Equality, diversity and inclusion strategy 2023-2025

Unity strategy 2023-2025: Our vision for equality, diversity and inclusion

Foreward from Your Homes Newcastle Executive Team

At Your Homes Newcastle (YHN), we believe that when people feel respected and can be themselves at work, they are happier, more successful and deliver better services to our customers. Having a diverse workforce gives us the widest pool of talent, experience and ideas and helps us to better understand our customers' needs. We champion ED&I for our business, working closely with our dedicated Staff Network Groups and understand that ED&I should always be on our priority list, to

maintain momentum and to ensure that ED&I is part of our culture, or DNA. This strategy aims to build on our previous success in ED&I and make living easier for our customers.

Foreward from Hayley Hoben-Blight, EDI Lead

Your Homes Newcastle recognise that equality, diversity, and inclusion has always been high on our agenda as a social housing landlord. Not only because we are committed to championing social justice, but because we are a people-focused organisation with our customers and staff at the very heart of everything we do. Whilst there is an understanding and recognition, there is still much more that can be done. Our ambition is to be recognised as a landlord that celebrates and supports the diversity of our people and enriches our communities, so we are first for housing and residents are proud to say they live in a YHN home. We wish for our staff to feel the same way in the workplace and be proud to represent and be part of our organisation.

OUR ED&I VISION 2023-25 (& BEYOND)

To create a united culture, where our customers and staff feel respected, included and valued.

Introduction

We have always been proud of our deep commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) and what we have achieved so far.

The society in which we live is constantly changing. At one level it appears there is greater awareness of inequalities and injustice; on another, there are continued examples of discrimination and disadvantage that are never far from the headlines. Our customer-base is very diverse, and this is something we are incredibly proud of, some of the most vulnerable residents of the city live in the homes that we provide. We know we cannot make a positive impact for customers or succeed as a business without recognising that one size doesn't fit all, respecting and valuing people's differences and making sure that our customers and staff feel comfortable to be themselves.

This strategy focuses on ensuring that ED&I is integral to our key strategies and decision making, reflected in our everyday practices and promoted throughout our whole organisation.

We know that if we really want to achieve our ambition then we must do everything we can to create environments where differences are celebrated, where all our people feel supported and where everyone is valued and respected. This strategy sets out our ED&I ambitions for the next two years, as well as how we will embed the ED&I agenda into our culture, so that it becomes the responsibility of everyone involved with YHN to achieve. We know that we have more to do and that our actions must speak louder than words by being relevant and meeting individual needs.

This new strategy marks a continued commitment to our journey towards fully embedding ED&I across our organisation and we hope that you are excited to join us on this journey, as we cannot do this without you!

A bit of background

In developing this strategy, we have considered how we perform against the Social Housing Equality Framework and Chartered Institute of Housing Equality and Diversity Charter. We have proactively conducted our own Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Health Check in November 2022 and benchmark against the Race Code Framework and Disability Confident Framework.

We receive lots of positive feedback about the current customer experience and steps that we take but have also identified areas where we need to do more. This feedback is reflected in our ED&I Action Plan.

So, what is Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and why does it matter?

Equality - to us, it means ensuring fairness and that equality of opportunity is available to everyone. That our employees and customers are treated fairly and according to their needs, so that no one is discriminated against because of how they identify.

Diversity - means we recognise and value that difference is in all of us. It includes the differences we can see and importantly those we can't.

Inclusion - for us this means ensuring that no one feels left out and that everyone feels that they belong. We want to ensure that our employees and customers feel included within our business, knowing that they can make a real difference and have their voices heard.

Intersectionality - we also understand that people often fall into more than one group. We want to create a workplace and communities that allow people to be treated equitably and according to their needs. However, we also know that our individual identities aren't limited to one single experience. We understand that people experience the world differently based on their overlapping identities and can't assume that people belonging to a group or groups all have the same needs.

Our strategic themes

ENSURING

Constantly ensuring we are compliant, and that ED&I is embedded into our processes and paperwork, and never just an add on or seen as a box ticking exercise.

We support the mainstreaming of ED&I through our Business Plan and other key strategies and policies. We undertake equality impact analysis to inform decisions. We encourage discussions and dialogue around ED&I as part of everyday conversations. We collect relevant data to deliver tailored services to our customers. We work with teams across the business to identify gaps in service where we can improve our customer offer. We use industry framework to support our self-awareness and continuous improvement. We ensure that relevant and proportionate equality and diversity considerations are given when procuring and commissioning services. We foster a culture of promoting good practice, setting clear expectations, and tackling behaviours that are unacceptable and discriminatory.

Our Ambitions 2023-25:

Review our Equality Impact Assessment process to make it more user friendly, ensuring it is undertaken at the beginning of implementation or review of services, so staff continue to understand the importance of the process and what it signifies for our customers.
Review our My Conversation paperwork to include discussions directly relating to ED&I, with emphasis on inclusivity, so staff regularly reflect and review their contribution to the ED&I agenda
Continue to work with our Complaints Team to identify trends experienced by those who fall under a protected characteristic, resulting in focussed worked to improve our services and support to those customers
Continue to carry out Pay Gap analysis, to include reviewing that of Gender, Race and Disability, taking steps to action improvements where necessary
Review our Employee Lifecycle with particular emphasis on recruitment and development of staff, to attract and retain a diverse and representative workforce

For Our Customers:

We will continue to consider our diverse customers needs and have robust processes in place to ensure this is the case
Customers will interact with supportive staff, who understand that ED&I is intrinsic to our daily work
We will proactively use our enriched customer data to ensure our focus is on our customers' needs
We will take steps to ensure our workforce is representative of the people we are proud to serve
Customers will be able to trust that YHN continues to be a reputable organisation that takes ED&I seriously

DEVELOPING

Continuing to develop an inclusive and united culture not only in terms of our staff, board members and stakeholders, but our customers. Where it is understood why ED&I is important, making sure our business never stands still and that we are always championing for better!

