VOLUNTARY ARTS
Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory Panel members
INFORMATION PACK
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Introductory letter
Volunteer Role Description
Timeline
Biographies
Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form
Equal Opportunities Policy
Voluntary Arts is recruiting volunteer members to form a BAME Advisory Panel for a
twelve month term to continue to develop our understanding and approach in relation
to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic cultures and communities.
Jeanette Bain-Burnett Voluntary Arts BAME Adviser:
“Voluntary Arts is increasingly aware that, like many other ‘mainstream’ organisations, within
the context of a diverse and complex population, most of its clients and users come from a
limited (primarily white) segment of the population. The Board and senior management team
of Voluntary Arts have acknowledged that this is complex terrain which requires careful
exploration and a nuanced approach.
“As an organisation focused on supporting and recognising those who lead and sustain creative cultural activity
in their communities of locality and interest, Voluntary Arts holds a unique position in the intersection of public
policy; subsidised professional arts activity; and creative and cultural citizenship across the UK.”
Returning applications
Please return your CV and letter of application by 5pm on 16 June 2015 at the latest.
We will be contacting successfully short listed candidates and arranging telephone or Skype
interviews by Monday 22 June 2015.
If you have not heard from us by this date please assume that your application has been
unsuccessful.
We prefer electronic submissions, sent to lindsey@voluntaryarts.org. Paper applications
should be addressed to Lindsey Jackson, Voluntary Arts, Ground Floor, 121 Cathedral Road,
Cardiff, CF11 9PH.
1. INTRODUCTORY LETTER
Dear Colleague,
Thank you for your interest in becoming a volunteer member of the Voluntary Arts England
BAME Advisory Panel.
Please read this covering letter first, then the rest of the information in this pack, before making
your application. We have provided this information electronically so that it is as accessible as
possible, including to visually-impaired people. If you need this information in a different
format, please let us know.
Voluntary Arts
Across the UK and the Republic of Ireland there are approximately 63,000 voluntary arts
groups, regularly involving more than 10 million people participating voluntarily in creative
cultural activities: this activity is, and will continue to be, a critical part of both the bedrock and
the grass roots of the cultural life of our communities and nations.
Voluntary Arts was created in 1991, in response to a need identified by government and the
voluntary arts sector, to provide a universal voice for the voluntary arts across the UK and the
Republic of Ireland. Today Voluntary Arts has 17 staff and more than 60 volunteers working
across 5 nations. We provide information and advice services, undertake lobbying and
advocacy work and deliver, and support the delivery of, projects to develop participation in
creative cultural activities. Voluntary Arts receives funding from all four UK arts councils. We
have offices in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Derry, with flexible working across England.
Our support is particularly focused on those creative citizens who - beyond their own
participation and beyond any remuneration - give their time to make such activity more
available within their communities (of locality and interest) and to improve the quality and
range of those opportunities and activities.
BAME creative cultural activity
The Voluntary Arts Strategic Plan 2014-17 identifies our need to develop connections to the
full range of communities in which creative cultural activity takes place: in particular we face an
immediate and pressing challenge to reach out effectively to creative cultural activity in Black,
Asian and Minority Ethnic cultures and communities.
For us, this is not about how we get more BAME individuals involved in voluntary arts activity:
it is about clarifying the form of creative citizenship within BAME cultures and communities,
how these communities self-organise their creative, cultural activity, and how Voluntary Arts
can support them (if such support would be welcome).
In June 2014 Voluntary Arts contracted Jeanette Bain-Burnett to research and write a paper on
creative cultural activity within BAME communities. Building on Jeanette's recommendations
and conclusions, Voluntary Arts is now recruiting volunteer members to form a BAME Advisory
Panel for a 12 month term to continue to develop our understanding and approach in relation
to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic cultures and communities.
Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory Panel
We are delighted that David Bryan from Xtend Consulting has agreed to chair the Voluntary
Arts BAME Advisory Panel. David will be joined on the panel by the Chair of Voluntary Arts,
Peter Stark, and Voluntary Arts Trustee, Jerri Daboo.
We are now seeking five additional volunteer panel members, based in each of: North West
England, The Midlands, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
To apply to join the Advisory Panel please send a CV and a letter of application (up to 2
pages) to lindsey@voluntaryarts.org by 5pm on 16 June 2015. Your letter should give details
of your engagement with and connection to BAME creative communities. See the Role
Description, below, for more details.
We will not discriminate in shortlisting or interviewing on the grounds of your race, colour,
ethnic or national origins, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or religious beliefs. To
help us monitor our performance we ask you to fill in a confidential monitoring form which will
not be seen by the panel involved in the recruitment process. The application procedure asks
you to tell us only about those things that will help us decide whether you have the skills and
abilities for the job.
