The document provides an introduction to archive service accreditation in the UK. It outlines the aims and benefits of the accreditation scheme, which includes improving the viability and visibility of UK archives. It describes the three modules that make up the accreditation standard: organizational health, collections, and stakeholders. It explains key aspects of the accreditation process such as eligibility, scalability, guidance and support, assessment, and maintaining accreditation status. The document aims to help participants understand the role and potential value of the accreditation scheme.

1. Introduction to
Archive Service
Accreditation
Melinda Haunton/Jane Shillaker

2. Introduction to Archive Service Accreditation:
Aims
• By the end of the session, participants should:
- Understand the role and potential benefits of archive
service accreditation
- Understand the Standard and its structure
- Understand the accreditation programme in outline and
know where more information can be found
- Be familiar with the tools, guidance and support for action
planning available when they begin their own applications
- Feel encouraged to address some of the less familiar
elements of the Standard in their own service
• But not: Reading out the Standard and the guidance very,
very slowly from start to finish

3. About the scheme
• A UK-wide partnership to develop and deliver accreditation
• Supported by coalition of partners (ACE, ARA, ARCW, NRS,
PRONI, SCA, TNA, Welsh Government)
• Live scheme is maintained by a governing Committee
• Replaces The National Archives Standard
• Supports ongoing relationships with statutory schemes like
Places of Deposit, Acceptance in Lieu
• Developed through co-creation with the sector and tested through
a pilot with 20 highly varied archive services
• Planning, Performance, Profile, Patronage, Partnerships, People
and Professionalism: what museum accreditation has supported,
according to its applicants

4. What changed and why?
• Change within sector: digital transformation, changes to
established delivery models, integrated heritage/info services
• Localism: importance of co-creation/sector ownership
• New-style national ‘standards’ in place: PAS197, PAS198,
PD5454: emphasis on professional judgement
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• More flexibility on applicant types: broader eligibility
• Scaled requirements for different types of service
• Broadening understanding of collections and access to include
digital as business as usual
• Greater emphasis on responding to the service’s community –
internal/external – and particular role of service
• Above all, developmental, not a single-point assessment

5. Accreditation mission statement
“To improve the viability and the visibility
of UK archives”
•Archive services are sustainable, effectively managed,
collections are safe
•Archive services are well recognised, and meet their
communities’ needs
•To do this… archive services plan effectively for future
challenges and developments

6. Question:
What do you (and your service) most want to
get out of working with Archive Service
Accreditation?
Tell your neighbour!

7. Benefits of working with accreditation
• The developmental angle: Archive Service Accreditation is an
improvement process, not just a badge
• Reviewing your service: regular reminders to step back and think
• Developing effective, coherent policies and plannin over time:
support your case to core/external funders: a bank of evidence
• Requirements scaled to your mission and scope; supporting
quality, professionalism and delivery
• Evidence of external interest in your service: now and in future
• Publicity and celebration opportunities incl press/web coverage
• A mark of service quality, recognising the needs of archives
• Peer support and ongoing professional development
• It’s free! Including all support, advice, feedback and advocacy

8. Understanding the standard
• Three modules:
- 1. Organisational Health
- 2. Collections
- 3. Stakeholders and their experience
• Requirements under each module:
- 1. Mission, governance, planning and resources (premises,
finance and workforce)
- 2. Collections management approach, policies, plans and
procedures for collections (development, information and care)
- 3. Access and engagement with the service’s identified
community
• Requirements are phrased with outcomes: explaining the why as
well as the what

9. Understanding the process
• Eligibility
• Scalability
• Application system (online)
• Guidance and case studies
• Submit responses with supporting documentation
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• Assessment by home nations assessor bodies
• Validation visits in some cases – role of peer review
• Panels make awards
• Feedback and ongoing development

10. Understanding eligibility
Setting the scope: to be eligible for accreditation, a service must:
- Hold archives
- Of a reasonably significant size
- Give some form of external access to those archives
- Hold some archives which are analogue*
- Have identified workforce to manage archives (including
professional staffing in public sector)
- Have dedicated, secure storage for collections
*To review!

