Equal Opportunities

Equal Opportunities Policy

Equal Opportunities Statement

Bristol Wireless promotes equality of opportunity for all its service users, volunteers, employees and prospective employees.

People may suffer unjust discrimination and disadvantage because of their age, race, gender, disability or sexual orientation. Unjust discrimination may also occur on the basis of class, religious or political belief, HIV status, physical or mental health problems, marital status, criminal record or other ways.

Bristol Wireless will act to mitigate unjust discrimination of all kinds, whether direct or indirect, in the following ways

• by exposing and challenging all forms of unfair discrimination;
• by ensuring that our services are accessible to all;
• by adopting measures to eliminate unfair discrimination in the recruitment, training and management of all our members;
• by regularly reviewing our equal opportunities policies across the whole organisation, to ensure that they are working effectively.

Equal Opportunities in Service Delivery

Bristol Wireless acts to ensure that its services are available to all persons wishing to access them, in particular to ensure that they are being used by those in greatest need. In order to achieve this aim, we will take the following steps

• We will publicise our equal opportunities policy by displaying posters in our buildings (see Appendix 1) and by including information about our policy in material about our services that we give or send out.
• All our members will be offered equal opportunities training which will enable them to challenge discriminatory comments or behaviour by service users.
• If a service user persists in discriminatory comments or behaviour, the Management Committee may authorise the suspension of services from the person concerned.
• We will monitor the profile of our service users and compare it with the profile of the wider community we serve in order to identify and remedy low take-up of our services by those who would most benefit from them.
• We will work in partnership with other voluntary and statutory agencies to map and meet the needs of all people in our community. We will endeavour to ensure that other agencies or individuals to whom we refer our service users follow equal opportunities policies and practices similar to our own.
• We will target our services by building relationships with agencies representing disadvantaged and minority groups so that they become more aware of and increase take up of our services.
• We will be responsive to requests for services and methods of service delivery which may be different or separate from those currently provided.
• We will conduct annual reviews of our service delivery to identify how we can improve accessibility.

This review will include the following aspects

• The ways in which our services are delivered, e.g.
• The take up of ICT services; youth provision; provision of transport to our centres; environmental projects, opening hours, building design, including location, lighting, layout, public transport and parking, wheelchair accessibility, signposting, availability of interpretation facilities, signing, textphones, information in large print, etc.
• How our services are publicised, including issues such as links with local agencies who represent disadvantaged groups and whether publicity material is available in alternative formats (e.g. tapes and Braille) and minority languages.
• Feedback from service users and potential service users.

We will conduct six monthly surveys of our service users to identify ways in which we can improve our services to make them more responsive to their needs.

In addition, we will encourage service users to provide feedback through our bulletin board.

We will also work to achieve more structured user involvement in decisions about service delivery.

Whilst respecting the confidentiality of our users, we will use the monitoring information collected in the course of our work to publicise and challenge all discriminatory practices.

Equal Opportunities in Employment and Management

Recruitment and Selection Procedures

Bristol Wireless recognises the importance of a diverse workforce that reflects the community we serve.

We will ensure that the ways in which jobs are designed, advertised and filled meet all the requirements of our Equal Opportunities Policy. Job descriptions and person specifications will be written in accordance with the Equal Opportunities policy. Interviews will also be carried out under full guidance of the Equal Opportunities policy.

In particular:

Job descriptions and person specifications will be drawn up by the Management Committee, with input from external specialists where appropriate.

The job description will state the duties, tasks, responsibilities and lines of accountability of the post holder. The person specification will list the skills and experience needed to carry out the job.

All job descriptions and person specifications will be checked to ensure that they do not ask for unnecessary requirements or qualifications.

If it is judged, after enquiry, that some groups of people are under-represented on the staff, those groups will be specifically encouraged to apply for jobs. All applications will be treated strictly on merit at the stage of short-listing and selection.

All applicants will be sent the job description and person specification, the application form, the equal opportunities monitoring form, the criminal convictions declaration form and envelope, the latest Annual Report and information leaflet and a copy of the equal opportunities policy.

When short-listing and appointing, the criteria of the person specification will be used to assess each candidate in terms of ability to do the job described. Interview questions will be agreed by the panel prior to the interviews and the same questions in the same order will be asked at each interview, with supplementary questions asked when further clarification or information needs to be elicited. A consistent scoring system will be used and each candidate will be scored against the person specification.

The selection panel will normally consist of selected members of the Management Committee. In some cases, where a partnership arrangement exists with another organisation in respect of the advertised post a member of staff from that organisation may be invited to join the selection panel.

