The Postal Museum shortlisted for the Family Friendly Museum Awards

We’re excited to share the news that the museum has been shortlisted for this prestigious national award, the only museum award to be judged by families.

The charity Kids in Museums has run an annual award for the past 15 years, recognising the most family friendly heritage sites in the UK. From April to June, families across the UK voted for their favourite heritage attraction. A panel of museum experts then whittled down hundreds of nominations to a shortlist of 20.

The Best Accessible Museum category celebrates museums making excellent efforts to include families with children or young people with additional needs

We’re proud of the work we do to enhance accessibility at the museum and to make the experience as welcoming for families as possible. We could not be more thrilled to receive this nomination for Best Accessible Museum, alongside such a strong line-up delivering great work across the UK.

Laura Wright, CEO, The Postal Museum

When the museum opened in 2017, we set out to understand the needs of groups still most at risk of being marginalised by the experience at the museum. Since then, we’ve been implementing our Access Action Plan, as well as adaptions to the museum to reduce barriers caused by the current pandemic.

This ongoing work has resulted in award-winning collaborations with Ambitious about Autism to support neurodiverse visitors, story-telling sessions with Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children and upgrades to our interactive, family-friendly exhibitions to keep the experience sensory and engaging while remaining COVID-19 safe.

The Postal Museum develops and delivers access programmes in collaboration with families and expert partners, this is a key approach for us. It’s also integral that all staff and volunteers feel ownership of the work to support our visitors with additional needs. We’re committed to supporting our teams to do this, through training and opportunities to work with our amazing partners and visitors directly.

Hannah Clipson, Community Learning Manager, The Postal Museum

The museum will be visited by undercover family judges who will assess us against the Kids in Museums Manifesto. Their experiences will decide a winner for each award category and an overall winner of the Family Friendly Museum Award 2021. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in October.

Follow the Family Friendly Museum Award on Twitter by following @kidsinmuseums and #FamilyFriendlyMuseum. The Family Friendly Museum Award has been made possible by funding from Arts Council England.