The Social Inclusion and Diversity Policy Team
English Heritage is committed to broadening access to the historic environment. It’s a fundamental part of the corporate plan, and we have committed to: ‘Stimulate and harness enthusiasm for England’s historic environment’, by ‘broadening access to the historic environment and engagement with diverse communities’. One of the major ways that we do this is through our Outreach team who you can read more about here, but we also have a dedicated Social Inclusion and Diversity Policy Team, which looks at embedding a more diverse and inclusive approach to the work of the English Heritage at a more strategic level.
Major projects for the team include:
• Supporting the creation of the EH Equalities Schemes and the Action Groups which oversee their implementation. These bring all EH departments together to actively promote equality of opportunity through our core work.
• Drawing up and launching an Impact Assessment toolkit which allows managers to ‘risk assess’ their major policies, plans and projects to check that they are not excluding any particular group, and to help the positively promote equality in everything they do. Impact Assessment requires our staff to consult with different groups of people (for instance young mothers, or Hindu community groups or local disabled people) on any project that might disproportionately affect them. This much more open approach will bring great strength to our work and ensure that we can truly protect the whole nation’s heritage. SID Policy team works to support managers implementing Impact Assessment for the first time and monitors the success of the process. More here
• Working with HR to ensure that EH is a diversity-friendly employer, and that our workforce becomes more representative of the population we serve. We work across EH and with heritage sector partners to identify barriers people may face and to promote opportunities for training and volunteering more widely.
• We work with a wide range of external organisations, such as disability advocacy groups, black and minority ethnic heritage organisations, and faith networks to ensure that EH involves and consults people on issues that affect them.
• Ensuring that the stories we tell about our heritage are appealing and accessible to everybody. For example, we brought together experts from across EH to deliver the Bicentenary programme marking the abolition of the British slave trade in 2007. See www.english-heritage.org.uk/abolition . We support the EH Cultural Diversity Network (contact us if you are interested).
• Making sure our publications are accessible and available in multiple formats by working with departments to set corporate standards and check that disabled people are getting a good service
• Working with other partners in the heritage sector to ensure that diversity and broadening access are at the heart of what we do.
If you have any suggestions on work you would like to see the team doing in future, please email heritageforall@english-heritage.org.uk
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