The Groups Inclusion Strategy was approved on 22 March 2021 by Board.

Since then an internal working group have led on implementing the action plan and increasing their own knowledge to support the wider Group.

Progress has been made in a range of areas and further work identified to improve the inclusion offer of the Group.

A new staff training plan has been developed and implemented across the Group. This helps to ensure that staff can promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) further to the requirements set out in the Equality Act 2010.

The internal staff Group has delivered a range of awareness events to further increase staff awareness on a range of topics. This includes supporting Black History Month which was delivered by staff for staff. It successfully increased the awareness of the whole organisation and was well received by colleagues.

A new Equality Impact Assessment tool has been introduced to ensure that all changes to business processes and policies are reviewed with new EDI Data. This ensures that new practices are developed that promote EDI for our staff, tenants and community.

The Group continues to monitor performance on key performance indicators and breaks this down by protected characteristics to ensure that services are open and accessible to all.

The Group also works with the Greater Manchester Housing Providers who’s aim is to eradicate discrimination and provide accessible services and opportunities for colleagues and customers. To support this, we took part in a survey with the other Manchester providers to better understand our baseline data.

The National Housing Federation have a useful summary of the report and the latest version is available here.