Bowls England |
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
A community where everyone is welcome and embraced, regardless of their identity, background or circumstances.
Bowls England is committed to ensuring lawn bowls represents and includes all sections of our society. We are aware that our sport is currently not representative of many areas of society and this is a missed opportunity. We must evolve to make our sport better complement modern lifestyles and make interventions to tackle deep-rooted inequality in sports activity.
One of our priorities in our 2021-26 Strategy, Fit for the Future, is to Make Bowls Truly Accessible by opening up the gateways to our sport and to embrace more people, irrespective of their background or circumstances. The physically undemanding nature of our sport, the existence of thousands of clubs nationwide and the relatively low cost of playing means we have some critical elements of success in broadening participation.
In the summer of 2021, Bowls England joined the Bowls Development Alliance’s ‘Inclusion Advisory Group’ (IAG) along with seven committed volunteers with a view to support the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion within our sport.
The Roles and Responsibilities of the IAG were as follows:
- To be responsible for ensuring the development of the sport’s inclusion agenda
- To promote, champion, and encourage diversity, inclusion, and equality in bowls
- To advise and make recommendations on appropriate initiatives and activities that will help the sport achieve its aims
- To positively challenge the sports commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion, celebrating that commitment and addressing obstacles to its implementation
- To improve the representation and image of bowls as a sport for all and ensure inclusion is embedded throughout the sport
- To act as a forum for staff and volunteers in issues relating to diversity and inclusion
The new Equality, Diversion and Inclusion Policy for Bowls England was approved at the Board Meeting in May. This will be launched alongside a Delivery Action Plan ahead of the 2023 season.