Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2023–2028

Glasgow Life is committed to bringing culture and sport to everyone.

We provide services for people who live, work, study in, or visit Glasgow. We manage a wide range of venues and facilities across the city, from internationally recognised cultural and sporting destinations to community-based services.

Because of the size and reach of our organisation, our decisions and actions can have a significant impact on people's lives. We are committed to ensuring that our services, programmes and workplace culture help tackle inequality rather than contribute to it.

Our Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy sets out the priorities that will guide our work between 2023 and 2028. It reflects our commitment to go beyond meeting our legal duties and to actively embed equity, diversity and inclusion throughout Glasgow Life. 

Equality

We are ambitious about keeping our organisation and services open to everyone.

We will understand and remove barriers that people may face when accessing our services or opportunities.

Diversity

We are committed to ensuring our workforce and services reflect the communities we serve.

We value diversity and will work to include people and voices that are often under-represented or excluded.

Inclusion

We want everyone who uses our services or works with us to feel welcome, safe and valued.

We will work hard to create a culture of care, belonging and support throughout Glasgow Life.

Glasgow Life operates within the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and the Scottish Public Sector Equality Duty.

These responsibilities include:

Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
Advancing equality of opportunity.
Fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

These duties underpin all of our work.

We will improve the way we collect and use equality data so we can better understand:

Our workforce.
The people who use our services.
Where barriers or inequalities exist.

We will embed equality, diversity and inclusion into our governance, decision-making and organisational processes. We will also work with Glasgow City Council to ensure that shared equality outcomes remain relevant and meaningful.

We want inclusion and belonging to be at the heart of everything we do.

We will:

Embed inclusive practices throughout the organisation.
Support staff and volunteers to implement equality initiatives.
Improve cultural awareness across our workforce.
Ensure services reflect the diverse communities we serve.

We are committed to designing services with communities, not for communities.

We will listen to people whose voices are often under-represented and work collaboratively to improve access to our services, venues and programmes.

This includes working with:

Disabled people.
Neurodivergent people.
Trans people.
Women and girls.
People of colour.
People from minoritised faith and religious groups.
Older people.

We recognise that communities are not homogeneous and that individuals cannot represent the experiences of entire groups. We will take a person-centred approach to engagement and consultation.

We want our workforce to reflect the diversity of Scotland's largest city.

We will:

Improve equality, diversity and inclusion training.
Provide guidance and support for staff and volunteers.
Promote understanding of EDI in every role.
Value the diversity of lived experience.

We will also explore Positive Action measures to improve representation, particularly for disabled people and people of colour, where under-representation exists.

What is Positive Action?

Positive Action is a lawful measure under the Equality Act 2010 that helps people with protected characteristics overcome disadvantages and barriers to employment or progression.

Positive Action is not the same as positive discrimination, which is unlawful.

Key Terms

Equality Act 2010

UK legislation that protects people from discrimination based on protected characteristics including age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

Neurodivergent

People who think and learn differently, including those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette's syndrome and other neurological differences.

Lived Experience

Knowledge and understanding gained from personal experience rather than through learning about an issue second-hand.

Trans

An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex assigned to them at birth, including non-binary and gender-fluid people

Glasgow Life
38 Albion Street
Glasgow G1 1LH

Telephone: 0141 287 4350

Email: info@glasgowlife.org.uk

Website: www.glasgowlife.org.uk