Related issues

In planning interpretation, you need to be aware of professional ethics, government policy and guidelines.

Planning

For some new interpretation you will need to consider planning / advertisement consent, conservation area planning, historic or listed building consent, or Scheduled Ancient Monument consent. These tend to apply to things like:

• Outdoor signage
• Interpretation which is fixed into the fabric of a historic building
• Plans which involve modification to a historic building
• Churches and places of worship have to obtain permission for any new interpretation from the organisation’s decision making body, e.g., in the Church of England / Wales this would be the Diocesan Advisory Committee (or Cathedral Advisory Committee).

Early discussions and planning application advice is really helpful and can help to inform designs and locations of new interpretation.

Accessibility

Museums and public places are required to provide equal access for everyone. The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to treat disabled people less favourably than others. Museums must make reasonable adjustments to how people access the building and services. Any new interpretation should consider the needs of disabled people.

The Heritage Fund have a great list of resources around access.

Access is not just about access for people with disabilities, other things to consider are people of different ages, language and varying resources, such as financial and time constraints.

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