Being an inclusive leader.An introduction to our Equality Scheme for line managers.

our 4 year strategy

2015-19

Contents.

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 12. Inclusive leadership ........................................................................................................................................ 33. Unconscious bias ........................................................................................................................................... 44. Equality objectives, activities and measures .................................................................................................. 55. Staff support and Inclusion Champion Scheme .......................................................................................... 12

The Equality Scheme 2015 -19 will be achieved if all staff across Action for Children are fully informed of the objectives, outcomes, activity and measures and work together to embed equality, diversity and working inclusively across Action for Children. This guide sets out how managers can help meet the objectives within the equality scheme and help to ensure that an inclusive working environment can improve outcomes for children and young people across the UK.

Welcome to Action for Children’s Inclusion Guide for line managers. In this guide, you will find helpful tips to embed equality, diversity and inclusion into your practice, systems and most importantly the culture of your teams. By being a supportive, creative and innovative line manager who raises awareness of equality, diversity and inclusion, you will help ensure that our staff and volunteers are able to bring their whole selves to work and deliver service excellence.

This guide also includes our five equality objectives with activities and measures that you can embed into your practice and the practice of your staff and volunteers. Ultimately, we want to improve outcomes for the children, young people and families who access our services. At Action for Children, we feel that this can be achieved through true engagement, a diverse and creative organisation and line managers who are inclusive leaders.

Siobhan Corria, Head of Inclusion

Introduction.

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Welcome to our Equality Scheme guide for line managers. We hope you will join us to become a leader of inclusion in Action for Children and enhance our service effectiveness.

At Action for Children, we value equality and diversity. We strive to ensure that all our offices and services provide an inclusive environment for our staff, our volunteers and all the children, young people and families who access our services.It is therefore essential that all our managers are inclusive leaders who value the benefit of recruiting diverse teams and creating inclusiveness through their leadership. Inclusive leadership values the creativity of a diverse team, enables the team to achieve their outcomes and ultimately deliver excellent services. Valuing, supporting and encouraging colleagues through inclusive leadership enables different skills and experiences to work together. Managing diverse teams is challenging but rewarding in terms of innovation.

THE FIVE STEPS TO INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP: Identify the need for a diverse and inclusive team Understand the importance Value the benefits of diversity Ensure your team feels safe Achieve better outcomes

Inclusive leaders are role models for their teams and for the children, young people and families who access our services. It is essential that inclusive leaders listen to their teams and ask questions instead of making assumptions or always thinking they are right.An inclusive working environment and service delivery setting is dependent on leaders who are able to bring the ideas and practice of equality, diversity and inclusion to life. By inspiring a shared vision, inclusive leaders can enable colleagues to enhance their practice to see how addressing equality issues enhances outcomes for children, young people and families who access our services.

Inclusive Leadership.

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It is a pleasure to introduce Action for Children’s Equality Scheme guide for line mangers. As a children’s services manager, I know only too well the challenges that we face in our services and the importance of a culture that is supportive, creative and inclusive. We must celebrate diversity within our teams and services and encourage people to bring their whole selves to work.

This is why my role as chair of Action for Children’s LGBT staff network, Celebrate, is incredibly important to me. I feel passionately that an environment which encourages and supports diversity can ultimately improve outcomes for children, young people and families, removing barriers that some colleagues might face if they do not feel able to be themselves at work.This introduction for managers provides activities and measures to evidence progress against our five equality objectives. You can use this guide to introduce the scheme to your staff, consider progress and help identify any barriers which individuals or your team faces. I hope that you are able to bring equality, diversity and inclusion to life at Action for Children and raise awareness of the importance of diversity across the organisation.

Claire Cahill, Chair of Celebrate LGBT

Every manager will ensure that Action for Children provides an inclusive working environment that respects and values the diversity of our employees.

HOW WILL WE ACHIEVE THIS OBJECTIVE?1. We will implement the Inclusion Champions

scheme and make it available to staff at every level of the organisation. Inclusion Champions will help embed equality, diversity and inclusive practices. Measure: In year 1 we will have 20 Inclusion Champions across the UK who have all received an induction guide and training about inclusion.

2. Produce internal material about equality, diversity and inclusion with an internal communication plan to cascade the information throughout Action for Children. Measure: The Loop and Taking Action will have published one inclusion article per month between 2015 and 2019.