11. Understanding scalability
• Gives the scheme its flexibility
• Recognises statutory and institutional drivers/provisions differ
• Sets broad expectations – not an exact science, your service
may cross divisions
• Top level divisions reflect governance/legal position:
Local authority
Other public sector
(National)
Private and third sector
• Scaled divisions: 1-2(-3) – mission, scale and scope varies,
particularly in terms of audiences reached

12. Understanding how to apply
• Questions
An application form which asks about how the archive service
meets the standard. Largely narrative, following pilot feedback.
Also asks for background information (not assessed).
• Evidence
Documents uploaded to support application and in some cases
shown at validation visits
• Flexibility
Format-blind in most cases. If it fulfils the function effectively for
your service, the name/format is irrelevant.

13. 13

14. Screenshot of application system

15. Understanding guidance and
support
• Guidance underpins the standard and application form
• Specific guidance for Accreditation, understanding the Standard
and ways you can respond, referencing related standards
• Scaled guidance, reflecting expectations for different types
• Tools and resources: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/accreditation
• Support available from assessor national bodies – TNA in
England
• Wider guidance for service development, from key bodies (TNA,
ARA, DPC, BL)
• Ongoing development: specialist templates and support
• Case studies: building evidence and examples

16. Understanding assessment,
validation and award
• Assessment by home nations assessor body (SCA/NRS, PRONI,
MALD, TNA) with arrangements for national bodies
• Assessment is at (sub-)requirement, not question, level
• Assessment is scaled: at a level appropriate to service’s mission
• A proportion of applications are validated by site visit (minimum
25%, aim higher in practice) which may involve peer review
• Site visits allow verification of sensitive documents and additional
discussion incl with peers
• Assessments → recommendation to Panel, with feedback
• Scheme is managed by the Committee, who form the Panels
• Panels award accredited or provisionally accredited status (for
set period), or make no award

17. Understanding afterwards
• Receiving an award is not the end of the process: you are not
abandoned with your award!
• Accreditation lasts a maximum of 6 years
• Mandatory service check in after maximum of 3 years to review
planning and any fundamental service changes
• “Significant change” must be reported and may lead to review
Not participating in check in/reaccreditation on schedule (without
cause) leads to removal of Accredited status
• Becoming ineligible also leads to removal of Accredited status
• “Extraordinary Removal” is an option, in cases of unethical
activity or institutional failure to maintain the integrity of
collections

18. Understanding timescales
• In England, we ask for 3 months to assess an application
• Panels meet 3 times per year: March, June/July and September
• The initial Accreditation rollout is 2013-2017, though the
programme will continue long term
• 2017: piloting updated digital preservation expectations and
publishing changes
• 2018: implementing updated digital preservation content
• 2017-18: light touch programme review may lead to further
updates
• March 2018: a pause in applications to implement these
changes

19. Thinking About
Accreditation and
Your Service

20. Action planning
• Planning your service’s response in advance is key to benefiting
• Are you clear about why and how you do things?
• What areas are new? What are you close to meeting?
• When developing plans for the coming year(s), what are priority
actions that bring you closer to Accreditation?
• What will be useful to your service in future?
• Is there an opportunity for profile-raising?
• Remember we’re neither expecting perfection nor imposing
specific documentation
• Remember it is a process, not a one-off
• Action planning template available if it helps

21. Lessons from museums (courtesy of @emmachaplin)
 Museums understand where regular ways of working fit with Standard
 Understand where strengths and weaknesses are and incorporate them
into planning
 There is an understanding throughout the museum about what
Accreditation involves
 The Forward Plan is a key ‘living’ document for the museum
 Staff/volunteers get confidence and skills through work on Accreditation
Museums forget all about Accreditation in between submitting returns
There is a mad panic to ‘tick boxes’
One person in the organisation is given all the responsibility for getting
through Accreditation
Policies/plans only written to fulfill Accreditation needs, not reviewed
Accreditation is seen as a “necessary evil”

