How we're rethinking access, inclusion and what fairness really means at the National Piping Centre
At the National Piping Centre (NPC) our mission is to ‘enrich lives through piping’. If we want to live up to our name and be a national resource, it’s important that the lives we’re enriching are representative of our society.
For years, the NPC, like many public-facing institutions, understood its responsibilities around equality to centre on avoiding discrimination. If we ensured everyone was allocated the same resources and our policies clearly extended the same expectations and limitations to everyone, then things would be fair.
Equality—the idea that everyone should be treated the same — is uncontentious and well established after decades of civil rights campaigning. It’s a principle that we can all 'get on board with' and asks relatively little change of existing systems.
But this well-meaning orthodoxy has begun to show its cracks through real-world application. A uniform distribution of opportunity often benefits those who are already best placed to seize it, while leaving others, such as those from lower-income, rural, or marginalised communities, disproportionately further behind. It often means that those who already have access, confidence, and resources continue to thrive, while others remain quietly and invisibly excluded.
In other words, equal access does not lead to equal outcomes in the world we live in.
We can’t address this by simply improving our tactics around deploying a strategy of equal access, we need something more nuanced.
We can’t address this by simply improving our tactics around deploying a strategy of equal access, we need something more nuanced.
“Poverty is not a certain small amount of goods, nor is it just a relation between means and end; above all it is a relation between people. Poverty is social status.” Marshall Sahlins, in Stone Age Economics.
When I first joined the NPC, our approach to access was well-meaning but limited. The one access lever we employed was making certain programmes free-for-all. We made as many of our Youth programmes free or as ultra-low-cost as possible, whenever possible. Where we couldn’t, we offered them at full price. It was a binary system: either free or full price.
As you can imagine, this approach had its limitations. What we saw was more young people accessing our programmes from lower-income families who lived locally, but that was about it.
What we didn't see were a lot of young people from other under-represented groups in piping, people: who are disabled; from lower incomes who live further away; from the LGBTQ+ community; from the global majority.
Often people need more than a 'free place': a free place is useless if you can't afford the bus to get there, or if you can't access the space or comfortably access the opportunities due to other socio-economic barriers.
Equality is a noble intention and a good quality to seek in our outcomes, but it's a bad strategy. We realised we had to move from Equality to Equity.
Equity is granular; it recognises that fairness involves differentiation. It recognises that not everyone starts from the same place. It asks us to adapt, not enforce.
Rather than treating everyone identically, equity requires us to account for individual circumstances and provide more nuanced support. It is pragmatic and bespoke, or as the Scottish Government phrases it in its GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) policy, it's about "providing [everyone] with the right support at the right time."
Rather than treating everyone identically, equity requires us to account for individual circumstances and provide more nuanced support. It is pragmatic and bespoke, or as the Scottish Government phrases it in its GIRFEC (Getting It Right For Every Child) policy, it's about "providing [everyone] with the right support at the right time."
So we’ve made some changes. We piloted a tiered bursary system across our NPC Clubs that aims to match support for families with their circumstances. This was part of a wider Access Scheme we piloted across our entire youth engagement portfolio, providing things from discounted and free places as well as more proactive solutions like travel bursaries and additional support. We launched our Instrument Loan Scheme to provide young people with equitable access to pipes and drums.
Alongside developing our access mechanisms at NPC, we have also focused on addressing barriers across the delivery of our programmes. In practise this has meant meeting people where they are, literally and figuratively.
Community Piping Clubs, localised audition locations for NYPBS, disability awareness training, a reimagined pricing models, pedagogy and resources have all been introduced to reduce friction. (I wrote about how helpful we found inclusion partners and priority groups in this article.) Plans for continuing to develop inclusive governance, including a new EDI working group drawing on perspectives beyond staff, will help us consolidate this deeper cultural shift.
As a result, we are not only seeing more young people engaging with NPC but importantly, we are starting to see more diversity across our community and everyone seems more comfortable- like they’re gaining deeper access and more benefits from our work.
Free-for-all still has its place in our toolkit, for example it’s seems really effective for an event targeting people in a specific location, like our NYPBS Four Corners events and our Piping Popups we recently delivered.
But now we are seeing much more equitable access and have more space to facilitate access thanks to expanding our mechanisms, including people paying what they can afford, whether that’s ‘full-price’, free or somewhere in between.
Equity isn’t a perfect solution, ideally, we wouldn’t simply be addressing access barriers but removing them altogether. However, it seems that equity is at least a necessary step on the journey to Liberation.
Whilst these first steps toward facilitating more equity across our work are affirming we must respect the sobering reality that those facing barriers are justifiably frustrated. Equity has been a powerful strategy for us and helped us make a positive start toward sustained progress in EDI but it is only the start.
Alongside developing our access mechanisms at NPC, we have also focused on addressing barriers across the delivery of our programmes. In practise this has meant meeting people where they are, literally and figuratively.
Community Piping Clubs, localised audition locations for NYPBS, disability awareness training, a reimagined pricing models, pedagogy and resources have all been introduced to reduce friction. (I wrote about how helpful we found inclusion partners and priority groups in this article.) Plans for continuing to develop inclusive governance, including a new EDI working group drawing on perspectives beyond staff, will help us consolidate this deeper cultural shift.
As a result, we are not only seeing more young people engaging with NPC but importantly, we are starting to see more diversity across our community and everyone seems more comfortable- like they’re gaining deeper access and more benefits from our work.
Free-for-all still has its place in our toolkit, for example it’s seems really effective for an event targeting people in a specific location, like our NYPBS Four Corners events and our Piping Popups we recently delivered.
But now we are seeing much more equitable access and have more space to facilitate access thanks to expanding our mechanisms, including people paying what they can afford, whether that’s ‘full-price’, free or somewhere in between.
Equity isn’t a perfect solution, ideally, we wouldn’t simply be addressing access barriers but removing them altogether. However, it seems that equity is at least a necessary step on the journey to Liberation.
Whilst these first steps toward facilitating more equity across our work are affirming we must respect the sobering reality that those facing barriers are justifiably frustrated. Equity has been a powerful strategy for us and helped us make a positive start toward sustained progress in EDI but it is only the start.
For those privileged few wondering how this might affect them I’d recommend reading Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett’s fantastic book ‘The Spirit Level’. By examining different social and health outcomes in relation to countries income equality these social epidemiologists demonstrate the evidence that fairer societies are better for everyone, even those at the top. In our own experience inclusion is a fantastic neighbour. It helps excellence, creativity and fun flourish; these elements enhance our activity for everyone involved.