COVID-19: Impacts on the cultural industries and the implications for policy

 Dear Colleagues,

On Tuesday 30th March I have organised the first stage in a root-and-branch review of the way in which Equity develops and implements all aspects of equalities, diversity and inclusion policy, strategy and communications. I am very pleased to say that the keynote speaker is Dr. Dave O'Brien of Edinburgh University (https://tinyurl.com/4fsk4c3c) as a result of his critically important and valuable insights on the emerging implications of Covid-19 on the creative and cultural industries workforce, and of the equalities and diversities impacts also.

Some of Dr. O'Brien's output around this includes the following:

Class, Covid-19 and cultural occupations: https://www.pec.ac.uk/blog/class-covid-19-and-cultural-occupations

A jobs crisis in the creative and cultural industries: https://www.pec.ac.uk/blog/why-is-understanding-inequality-important-to-understanding-the-creative-economy

Why is understand inequality important to understanding the creative economy? https://www.pec.ac.uk/blog/why-is-understanding-inequality-important-to-understanding-the-creative-economy

The emerging impacts of the pandemic on the work undertaken to advance the equalities and diversity agenda are deeply worrying. As noted in the May '20 publication (listed above) it was clear that, for example, the trends of diminishing opportunities for workers of working class origin were hardening, and that there presence was declining even further.

The work to address this is on-going within Equity, and sister unions representing workers across the creative and cultural industries. Recently, for example, our work has included an open letter to Arts Council England demanding greater attention to the way in which grant funding ensures diversity in the workforce of funded activity: https://www.equity.org.uk/news/2021/february/equitys-equalities-committees-open-letter-to-ace/

There is, of course, much more to be done. Our event on Tuesday is part of the process of strengthening the work of the union in resisting any way in which there is a return to 'business as usual' in the industry, and a worsening of the opportunities to get in and get on across the industry for under-represented groups of workers.

In Solidarity

Ian