Ms Chandrika Narayanan Mohan:

I agree with what was said about not just being on the service-user end of things but being part of everything. There have been amazing and encouraging movements throughout the arts sector of specific initiatives and programmes that are helping people from minority ethnic backgrounds and minoritised groups. However, if the decision-makers are not from those backgrounds, we will not get long-term results because that will eventually evolve until the need for these specific ring-fenced things hopefully fades away and the next problem of the time is dealt with. The idea is that from my specific angle of non-EU workers, it is impossible to get any job within the arts because work permit restrictions are so strict that everyone's applications tend to get rejected the first time around. It is extremely hard for non-EU workers to get any work within the arts and besides that, it is fully illegal for them to be freelance workers at all. As artists and creatives, how do they move into those decision-making positions? I mention the distribution of funds into those projects that help elevate people from minoritised backgrounds. It is likely they will be allocated and used in meaningful ways when the members of staff are from a variety of backgrounds and when it will not always be a homogenous group stating that it will help the other group. That just means that once that project is over, it is over and it will not go forward. Recruitment and having the people who would benefit from these processes be part of and leading them are the most important ways of distributing these funds.