Why is equality, diversity and inclusion important in social care?

If your workplace is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, it’ll create and support a satisfied and engaged workforce and lead to better business performance and greater service delivery and provision for users.

It forms part of your legal obligations too. The Equality Act 2010 requires employers to make sure that they treat all their employees (and prospective employees) fairly, and not to discriminate against them on the grounds of nine protected characteristics:

1.     Age

2.     Sex

3.     Race

4.     Religion

5.     Sexual orientation

6.     Gender reassignment

7.     Pregnancy and maternity

8.     Disability

9.     Marriage/ civil partnership

Current law says you can be held responsible for discriminatory acts of your employees, unless you can show you’ve taken reasonable steps to prevent them from happening – such as providing training on acceptable workplace behaviour and how to tackle incidents if they crop up.

How creating an equal and diverse team can boost your care service

Increased employee engagement – an engaged workforce is a happy workforce, and workers at a business that promotes equality and diversity will feel recognised, involved and valued for their work, which is important in a physically and psychologically demanding job such as care.

• Diverse perspectives and creativity – people from different backgrounds have a range of experiences and perspectives that give your business different ways of thinking – innovation is never a bad thing in an industry that often requires creative problem solving.
  
• Reduced staff turnover – employees are less likely to leave if they’re in an inclusive and supportive environment where they’re encouraged to express themselves and grow professionally and personally. Reducing your turnover also means better service delivery.
  
• Better reputation and recruitment – a workplace culture committed to EDI makes you competitive in the job market. You’ll attract top talent from around the world and recruit skilled professionals who will only improve your service.

So how do you promote equality and diversity in your workplace?

When it comes to managing a diverse team, it’s all about finding ways to embed this throughout your culture. Here are just a few of the ways you can do this.

• Consider putting a policy in place – it isn’t a legal requirement to have a written equality and diversity policy, but if you set out your stance – starting from the recruitment process onwards – potential and current employees will be able to see your commitment to positively managing diversity.
• Engage and collaborate with your people – the earlier you engage your teams in the creation and implementation of a policy, they’ll be more likely to feel the benefits of the policy.
• Communicate your expectations – having a policy is a great start, but it needs to be effectively communicated with your team. That helps everyone understand what’s expected of them and that it needs everyone’s buy in to make it a success.
• Get proactive – want to find out how your people feel about equality and diversity? Ask them! Try an anonymous survey for people to express how they feel. Want to make sure any incidents of discrimination and inequality are effectively challenged? Invest in training for your managers, so they can spot any discriminatory behaviour or bullying right away and put equality and diversity at the heart of their management style.

Citation – by your side.

As a WMCA partner, Citation are a trusted provider in the industry – so you can have faith that they know how to help you manage the challenges unique to your care home setting.

If you’d like to chat about how Citation can help with your HR and Health & Safety, just fill in their form or call them on 0345 844 1111 and remember to quote ‘West Midlands Care Association’ to access preferential rates.

www.citation.co.uk