The People, Culture & Inclusion Committee of the Barbican Centre Board met on 23 June 2025 to discuss the Barbican Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, and a board appointment. The committee was also scheduled to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

Barbican Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the Barbican Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy that launched in February 2023, and is outlined on the EDI pages of the Barbican website. The report outlined the key progress of the Barbican's EDI strategy and associated action plans since the full annual update in January 2025.

The report stated that the next full report and maturity assessment is due in January 2026, where it is forecast that 29 of the 35 competencies outlined in the strategy will have been met.

The committee was asked to note and discuss the update, and review and approve the following recommendations to the Barbican Board:

• That they use the feedback from anti-racism training to inform themes for reflection during the next Board away-day.
• That they embark on an adapted version of the 90-minute people manager training module (practicing scenarios) to strengthen their anti-racism leadership.

The committee was also asked to review options for future meetings, which will take place after the launch of the new People, Culture and Inclusion strategy, and whether members would prefer to continue receiving a separate EDI Strategy update report annually, and receive high level EDI updates embedded as part of PCI strategy reports (recommended), or to stop receiving EDI Strategy update reports and instead only receive EDI updates integrated into the PCI Strategy reports.

The report outlined key achievements including:

• Anti-racism training: 448 staff members have now been trained. Staff confidence in talking about race at work has gone from 30% to 92%, and staff feeling of being informed about anti-racism has gone from 71% to 97%.
• Access and Adjustments Action Plan: Since launching the Access and Adjustments Working Group, four focused subgroups have been established: the Physical Subgroup, Tech Subgroup, Audience Subgroup and Attitudinal Subgroup.
• Barbican People Survey Action Plans: Following the first Barbican People Survey in Autumn 2024, departments were asked to create action plans to respond to their team-specific results.

The report also included progress against KPIs¹ under the strategic themes:

• Create equitable outcomes
• Serve a larger, more diverse audience
• Build an inclusive culture

Priority action plan areas were also outlined in the report:

• Inclusive Leadership and Line Management
• Empowered and Collaborative Teams
• Data and Analytics
• A Strategic Approach to Audiences
• Informing the People Agenda
• Learning and Development

The report also included a section on the next six months, stating that with the launch of the new People, Culture and Inclusion Strategy later this year, the action areas under the EDI Strategy will be embedded into a new, broader framework for transformation.

An Equality Analysis² was undertaken, which examined whether different groups of people are, or could be, impacted by decision making within the organisation.

Board Appointment

The committee was asked to consider the reappointment of Micheal Asante as an external member of the Barbican Centre Board.

Under its terms of reference, the Barbican Centre Board may appoint up to eight external members, for up to three three-year terms. Micheal Asante was originally appointed to the Barbican Centre Board in July 2022, for a three-year term which was due to end in July 2025.

The People, Culture & Inclusion Committee of the Barbican Centre Board were asked to consider and endorse the reappointment of Micheal Asante, with a view to making a recommendation to the Board at its next meeting. The Barbican Centre Board were asked to approve the reappointment of Micheal Asante for a further three-year term, ending in July 2028.