Our response to the Consultation on Priorities for the Seventh Senedd

1 September 2026

The Museums Association has responded to the Culture, Communications, Cymraeg and Sport Committee’s Consultation on Priorities for the Seventh Senedd.

We raised the following points in our response.

The committee’s priorities should support the vision for inclusive, participatory and sustainable museums at the heart of their communities through:

• Strategic public investment
• Multi-year funding
• Prioritising diversity, equity and inclusion
• Creating a commitment for primary school pupils to visit a museum at least once per year
• Investing in digital
• Embedding culture and heritage across government policy

The committee should focus its scrutiny on:

• The potential to be unlocked in the role of museums using collections to deliver preventative health and wellbeing initiatives and social prescribing
• Plaid Cymru’s manifesto, which committed to examine options for making cultural provision a statutory requirement for public bodies, including local authorities, health boards and national parks, through a new Culture Act
• How the government supports the museum workforce including through skills development, staffing, career pathways and fair pay.

Committee work should focus on:

• The six areas of focus in the draft Culture Strategy for Wales
• The potential of long-term and multi-year models for museums
• The financial sustainability of museums in Wales and the potential of introducing multi-year funding to give museums the ability to plan ahead
• How the Welsh government could work with other nations in the UK to support consistent data gathering for the museum sector
• The role of museums in delivering the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan
• How the government could invest in shared storage solutions for museums
• The benefits of introducing statutory protection for museum services in Wales