Arts Council England (ACE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) have announced a partnership to ensure museums in England can get more help at a strategic level.

The two organisations have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop a collective strategy following recommendations to do so by the Mendoza Review of the English museum sector, which was published by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in November 2017.

The bodies are aiming to make it easier for museums to work with them both and to clear up which of them is best to approach for different purposes.

ACE and HLF will also align funding processes and programmes where possible and have committed to sharing data more regularly and effectively, particularly where National Lottery funding for museums is concerned.

An ACE spokesperson said: “This partnership has been developed in order to serve museums in England to the best of our ability, and ensuring we have open lines of communication with museums is at the heart of this.”

The two bodies have previously invested jointly in programmes such as Catalyst – a small grants funding vehicle to help organisations attract more private financing in the arts – and the Great Place Scheme – a fund for cultural and community groups to work more closely together and a directive to place heritage at the heart of communities.

This new partnership, however, marks the first formal and dedicated collaboration between the pair.