This National Inclusion Week, we are very proud to announce that we are making leaps and bounds within The Wilf Ward Family Trust in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
In 2023, we signed up for a workforce accreditation with the National Centre for Diversity. The goal is to improve our workplace culture by looking at how we measure Fairness, Respect, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion, Engagement – FREDIE: the six pillars of a truly inclusive workplace. All six of these pillars form our basis for the objectives of our EDI strategy, now and in the future.
In keeping with our organisational values, and in the spirit of inclusion, we have also included the individuals we support in this mission for improving and expanding our FREDIE across The Trust. Individuals were asked to form an accessible way of communicating and understanding the principals of FREDIE, and they came up with the below symbols.
We developed an action-plan of over 10 areas of where to drive improvement with specific activities. So far, we have achieved the following steps:-
– We introduced new E-learning courses on Neurodiversity Awareness and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for all employees. So far, 53% of the workforce have completed the EDI training, and 45% have completed the Neurodiversity Awareness training.
– We have developed an Inclusive Recruitment Panel involving individuals we support. The Panel involves individuals when recruiting for key Central roles within The Trust, which ensures we select the right people for the roles, whilst taking into account the views and questions of individuals we support.
– We launched The Trust Voice in July of this year. The Trust Voice are a dedicated team of colleagues, board members, and leadership team members that create a colleague representative forum. The group creates a unified voice for all members of the organisation. We are always looking for employees who are interested in being a part of Trust Voice.
– Any of our new policies created must now have an EDI Statement and an EDI Impact assessment.
We were pleased to receive a conditional Employer of Excellence Award, which is due to be reviewed and finalised by the end of the year. There are many more major steps that we will be taking to improve our overall FREDIE, and it is our ongoing mission to work towards these important objectives.