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Equality & Diversity Policy

Table of Contents

1      Introduction
2      Policy statement
2.1        Aims
2.2        Purpose
2.3        Scope
3      Our Standards
4      Responsibilities
5      Laws and regulations
6      Monitoring and compliance
7      Training and Support
8      Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
9      Appendix 1: E&D Action Plan 2025
10     Appendix 2: Definitions
11     Change Control

1      Introduction

Dandelion Time is committed to creating a more inclusive organisation which benefits from a variety of perspectives and better reflects the communities we serve, to make smarter decisions and better support our families.

We have a humanitarian, ethical and legal responsibility to champion equality, diversity and inclusion. It is only through embracing equality and diversity that we can truly embody our fundamental principles and organisational values and create a more compassionate organisation.

We expect all our people to be accountable for equality, diversity and inclusion at Dandelion Time. It is only by working together in unity that we can ensure that everyone can perform at our best.

This policy reflects that equality, diversity and inclusion are an integral part of Dandelion Time. It sets out how we will treat all families, staff, volunteers, contractors and other stakeholders with dignity, fairness, and respect. This is regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

2      Policy statement

2.1       Aims

This policy sets out our commitment to:

2.2       Purpose

This policy’s purpose is to:

> Not unlawfully discriminate because of the Equality Act 2010 protected characteristics of:

·         Age
·         Disability
·         Gender reassignment
·         Marriage or civil partnership
·         Pregnancy and maternity
·         Race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin)
·         Religion or belief
·         Sex
·         Sexual orientation

> Oppose and avoid all forms of unlawful discrimination. This includes in:

·         Pay and benefits
·         Terms and conditions of employment
·         Dealing with grievances and discipline
·         Dismissal
·         Redundancy
·         Leave for parents
·         Requests for flexible working
·         Selection for employment, promotion, training or other developmental opportunities

2.3       Scope

This policy applies to:

3      Our Standards

No unlawful discrimination shall occur in the support and management of our people and delivery of our services, and all decisions shall be objective and fair with individual circumstances considered.

Our services will take a person-centred approach, and diversity considerations will be incorporated into processes and delivery to ensure that all our services are accessible to all; we prevent discrimination, and we protect the dignity of our service users.

We expect all our people will use appropriately inclusive language and behave in a way that will uphold the dignity of colleagues, service users, and stakeholders.

We commit to providing and supporting channels for our people to have their voices heard. This includes opportunities to network with one another, and feedback to organisational proposals.

Ensure that recruitment & selection, and promotion is transparent, merit-based and fair. We commit to providing recruitment and selection training, including training on equal opportunities and unconscious bias, to support these objectives. Further details are set out in our Dandelion Time Recruitment and Selection Policy

Where reasonable we will make tailored adjustments to accommodate the needs of our people, including those seeking to join Dandelion Time as staff or volunteers.

Create a working environment that values difference and is free from prohibited discrimination, victimisation, bullying or harassment. Any individual who experiences or witnesses’ discrimination / harassment is encouraged to report it. All complaints will be taken seriously, promptly and thoroughly investigated, and dealt with in a sensitive and effective manner. Further details are set out in our Anti-Bullying and Complaints policies.

All of our written and digital communications will follow Digital Accessibility guidelines and communication accessibility standards, and be available in alternative formats on request

Within our referral information we capture an appropriate level of information including ethnicity, gender & disability data on referral forms (we ask the referrer to complete this from their records/in consultation with the family), to monitor the diversity of our service. We have recently reviewed our referral form to request preferred pronoun for referred child and carers, and to ensure inclusive language. Staff have chosen to use pronouns in introductory statements on our website and on letter and email signatures to demonstrate our respect for individual choice in pronoun use.

The portrayal of under-represented groups within our campaigns and materials should be balanced and not reinforce stereotypes.

We will maintain clear procedures to ensure that fundraising practices do not put pressure on or take advantage of people in vulnerable circumstances. This could include, for example, speakers of English as an additional language, older persons or people with health conditions or impairments.

4      Responsibilities

The Board of Trustees are responsible for championing equality, diversity and inclusion and ensuring that the policy is consistent with the fundamental principles and that resources, support and leadership is provided to ensure this policy can be meaningfully implemented

The Senior Management Team are responsible for championing this policy on behalf of the Board of Trustees and ensuring compliance with policy and the effective development, implementation and monitoring of equality and diversity objectives and related action.

The CEO is the policy owner and is responsible for ensuring that this policy is fit for purpose and up to date.

The HR Manager is the policy lead and is responsible for the development, monitoring and updating of this policy.

Line-managers and the Senior Management Team are responsible for implementing the policy and role modelling inclusive behaviour and providing support to their staff and volunteers

Our people are responsible for championing equality, diversity and inclusion, understanding how the policy relates to their role, and reporting cases of discrimination, harassment, and unfair treatment.

5      Laws and regulations

This organisation is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and to ensuring that no one is unlawfully discriminated against or harassed. We comply with relevant UK legislation, including (but not limited to) the Equality Act 2010, the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998, the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 (which from 26 October 2024 introduces a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work).
We also recognise any applicable public sector equality duties and will monitor, review and update this policy in light of further legislative developments.

6      Monitoring and compliance

All diversity-related staff and volunteer, service users and complaints data, will be captured and actively monitored, to ensure our policy and strategies are working effectively in practice and inform their development.

Diversity-related actions and targets within the corporate strategy will be monitored and reported on.

Procedures will be put in place to assess and monitor potential and existing partners, to confirm that their practices and behaviours are consistent with our commitment to equal opportunities.

Any breach of this policy will be promptly investigated; breaches staff will be a matter for disciplinary action in accordance with our Code of Conduct.