3. By raising the profile of what inclusion means, we will encourage increased participation in the Staff Survey 2016 and increased scores for questions relating to inclusion.Measure: We will increase overall participation by 10% in 2016 and have increased positive inclusion responses by 5%.

4. We will provide an annual report to Council on progress in implementing the Equality Scheme with revised targets for years ahead, supplemented by occasional reports to the Executive Management Team.Measure: The annual report will be presented to Council in good time and will receive positive feedback from Council.

5. We will strengthen the terms of reference of the Participation and Diversity Group, which will help deliver the Action for Children vision and strategy for diversity and inclusion. Measure: Terms of Reference will be rewritten and agreed by the group within the first quarter of 2015.

Objective 1.

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We all have biases, both conscious and unconscious, which are formed from the environments in which we grew up and the environments we find ourselves in on a daily basis. They are also shaped and changed by people we know, the places we have visited and our memories throughout our lives.

A bias is a thought or feeling that we have about individuals and can be both positive and negative. Our biases influence our day to day decision making and how we behave towards a person or group of people. We all hold natural biases and we have natural ‘people preferences’. However, our unconscious bias can override rational decision making judgements and develop prejudice.It is important that we are aware of our biases and that we specifically try to confront our unconscious bias. If we don’t, we run the risk of discriminating against individuals or groups of individuals and making decisions based on what we have always thought, rather than logically thinking through our decision making.We should always challenge ourselves on why and how we reach decisions. Whether working with vulnerable children and families or recruiting new members of staff, it is essential that Action for Children staff are aware of their unconscious bias. Not being aware of your unconscious bias can often lead to errors in judgement and even stereotyping and discrimination.

In order to achieve a diverse organisation that is reflective of our communities across the UK, we must challenge our unconscious bias and understand how biases can impact on other people.

Unconscious bias.

By 2019 we will be recognised as the benchmark children’s charity for equality and diversity and an employer of choice for employees and volunteers within the sector.

ACTIVITY:1. We will continue to support the LGBT staff

network, Celebrate, and recognise the contributions members make through the annual appraisal scheme.Measure: By quarter 1 2016, Celebrate will have 150 members.

2. We will continue in the Stonewall Diversity Champion scheme and promote events throughout the organisation raising awareness of LGBT equality. Measure: Celebrate LGBT staff network will host at least two events every year.

3. We will produce an action plan to ensure Action for Children addresses any gaps in the 2014 -17 Stonewall Workplace Equality index requirements.Measure: Action for Children will be the highest ranked children’s charity in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2017.

4. We will ensure that information about Action for Children’s inclusion work is included on the external website. Measure: By quarter 3, there will be information in recruitment packs about our commitment, Action for Children’s LGBT staff network and Inclusion Champions.

5. We will appoint the most senior LGBT manager as ‘LGBT Champion’ to promote equalities across the organisation. Measure: By quarter 2 in 2015, we will have appointed a senior manager as LGBT Champion.

Objective 3.

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We will improve the diversity of our workforce and strive towards the most senior levels within the organisation reflecting the broadest possible diversity.

HOW WILL KNOW WE HAVE SUCCEEDED?1. The Company Secretary will prepare and

implement an action plan to improve diversity at Trustee level.Measure: By quarter 3 of 2015, an action plan will have been written and presented to council. By quarter 4 steps will have been taken to implement the action plan.

2. The Senior Leadership Team will undertake development around equalities and how this will be led in 2015-16.Measure: In quarter 1, the senior leadership will agree equalities objectives and activity to meet the activity.

3. We will undertake a three yearly review of the Board of Trustees, committee members and EMT and publish the profile by equality characteristics. Measure: By 2019, the trustee board will have more diverse trustees from a range of backgrounds.

4. We will fully brief Trustees and senior management on this equality scheme to support them in providing visible leadership in equality, diversity and inclusion.Measure: Trustee Inclusion Champions will be appointed in the first year of this equality scheme with clear role definitions for raising awareness of equality and diversity.

5. We will take steps to attract a wide diverse range of candidates when vacancies arise at senior management and the board of trustees, ensuring that children and young people are involved in the decision making process. Measure: Children and young people will be involved in every interview for trustees and senior leaders and influence the decision making process.