We are proud that we invest in our staff, so they can provide a service that is customer centred. We ensure all new staff receive ED&I training, and our workforce regularly receives training updates. We are committed to investing in our Staff Network Groups, as we know they are key to us recognising our ED&I ambitions.

Our Staff Network Groups provide a unique insight into issues based on their lived experience and work in partnership with the whole organisation. The groups have been invaluable in the review our mandatory ED&I training offer. David Langhorne champions ED&I at Executive Level, but it does not stop there. The commitment is apparent throughout our organisation, including from our Board, Customer Voice Group, Executive Team and our Managing Director.

Our Ambitions 2023-25:

We will work with our Board to further champion ED&I at Board Level, ensuring ED&I is paramount in strategic decision making
Staff from across the organisation including our Board Members will benefit from updated training in ED&I
We will continue to invest in our Staff Network Groups, as understand they are vital to us achieving our ED&I goals
We will develop the Diversity Gurus implementation; these are staff from across the business who we are able to consult with on matters pertaining to ED&I

For our customers:

Demonstrating our commitment to ED&I at all levels of the decision-making process
Find us easier to do business with, as staff will have a deeper and more knowledgeable understanding of ED&I, that is always evolving
Staff who share lived experience with customers, acting as a critical friend to the business

ENHANCING

Making sure we build upon the ED&I foundations we already have in place to future proof our business. Committing to not only achieving but exceeding. Going above and beyond, not because we have too, because we want too.

We believe in eradicating barriers to employment, understanding that diversity enriches our business and enables us to grow. We recognise that opportunity is everything and are proud that our managed business, Palatine Beds, employs a workforce where 60% of staff state they have a disability. We also offer a range of opportunities to support customers who are looking for work or to develop their skills, through our Your Homes Your Jobs scheme and apprenticeship programmes. We work with the Access to Work Scheme to support staff in the workplace. When it comes to communication, we understand that empowering customers to communicate in a way that suits them is key. For this reason, we utilise a range of methods to include Language Empire, the Hearing Loop and written communication in a variety of languages.

Our Ambitions 2023-25:

We will be proactively introducing neurodiversity training for our organisation, as we understand that knowing more in relation to neurodivergent experiences is essential to offer the right kind of support to our staff and customers
We will be reviewing our communications offer to include implementing inclusive communication training, to enable our staff to communicate in the most appropriate manner with our customers
We will be supporting diversity initiatives to strengthen our ED&I culture
We will be benchmarking against the Race Code and Disability Confident Framework to evidence our success and discover where there could be opportunities to improve

For Our Customers:

Recognising that ED&I never stands still, therefore we need to be proactively taking steps to meet the needs of our customers in this ever-changing world, forecasting for the future, so people choose us first for housing
Ensuring that we engage with our customers in ways that meet their individual needs, really understanding that one size does not fit all ensuring our services feel personalised
Being visible to our customers, communities and stakeholders about our clear commitment to ED&I
Gaining the views of our diverse community, to create innovation and better productivity
Continuing to build our brand reputation
Being clear on our performance against diversity benchmarking and proud to excel!

CREATING

Working with our customers to shape our business and show we are truly invested in the communities we serve.

Everything we do is designed to improve the quality of life for our customers, and to contribute to achieving positive impacts by creating communities that truly flourish. We know our customers are all different and need tailored support. We will continue to take steps to understand those individual needs, tackling important issues such as anti-social behaviour, domestic abuse and the various challenges facing customers at all ages. We have dedicated teams to support our customers at some of the most critical times in their lives, from our Safe Living Team, Safeguarding Partners, Young Peoples Service and our Supported Services. Our customers already shape our strategies and service delivery, but we are continuingly committed to really hearing our customers' voice. We are dedicated to involving our customers in our ED&I celebrations and have a calendar of events, so our staff and customers are able to get involved as "being united is after all what makes us stronger!."

Our Ambitions 2023-25:

Working with our Customer Voice Group on focussed ED&I work
Going out into our community and holding ED&I events
Reviewing the data collected from our amazing Your Homes Your Voice survey and continued Tenant Satisfaction Measures, so we better know our customers and how to shape our services
Working with our community partnerships (like the Newcastle Hate Crime forum) to better understand what our customers are facing within our city and communities and know how we can best support them

For Our Customers:

Having the direct opportunity to become involved in and shape our ED&I agenda moving forward
Being visible within our diverse communities
Celebrating ED&I together
Better supported through our excellent multi agency ways of working

Delivering the strategy/monitoring progress

Everyone at Your Homes Newcastle has responsibility for ED&I in their areas of work, to achieve excellence in ED&I.

We'll ensure that the Board receives regular progress reports throughout the year. Delivery of our equality actions will be overseen by our ED&I Lead who will monitor, enhance, and challenge our strategic commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion.

The ED&I action plan for this strategy will be monitored and updated, to ensure objectives are met and progress is being made. Relevant ED&I updates will be provided to our staff and customers.

Your Homes Newcastle Limited. Registered in England and Wales. Registration number 5076256. Registered office: Newcastle Civic Centre, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8PR. A company controlled by Newcastle City Council.