POhWER has been standing up for equality since 1996. Through our advocacy, information and advice services we support people to be empowered and treated as equal people in our society.  Equality, diversity and inclusion is about driving societal change for all people at POhWER including our staff, volunteers, members, trustees, beneficiaries, partners and our wider society.

POhWER aims to achieve this through reflective and active engagement and authentic actions and commitments. This document provides the guiding principles of what EDI means to us, our organisational aspirations and intentions for the foreseeable future.

What does Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) mean to us?

These terms can mean many different things to everybody. Our priority is ensuring that everyone has a solid understanding of what EDI means to us collectively at POhWER and how we intend to translate our commitments into action over the next 3 years. This begins with defining what equality, diversity and inclusion will look like for our Charity.

Our 5-year Strategy, published in 2020 includes six strategic themes, all of which have an important connection to our EDI strategic aspirations.

As a Charity, we are on a continuous journey and we aspire to be a leader of EDI practices within the Charity sector by being known for going above and beyond the minimum baseline of Equality laws in everything we do.

An increasing body of research evidences the many benefits of creating inclusive workplaces, embracing a diverse workforce and championing equality within employment. Inclusive organisations attain a rich pool of skills, mind sets and experiences which leads to resourcefulness, having greater resilience, being dynamically solution focused and are culturally innovative.  An inclusive workplace in turn drives an inclusive service experience for our beneficiaries.

Informed POhWER colleagues will translate their EDI knowledge and best practice into supporting beneficiaries with an understanding of how discrimination and oppression can be tackled effectively and eradicated.  

It is important to us to create inclusive and informed working environments in our Charity where everyone feels that they belong and colleague’s lived experiences, skills and abilities are equally valued.

We recognise that embracing EDI is not limited to one dimension of a person’s identity in how we experience society. We will work towards bettering our understanding of the intersectional needs that our work will contribute to and create more inclusivity for all colleagues, Trustees and volunteers at POhWER.

What we mean by Inclusion

POhWER will ensure that practices and policies provide equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalised, such as those who have physical or intellectual disabilities and members of other under-represented groups, will always be in place. We believe in our contemporary society, the definition of who needs support and people who are marginalised or minoritised often goes beyond the nine protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010. Many marginalising factors cannot be observed easily such as poverty, invisible disability, domestic violence or homelessness. Therefore our application of inclusion must be for everyone who comes into contact with our Charity.

POhWER believes our language and behaviour directly impacts on how people perceive their working environment.  Setting standards and policies outlining expectations and addressing EDI failures transparently is imperative for safeguarding our workforce and our beneficiaries. Our Equal Opportunities, Capability, Code of Conduct, Dignity at Work, Whistleblowing, Safeguarding and Grievance policies exist to transparently outline what is expected from our POhWER colleagues. Our Dignity in Services & Protection group of policies (e.g. code of conduct, complaints, zero tolerance abuse, safeguarding, dignity at work, grievance, equal opportunities whistleblowing) sets out our commitments for preventing abuse and harassment within our services and remedies when incidents occur that do not meet our high expectations internally or externally. Policies are our opportunity to drive behaviours & a culture of upstanders, not bystanders.

We have a commitment to developing, revising and enforcing inclusive policies and procedures. By doing so, we can ensure that there is uniformity in how they are understood and implemented across the Charity. This will be paired with providing a range of empowering training and knowledge building opportunities which are available to all.

All colleagues, no matter what their lived experience, should feel able to bring their whole selves to work without judgement, stigma or unfair retribution.  We will continue to be transparent about our expectations of respectful behaviours to one another and reflect this in our practice towards everyone who comes into contact with POhWER. Our standards rely on mutual respect and we will not tolerate abuse in our line of work.

It is important to us that we strive towards creating and maintaining inclusive physical and virtual workspaces where colleagues can courageously ask for what they need, such as reasonable adjustments through our HR team, in order to work at their best. Colleagues should be supported to bring issues to our attention when we do not meet their needs adequately.

We aim to support our colleague’s experience throughout the lifecycle of their time at POhWER during recruitment, promotion and evaluation with processes that are fair and inclusive. This will help us with our ambitions of creating a level playing field and removing known barriers to professional development.

By dismantling a culture of unnecessary hierarchy and gatekeeping, through educating and empowering, our ambition is that inclusion is authentically being practiced in every directorate across POhWER. We will ensure that we integrate supportive and inclusive behaviours into our Charity’s DNA so that EDI becomes the norm” in our daily activities.

 

What we mean by Diversity

The Charity sector as a whole lacks diversity and historically often fails to attract talent from diverse social, economic and ethnic groups consistently. We have observed that there are many under-represented groups here at POhWER through our bi-annual diversity surveys. When we refer to diversity we are referring to the state of being diverse and that different social and ethnic backgrounds are represented in our Charity proportional to the UK population.

To understand diversity we must observe it, measure it over time and analyse data to understand what the issues are to equal access in the workplace and services and what interventions can be established to improve the representation of our colleagues, partners and the experience for people who use our services.

For many, data surveys and forms can feel uncomfortable and raise concerns about how this data will be utilised. Wherever possible, POhWER will gather data anonymously so we can promote psychological safety with diversity disclosure and analysis without bias. We will ensure that any post-survey results and actions are followed up in a timely manner and appropriate methods of feedback on the surveys conducted are available to all.

POhWER is evidence-led and action-oriented, using various forms of quantitative and qualitative data to inform our strategies and action plans. We will continue to measure, analyse and report on the impact of this EDI strategy and corresponding action plan.

We will also continue to design data measuring and reporting processes that can capture diversity information to help us make informed decisions for our Charity.

