We want everyone connected with Barts Charity to feel valued and respected. We will create and sustain a truly inclusive culture where everyone feels they can contribute. We know that this will take action and we must keep working at it.
We recognise that a diverse Barts Charity is not just the right thing to be, but will also make us better at what we do. Embracing a breadth of perspectives and experiences will help us to make better decisions and be more effective and impactful in all our activity.
We will be transparent about how we deliver on this commitment. We will publish our objectives and report our progress (or lack of it) so that our colleagues, supporters, beneficiaries and stakeholders can hold us to account.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Principles
- To encourage and champion an inclusive and aware internal culture through actions and resources.
- To create, update and keep under review our governance structures, policies and procedures to ensure that EDI is embedded into all our activities.
- To better capture, monitor and analyse data to develop evidence from which to learn and drive change.
- To apply unbiased and inclusive funding processes and ensure the activities we fund are inclusive in their design and their delivery.
- To have diversity across our staff and non-execs who each feel able to realise their full potential and who better reflect the communities we work with and for.
2022-23 EDI Progress
We believe that our commitment to EDI is best demonstrated through action. In our last financial year we have:
- Implemented our first annual survey to collect data about the diversity of our staff and non-executives. This covers our Scientific Review Panel, Fellowship Panel, Everyday Impact Panel, Committee Members, Board Advisers, Trustees and employees.
- Implemented processes to collect data about diversity of grant applicants and grant holders to allow us to explore whether our funding processes are inclusive, fair and free from bias.
- Become a signatory of the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) principles and applied these to our funding processes.
- Made sure the terms and conditions of our grants and policies support the creation of an inclusive and fair organisational culture at the places we fund. For example, the conduct of grant activities, grant holders and grant personnel and the introduction of paid sick and maternity leave for PhD students on Barts Charity grants.
- Undertaken a review of our HR policies to identify unfairness, inconsistency and apply inclusive language.
- Ensured that our new website meets accessibility standards, and that our imagery reflects patients and supporters.
- Undertaken and implemented recommendations from an accessibility audit as part of our office refurbishment.
2023-24 EDI Implementation Plan
There is always more we can do. Our plans for 2023-24 are as follows:
Culture
- Provide work experience to Tower Hamlets secondary school children working with The Switch. [We welcomed two students for a week in June 2023 – see a quote from one of them below.]
- Review our external events to make sure they are more inclusive and have greater representation from our community.
- Consider how we can use our social media platforms to reach a broader range of people and communities.
- Introduce a menopause policy and guidelines.
- Introduce Mental Health First Aiders and provide awareness training for staff
Data & insight
- Analyse the first year of our data about diversity for grant applicants and grant holders in autumn 2023 so that we can begin to explore whether our funding processes are inclusive, fair and free from bias.
- Run a second annual personnel diversity survey, comparing results to the previous year and reviewing potential benchmarks.
Funding
- Develop funding policies and processes that further support creating an inclusive and fair organisational culture where we fund.
- Include patient and public involvement and engagement as a criterion in funding assessment (by committees/panels and peer reviewers).
Personnel
- Undertake a formal review of our recruitment process to reach people from more diverse backgrounds and remove bias in the assessment process.
I think that work experience is important because everyone needs a viewpoint from early on in life to see how it is. Sometimes the placement you receive is not always what you imagined but still giving it a go may make you change your mind and learn about a new sector. The staff at Barts Charity treated me as they did their colleagues, so it really gives you an idea of adulthood.SB, work experience student June 2023