For an informal, confidential discussion about the role please contact Robin Simpson,
Voluntary Arts Chief Executive, on 01525 288067 or email robin@voluntaryarts.org.
You may also find it useful to visit the Voluntary Arts website at www.voluntaryarts.org.uk.
Good luck with your application.
Robin Simpson
Chief Executive Officer
Voluntary Arts
Voluntary Arts acknowledges funding from The BIG Lottery Fund, Spirit of 2012 Trust, Arts
Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Creative Scotland and the Arts Council
of Wales.
Voluntary Arts is registered in Scotland as Charity No. SC020345 and as Company No.
139147. Registered Office: 2nd Floor, 54 Manor Place, Edinburgh, EH3 7EH.
2. VOLUNTEER ROLE DESCRIPTION
Our vision
An empowered, participative, fulfilled and healthy civil society.
Our mission
Promoting participation in creative cultural activity.
Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory Panel members
We are now seeking additional volunteer panel members based in:
 North West England
 The Midlands
 Scotland
 Wales
 Northern Ireland
Advisory Panel members need to reflect extensive experience of, engagement with and
connection to BAME creative communities (whether as a volunteer, community artist or arts
leader, academic/ researcher, arts professional, or other as appropriate).
Between July 2015 and May 2016, the BAME Advisory Panel will:
 Meet to review the work to date and set terms of reference
 Coach Voluntary Arts staff teams in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to create
country-specific action plans for BAME engagement
 Interview a series of expert 'witnesses'
 Facilitate group coaching conversations with Voluntary Arts staff teams in England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland, focused on identifying and progressing UK-wide and
nation-specific objectives.
 Produce a report with recommendations to the Voluntary Arts Board
Each BAME Advisory Panel member will:
 Attend three meetings of the BAME Advisory Panel – on the morning of Thursday 23
July 2015 in London, the morning of Thursday 29 October 2015 in London and in May
2016 (date and location to be decided)
 Act as a team coach to one of the Voluntary Arts staff teams in England, Scotland,
Wales or Ireland, helping them to create country-specific action plans for BAME
engagement – attending at least one staff team meeting in the relevant nation
 Take part in one interview day, seeing four expert witnesses
 Provide feedback by email on the draft Advisory Panel report (in Nov/Dec 2015)
 Attend the launch of the Advisory Panel report at the Arts Development UK conference
in Norwich in February 2016 (if possible)
 Facilitate 3 group coaching conversations with one of the Voluntary Arts staff teams in
England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland, focused on identifying and progressing UK-wide
and nation-specific objectives
Estimated total time commitment: 10 days, over 12 months.
These are volunteer positions but all reasonable out-of-pocket expenses will be reimbursed.
3. TIMELINE
June 2015
 Advertise for panel members
 Interview potential panel members by phone or Skype
July 2015
 Initial meeting of BAME Advisory Panel – morning of Thursday 23 July in London
July – October 2015
 Voluntary Arts staff teams in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to create countryspecific action plans for BAME engagement and include progress reports on these
plans as a standing agenda item for all Board and Advisory Group meetings. BAME
Advisory Panel members to act as team coaches focused on clarifying and monitoring
goals.
 Each BAME Advisory Panel member assigned to interview a series of expert 'witnesses'
 Voluntary Arts staff to help identify witnesses and set up interviews
 Each Advisory Panel member will have an initial meeting with local Voluntary Arts staff
to plan the witness sessions
 Each Advisory Panel member to do at least one interview day, seeing four witnesses –
24 in total
 Notes from interviews circulated to full Advisory Panel
October 2015
 Second BAME Advisory Panel meeting to discuss findings from interviews – morning of
Thursday 29 October in London.
 Country-specific BAME action plans to be discussed by Advisory Panel
 Country-specific BAME action plans presented to 29 October Voluntary Arts Board
meeting for approval
 Freelance consultant to write final report of the BAME Advisory Panel (will attend
October meeting)
November 2015
 Report drafted and circulated to Advisory Panel by end of November
January 2016
 Advisory Panel feedback incorporated into final draft of report
 Final report to be presented to January 2016 Voluntary Arts Board meeting
February 2016
 Report published with launch at Arts Development UK conference in Norwich
February – May 2016
 Advisory Panel members to facilitate 3 group coaching conversations with the Voluntary
Arts staff teams in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, focused on identifying and
progressing UK-wide and nation-specific objectives.
May 2016
 Final BAME Advisory Panel meeting, May 2016, to reflect on progress and agree further
recommendations to the Voluntary Arts Board
3. BIOGRAPHIES
David Bryan, Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory Panel Chair
David Bryan is Director of Xtend UK Ltd, a management consultancy working in
organisational change, leadership development and diversity. mostly in the notfor-profit and public sector. He has over 20 years consultancy experience,
providing management training, facilitation to senior management teams, one
to one coaching and governance support. Prior to becoming a consultant he
worked in senior management within the voluntary sector, the arts and in
academia. David is currently a member of the Council of Arts Council England.