To truly become a fully diverse organisation, our EDI strategy needs to be practiced and requires effort from all within the organisation. We have a collective responsibility to commit to effecting these changes by embracing this EDI journey. This EDI commitment must be embraced not only by the Board of Trustees, EDI Manager, CEO and People Director, but by every single person at POhWER.

POhWER’s EDI initiatives should help to create a feeling of togetherness and understanding throughout the Charity, regardless of your position. The success of this EDI strategy relies on our collective contributions to building cultural humility and forging strong partnerships with each other that are inspired by our differences.

POhWER values the voices, feedback and opinions of our colleagues and beneficiaries who use our services. We will approach this by designing a range of qualitative data measuring processes to understand how our actions are being received by colleagues and to guide future continuous improvement that may be required.   

Through the creation and use of these measuring tools, we will be able to capture, monitor, analyse and act upon the information that is presented with actions to improve diversity profiles, providing detailed information on the intended use of any data gathered and how staff can easily access it.

We will rely on our own diversity data to ensure that we are accurately setting targets that are representative of the UK population based upon the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and Census demographic data. Moving the dial on our targets as we meet them means that we are continuously reaching higher to achieve true diversity at POhWER.

Through listening, learning to ask the right questions and responding with honesty and integrity, we aim to use this objective data to inform decisions and evidence the need for changes in our policies and practices across the Charity.

What we mean by Equality

Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We believe that the very essence of equality is about ensuring that every person who comes into contact with POhWER’s work has the same opportunity to be treated as an equal person especially in status, rights and opportunities.

It is also about recognising the impact on people within society when they are not treated as equal people and the systemic barriers behind driving this. POhWER has an ethical and legal role in removing the barriers to equal treatment for our beneficiaries and our colleagues. We will ensure that opportunities and information are made clear and available to everyone to access.

We encourage colleagues to engage in courageous, open and candid discussions and debates that are respectful. Everyone no matter what their role is at POhWER has a right to an opinion, however when that opinion creates unequal access or reduces dignity for someone else that is not acceptable. Understandably, disagreement will sometimes arise and this will never be treated with retribution. 

Everyone who comes into contact with POhWER is entitled to expect to be treated as an equal person, maintain respectful boundaries and speak up when something does not meet expectations. Abuse, victimisation, harassment, discrimination, violence and prejudice in any form is not accepted at POhWER and grievances raised will always be formally investigated as part of our HR safeguarding duty.

When we are made aware that something doesn't meet our standards, we promise to take steps to fix it, take learning from it and put in place measures to mitigate reoccurrences in the future. Our Whistleblowing, Dignity at Work, Equal Opportunities, and Grievance policies set out POhWER’s expectations and position on protection of our colleagues. Our complaints process outlines how beneficiaries can raise issues related to their treatment within POhWER’s advocacy, information and advice services. Our safeguarding policies cover both our colleagues and our beneficiaries and includes how we will protect people from discrimination, oppression or other abuse and harm.

Continuous evaluation of what a ‘level playing field’ looks like further encourages us to implement equity-based initiatives. We can establish equal benefit by ensuring that everyone is treated the same through policies and providing additional support to colleagues who may require it.

We are dedicated to setting the tone on our unequivocal commitment to EDI from the top of the organisation and firmly embed our expectations and competencies across the Charity internally. We will reflect our message externally, making certain that our position on EDI is heard, seen and felt by all who encounter, work with or for our Charity.

It is vital that our ongoing commitment to advancing equality is showcased through individual and shared responsibility to learn, understand, and support our EDI work and to be led by supportive leadership.

Honouring our pledge to doing the work

Since 2020, we have been shifting towards a fairer workplace and embodying our responsibility to change our organisational culture.

Utilising a variety of measuring tools made available to our colleagues, we have been able to explore our EDI journey. The data analysed has included information gathered from:

• Culture and strategic development workshops
• Colleague, Trustee and volunteer surveys
• In-depth discussions with staff network groups and UNIFY
• Our current policies and training material

Prominent themes

In order to develop a realistic, long term pathway to bring equality, diversity and inclusion to life, it is important that our initiatives are built on foundational pillars that can bring about the meaningful changes we wish to see and experience. By utilising data gathered internally and identifying the following prominent themes, we have been able to set our foundational pillars.

• Theme 1 - Knowledge:
  

  There are questions about how to embed EDI and the organisational and individual responsibilities and actions that can be taken.

• Theme 2 – Career Development:
  

  The lack of transparency in relation to recruitment and opportunities to develop, especially with colleagues not receiving regular appraisals, have raised questions about the fairness of the processes in place.

• Theme 3 - Clear Working Practices:
  

  There is a strong thirst for a culture change which involves transparent and regular communication, cohesive working and clear working practices from the top down and across the Charity. There is too much variation to working practices across the different regions.

• Theme 4 - Collaboration:
  

  Colleagues value partnership working with different colleagues, network groups, local communities groups, beneficiaries and other organisations. Learning from lived experiences to help each of us better understand how best we can support, design, manage and inform each other was highlighted throughout the information collected.

• Theme 5 – Effective Actions:
  

  Assurance that effective and meaningful actions will be taken when things go well and when they go wrong. These actions should be backed up by robust and clear policies and procedures, where colleagues or beneficiaries involved have opportunity for two-way feedback.

Measuring and reporting

Communication and achievement of objectives set out in our EDI action plan will be led by the CEO who will report annually on progress.

Being visibly accountable to our colleagues ensures clarity, continued observation, learning and effective implementation. Where our EDI objectives are tracked, we can explore any challenges in real time and reassess our approach as needed.

We will continue to analyse our data against external sources within our industry to evidence how relative, representative and impactful we are towards our colleagues and the communities we support.

Download our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Action Plan 2022-2025