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Cornwall Museums Partnership

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - Guidance and Support

We have collated a bank of resources to offer best practice and guidance on matters relating to equality, diversity and inclusion that can be used to support your organisation and assist with developing your diversity and inclusion (D&I) plans.

 

Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.

 

EMBED

EMBED helps guide organisations in taking an informed, structured and planned approach to managing organisational change focussed on accessibility, diversity and inclusion.

 

Disability Collaborative Network for Museums CIC

Disability Collaborative Network (DCN) provides heritage organisations with a resource hub of information and practice for their audiences and workforce; providing advice on best practice from other sectors and supporting intersectional inclusive practice in all heritage organisations as a workforce. DCN is now the heritage arm of EMBED.

 

The Beacon Project Portal

Beacon is available to help organisations and those in a position of responsibility, to better manage mental health, disability and long term health conditions in the workplace. A forever free service, Beacon was built by organisations for organisations. In partnership with the Work and Health Unit, Department for Work and Pensions, CIoS Learning Enterprise Partnership, Evident Agency, University of Exeter, University of Plymouth and CIoS Growth Hub.

 

Help and support for older workers

We’re living longer, healthier lives and have the opportunity to think differently about working as we get older. This page provides guidance about employing older workers and working past 50.

 

Disability Confident scheme

The Disability Confident scheme supports employers like you to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to your workplace.

 

Guidance for employing disabled people and people with health conditions

This guidance provides advice and links to other resources to enable employers to become more confident when attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining disabled people.

 

Mental Health Guidance for Small Workplaces

 

Documents, videos and separate resources

The Inclusivity Project

In 2020 we worked with the Inclusivity Project to focus on best practices for recruiting inclusively, alongside a group of our partner museums. This video offers a snapshot of our work with them:

More information about the Inclusivity Project can be found on their website.

 

Valuing Diversity: The Case for Inclusive Museums

This publication captures voices and perspectives from across the museum sector and beyond on the subject of diversity in museums at the present moment. It is the culmination of action research conducted by the Museums Association (MA) which took place during 2015–16.

Through this work the MA explored the experience of working in museums for people who self-identify as from a diverse background and reflections, suggestions and recommendations from those working for change.

The aims of the research were to:

  • critically and honestly examine where we are as a sector for both workforce and audience
  • to explore understandings of diversity and to elicit a wider definition of diversity than we have held previously
  • to explore and acknowledge hidden assumptions and power dynamics to develop a better understanding of why there is a lack of diversity in the sector
  • to explore and interrogate the various cases for diversity
  • to collaboratively agree concrete actions in response to these conversations – for the MA, for individuals and for institutions.

You can read the full document here: Valuing Diversity – the Case for Inclusive Museums

Further context and opinion on the report can be found here.

 

Arts Council England’s Recruitment & Workplace Development Toolkit

Arts Council England want arts and cultural organisations to fully reflect the communities they serve and, in partnership with The Clear Company, have developed a toolkit to help foster inclusive workplaces and support organisations in recruiting and retaining diverse talent.

The Toolkit provides best practice downloadable resources, templates and guidance, such as: advertising a job and job descriptions, reasonable adjustments and Access to Work, managing employee and workplace stress, conducting board skills audits and more.

It focuses on four key areas:

  • Boards and Leadership
  • Recruitment – Attracting
  • Recruitment – Selecting
  • Retention – Workplace Practices

You can view the full document here: ACE Recruitment and Workplace Development Toolkit_User Guidance

 

Character Matters: attitudes, behaviours and skills in the museum workforce

In December 2015, BOP Consulting with The Museum Consultancy were commissioned by Arts Council England and Museums Galleries Scotland, along with the Museums Association and the Association of Independent Museums to undertake research on the attitudes, behaviours and skills needed by the museum workforce over the immediate future.

The aims of the research were to:

  • Identify the attitudes, behaviours and skills needed in the UK museum workforce for the next 10 years
  • Address how museums can recruit or support people to develop these

The report provides a number of conclusions and recommendations to achieve these aims.

You can read the full document here: ACE_Character_Matters_Full_Report

Or read the Executive Summary here: ACE_Character_Matters_Exec_Summary

Following the research, the Museums Association developed a Delivery Plan based on the report’s findings to support the development of:

  • effective recruitment to create a diverse and skilled workforce;
  • attitudes, behaviours, skills and knowledge to support individuals to develop themselves;
  • organisational culture to achieve a supportive atmosphere for individuals.

More details on their Character Matters Delivery Plan can be found here.

 

Tamsin Russell Talk on Inclusive Recruitment

Tamsin Russell, Workforce Lead at the Museums Association, joined us for an inclusive recruitment focused workshop in July 2020, as part of our work with the Inclusivity Project. In this presentation, Tamsin discusses some of the potential changes that museums could make to their recruitment processes and approaches to equality, diversity and inclusion.

 

Fair Museum Jobs’ Recruitment Checklists & Manifesto

Fair Museum Jobs are passionate about supporting everyone in the sector to achieve, and benefit from, improved recruitment practice. They have subsequently developed resources to help guide museums in offering fair, inclusive and accessible jobs.

A Manifesto for Job Adverts and Recruitment 

Checklists to support recruitment of paid roles and of volunteers 

 

Inc Arts Unlock – Antiracism Toolkit

Inc Arts Unlock is a Toolkit for the creative and cultural sector to take measurable action against racism.

Unlock gives arts organisations practical steps to take anti-racist action. Unlock has in it over 100 actions that will help creative work places become more inclusive. The process is entirely confidential and at the heart of the Unlock toolkit is a commitment to give everyone equal treatment through trust, confidence, dignity and respect.

It has been developed specifically for: Dance companies, Independent Producers, Museums, Regional theatres, Collections and archives, Visual Arts spaces, Receiving Houses, Festivals and Outdoor arts and Crafts organisations.

 

If you have any further questions about this resource and our work on inclusive recruitment, please get in touch with our Data and Insight Manager, Jenna Marrion, at jenna@cornwallmuseumspartnership.org.uk.

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