How Do I Contribute a Case Study to the Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub?

What is this advice about?

This advice is for any organisation or individual who would like to contribute an inclusive heritage case study to Historic England’s Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub.

This page outlines what we want the case studies to do and how to write and share one with us.

What are the key points?

Why is Historic England looking for inclusive heritage case studies?

The Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub is a growing resource. It aims to support diversity in the Heritage sector, engage a wider range of people with heritage, and recognise and celebrate a more inclusive heritage.

In addition to guidance developed by specialists at Historic England and beyond, we want the Hub to contain case studies of good practice from across the sector. We recognise that we don’t have all the answers ourselves. We also appreciate that concrete examples of work and clear tips and lessons learned can be more inspiring and practical than other forms of advice or guidance.

The heritage sector includes a wide range of organisations. Many are small, with limited resources and staff, while others are large national organisations with thousands of staff. We want the Hub to share examples of inclusive heritage practice of all scales, to inspire, show what’s possible, and to share lessons from organisations doing great work.

Why should we share our case study?

We hope the wide variety of inspirational case studies and practical advice will be an invaluable resource for the heritage sector and other non-heritage organisations that want to use heritage in their work.

We also hope that the organisations who contribute case studies will benefit from having their work profiled on the Hub. These benefits might include:

• Sharing learnings and insights from inclusive heritage work, informing and inspiring the sector and helping it to become more inclusive and resilient
• Organisations that share their work on the Hub will become part of a community of inclusive heritage practitioners
• Showcasing your work on the Hub might broaden the reach of work
• It’s an excellent opportunity to celebrate your work
• You can direct visitors to your website from your case study and broaden awareness of your work
• Consider budgeting time and resources in project plans and grant applications to create a case study for the Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub. Case studies can be an excellent output for a project and are a simple and effective way to communicate learnings widely

What case studies are you looking for?

We are looking for case studies that provide examples of inclusive heritage work (whether successful or unsuccessful) and practical tips and lessons that other organisations can take forward in their own work.

This might be:

• A small-scale project to redesign some interpretation to make it more accessible to people with English as an additional language
• A community project co-produced with a marginalised group
• An access audit you carried out on a heritage site
• A creative project to uncover the histories of an overlooked group

In short, we’re open to anything that inspires people, gives them ideas and practical tips, and builds confidence in inclusive heritage work.

If you’re unsure if your idea for a case study is suitable for the Hub, please contact the Historic England Inclusive Heritage Team and we can discuss it with you.

Case studies sit alongside our other guidance under a series of section headings:

Diverse workforces in the heritage sector

This section covers the benefits of diversifying your workforce, how to support diverse workforces, and how to collect data about the diversity of your staff and volunteers.

Case studies might be about:

• How you have actively recruited team members to reflect the diversity of the communities you work in
• The way a diverse workforce has impacted the delivery of your work
• How you have used workforce diversity data to make decisions
• How you have created a more inclusive culture in your workplace and the impact this has had

Inclusive governance boards and diverse trustees

This section covers diversifying governance roles in your organisation, ensuring diverse boards are supported, and advice for potential future trustees within the heritage sector.

Case studies might be about:

• Steps you have taken to recruit a more diverse range of trustees
• How a diverse board has impacted on your organisation’s work
• How your organisation supports less experienced trustees

Understanding and working with diverse audiences and participants

This section covers how best to undertake work with diverse audiences and participants.

Case studies might be about:

• Heritage projects co-created with diverse community groups
• How you have addressed and removed barriers to participation in heritage and the impact of doing so
• The way you have measured outcomes in a heritage project for diverse participants
• What you have learned from working with specific underrepresented communities
• Heritage projects that have changed minds and challenged stereotypes

Exploring diverse histories

This section covers how best to explore diverse histories in your work and the heritage sector.

Case studies might be about:

• Projects that have uncovered histories of underrepresented groups or individuals
• How you have overcome challenges in exploring underrepresented histories
• How you have worked with communities with lived experience to explore underrepresented narratives

Don’t worry if your case study doesn’t fit into these section headings. As the Hub grows, we will add more headings, so get in touch and we’ll see how we can make your idea work.

What should a case study include?

It's a good idea to contact us before writing your case study. Let us know what you're planning so we can make some suggestions, if necessary, about what would be most beneficial for the Hub.

We can send you a Microsoft Word document template to use, but the headings and guidelines are also listed below:

Title

Give your case study a title that explains what the case study is about. For example, 'Building wellbeing for disabled participants through heritage'. In some cases, we may suggest changes to your title (to reduce length, for instance).

What is this case study about?

This should be a paragraph or 2 explaining what and who the case study is for and how it might be used.

This text should follow it:

This case study was produced on behalf of Historic England by [name of organisation or individual]. [A sentence or 2 about your organisation]. You can find out more on the [organisation name and link to organisation] website.

What are the key points?

We recommend you write this section last after you've written the rest of the case study.

It should feature up to 5 bullet points with the main tips or key actions you'd like the reader to take away from the case study.

Main body of case study

This is the key text of your case study, where you should use questions as headings to break up your findings into easily readable sections.

Our suggested structure is:

• What was the project about?
• Who did we work with?
• What were the aims/objectives?
• How was this approached?
• What challenges arose, and how did we overcome them?

What lessons were learned?

This section should cover what was learned through this process: what went well, what didn’t, and what you would do differently in the future.

It should also include tips in the form of bullet points for other organisations approaching similar challenges.

Remember: we’re just as interested in sharing projects that didn’t go to plan, providing there are practical takeaways for readers

Further reading

This final section should provide more information about the project. Include up to 5 links to other useful external pages as appropriate and relevant, and make sure to write a sentence or 2 explaining what they are and why you have included them.

Where should I send my case study and what will happen next?

Once complete, email your case study and a high-resolution image (including a caption, copyright credit and alt text) to [email protected]. We’ll contact you as soon as possible to let you know we have received it.

In reviewing your case study, we might make some minor edits with your approval and tweak the text to ensure it fits into the correct format for our case studies.

Once everyone is happy with the case study, we will include it for publishing on the Historic England website. We plan to upload new batches of content to the Hub every quarter, so when we respond, we will let you know when it will likely go live.

Once the page is published, we will send you a link; please share it as widely as you like.

Where can I find case study examples?

There are already a number of case studies on the Inclusive Heritage Advice Hub.

Examples include:

• Halifax Stars: Engaging Working Class Young Men with Local Sporting Heritage
• Unearthed: Telling Overlooked Local Stories Through Ambitious Heritage Programming
• Navvies: Creating a Lasting Legacy Celebrating Workers' History with Homeless People
• Beneath our Feet: Exploring Working Class Local Heritage with School Children
• Moments of Grace: Using Trauma-informed Approaches to Uncover Sensitive Stories