Future Preparedness Programme: Climate-Related Environmental Management

Many museums are already feeling the impact from the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and climate change. These long-term environmental changes means the sector needs to adapt how they manage and operate buildings and care for collections, whilst supporting communities and educating the public on climate action.

This programme, developed in response to recommendations from Emergency Preparedness Research conducted by MD North in 2023-24, is designed to support museums in the north of England to respond to and prepare for climate disruptions through a series of workshops and events. Across the programme, participants will gain knowledge to help you:

• Develop effective emergency plans
• Develop skills in salvage of collections following an environmental incident
• Take a data driven approach to further an understanding and management of environmental risks to protect museum sites and maintain collections in perpetuity
• Think about pursuing climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience which can inform the development of a climate action strategy
• Maintain and go beyond Museum Accreditation Standard

The first phase of the programme looks at Emergency Preparedness. Further workshops and events will be available for booking as part of the overall programme in 2025.

Emergency Planning Online Course

The Emergency Planning Online Course, delivered by Harwell Document Restoration Services over two half-day sessions, is designed to support your museum to develop an effective emergency plan.

The first session will focus on:

• Effective incident response for water damage incidents, including risk assessment and containment
• Dealing with fire situations, including key content to include in your action plans

The second session will focus on:

• Emergency Planning Essentials including roles and responsibilities in emergency response
• Key content to include in your emergency plan
• Disaster kit equipment
• Managing major incidents – adapting your approach and salvage tactics
• Training for staff and testing your plan

There are two opportunities to access this online learning on 4 and 6 February and 1 and 3 April 2025.  Further details can be found here.

Emergency Salvage In-person workshop

The Emergency Salvage Workshop, a half-day session delivered by Harwell Document Restoration Services, will support museum staff and volunteers to develop skills in emergency response including:

• Incident containment and methods to deal with leaks
• Risk assessment, salvage set-up and triage
• Handling and triage decision making by object type
• Using disaster kits
• Practical exercises with mock objects
• Adapting your approach for major incidents

There are 6 in-person sessions to choose from across the North, in Leeds, Newcastle and Preston.  Further details can be found here.