Jerri Daboo, Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory Panel member
Jerri Daboo is Associate Professor of Performance at the
University of Exeter and Director of Postgraduate Research for
the Department of Drama. She worked professionally as a
performer, director and teacher for fifteen years, before taking up
the position of Lecturer in Exeter in 2004. Her work moves
across a number of different cultures, practices and performance
forms, inlcuding acting, music and dance. Jerri was the Principal
Investigator on a two and a half year project entitled 'The Southall Story', funded by the Arts
and Humanities Research Council to research and document the cultural history of the
diasporic town of Southall, focusing on the development of arts and performance, as well as
the relationship to socio-cultural events and political organisations. Jerri joined the Voluntary
Arts Board of Trustees in October 2014.
Peter Stark, Voluntary Arts BAME Advisory panel member
Peter Stark OBE has had a long and distinguished career in arts
administration with a particular focus on projects and programmes that
promoted participation. As Director of Northern Arts, in his native North East
of England, he introduced policy-led programme budgeting, new partnerships
with local authorities and developed the capital strategy that led to the
culture-led regeneration of Tyneside. He was a member of Richard Luce’s
committee established to review the national arts funding system and was
awarded the OBE for his work for the arts in the North. From 2000, Peter was
based in South Africa working in Inner City Johannesburg and then in the Eastern Cape where
he established his company – Cultures in Regeneration – and The Swallows Partnership,
which links that province of the new country to North East England. Since his return to
Northumberland, Peter has worked as a Cultural Policy Analyst with two longstanding
colleagues, Christopher Gordon and David Powell, establishing GPS Culture and producing
two major research reports ‘Rebalancing our Cultural Capital’ and ‘Policy for the Arts and
Community in England’. Peter has been Chair of Voluntary Arts since October 2011.
Jeanette Bain-Burnett, Voluntary Arts BAME Adviser
Jeanette Bain-Burnett is a freelance manager, producer and consultant with extensive
experience working within the BAME creative community. Jeanette was Director of the
Association of Dance of the African Diaspora (ADAD), an Arts Council England National
Portfolio Organisation, for six years (2007-2013). Jeanette is a Trustee of the Foundation for
Community Dance and also serves on the advisory panel for Uchenna Dance, an Afrocontemporary dance company. In addition she has recently been appointed East London
Director of CIDAco, a creative business consultancy based in Huddersfield. Jeanette is
currently a Clore Fellow.
4. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES MONITORING FORM
We try to make our organisation welcoming and of interest to a wide range of people. To check
we are managing to do this, we collect some statistics relating to equality issues. To help
Voluntary Arts operate and monitor its equal opportunities policy effectively, please complete
this form.
The details you provide will be treated as strictly confidential and in no way will they be taken
into account in shortlisting or determining your suitability for the post. The information collected
here will also be only presented in collated form and not attributable to any one individual.
This form will be separated from your application immediately upon receipt. It will be used for
statistical purposes only and will then be destroyed. Please provide the details about yourself
by filling in the form below:
1. What is your gender?
2. What age range do you find yourself in?
Under 18
[ ]
18-25
[ ]
26-35
[ ]
36-45
[ ]
46-60
[ ]
61-75
[ ]
76 or over
[ ]
3. What is your nationality?
4. What is your ethnicity?
5. What would you say is your current occupation?
6. Where do you live? A postcode is useful:
7. Do you consider yourself to have a disability?
Yes [ ]
No [ ]
Thank you very much for helping us collect this information.
Voluntary Arts Equal Opportunities Policy
1 Statement of Equal Opportunities Policy
1.1
Voluntary Arts recognises the value that diversity brings to society and to the voluntary
arts in particular and is keen to champion and celebrate diversity. Voluntary Arts
acknowledges that discrimination exists in many areas of our society today and
undertakes to play its part in reducing and eliminating such discrimination where it is
within its sphere of influence to do so.
1.2
Voluntary Arts will use its best endeavours not to discriminate on the grounds of race,
ethnic or national origins, gender, gender identity, marital or family status, sexual
orientation, age, disability, religion and belief, employment status, trade union
membership, political beliefs or socio-economic status. Voluntary Arts wishes to
eliminate discriminatory practices, and remove barriers to genuine equality of
opportunity wherever possible.
1.3
This policy applies directly to Voluntary Arts’s Board of Trustees; its paid staff whether
salaried or contracted; and its volunteers.
1.4
Voluntary Arts must conform to all relevant current legislative requirements in each
country of operation.
