digital’, and ‘Video Editing’. We also have recordings of training sessions such as, ‘Planning for Alternative Futures’ and a series of training sessions on using social media. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and to click the notification button to be notified of when we release new videos. We will continue to offer one-to-one advice to museums from their local MDO and specialists on Organisational Health, Audiences, Digital Technologies and Collections. You can find the support you need on this page. 1. Sector News: Budget announcement; roadmap out of lockdown; £5million plan for safe reopening of Central London; Furlough Scheme; Free lateral flow coronavirus tests; Accreditation Scheme update; Accreditation Newsletter; Disposals procedures and Accreditation; ‘Where we are’ project partners; Volunteering Conference; Redundancy Hub; Culture at Risk; DCMS Coronavirus Bulletin 2. Funding and Funding Support: National Lottery Grants for Heritage; National Lottery Project Grants; £4.6bn relief package; Social investment funds; Steps to Sustainability; Pilgrim Conservation Care Grants; Grants for Student opportunities; Infrastructure Levy Neighbourhood Fund; National Lottery Community Fund; Pay it Forward platform; Trusts and Foundations for London Museums; Now New Next Issue 6 3. Training, advice and resources: PR – Demystified; Disposal during COVID-19; Collection Cares: Wet Wednesday; Spores for Thought; Breaking the Mould; Help shape the Regional Collection Care Development Programme; VocalEyes training; A Creative Education; Creative Business Models; Kids in Museums resources; Resources for planning for post Covid re-opening; After Brexit guidance; Kickstart scheme; Brexit Guidance Hub; Autism in Museums; Equality Diversity and Inclusion Resources; Ticketing resource; Government and Wider Support 2 4. Job Vacancies: Remote Freelance Learning Facilitator; Engagement Coordinator; Marketing Assistant; Marketing Assistant; Stories of Enfield Project Evaluator; Acceptance in Lieu Panel; Designation Panel 5. Heritage in Lockdown: Highgate Cemetery online events; virtual audience with Queen Elizabeth I; Dealing with ‘Challenging’ Collections 1. Sector News (to top) Provisions for museums in the 2021 budget announcement Last week the Chancellor announced the budget for 2021, which includes some provisions relevant for the sector. There will be an extra £300 million made available through the Culture Recovery Fund. The government will also provide £90 million for government-sponsored National Museums and cultural bodies in England. The Furlough scheme will be extended until September, with government continuing to provide 80% of workers’ salaries, capped at £2,500 each month. The 5% reduced rate of VAT is also being extended to 30 September 2022, with a subsequent interim rate of 12.5% in place for the six months to April 2022. You can find further information in this Museums and Heritage Advisor article. Government announce roadmap out of lockdown Last week the Prime Minister announced the ‘roadmap’ for England to move out of lockdown. Along with the announcement the government published the ‘COVID-19 Response - Spring 2021’, which outlines the plan. As outlined in the document, currently museums will be able to reopen to visitors in the third step, from no earlier than the 17 May. However, the move out of lockdown is reliant on four conditions which must be met before moving on a step – so these dates should be used as guides for the time being. Mayor announces £5million plan to support safe reopening of central London The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced proposals to invest £5m to support the eventual reopening of central London, including a brand-new drive to attract visitors – including Londoners and tourists from the rest of the UK, back to hard-hit retail, hospitality and cultural venues. The Mayor has also allocated £2.3 million for a Culture at Risk fund to help some of London's most imperilled creative and night-time businesses, such as cinemas and music venues. You can find out more on the London.gov.uk website. Furlough Scheme The Chancellor announced that the Furlough scheme will once again be extended, now until September 2020. The government will continue to cover 80% of any hours an individual is unable to work, up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee per month. Claims for furlough days in February 2021 must be made by 15 March 2021 and you can no longer submit claims for claim periods ending on or before 31 October 2020. You can find more information on the Gov.uk website. Free lateral flow coronavirus tests for employees 3 The Government is offering free lateral flow coronavirus tests for organisations to test employees in the workplace, if those employees are unable to work from home. You are able to register to order tests if your business is registered in England and your employees cannot work from home. Your employees can also find out if they can get a lateral flow test from a local test site instead. Find out more and register on the Gov.uk website. Accreditation Scheme update In response to Covid-19, the Accreditation Scheme was paused with effect from 1 April 2020 – with all Accredited museums in the UK having their award status at that time extended for an additional month. Due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic, and with a new national lockdown in place, Arts Council England are not able to confirm a full reopening date for the Accreditation Scheme at this stage. In England, ACE will be phasing their approach to reopening the scheme, focusing initially on museums that are new to Accreditation and applying for the first time. To support all Accredited museums in the UK, current Accreditation award statuses are being extended for an additional 12 months to 01 April 2022.