Membership or Employment of Ex-Offenders

Bristol Wireless policy on the employment of ex-offenders is that the safety of children, young persons and otherwise vulnerable people is of prime importancee. See Protection Policy.

Some offences, even when 'spent', will bar people from membership of, or employment by, Bristol Wireless. All applicants will be sent a disclosure form asking for information about both spent and unspent convictions. They will be asked to return the form in a sealed envelope which will be opened by an elected member of the Management Committee only if they are offered the post.

A confidential equal opportunities monitoring form will be sent with every application form and prospective candidates will be informed that the information is for internal monitoring purposes only and that the form will be kept separate from the application form. The information will be monitored to enable the organisation to determine how best to advertise in the future to ensure that individuals from under-represented groups are targeted.

All candidates for jobs will be questioned on their understanding of the issues and the practical implications of having an Equal Opportunities policy.

Reasons for not short-listing and for decisions at each stage of the membership or recruitment or process will be recorded for the purposes of monitoring; all application forms, with these reasons attached, will be stored securely for six months and then destroyed.

Training and Development

Bristol Wireless will provide resources to enable all members, staff and volunteers to understand and be able to implement the equal opportunities policy.

Induction and training will be offered to all members, staff and volunteers to enable them to carry out their respective roles and resources will be set aside for this.

Conditions of Service for Staff

Bristol Wireless is committed to providing a safe and supportive working environment where all staff and volunteers are valued and encouraged to develop their full potential.

Any full or part time paid staff will be issued with contracts of employment, giving details of pay, hours of work, holiday entitlement, sick pay and other terms and conditions.

Bristol Wireless recognises that many members and staff have outside caring responsibilities. We will therefore facilitate flexi-time working to enable members or staff to fulfil these responsibilities. Arrangements are also in place for contractual maternity leave, time off for antenatal care, adoption leave and partner leave. Additional special leave may be allowed in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the Management Committee. Records are kept of decisions taken and the reasons for reaching those decisions.

It is a condition of service or membership that all members, staff and volunteers adhere to the Bristol Wireless Equal Opportunities policy. Failure to do so will lead to disciplinary action.

All members, staff and volunteers will be encouraged to speak to a member of the Management Committee if they have any concerns that the equal opportunities policy is not being followed. The Management Committee will treat such concerns very seriously and where necessary, will take timely and appropriate action. If any member or volunteer is unhappy about the outcome they will be able to pursue the issue through the grievance procedure.

Harassment

Harassment of any kind is a disciplinary matter. Harassment may involve derogatory or discriminatory remarks, ridicule, unwanted physical contact, physical assault or demands for favours. Any behaviour which is offensive to a member of staff or volunteer and which causes them to feel threatened or humiliated, or which undermines their work performance or job security - is harassment.

Any staff member or volunteer who seriously or repeatedly harasses another staff member or anyone else connected with Bristol Wireless will be liable to summary dismissal for gross misconduct in line with the grievance procedure.

Redundancies of Paid Staff

Where loss of funding or other circumstances make redundancy inevitable, Bristol Wireless will make every effort to redeploy the staff member affected. Where this is not possible, the organisation will endeavour to assist the person to find alternative employment through careers counselling, retraining and time off for job hunting.

Membership of the Management Committee

We will monitor the membership of the Management Committee to ensure that it is diverse and representative of the service users. Where this is not the case, corrective action will be taken: in the short time through co-opting individuals from under-represented groups and in the long term by ensuring that vacancies on the Management Committee are advertised appropriately.

Recording and Monitoring

Bristol Wireless will demonstrate its continuing commitment to the implementation of this policy by regular review and monitoring and by insisting that, where appropriate, records are kept of action and decisions taken by the Management Committee, staff and volunteers.

The Management Committee is responsible for ensuring that the equal opportunities policy is implemented, monitored and reviewed.

Bristol Wireless Equal Opportunities Policy

Reviewed Feb 2009 by JW

APPENDIX 1

Equal Opportunities Statement

Bristol Wireless operates an active equal opportunities policy. As part of that policy, we aim to treat all people who use our services with consideration and respect.

We aim to provide services that are open to as many people in our community as possible. We want to ensure that all differences are acknowledged and needs met so that everyone using our services feels safe and secure.

We will challenge language, assumptions and practices which are likely to cause gratuitous offence or threaten anyone.

We hope that you will benefit from our services, respect our aims and treat other people you meet here with consideration.

If you feel we are not meeting any of the above aims, please talk to any of our staff or ask for a leaflet about our Grievance procedure. We will treat your concerns very seriously.