22. Meet the Modules

23. Module 1:
Organisational
Health

24. Module 1: Requirement 1.1 Mission statement
• The words ‘purpose’, ‘vision’ and ‘mission’ are applied variously and
often... Collectively, these terms should describe why a service or body
exists; what/where it aspires to long term; and how it plans to get
there.
• Archives Service Accreditation has chosen to use the word ‘Mission’ to
encapsulate these terms
• For the objectives of Archive Service Accreditation, ‘Mission’ is defined
as: ‘A strategic statement (or series of connected statements)
which defines the purpose and direction of the Archive Service, in
relation to the governing body it serves.’
• Archive Service Accreditation recognises that, in most cases, the
archive service is some way removed from the main business of the
organisation it serves. In these cases, the mission statement may be
defined in different layers and in more than one type of document.
• All stakeholders should be aware of the mission of the archive service
and the mission should direct decision making and activity.

25. Community
• “The concept of a community which the archive service is
constituted to serve. In this specific sense the word ‘community’
does not necessarily refer simply to the population of a political
unit or physical area (e.g. a local authority or town).
• “For many archive services the community will extend beyond the
formal boundaries of its responsible body (government,
educational institution, private or voluntary organisation).
• “The archive will probably serve multiple communities: local,
national and international; different communities of researchers
and of other types of direct and indirect users and of non-users.
• “Different elements of the community may attract different
priorities, types and levels of service. The ‘community’ to be
served is defined through the stated purpose of the archive
service.”

26. What makes a good mission
statement?
• Link to parent organisation (if at heritage
service level)
• Link to heritage purpose (if at higher level)
• Mentioning audience/community/the “who”
• Shared and actively used

27. Falkirk Community Trust
Museums & Archives
The purpose of Falkirk Community Trust
Museums & Archives (hereinafter referred to
as Museums & Archives) is to engage the
public with heritage, by encouraging and
enabling learning and by collecting,
recording, preserving, interpreting and
making accessible the material culture and
archival record of the Falkirk Council area.

28. Media Archive of Central
England
MACE is an accessible organisation
connecting people with the preserved
moving image heritage of the Midlands.

29. Network Rail Corporate Archive
The Network Rail Corporate Archive collects
and manages records that are considered by
Network Rail to be worthy of permanent
retention because of their value to the
business and to the nation.

30. PRONI
• Vision Statement
“Protecting and Providing Archives for All”
• Mission Statement
“To identify and preserve NI’s archival heritage
and promote public access to that heritage”

31. Cumbria Archives

32. Module 1: Organisational
Health

33. Take a break
http://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/5141885622/
State Archives of Queensland: Mrs Henrietta Harriet Johnstone pouring tea at her home, Mountain Park

34. Module 3:
Stakeholders and
their Experiences

35. Module 3: Stakeholders and their
Experiences

36. Community
• “The concept of a community which the archive service is
constituted to serve. In this specific sense the word ‘community’
does not necessarily refer simply to the population of a political
unit or physical area (e.g. a local authority or town).
• “For many archive services the community will extend beyond the
formal boundaries of its responsible body (government,
educational institution, private or voluntary organisation).
• “The archive will probably serve multiple communities: local,
national and international; different communities of researchers
and of other types of direct and indirect users and of non-users.
• “Different elements of the community may attract different
priorities, types and levels of service. The ‘community’ to be
served is defined through the stated purpose of the archive
service.”

37. Module 3: Stakeholders and their
Experiences• User/visitor surveys
• Market research
• Comment/feedback facilities
• Monitoring of website/intranet
users
• Monitoring of social media
users
• Use of publicly available
statistics
• Focus groups
• Regular user groups
• Open meetings
• Parent body identified priority
audiences
• Business process analysis/
marketing analysis of
business areas
• Work with specialist interest
groups
• Workforce feedback
• Depositor liaison
• Analysis of enquiries
• Departmental/directorate
meetings for relevant areas of
the parent body
• Visitors’ book
• Anything else?

