We have a legal duty to consider equality in our policy making. We aim to prevent discrimination and promote equality and diversity for people from protected characteristic groups defined in the Equality Act 2010 – including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. We also recognise the barriers that arise from class and socio-economic status and will seek to go beyond our legal duty to ensure that the work we invest in is reflective of the diversity of contemporary England. In addition, we take into account the geographic distribution of our investment and other resources to try to ensure that our support reaches all parts of this country.

The four Equality Objectives set out how we will put our legal duty into action over the next three years. They will remain in place for the duration of this Delivery Plan. These objectives will inform the design and delivery of all our work and will be supported through the development of discrete Equality Analyses for all new work that we undertake.

These Equality Analyses are designed to ensure that no one with a protected characteristic or from a lower socio-economic background is impacted adversely by our investment programmes or other development work.

Our commitment to this is not only about fulfilling a legal duty. The only stable foundation for a sustained recovery for the cultural sector is one where it reaches more people, nurtures talent wherever it is found and finds inspiration from every quarter. Everyone should have a chance to discover the cultural sector and make a career in it if they have the talent.

A number of the Actions set out under each of the Themes are specifically designed to further our Equality Objectives and to create the conditions for more equitable distribution of our investment. They are also designed to help build a sector that is more inclusive of and relevant to the communities we serve. Critically, they require the Arts Council to lead by example through the targets we set, and the culture change we are committing to.

These Actions are informed by what the latest evidence and data is telling us on where we should focus our resources and they are supported by targeted implementation plans. The Actions will be reviewed and reported annually and will include data on the workforce, leadership, governance and audience of our National Portfolio. They will also include an analysis of the profile of individuals and organisations receiving our investment as well as information on the make-up and location of Arts Council staff.

It will only be possible to deliver Let’s Create if there is shared commitment across the cultural sector to creating more inclusive working environments that develop and value all our talent. This means that we will actively support the development of safe workplaces where harassment and discrimination are challenged and eliminated so that everyone is treated equitably and fairly and supported to realise their full potential.

At the core of our work to deliver our Equality Objectives will be the roll out of our four Investment Principles and especially our Inclusivity & Relevance principle. As we implement Let’s Create, we will tie more and more of our investment to evidence that applicants are embedding our four Investment Principles in their work. This will include expecting applicants to provide evidence that their governance structures, leadership, workforce, volunteers, audience and programming are increasingly representative of their communities.

1. We will ensure a more equitable distribution of our investment to improve opportunities for everyone, especially those with under-represented protected characteristics and from disadvantaged socio-economic groups.

2. We will invest in inclusive cultural organisations whose leadership, governance and workforce – and the independent creative practitioners they support – represent the diversity of contemporary England.

3. We will invest in a cultural sector that is more relevant to all of England’s communities, especially those that have been historically underserved by public investment in culture.

4. We will become a more inclusive and relevant national development agency for creativity and culture that models good practice.