National Museums Scotland is committed to promoting equality and
ensuring that no one is denied opportunities or discriminated
against through prejudice or exclusion due to factors such as age,
disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil
partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion or belief; or
sexual orientation.
Everyone should expect to be treated with respect, to be treated
fairly and to have the opportunity to reach their
potential.
As part of our visitor programming we take into account the
needs of all our potential visitors and look at them as
individuals; we do not make assumptions about them. From
exhibitions to galleries; from workshops to tours and from events
to our website, we hope to ensure that across all of our museums
there is something that will appeal to our audiences. We have
a proven track record in audience engagement and ongoing
collaboration with a number of organisations, for example Impact
Art and Project Scotland and we hope to extend this reach in the
future.
This commitment to equality and diversity is also reflected in
our employment policies and practices, where consultation is key to
new policy development and review.
About the legislation
The Equality Act 2010 brought together many
existing anti-discrimination requirements, updating, enhancing and
simplifying them under one overarching piece of legislation. The
general duties ensure that organisations are
- Eliminating discrimination, harassment, victimisation or any
other prohibited conduct;
- Advancing equality of opportunity; and
- Fostering good relations.
This legislation extends protection in relation to both the
provision of services as well as from an employment perspective to
people with the following equality:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy/Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sexual Orientation.
In addition to the general duties Scottish Ministers have the
power to impose specific duties on relevant Scottish public bodies.
The specific duties came into place on the 27 May 2012 and place
additional requirements on listed organisations of which National
Museums Scotland is one.
These additional requirements include the development of
Equality Outcomes, gathering of employment information, production
of a Mainstreaming Report, the implementation of a revised Impact
Assessment process, the production of equal pay statements and the
requirement to undertake pay gap analysis for specified groups.
Information and documents relating to equality legislation prior
to 2010 can be found by in our Equality and
Diversity Archive page.