Anonymised equality and diversity monitoring information may be provided to external organisations to meet our contractual obligations or to comply with legislation (e.g., NHS’s Workforce Disability / Race Equality Standards, or gender pay gap reporting requirements).

7      Training and Support

All our people will have access to training through mandatory and recommended routes to assist them to translate the requirements of this policy into practice.

This will include an equality, diversity and inclusion e-learning module made available through our e-learning provider.

Equality Impact Assessment training is available to all policy and project leads, and additional support can be provided on request.

Disability confidence awareness training will be available at all levels and training on supporting disabled staff available at line manager level and above.

8      Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures

Details of our grievance and disciplinary policies and procedures can be found in The Staff Handbook. This includes with whom an employee should raise a grievance – usually their Line Manager.

Use of Dandelion Time’s grievance or disciplinary procedures does not affect an employee’s right to make a claim to an employment tribunal within three months of the alleged discrimination.

9      Appendix 1: E&D Action Plan 2025

To reach service users from minority, we have planned a more proactive approach to actively reduce barriers for people with protected characteristics to access Dandelion Time’s service.  This includes:

·      Delivering the existing diversity training encompassed in the Nature Craft and Family Systems (a requirement for all caseworkers), to all staff and session volunteers and all other volunteers as part of their induction to ensure we reach all those working with the charity. It will include:

·      Training and guidance on inclusion/good practice including:

·         Internal :Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse Strategy & Awareness of ‘Signs of Safety’ Model adopted be Kent & Medway for safeguarding.

·         ACEVO (addressing diversity in leadership) Communication, flexible methods to prevent language being a barrier, language and terminology to demonstrate respect of cultures and preferences.

·         Enhancing the knowledge of cultural stories and history of those belonging to groups with protected characteristics.

·         Revisiting models and values in child development theory in relation to ethnic minority groups.

·         GALOP (guidance on LGBT+ access and barriers to domestic abuse services).

·      Enhancing programme by:

·         Introduction of additional nature, cooking and craft activities which demonstrate an understanding of different cultures and communities (for example musical instruments, materials, crafts)

·         Being considerate and responsive to a range of festivals and celebrations

·         Raising awareness of our service in community settings with for those with protected characteristics by establishing partnerships with relevant community organisations.

·         Ensuring the leadership team is diverse.

We continually monitor our engagement with referees and participants with protected characteristics, evaluate from and make changes as required to JD’s and the format of staff contracts.

Encouraging those with protected characteristics to volunteer and to be employed. We will continue to ensure our adverts for staff and volunteers reach these communities, for example the local volunteer bureau advertise to BAME and LGBTQ groups. We have been successful and have adults with additional needs and mental health difficulties volunteering. We have people from LGBTQ+ and BAME communities as both volunteers and employees.

Demonstrate the personal pronoun preferences of staff and volunteers and including on website, letter, and email signatures.

We have ongoing activities underway to tackle a whole range of areas;

These include

·         Website review to ensure we achieve AA rating for accessibility
·         Ongoing Social media content and biography reviews
·         Measuring Dandelion Time Client diversity compared with Kent averages
·         Additional placement of benches around the site
·         Accessibility investigation and action for pathways and access to various outbuildings
·         Deployment of hearing loops for training areas
·         Research into provision of on-site transport using a golf buggy style vehicle
·         Volunteer drivers to remove barriers to those unable to reach our sites

10   Appendix 2: Definitions

What we mean by Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Equality: ensuring people are not treated less favourably; unjustifiably. Specifically on the basis of one or more protected characteristics defined by the Equality Act 2010 and other anti-discrimination legislations.

Diversity: recognising and valuing the benefits of different perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. Also, identifying and acknowledging under-representation, and taking active steps to address it through initiatives, policies, and systemic change.

 Inclusion: actively embracing people with diverse perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. And creating an environment that enables us all to feel a sense of belonging, and where we can achieve the extraordinary together.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are not identical, but they are reliant on one other to tackle discrimination. For example, we cannot achieve real inclusion unless we embrace equality and diversity. We often use diversity as umbrella term to describe any of our equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Unlawful Discrimination

When a person or group of people is treated less favourably than another person or group of people would be treated based on their protected characteristic or^[1] religious or political opinion.

Each of the above, are grounds covered by current anti-discrimination legislation in the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands.

Types of Discrimination

Positive Action

When an employer or organisation takes positive steps to help or encourage certain groups to participate in activity or overcome or minimise disadvantages. For example, offering leadership developing training to women when an organisation has identified that women are under-represented in senior leadership roles. This measure stops short of allowing preference to be given to less qualified applicants (e.g., employing or promoting an individual solely because they are from an under-represented group regardless of their suitability for the position); this is considered positive discrimination and is unlawful.

Occupational Requirement

There are times when it is fair and lawful to state a preference for a person of a particular sex or a particular ethnic origin. This is when you can prove that it is essential for the purposes of the job to be of a particular sex or to come from a particular ethnic background. This is referred to as an occupational requirement.

Equality Targets

These are targets an organisation has decided to establish to ensure equality of opportunity. Equality targets are not the same as setting or establishing quotas. Quotas involve setting aside a number of jobs only to be filled by a particular group. This restricts the opportunity for other people to fill these positions and would therefore result in unfair or unlawful discrimination.

Reasonable Adjustments

Under anti-discrimination legislation (e.g., Equality Act 2010) employers are required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled staff. This means making changes to a disabled person’s environment or the way their employment is structured to mitigate any disadvantages and allows them to work safely and productively. This may include, removing physical barriers, providing extra support, and providing flexibility.

11   Change Control

^[1] Only in Northern Ireland