EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY
This policy applies to all Trustees, staff, researchers, volunteers, management committee members, users and the general public.
Commitment
Equality and diversity are central to the work of Action for A-T.
Action for A-T will treat all people with dignity and respect, valuing the diversity of all. It will promote equality of opportunity and diversity. It will eliminate all forms of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, marital status, caring responsibilities, disability, gender re-assignment, age, social class, sexual orientation, religion/ belief, irrelevant offending background or any other factor irrelevant to the purpose in view.
It will tackle social exclusion, inequality, discrimination and disadvantage. For this policy to be successful, it is essential that everyone is committed to and involved in its delivery. Action for A-T’s goal is to work towards a just society free from discrimination, harassment and prejudice. Action for A-T aims to embed this in all its policies, procedures, day-to-day practices and external relationships.
Aims
Action for A-T aims to:
- Provide services that are accessible according to need
- Promote equality of opportunity and diversity in volunteering, employment and development
- Not unlawfully discriminate because of the Equality Act 2010 protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, sex (gender) and sexual orientation
- Create effective partnerships with all parts of our community
Objectives
Action for A-T’s objective is to realise its standards by:
- Sustaining, regularly evaluating and continually improving its services to ensure equality and diversity principles and best practice are embedded in our performance to meet the needs of individuals and groups
- Working together with the community to provide accessible and relevant service provision that responds to service users’ needs
- Ensuring staff, volunteers and trustees are representative of the community served and the employment policies are fair and robust
- Responding to volunteer’s & employees’ needs and encouraging their development to increase their contribution to effective service delivery
- Recognising and valuing the differences and individual contribution that all people make to Action for A-T
- Challenging discrimination
- Providing fair resource allocation
- Being accountable
Why have this policy?
Action for A-T recognises, respects and values diversity in its Trustees, employees, researchers, volunteers and service users.
Action for A-T has this policy because it is a people-led organisation that must always ensure it meets the needs of the community through fair and appropriate employment and development of the people who work and volunteer for Action for A-T.
PROCEDURES
Responsibility for Implementation
This policy covers the behaviour of all people employed or volunteering in Action for A-T or using the services and sets out the way they can expect to be treated in turn by Action for A-T. The overall responsibility for ensuring adherence to and implementation of this policy lies with the Trustees, staff and the management committee.
Method of Implementation
Action for A-T intends to implement this policy by:
- Ensuring that it is a condition of paid employment in Action for A-T
- Ensuring that Trustees, Management committee, researchers, volunteers and users are made aware, understand, agree with, and are willing to implement, this policy. All staff and volunteers will be given a copy of this policy as part of their induction
- Actively encouraging Trustees, staff, management committee and volunteers to participate in anti-discriminatory training, and making time and resources available for such training
- Monitoring the services, publicity and events provided by Action for A-T, to ensure that they are accessible to all sections of the population and do not discriminate, and taking active steps to ensure that participation is representative
Monitoring and Reviewing
Action for A-T has declared its commitment to establishing, developing, implementing and reviewing a policy of equality of opportunity. Effective record keeping and monitoring, and acting on information gathered, are essential in order to measure effectiveness and plan progress. The management committee will review the policy annually.