2 Scope and Review
2.1
The following areas fall within the scope of this policy and will be discussed in greater
detail below:
 employment and recruitment of staff and volunteers
 training of staff and volunteers
 events and activities
 publications
2.2
Implementation of the Policy is the direct responsibility of the Chief Executive and
cannot be delegated. All aspects of this policy and indeed of the complete set of
Voluntary Arts activities are monitored regularly by the Diversity Panel which is chaired
by the Chief Executive and which has in its membership at least one Trustee, staff and
at least one external representative.
2.3
The Policy will be reviewed and revised as required at least every 3 years.
2.4
Voluntary Arts is committed to ensuring that its clients, volunteers and staff in Wales
have equal right to services through the medium of Welsh in Wales as through the
medium of English. This specific commitment is detailed in the Voluntary Arts Welsh
Language Policy.
2.5
Voluntary Arts is committed to working to improve equality throughout its activities.
Specific commitments will be detailed in a series of action plans (eg Voluntary Arts
Race Equality Action Plan, Voluntary Arts Disability Action Plan).
3
Employment and recruitment of staff and volunteers
3.1
Voluntary Arts is committed to ensuring that no applicant, employee or volunteer
receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of race, ethnic or national origins,
gender, gender identity, marital or family status, sexual orientation, age, disability,
religion and belief, employment status, trade union membership, political beliefs or
socio-economic status.
3.2
To this end Voluntary Arts will take every reasonable, practical step to ensure that:
 when personnel decisions are made, the only personal characteristics taken into
account are those which are necessary for the requirements and proper
3.3
performance of the work involved, as well as being consistent with relevant
legislation.
 when a personnel decision is made about an individual, the decision is based
solely on an assessment of the capability and suitability of that individual and not
on any stereotype.
Further details are outlined in the Voluntary Arts Recruitment and Selection Procedure.
Voluntary Arts is committed to moving all its offices to fully accessible premises as soon
as possible.
4 Training of staff and volunteers
4.1
An Equal Opportunities Policy will not operate itself. It requires commitment,
understanding and training.
4.2
Voluntary Arts is committed to ensuring that its staff, Board and other volunteers are
trained and regularly updated to enable the Equal Opportunities Policy to be
implemented.
5 Events and activities
5.1
Voluntary Arts feels that good equal opportunities practice is essential for the success
of its activities, particularly events to which the general public are invited. It is especially
important to guard against the possibility that the choice of venue or the cost of
attending might prevent people taking part in Voluntary Arts events.
5.2
Voluntary Arts will seek to achieve this in the following ways:
 For public events, only venues that conform to good practice in relation to access
as described by the Equality Act will be used
 For such events only neutral venues will be used
 For such events, if prices are charged, concessionary rates will be made
available for all those who would genuinely have difficulty in attending because of
cost
 For such events, all reasonable steps will be taken to address barriers which
may prevent disabled people from attending. These may include but are not
limited to signage, translation, PA/carers costs, specialised transport or
accommodation.
 Accessibility features and the availability of assistance made per above, will be
mentioned in all publicity
6 Publications and Communications
6.1
Voluntary Arts wants to ensure that its publications are as accessible as possible,
whether in printed or electronic format.
6.2
Voluntary Arts will make all its written material available as plain text as a matter of
course and where ever possible will provide it in other formats as requested to meet
individuals’ particular access needs.
6.3
The availability of other formats will be clearly highlighted on all Voluntary Arts
publications
6.4
Voluntary Arts will follow best accessibility practice in the use of size, font, colour and
layout
6.6
Voluntary Arts recognises the need to produce materials in languages other than
English where this is a legal requirement and in cases where not doing so would
prohibit access to its services. In responding to this need Voluntary Arts will actively
seek out partner organisations.
6.7
6.8
6.9
Voluntary Arts aims to use Plain English in all its publications. This approach keeps
jargon to a minimum and uses simple, friendly language, spelling out acronyms and
changing arts and policy terminology into simple terms where possible.
Voluntary Arts will ensure the maintenance of a website that meets current best practice
in relation to accessibility eg. w3c
Voluntary Arts will be sensitive to local political and cultural issues in its use of images,
colours and symbols.
7 Monitoring Equal Opportunities practice
7.1
In addition to evaluating conformance to this policy Voluntary Arts believes that it is
important to monitor equal opportunities practice within its activities.
7.2
The Diversity Panel has responsibility for devising benchmarks and evaluating progress
against them. It will report its findings to the Board on an annual basis.
7.3
To monitor progress on improving the openness of events and recruitment, participants
and applicants will be asked to provide information relating to equality issues. The
information collected will be only presented in collated form and not attributable to any
one individual.
APPROVED BY THE VOLUNTARY ARTS NETWORK BOARD OF DIRECTORS, 25 OCTOBER 2012
Review by October 2015