Objective 2.

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Objective 5.

Children, young people, parents and stakeholders will understand Action for Children’s commitment to equality and diversity and the benefits working inclusively can bring.

ACTIVITY:1. Equality and diversity training opportunities

are made available to all staff and a resource library is kept updated with new materials.Measure: All services will display Action for Children’s equality and diversity commitment.

2. We will implement an Equality Day which will raise awareness of equality, diversity and working inclusively.Measure: In 2016, Equality and Diversity week will be celebrated in 25% more services than in 2015.

3. We will produce induction resources for all volunteers and include regular inclusion updates in the volunteer newsletter.Measure: Every new starter will receive an induction booklet in the induction email, which will also be available on the external website.

4. We will produce materials to assist managers in understanding inclusive leadership and unconscious bias. This will support Action for Children’s vision for equality, diversity and inclusion and improve the confidence and skills of our managers to lead a diverse workforce.Measure: By quarter 2 of 2015, there will be a broad range of inclusion resources available to staff across the organisation

5. Action for Children staff will sign a pledge to commit to the values and principles of equality and diversity and to challenge discrimination.Measure: By quarter 1 of 2016, 25% of all services will have signed the pledge.

Objective 4.

We will pro-actively involve children and young people in the design and delivery of our work.

ACTIVITY 1. We will establish a diverse network of children

and young people who actively influence decision making in Action for Children.Measure: Ten Ambassador opportunities in each year of the equality scheme.

2. We will develop and manage an online community of children and young people who actively participate with Action for Children at every level of the organisation. Measure: Increase the Facebook group membership by 25% in quarter 1 of 2016.

3. We will set up two internal boards of young people; a design board and an audit boardMeasure: Select and train ten young people in 2015.

4. We will implement a policy of recruiting young people from our servicesMeasure: Review all job descriptions and recruitment channels by quarter 1 of 2016 and identify appropriate roles for young people.

5. We will take steps to attract a wide and diverse range of candidates when vacancies arise at senior management and the Board of Trustees, ensuring that children and young people are involved in the decision making process. Measure: Children and young people will be involved in every interview for trustees and senior leaders and influence the decision making process.

Action for Children recognises the importance of diversity throughout the organisation and regular engagement with the workforce, volunteers and children and young people who use our services. In order to recognise and support diversity within Action for Children, we have two schemes that will assist in raising awareness of equality issues, provide a forum for networking and sharing good practice and peer support. The schemes also enable senior management to engage directly with network members and develop a greater understanding of the needs of a diverse range of employees – for example which policies may impact more on employees with one or more of the protected characteristics and what changes can be made to improve staff experiences. Commissioners, stakeholders and partners recognise the benefits an inclusive organisation can bring to Action for Children, including:

Promoting diversityPromoting personal and

professional developmentBuilding communication networksEnhancing the reputation of Action for

Children as an inclusive organisationProviding peer support

CELEBRATEAction for Children’s LGBT staff network is called Celebrate and was officially launched in October 2014. The network has members throughout the UK and meets quarterly as well as producing bi-monthly newsletters and holding awareness raising events. Celebrate offers members:

Regular equality updates

Invitations to free Stonewall eventsRegional Diversity ChampionsThe space to be yourself, give and receive

support, networking opportunities, gain confidential support from the networkAction for Children recognises LGBT networks are not a complete diversity solution but they are an important step in demonstrating our commitment to eradicating homophobia and supporting our LGBT staff, volunteers and service users.

INCLUSION CHAMPIONS To support our commitment to becoming a truly inclusive organisation, a network of Inclusion Champions will be developed to assist in embedding equality and diversity across every department throughout the whole of Action for Children. Inclusion Champions will act as ambassadors in, and for, their department and their geographic location. They will also share best practice and ensure that equality and diversity is at the heart of all policy development, helping to review and recognise the work we undertake.Inclusion Champions will get colleagues talking about equality and diversity and that inclusion is visible throughout everyone’s work.

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Staff support networks and inclusion Champion scheme.

Celebrate Inclusion Champions

Celebrate

Action for Children 3 The Boulevard Ascot Road Watford, WD18 8AG

Telephone: 01923 361 500

Action for Children supports and protects the young and vulnerable as they grow up. We make their lives better: now, tomorrow and every day.

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