Our Journey to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

We recognise that for a community to thrive every member needs to feel valued, listened to, respected, welcome and represented. In the past we acknowledge that we have not done enough to foster the inclusive community we want to be. 

At the beginning of 2021 we started our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) journey by forming an EDI  Steering Group from across DEBRA. This group took the following steps:

• Developed and published our EDI policy
• Identified and made available online EDI training for employees
• Started monitoring and developed a plan for improving our recruitment process
• Created a framework for collecting and reviewing recruitment, employee, volunteer and membership diversity data
• Created and rolled out an EDI impact assessment
• Invested in EDI bespoke training for our Senior Leadership Team and Steering Group

We are committed to creating a culture which is inclusive and respectful, founded on equality, diversity and inclusion. Everything we do to achieve our EDI mission is underpinned by our values. When developing our values for the charity, our employees, members and volunteers endorsed “Inclusive” and “Respect” as two of the six chosen values. These values are being woven into all our people processes and support our EDI journey.

​It is important for us to embed EDI into all our activities. Here are just some of the ways we are making equality, diversity and inclusion a goal in 2022 and beyond:

• Run awareness events for employees and volunteers to increase knowledge and understanding of EDI
• Collect and interpret diversity data for employees, volunteers and members to help inform our EDI strategy and workplan in the future
• Regularly review our recruitment data to identify any potential issues and proactively engage with underrepresented groups
• Review our physical workspaces to identify areas for improvement
• Review our current materials (promotional and informational) to identify areas for improvement
• Set up support networks and mentoring opportunities within the workplace as part of our succession planning and talent agenda
• Create employee-led working groups to lead a number of EDI related initiatives
• Utilise our Equality Impact Assessment

EDI is integral to our latest 5 year strategy (2022-2026), ensuring we are fully supporting and representing the whole DEBRA community in our future plans.