EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Why it’s important to us
English Heritage are committed to improving equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for our volunteers as well as our employees and visitors as this shapes how we tell the story of England. By widening our reach and broadening our opportunities to new audiences, we can ensure that everyone feels connected to the places we care for on behalf of the nation.
We want to tell diverse stories from our past, to illuminate how the country has evolved to be the place we inhabit today.
We have a culture within our organisation where every individual is valued for who they are. With respect given to their different perspectives on what stories we should be telling, and what experience we need to offer for visitors from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs. Our organisation is all the richer for it.
From remote sites to inner city monuments, from regional teams to our principal offices in York, London, Swindon and Bristol, the diversity in our teams is critical in making sure our shared heritage is inclusive, exciting and accessible.
TELLING EVERYONE'S STORY - OUR EDI STRATEGY
We aim to tell the ‘story of England’ for everyone to enjoy, understand and value. We haven’t always been able to reflect this in our people, audiences and storytelling and we want to do more to involve everyone in England’s history.
In this strategy, we have set out four areas we wish to focus on - people, audience, interpretation and networks. When you read the strategy, you will see what we want to achieve to make sure our volunteers and staff better reflect broader society, our sites are welcoming and accessible to all, and the stories we tell reflect the diverse history of England. By making progress in all of these areas, we will help to ensure that English Heritage stays relevant and appeals to the widest possible audience.
Read our full EDI Strategy here - Telling Everyone's Story - English Heritage EDI Strategy.pdf
Watch our Chief Executive introduce our EDI strategy below:
VOLUNTEERING FOR ENGLISH HERITAGE
We work together to create a place where everyone feels valued and part of the organisation no matter their age, race, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
We expect everyone to be treated with equal dignity and respect. We believe it is everyone’s responsibility to challenge unacceptable behaviour and / or practices to ensure our environment enables people to flourish. We believe that our employees and volunteers should be able to bring their whole self to work. Our efforts to create a space founded on equality is demonstrated by our very equal gender balance in our top 50 senior management roles.
We are also committed to the Disability Confident Scheme and are proud to support its aims. This means we will interview all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities. Where we can, we make work adjustments to accommodate both employees and volunteers needs.
Our membership of the Stonewall Champions Programme enables us to continue to have a workplace where all LGBT+ employees are welcomed without exception.
OUR VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT PROCESSES
Throughout the recruitment process we will ensure:
- No applicant receives less favourable treatment by reason of age, disability, gender re-assignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership, or pregnancy and maternity.
- No applicant is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements, which cannot be justified by the requirements of the volunteer role.
- We have a zero tolerance policy on all forms of modern slavery and coerced labour of human trafficking. Please read our Modern Slavery Transparency Statement for more information.