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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Statement of Intent

Introduction

Since 1998, our mission at Scottish Book Trust has been to bring the joy of reading, writing and books to everyone in Scotland. We believe that reading and writing for pleasure have the power to transform lives, and that who you are should never limit what you are able to achieve.

As a national charity, we deliver our life-changing programmes the length and breadth of Scotland. Our work is for everyone, but we will endeavour to do more to remove barriers to participation, support those whose voices are marginalised and ensure that everyone in Scotland understands and feels like our work is for them. We acknowledge we have a responsibility to tackle inequalities through our programming, and that we can do as much as we can to help to create a community where everyone can thrive.

We have consistently taken steps to embed equality, diversity and inclusion work in our programmes, organisational structure and culture. We established an EDI Advisory Group in 2020, to focus on ensuring that our principles are more proactively embedded in all aspects of our work and that we are alive to making changes and improvements where we see we can do better.

We are committed to opposing all forms of discrimination. This includes discrimination against people with protected characteristics as defined by the Equalities Act 2010, as well as people who face barriers beyond the protected characteristics, such as those with refugee status, people affected by poverty and people who face multiple intersecting barriers.

We oppose all forms of bigotry, including (but not limited to) ableism, sexism, racism, transphobia, homophobia, ageism, classism, xenophobia, language discrimination and intolerance to people of any religion or faith.

If you would like to know more about our values, commitments and the EDI Advisory Group's current priorities, you can read more below.

Our values and principles in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion

Our organisational values are to be bold, nurturing, collaborative and creative. This applies to the work we do, as well as the way we behave towards each other, those we work with, and the public in general. We use our values to guide us in every aspect of our work, including our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and we have created our Statement of Intent through the lens of these values.

Bold

  • We will continue to identify and address systemic barriers and discrimination which could make it harder for people to engage with our work and programmes.
  • We will continue to ensure we are providing safe and accessible programming for all people, particularly when programming for those who face barriers. We will be cognizant of groups not explicitly listed in the Equalities Act 2010.
  • We are committed to being an intersectional organisation and we will actively work, within our scope, remit and programmes, to make the Scottish literary sector: a safer and more welcoming space for transgender and non-binary people; more accessible to disabled people, with more representation of disabled people; a sector which embeds anti-racist values and approaches, and is inclusive of people of colour.

Nurturing

  • Through our programmes we will nurture and support under-represented voices, doing what we can to amplify these voices and provide platforms that haven't always existed.
  • We will support and champion people from groups facing bigotry, and will ensure that we are a safe organisation for people to engage with.
  • All of our programmes should be fun and accessible for anyone to take part in, and we have an ongoing commitment to ensuring that this is the case, and addressing any issues that prevent this.

Collaborative

  • We do not presume to know – we will not speak for you, we will listen to you and we will work collaboratively with you to form partnerships to extend our knowledge, reach and capacity.
  • We will continue to champion and amplify voices, with the goal of our programming and platforms celebrating and reflecting Scotland’s diverse population.
  • We will value the lived experience of people who take part in our programmes, and provide support and means for them to flourish by reading, creating and sharing their stories.
  • We will work with people and organisations to continue to educate ourselves on barriers to inclusion.
  • We welcome constructive feedback, primarily via our programme evaluations. We also welcome conversations with those facing barriers to accessing our programmes. We will continuously evaluate our work and identify ways we can be more accessible and inclusive.

Creative

  • We will champion reading and writing as a way to celebrate communities, provide representation and foster empathy.
  • We will continue to identify new opportunities for programming and partnerships that will provide platforms for people from all backgrounds and identities.
  • We will apply our professional imagination and creativity to expanding our offer and finding ways to tackle issues of inequality and inaccessibility in our programmes.

Our long-term commitments

  • We will continue to support people from underrepresented and oppressed groups.
  • We will actively include the perspectives, lived experience and talents of marginalised peoples in our programme activity.
  • We will continue our commitment to being an anti-racist organisation, through our programming, organisation wide training, the people we work with, and through policy reviews.
  • We will continue to work to be a more disability inclusive organisation, increasing the accessibility of our online content and videos as well as our in-person events, reviewing our policies.
  • We will use our position and power in the industry to support trans people and celebrate trans voices in our programmes, our external partnerships and our community. We have undertaken and will continue to refresh trans-awareness training, to ensure we are informed and able to work to best practice.
  • We will continue to look at ways to ensure our recruitment practices are inclusive with the aim of building a more diverse team and board.
  • We will continue to ensure that our equality, diversity and inclusion policies and goals are embedded throughout our organisational policies, strategies, work and culture.

What we are working on right now

In the next 12 months we are committing to these measurable, deliverable and time-specific actions that will help us to achieve our goals and the commitments outlined above.

  • Develop conduct guidelines for individuals and organisations we work with, including programme participants, partners and freelancers, building on our Live Literature codes of conduct and reviewing all guidelines on an ongoing basis.
  • Promote opportunities widely and thoughtfully to ensure we are reaching everyone who needs us.
  • Continue to commit to inclusive and reflective programming across our events and panels.
  • Review our policies to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is embedded and championed throughout.
  • Review our staff and Board recruitment and induction processes.
  • Roll out a programme of training for staff and Board members in relevant topics, starting with sessions on trans-awareness and anti-racism.
  • Develop accessibility guidelines for online and offline events to ensure that all our events meet an agreed standard of accessibility.
  • Hold regular shared practice meetings for programme teams to ensure our approach is embedded across the organisation.
  • Continue to develop and consistently apply processes to assess potential breaches of our conduct guidelines.

What's next?

These are the first steps of an ongoing process of embedding EDI work consistently into our practice, but not an exhaustive list of everything we want to do. We will regularly review these commitments and actions and add new EDI priorities.

We will be transparent, and update this statement with new actions and priorities each year. Although we are tied by budget and time constraints, we aim to move on to the next phase of our EDI plan following the next 12 months.

First published: Friday 28 January 2022

Last updated: Friday 28 January 2022