Equality, diversity & inclusion

Ategi has a long standing reputation for being a friendly and fair support provider and employer.

We welcome people from different backgrounds into the team and we don’t discriminate. We work hard to ensure that everyone we employ, every shared lives carer we assist and every person we support has access to the same opportunities. However, we also recognise that people from minority groups may benefit from additional measures to be and to feel better included.

We monitor our culture to ensure we are as accessible as we can be for all groups and communities; that we are equitable in our practices and that we break down barriers where we can.

Ategi has a comprehensive Equality and Diversity Policy that is further supported by our Anti-Harassment Policy and Code of Conduct. Together these documents alongside the training we provide to staff formalise our approach to ensuring a positive and inclusive working environment. However, recognising the need continuous improvement alongside research on people’s experiences in the charitable sector, we want to do more. Therefore we have commenced an internal review, identified objectives to further advance our service and have signed up to the Eight principles to address the diversity deficit in charity leadership – ACEVO.

Throughout the year we will be reviewing and developing our systems further to enable greater data collection on the diversity of people we support and shared lives carers. In the first instance, we have analysed, and shared below, the equality and diversity position of our workforce.

Workforce EDI Position as of May 2022

We introduced a new comprehensive data collection process in August 2021 for all new employees and we are in the process of retrospectively collecting that data for employees already in post.

We have undertaken a number of analyses using data currently available of our employees to inform the current position and benchmark our progress for the future. The following data presents a summary of our current position.

EDI Objectives May 2022 – May 2023

We are committed to ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

The following actions are positive steps towards improving equality, diversity and inclusion at ategi through learning, listening and doing.

The charity’s existing Equal Opportunities Policy will be reviewed and extended to support the movement for improved diversity and inclusion.
We will further develop our systems and procedures for capturing employee data to enable greater analysis that will inform our position and progress as an employer. In particular we will assess the disability diversity within our workforce.
We will introduce systems to record EDI for shared lives carers and people we support.
We will work transparently and share our EDI statistics on our website
We will assess the data available to us on a department by department basis to ensure diversity across all levels of the organisation.

We will identify and remove any barriers that might prevent the progression of employees from minority groups.
We will conduct an EDI audit of the Board of Trustees.
We will continue to encourage applications from minority groups for all roles (paid & volunteer, including Trustees) across the organisation.
We will explore a targeted recruitment approach to address identified gaps in diversity.
We will monitor referrals received to assess how we might improve the accessibility of our services.

We will collate diversity data for the geographical areas in which we work to identify practical targets on reaching people we support, employees and shared lives carers.
We will introduce more events and activities to enable greater participation and inclusion from employees, shared lives carers and people we support in our services.
We will adapt and improve our recruitment processes to enable application for L1 Disability Confident Employer Status

We will conduct a review in 12 months and share an update on our progress against the objectives we have set.

Kate Allen,
Chief Executive

May 2022