Active Lancashire Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and Implementation plan

The Active Lancashire Board

Active Lancashire’s Board is fully committed to recruiting and engaging people with appropriate diversity, independence, skills, experience and knowledge to take effective decisions that further our organisational aims and objectives.

• Active Lancashire has adopted a target of a minimum of 30% of each gender on our Board; and,
• Active Lancashire will demonstrate a strong and public commitment to progressing towards achieving gender parity and greater diversity on the board including, but not limited to. Black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) diversity and disability.

Our Commitment

This statement of policy is our public commitment to promoting safeguarding diversity and equality in-line with the Public Sector Equality Duty (Equality Act 2010). It covers the Board and the staff of Active Lancashire, our delivery partners across our delivery network, their staff, and the beneficiaries of our activities.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and the promotion of an inclusive society by delivering services in a manner that is relevant, responsive and sensitive.

We will apply our equality and diversity, safeguarding adult policies and associated procedures to our delivery of all projects and programmes and in all of our interaction with the people and partners with whom we work as well as members of our own Staff and Board. Our Staff handbook and policies will be used to enable, upskill and support our employees as part of our commitment to enabling diversity and equality in the workplace, continuing to support all aspects of their employment and their delivery with us including, considering and supporting their mental and physical health and wellbeing.

We value diversity and recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We will use these values to underpin and drive our strategic direction, business planning and implementation across all aspects of the organisation.

We expect commitment and involvement of all Board members, Employees, Partner organisations and providers of goods and services in working towards the achievement of a fair and just society where people are treated with dignity and respect, inequalities are challenged and we anticipate, and respond positively to different needs and circumstances to help everyone can achieve their potential.

We do not tolerate any form of direct discrimination (including by perception or association), indirect discrimination, abuse, harassment or victimisation of staff and/or service users on any grounds including in relation to the following protected characteristics: Age; Disability; Gender; Gender Reassignment; Race/Ethnicity; Religion or Belief; Sexual Orientation; Marriage and Civil Partnership; Pregnancy and Maternity.

Within all of the organisation’s activity our commitment will translate into actions that:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, abuse, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act;
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Removing or minimising disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics;
• Taking steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people.

Implementation plan

• We will measure and monitor participation on our programmes by profiling beneficiaries to ensure that our projects and programmes are promoted effectively to all aspects of our communities, particularly those that require further targeted promotion to address issues of under representation and barriers to engagement.
• We will positively promote our work across a diverse range of partners and ensure our marketing materials reference and reflect the communities we serve. To enable us to do this, we will use extensive case-studies as examples of positive role models drawn from our communities.
• Wherever possible opportunities will be made accessible to all – by carefully considering the delivery location, means of promotion using both social media and traditional marketing such as flyers, newsletters etc, access to childcare, timing of activities – eg during school hours, summer holiday programmes provide associated activities for children; we will seek to reduce barriers to engagement.
• Wherever possible we will make specific provision for those with physical and emotional barriers to access such as the hard of hearing, visually impaired and those with learning difficulties to ensure that access and the support provided by our projects and programmes is available to all.
• We will measure and monitor the makeup of our beneficiaries by age, economic profile and by ethnicity to ensure that our services are reaching all groups who make up the target population;
• Wherever possible we will consider activities designed to appeal to groups who would not normally access services as a means to engage them in our programmes
• We will be sensitive to the needs of individuals who are caring for older relatives – referral through to support through to specialist support agencies including Age concern etc;

Staff - Training and Personal Development

Equality and diversity issues and cultural awareness and safeguarding will be included in core training for all staff within Active Lancashire and delivery partners. At the recruitment stage for both staff and partners, potential applicants will be made aware of our commitment to equality and diversity, particularly emphasising the behaviour expected of them. These expectations will also be embodied in personal development and appraisal processes.

Staff will receive training on safeguarding, equality and diversity issues at least every two years to ensure that they are able to deal sensitively with the diverse needs of customers.

We will carry out monitoring of project staff by characteristics – sex, race, disability, age (with a view to identifying any significant under-representation).

Delivery Partners

All contracted delivery partners are required to have their own Safeguarding, Equality and Diversity Policies, however we will promote and seek that all partners will commit to the principles embodied in this document by supporting the work of the partnership and individual partnership and delivery agreements they enter into.

Participants

Participants will be informed of our commitment to safeguarding, equality and diversity on entry into our programmes as part of our promotional and induction activity.

The equality and safeguarding commitment will be included in both individual and group induction sessions.

Performance

Active Lancashire will monitor its performance in terms of representation effectiveness of different groups through the collection of beneficiary data at the point of entry into projects and Programmes and this will form the basis for monitoring up on exit from the scheme(s).

Reporting on equality data will take place as part on the monthly monitoring to project Steering Groups and will include monitoring representation and performance of different groups (sex, race, disability, age).

Communication

Our commitment to equality and diversity and safeguarding will be included in a full range of documents and other media, such as application and information literature, newsletters, job descriptions, contracts for services and policies.

We will communicate effectively and information will be made as accessible as possible using interpreters if requested and/or translated materials. A number of customer service’s staff are trained in sign language. We will offer communication in a pictorial format, audio or video where requested to do so.

Review

The plan shall be reviewed annually as part of the Board performance review (in Q4).

Targets (Updated March 2023)