Our commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism
Birmingham Hippodrome is committed to placing inclusion at the heart of all we do, making it central to our decision making. We have heard the calls from our Black, East and South Asian communities, from our disabled and our LGBTQ+ neighbours and friends, from our region’s younger generation, and we acknowledge that we have a huge amount of work to do.
We are energised and excited to move forward breaking down barriers and building relationships for us to meet our commitment and become a more equitable place for audiences, artists, participants, and our own teams.
We are in the process of making meaningful and systemic change.
Work To Date
- The recruitment of a Director of People and Culture to ensure consistency in our approach to inclusion and diversity across the venue.
- Diversifying our Board to broaden the skills, lived experience and backgrounds of our Trustees.
- Establishing an Inclusion and Anti-Racism Staff Working Group and Board Sub-Committee, in order to ensure that our commitment is consistent across the entire organisation.
- Providing training for all Board Members and members of the Senior Management Team.
- Identifying and addressing structural issues of bias and systemic racism within Birmingham Hippodrome and our industry.
- Listening to and understanding current as well as former staff experiences of working at Birmingham Hippodrome.
- Removing the use of terms including “BAME” from our organisational language.
- Introduction of the Rooney Rule for all recruitment processes.
- Introduction of online advance information sessions for candidates to find out more about specific roles before applying.
- Introduction of video and audio applications for candidates who need or prefer this.
- To date we have seen a 10% increase in Global Majority representation in our workforce.
- Developed new partnerships and hosted specific residencies to support the creative development of artists form the Global Majority.
Work Underway
- Developing and implementing a sustained, long term training programme for our staff and Board, focused on Inclusion and Anti-Racism.
- Further overhauling our recruitment and induction processes to diversify our workforce to better reflect our region.
- Furthering our work on Board membership, recruitment, and the inclusion of different voices at the highest levels of governance and decision-making.
- Provide clearer and more visible routes for reporting incidents of discrimination across the organisation for staff as well as partners, artists, participants, external companies and visitors.
- Ensuring regular opportunities for staff to feedback on their lived experience of Inclusion and Anti-Racism at Birmingham Hippodrome.
- Publish an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement that clearly sets out the practical ways in which Birmingham Hippodrome upholds its organisation-wide commitment to placing inclusion at the heart of all we do.
- Further broadening artistic opportunities for local Creatives to develop their practice, particularly those from the Global Majority.
We recognise that we are on a journey and that this is ongoing work. We are collectively open to change, facing hard truths along the way. We are committed to truly reflecting the city and region that we know and love within our workforce, our programmes, our audiences, and opportunities. We will embrace change because we believe that it should and will be a part of our DNA.
We welcome your feedback at Change@birminghamhippodrome.com