EDI in the Heritage Sector
In the heritage world, what we choose to collect, interpret, conserve and share shapes how people see themselves and each other. In our work with organisations across many sectors, we’ve seen that Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is most effective when it’s treated as part of everyday decision-making, rather than an “extra” that sits alongside the real work.
For the cultural heritage sector, that matters even more because heritage is public-facing, values-led, and often supported by funders, trustees, volunteers, and communities with different expectations. When EDI is done well, it strengthens trust, improves staff and volunteer wellbeing, and helps institutions connect with audiences who may previously have felt that heritage “wasn’t for them”.
We also know this work can feel sensitive. People care deeply about historic collections and traditions, and conversations about representation, language, and power can become personal. Our experience is that practical, well-facilitated EDI work gives teams the confidence to talk about these issues with care, clarity, and a shared purpose.
Why EDI matters in heritage
Heritage organisations aren’t just managing objects and places; they’re handling stories, memory, identity and belonging. That means decisions about interpretation panels, guided tours, school workshops, and even what gets displayed (or stored) can either widen participation or quietly exclude people. EDI gives teams a shared approach for noticing who is missing, why barriers exist, and how to remove them without defensiveness.
There’s also a clear legal and ethical foundation. The UK Equality Act 2010 sets out protections against discrimination in areas including services, public functions, work and education, which directly links to how many heritage sites operate day-to-day (from recruitment through to visitor experience). When teams understand this context, EDI becomes less about “saying the right thing” and more about building fair systems that stand up over time.
Common EDI pressure points
In the cultural heritage sector, we often see EDI challenges cluster in a few recurring areas. Recruitment and progression can be one: heritage roles are sometimes shaped by unpaid experience, informal networks, or narrow ideas of “culture fit”, which can reduce diversity in the workforce. Volunteer programmes can face similar issues, especially when shifts, travel, or communication styles assume everyone has the same time, money, and confidence.
Interpretation is another pressure point. The wording on labels, the choice of images, and the framing of “national” stories can either invite discussion or create distance, particularly for people whose histories have been marginalised. Accessibility also sits here: physical access, sensory access, and cognitive access (including plain language) need consistent attention rather than one-off fixes.
Turning intent into practice
We find the most helpful starting point is clarity: what do you mean by inclusion in your context, and how will you measure it? For organisations applying for external support, it’s worth noting that the National Lottery Heritage Fund publishes inclusion good practice guidance focused on involving people, removing barriers, and building participation into project design. Even if you’re not applying for funding, that guidance is a useful benchmark for what “good” can look like in practice. Our training courses can also help with describing other useful benchmarks.
From there, we encourage teams to work in a simple cycle: understand your baseline, act on what you learn, then review. We talk about supporting organisations with analysis to identify a starting point and create a roadmap, which is often the missing link between good intentions and consistent change. In heritage settings, that roadmap might cover accessible interpretation, inclusive consultation with communities, and fairer recruitment and volunteering pathways, each with owners, timelines, and clear outcomes.
Building capability across teams
Heritage organisations are rarely short on passion, but they can be short on time and confidence when it comes to EDI skills. That’s why we focus on training that builds real-world capability: our tailored EDI training and inclusive leadership training are designed to develop practical behaviours and confidence across an organisation, whether delivered in-person or online. In heritage, that can mean helping front-of-house teams handle sensitive visitor conversations, supporting curators and learning teams with inclusive language, and equipping leaders to set expectations clearly.
We also see strong results when EDI links to wellbeing. Our course outlines a wider analysis that includes mental health training and neurodiversity training, which can be particularly relevant in workplaces that rely on public interaction, seasonal staffing, and volunteer support. When people feel psychologically safe, they’re more likely to ask questions, challenge assumptions respectfully, and share concerns early, before problems become incidents.
Using audits and EIAs in heritage
Many heritage organisations already have policies, but fewer have a reliable way to test whether those policies work in reality. That’s where audits and Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) can help. On our website we describe audits as regular reviews of policies and practices to help keep organisations compliant and safeguarded. For heritage teams, this can apply to visitor policies, volunteer processes, procurement, event planning, and how complaints are handled.
EIAs are especially valuable when you’re making changes: refurbishing galleries, updating interpretation, launching a new learning programme, or revising recruitment. Done properly, an EIA isn’t a tick-box form; it’s a structured way to ask, “Who might this affect, how, and what can we do to reduce disadvantage?” If you build that habit into project planning, EDI becomes part of how decisions are made, rather than a review you try to squeeze in at the end.
A Human-Centred, Practical Approach to Culture Change
A good heritage EDI approach is visible in the small details as well as the big decisions. It shows up in job packs written in plain English, interview formats that don’t reward insider knowledge, and volunteer roles that are designed around real availability rather than assumptions. It shows up in exhibitions that acknowledge complexity, credit communities properly, and avoid presenting a single story as the “neutral” one.
If you want support making this practical, we can help you choose the right mix of training, consultancy, and review work, whether that’s cultural awareness training, disability awareness training, an EDI audit, or guidance for an EIA process that fits your governance and timeline. If you’d like, tell us what type of heritage setting you work in (museum, archive, historic house, outdoors site, arts venue with collections), and what change you’re trying to deliver this year and we can help deliver a human-centred approach to your training.