English Folk Expo (EFEx) recognises that in our society groups and individuals have been, and continue to be, discriminated against on the basis of race, colour, national origins, culture, gender, marital or parental status, disability, class, sexual orientation, age, political or religious beliefs. EFEx is committed to counteracting this by the promotion of equal opportunities in all aspects of its operation, including on our stages, at our events, in our staff team and on our board.
In 2021, English Folk Expo began to formally benchmark and track the protected characteristics of the people we work with, employ and volunteer with us, including Trustees. For the first time, this gives us a benchmarking position.
We want the English folk, roots and acoustic music sector to properly reflect the demography of England as defined by the ONS. To this end, we will seek to ensure that each year our stages, programmes, audiences and our team mirror our society.
There may be occasions where we actively decide to go beyond these guidelines in order to provide leadership and change across the sector.
Through this policy, EFEx strives to:
- Be a flagship for excellence and inclusion in folk, roots and acoustic music;
- Ensure our beneficiaries, including volunteers, artists and audiences, our workforce and our Board of Trustees are more diverse and representative of the wider national community within which we operate;
- Become more inclusive and welcoming in our activities, processes, communications and wider organisational culture;
- Show by example that increasing the diversity artists, industry and music fans enables us to deliver richer and more relevant programmes.
EFEx embraces the following principles and beliefs, which underpin the actions we will take to address inequality and lack of representation and create a culture of belonging:
- EFEx opposes all forms of discrimination and should continue to take a role in addressing bias and discrimination in the music sector;
- EFEx recognises individual differences and values the contributions of all;
- Anyone coming into contact with EFEx, including volunteers, audiences, artists, staff, music industry representatives and Trustees, will be treated fairly and with respect – no forms of intimidation, bullying or harassment will be tolerated;
- Being inclusive and championing excellence are compatible values which sit at the heart of all of EFEx’s work;
- Equality, diversity and inclusion are an integral part of fostering innovative and inspiring artistic and professional practice – creating more opportunities for excellence in every aspect of the organisation and wider sector;
- EFEx undertakes equal opportunity monitoring for all areas of recruitment to ensure we not only recruit appropriately but are also reaching diverse communities in the recruitment process;
- All EFEx programmes and activities should be accessible and appropriate to the needs of different groups, with inclusion and diversity embedded into all planning and communications;
- Selection for EFEx opportunities should be on the basis of skills and potential, and active review of our processes and decisions is needed to identify and mitigate the risk of bias;
- It is EFEx’s own responsibility to develop a better understanding of the challenges and barriers to participation and engagement in its programmes and to take proactive steps to remove systemic inequalities;
- We must be transparent about inequalities within EFEx and our actions to address them.
Equality, diversity and inclusion is the responsibility of all individuals working or volunteering for and on behalf of EFEx and is fully supported and embraced by the Board of Trustees.
