In the fourth week of Instant Pulse, we asked the sector the following question:
How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
“We have plans in place to increase the diversity of our staff and/or volunteer teams.”
How did you respond?
What else did you tell us?
“We should have these plans in place, and want to, but day to day operational matters, like having enough of the workforce who are covid-free to open, are holding up progress.”
“Very hard without funding when need to ensure survival”
“Diversity should be embodied into all parts of an organisation and well monitored to ensure it happens and is not just an ambition. It should be occurring and not just be something that is planned to be put in place – as the question implies.”
“The key issue is the continuing gap between what the sector says it is doing and the reality- the sector needs to speed up change. If not the continuing relevance of the sector to contemporary life is questionable. This is an issue that doesn’t require extra resources and only requires a will to do it.”
“Until we fully embrace different narratives and perspectives in how we see, shape and make heritage we will never be a very welcoming place. We need to fundamentally shift the perspective of heritage – so I would argue focusing on the the diversity of staff and volunteers, whilst really important, won’t lead to that much change in the sector as the stories we tell are still so limited to the perspectives of a few..”
“This is an issue that our Trustees are aware of, but the volunteer team reflects the ethnicity of the local area.”
“This is absolutely essential. Without this, generational changes mean we won’t have a volunteer body in 10-20 years. Also, our organisation’s previous lack of diversity has contributed to its problems because thinking was not challenged and there was no variety of ideas coming in. A more diverse organisation will be closer to and better able to support its communities.”
“We have been progressing with this over several years and have been making further efforts recently. We would love to have more diverse job applicants!”
Get involved next week
If you’re part of the UK Heritage Pulse panel, you will receive next week’s question in your inbox on Wednesday. If not, why don’t you register to be part of UK Heritage Pulse today: