Mainstreaming Diversity
Mainstreaming diversity is about including everyone. It is about creating a working culture that respects, welcomes and harnesses differences for the benefit of the organisation and the individual. Astar works with organisations to help them foster an environment that will ensure that the organisation maximises the resources and skills available to it. This includes:
- Advising on the integration of equality and diversity into strategy, values, policy and service delivery
- Monitoring or auditing existing processes to ensure diversity targets become an integral part of good business management
An organisation that effectively values equality and diversity has competitive advantage. It will not only have access to the widest pool of the most talented people, it will also be better equipped to proactively respond to the needs of a diverse customer base.
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Equality & Diversity Legislation
For many organisations, the need to comply with equality legislation is one of the key drivers to mainstream and value diversity. Legislation, including the Sex Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act, Employment Act, Race Relations Act, Race Relations (Amendment) Act and more recent legislative changes such as the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, the Equality Act 2006, Human Rights Act and the forthcoming Single Equality Act, all have a significant impact on employment, policy and service delivery. Astar works with organisations to help them understand and respond to their legal duties. This includes:
- Training staff to understand the legislation and how this impacts on the organisation, their own role and function, ways of working and service delivery
- Strategic consultancy e.g. for developing, reviewing and implementing an equality strategy
- An audit of current policies and practices against the requirements of equality legislation and organisational objectives
- Impact assessment frameworks as a means of delivering quality services.
By ensuring clear understanding and consideration of equality and diversity legislation, organisations can build legal requirements into their functions and ways of working. An organisation that reflects and responds to equality and diversity is well equipped to deliver business to a diverse customer base in the 21st Century.
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Equality Impact Assessment
Public authorities are legally required to conduct assessments of the impact of their current or intended policies and services for any disadvantageous experiences or outcomes of Black or Minority Ethnic groups and of people with disabilities. Furthermore the principles of Equality Impact Assessments can be applied to all aspects of equality and diversity such as gender, age, religion and sexual orientation. In addition, Equality Impact Assessments enable organisations to examine current or intended policies, practices, procedures and services for their impact on service users, employees and stakeholders. It is an essential part of achieving effective and people focused policies and services which meet needs and objectives in a fair and equitable way.
In addition to bespoke consultancy support, Astar offers the following in relation to Equality Impact Assessment:
- Impact Assessment training – tailor-made or as a workshop package
- Development of bespoke impact assessment tools for use by practitioners
- Strategic consultancy e.g. for developing, reviewing and implementing a race or diversity strategy
- An audit of current policies and practices against the requirements of legislation and organisational objectives
By assessing the impact of functions, policies and services, organisations can ensure that that they are not only meeting legislative requirements, but also ensuring that the benefits of policies are realised and that equality for stakeholders begins to become a reality.
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