38. Module 2:
Collections

39. Module 2: Collections

40. Collection care scenario
• You are the new senior archivist (service manager) at an
archive service working towards Accreditation
• The service has 0.5 FTE conservator, 1 FTE
preservation assistant who oversees volunteers in
cleaning and repackaging, 3 FTE archivists and 3.7 FTE
archive assistants
• You want to develop a collection care plan for the next
five years, to improve the service’s collection care,
remove immediate risks, and lay the foundations for
future improvement and access

41. Collection care policy – a scenario
• “Ongoing preservation of items identified for the Archive shall be
carried out under the instruction of the Archivist. This shall include:
• environmental conditions (to PD5454:2012)
• appropriate storage (ditto)
• emergency planning
• identification and management of risks to collections
• “Conservation of archive material shall take place in line with BS
4971:2002 and as part of a planned programme of work based on:
• importance due to value as information objects or artefacts
• availability of surrogates or alternative sources for information
• urgency of repair before the item can be made available
• severity of the damage
• likelihood of further deterioration”
Reviewed and approved 2013, by then service manager

42. Collection care planning –
preservation assessment findings
Some storage in the strongrooms is made of wood, especially plan
chests in the overflow room (Strongroom C)
Relative humidity in Strongroom B regularly exceeds 70%
80% of outsize material is boxed, 46% of other material has secondary
packaging
There is no specialist photographic store
2% of items identified as unfit for production and 9% more are fragile
Pest monitoring over 3 months has trapped 2 spiders
37% of items are identified as ‘dirty’ – affected by surface dirt
Some newly accessioned material is stored on floor of Strongroom C
Document handling training is provided for staff and safe handling
procedures and equipment are provided for readers
The disaster plan was reviewed in December 2012
There is no digital preservation capacity

43. Collection care planning – a
challenge
• The service has 0.5 FTE conservator, 1 FTE preservation assistant
who oversees volunteers in cleaning and repackaging, 3 FTE
archivists and 3.7 FTE archive assistants.
• You are the new senior archivist (service manager)
• You want to develop a collection care plan for the next five years, to
improve the service’s collection care, remove immediate risks, and
lay the foundations for future improvement and access
• Start with identifying risks (up to 10).
• Then identify mitigations.
• Move on to planning: what are urgent steps? What will you do later?
• You have 5 years to make a difference: don’t lose sight of your long
term goals

44. Collection care challenge – your
response
• What were your top risks?
• What were your first three actions?
• What were you still doing by Month 60?

45. Module 2: Collections

46. Policies, plans, procedures...
• Policies describe the overall intentions and direction of an
organisation or service, as expressed by top management
• Plans are forward looking documents that set out the objectives
of the organisation and identify the actions needed to achieve
those objectives. These arise from the policies which the archive
service has outlined. Can be preparatory/strategic.
• Procedures describe a specified way to carry out an activity or a
process (a set of interrelated or interacting activities), in order to
deliver a particular output or outcome.
• They may not be known by those names in your organisation
• They may be multiple documents or a single document may
represent many of these functions

47. Module 2: Collections

48. Module 2: Collections
Eyes down, ladies and gents...
AKA, it’s not what it’s called, it’s what it
does for you that counts
NARA 412-DA-15741 http://www.flickr.com/photos/usnationalarchives/4727573934/

49. Module 2: Collections Management
Approach
Collections Management approach

50. Next steps…

51. How to use Archive Service
Accreditation
• Developing applications → looking at available resource, and
stated mission, reviewing how the two can come closer
• Ensuring policies (why we do things), plans (how we get there)
and procedures (how we deliver) all point in the same direction
• Feedback on applications leads to action planning for the future
• Successful applications → good news stories and publicity
• Unsuccessful applications or not able to apply? → Use that in
advocacy and planning, work with The National Archives and
home nations to develop
• Use the Standard as a development framework, for service and
for individuals

52. More information: this is just the
start!
• Scheme homepage:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/archive-service-ac
• All documentation and guidance specific to the scheme is on this
area of nationalarchives.gov.uk
• You can also find out more supporting information in Developing
Your Archives (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-
sector/advice-and-guidance/)
• Case studies on specific areas
(http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/archives-sector/case-studies-
and-research-reports/case-studies/
• If you’re interested in developing model policies and plans for
particular sectors, get in touch

53. So: when will you apply?
accreditation@
nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk