Standards PLUS Module
Excelling at Being Inclusive and Family-Friendly
This online course is a tailored experience to support your organisation’s bespoke needs to excel at being family-friendly.
This training will help your organisation to confidently programme, market and deliver events that families actually attend and return to because their experience with you is inclusive, welcoming and family-friendly. You’ll receive insights into family-friendly research plus practical guidance and expert advice to help you assess changes needed for better inclusive work in your organisation.
This course aligns and builds on the structure set out by the nationally recognised Family Arts Standards. The training provides additional bespoke support to help embed inclusive practice across all areas of your organisation.
Do you need support in making changes that will make a difference for families? As part of this training, you will create an action plan, learn how to implement it in your specific context and also have the opportunity to learn from peers.
Who is it for?
People working in arts or heritage organisations that care about families accessing creative experiences.
You can be working in a venue, a non-venue based organisation, a very small one-person organisation or a large national provider. This course is tailored to those who book on and your bespoke needs, each cohort shaping the way we deliver the course.
The online workshops are designed so that one person can attend all three, or different staff members can attend each – so whether you wear all the hats in your organisation or have a programmer, marketer and operations manager to come along to each – we have got you covered.
Course Leader: Sarah Shaw
Sarah Shaw is a leading voice in the cultural sector, specialising in creating high-quality, family-friendly experiences. As Director of Museum Tales, she supports organisations of all sizes—from volunteer-led venues to national museums—to engage and inspire family audiences.
Sarah has taken many roles in the sector from National Family Interpretation Manager at English Heritage to Learning Manager at the British Library. She is also an experienced trainer, having worked with GEM, Kids in Museums and Artswork to build skills and confidence in family engagement across the sector.
As a trainer for the Family Arts Campaign, Sarah brings practical expertise, strategic insight and a strong commitment to making culture accessible, inclusive and welcoming for all families.
Course Content
The online course is made up of three training sessions and one ‘Next Steps’ guidance call. Each workshop runs for two hours including breaks.
Programming excellent experiences for families
Online Workshop
Tuesday 5 May, 2-4pm
This session includes important considerations when deciding content and suitability for families to ensure you are providing inclusive and quality experiences.
Perfect for: whoever is making the big decisions about booking or designing events and workshops.
Communicating with families
Online Workshop
Tuesday 19 May, 10am–12noon
We will cover guidance on what families really need to know in your marketing, how to structure your pricing and different methods on how to listen to families and what they want.
Perfect for: whoever is writing the marketing copy, coming up with ticket offers and collecting audience feedback.
Ensuring families feel welcome
Online Workshop
Tuesday 9 June, 10am–12noon
This workshop will focus on how to meet families’ needs in situ – whether in your own venue or a host venue. This will include accessibility considerations for facilities and how to ensure staff who families encounter are family-friendly.
Perfect for: whoever is in charge of operations and staff training OR whoever is in charge of liaising with venues.
Next Steps
Online Session
Your own bespoke session to book in
An opportunity for you to meet with the Family Arts Team to receive tailored support.
Perfect for one person or a team, we design this session with you so that you can get the most out of it. This can include your CEO or course attendees for example.
PLUS Resources
A pack for your organisation
Recordings and resources you can share with the whole team to embed inclusivity into your organisation. This also means you have resources you can refer to later or share with new employees or partners that you work with to ensure your organisation continues to be family-friendly.
Who will your dream team be? Or are you an ambitious solo-act?
We’re keeping the cohort small so we can provide a tailored experience to support your needs, so we’d recommend booking soon as spaces are limited. Note: You can book now and decide which team members are attending at a later date.
Complimentary Age-Friendly Module
In addition to this Family-Friendly Module we are also running an Age-Friendly Module; you can book just one module or both combined (psst. we are offering a discount to book both).
One in five people in the UK are aged 65 and over, and this module makes sure you’re not missing out on catering to their needs.
The Age-Friendly Module is designed to help you ensure that you are considering older audiences needs in your programming, messaging, and the welcome and facilities that they encounter when attending your event. The Age-Friendly Module will help you to embed the Age-Friendly Standards, whether you’re completely new to them or you’ve been using them as a framework and would like further support. This training will help you to check and refresh your age-friendly approach, you’ll use reflective exercises to assess your age-friendly offer, identifying existing strengths and make a plan for areas for development.
Age-Friendly Module Dates:
- Programming Focus: Tuesday 12 May, 10am – 12 noon
- Communications Focus: Tuesday 2 June, 10am – 12noon
- Welcome and Facilities Focus: Tuesday 16 June, 10am – 12noon
Book Your Organisation’s Place
You only need to book once per organisation, with a choice to pay now or by invoice. You can confirm which team member(s) will attend at a later date.
Pricing
Family-Friendly Module:
£295 for Large Orgs (10+ Employees)
£195 for Small Orgs/Freelancers
Family AND Age-Friendly Module:
£495 for Large Orgs (10+ Employees)
£295 for Small Orgs/Freelancers
Learn with peers from across
the arts and heritage sector
Image credits:
Header: Sadlers Wells, photo by Ellie Kurttz
1 – darts, photo by James Mulkeen