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Welcome to this collection of short, straightforward and practical papers about different diversity topics.

We are delighted that other equality and diversity specialists have also made contributions.

Please contact us with any feedback and if you too would like to contribute a paper.

For more information about our business support activities, visit www.businessability.co.uk.

Diversity.
Model Approach
Training Approach
Equality Impact Assessments
Linking equality and diversity with public policy performance

Disability.
Information about disabled people
Digital divide and disabled people
Disability into diversity planning

 


Model Approach

1. We originally developed the model shown above in relation to disability but quickly realised that it applies to all aspects of equality and diversity.

2. The square is divided in to four quarters covering:
Attitudes. This quarter is further sub-divided in two for:
Employers and service providers. The attitudes of people are expressed through their words and behaviour. Many people from diversity groups find that the negative attitudes they experience are the most difficult barriers they experience. Attitudes can range from two extremes: direct discrimination (from abuse and violence to deliberate expressions of prejudice) to more subtle patronising and over-protective behaviour. The happy medium is when people treat each other with dignity and respect, offering help when needed.
Diverse individuals. The attitudes of the individuals from different diversity groups also need to be taken in to account. Again, these can vary from some feeling frustrated to others having low self-confidence - both often caused by their previous experiences.
Communications. This covers the various means of communicating with diverse groups, the content and language plus the outlets used. Limiting communication channels can mean that some diversity groups are excluded from the outset.
Environment. This covers venues themselves and all aspects of accessibility (including lighting, noise, lifts and ramps) but also broader issues of access such as parking, public transport and geographical location. Other needs such as prayer facilities, child-care and appropriate food choices may also be required depending on the use of the environment.
Policies, practices and procedures. These (plus communications and environment) can often be the source of indirect discrimination. The needs of all diversity groups should be considered whenever a policy is developed and embedding flexibility can help practices and procedures work while still accommodating individual needs.

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Training Approach

1. We like to deliver training that is fun and interactive for everyone - and that also builds new self-confidence about equality and diversity.

2. Care is taken in maintaining quality by ensuring that every session ticks all the boxes:

Objectives. At the outset, we agree the brief with the client and use the objectives to set expectations at session start and to measure success in feedback.
Session design. Each session is specifically tailored drawing on our comprehensive equality and diversity resources and additional research where needed.
Inclusivity. We ask clients to tell us about attendees' individual needs so that we can make any necessary adjustments to our training style and materials.
Preparation. Every session is fully scripted with specification of supporting resources, materials and visual aids.
Participation. Using ice-breaking games and practical exercises, we actively encourage all attendees to contribute.
Learning styles. Sessions mix presentations, discussion and exercises to suit everyone.
Workbooks. Each attendee receives a workbook including the session visual aids, tasks, handouts and supplementary material so that they can make notes and gather all their learning in one place.
Feedback. Attendees' evaluation is gathered and analysed to provide a short report to the client and to help us continually improve.

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Equality Impact Assessments

Many organisations have developed very comprehensive processes for Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) that they use when developing new policies or refining old ones. We suggest that there may be five straightforward questions that an EIA should address - each with a series of simple steps.

Question 1. Is a full EIA needed?
The answer is Yes if either of the following applies:
The policy has high relevance to diversity groups because it is Major in terms of scale or significance for your activities.
The relevance appears minor but you have clear indications that it is likely to have a major impact on some diversity groups (or even some people within those groups). This is a question of degree so that extremely negative impact on, say, a few disabled people will have high relevance and prompt a full EIA.

Question 2. Does the current situation/policy provide proportionate benefit for everyone?
Gather and analyse quantitative data. You need to know the numbers and diversity profile of the potential market relevant to your current policy (perhaps employees, local residents, learners, business owners, service users etc) compared with the numbers and diversity profile of your current actual customers. For example, a policy about health care should be reaching a population of 10,000 of which around 8% are from ethnic minority backgrounds but currently only 5,000 are reached including just 3% ethnic minority people.
Gather and analyse qualitative data. You need to know the reasons for particular success or shortfalls amongst some diversity groups. This can be found in other research, surveys, complaints records, consultation and involvement. For example, older business owners said that they are not comfortable with Information Technology and therefore tend to use on-line information less frequently.
Knowing which groups are gaining less benefit from the policy, the scale and causes means that design of the new policy can resolve or reduce the problems. You may also find that more data is needed for some groups in the future.

Question 3. Will the new policy provide proportionate benefit for everyone?
Apply the learning from Question 2.
Design the new policy to resolve/reduce the causes of current shortfalls.
Use more widely those practices that bring current success.
Use the current data to test the inclusivity and impact of each proposed policy change.
Consider if other bodies need to make changes.
Other/higher bodies may need to adjust shared standards and approaches if your own policy is to provide proportionate benefit.
Bodies that will implement your policy may need to develop their capacity (equality and diversity policies, performance management, staff training etc).
Intermediary people/groups may need to be influenced if their current attitudes, practices and procedures might limit the proportionate benefit of your policy.
The result should be a well-designed policy that will work in the wider context.


Question 4. Can failure to provide proportionate benefit be justified?
It may be possible to justify decisions not to take actions to remove/reduce negative impact. What is justifiable will depend on the circumstances of the policy. Factors may include practicability, time constraints, resource implications and more. Justification should be sufficient to satisfy external scrutiny, including by those who will receive the negative impact.

Question 5. What more can be done to promote equality?
Creative design that maximises positive impact. Going beyond just reducing/resolving barriers to producing a policy that actively encourages participation/take-up amongst those previously under-represented.
Gathering better data. Increasing understanding of success (or shortfalls) should feed continual improvement.

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Linking equality and diversity with public policy performance

1. Context. This is perfect timing to consider equality and diversity. We are in a period of extraordinary financial and economic turmoil. The roles of public sector organisations could not be more important. Many have roles that will directly contribute to economic recovery - especially those concerned with entrepreneurship and business growth plus up skilling the workforce. But, at the same time, there is increasing pressure on the public sector: performance and productivity will be scrutinised by politicians, the public and the media - and, of course, the National Audit Office. Consequently, the theme of this paper is the part that equality and diversity can play in the development of high performance policies and activities.

2. Relating equality and diversity to performance. Equality and diversity activities can tend to gain a bureaucratic and "box-ticking" reputation. Equality Impact Assessments have been particularly prone. Instead, I suggest that such assessments are considered more as super-sophisticated customer segmentation exercises. This better links the segmentation/assessment with performance when the former provides:
Clarity about the target market: its size, location and diversity profile. The potential market represents optimum performance - whether engagement, take-up, active participation or other by end-users (such as businesses, business owners, entrepreneurs, innovators etc).
Clarity about actual market: its size, location and diversity profile. Comparing actual and target markets reveals any shortfalls in current performance.
Causes of any performance shortfalls. These may represent risks to future policy performance
Solutions. Steps to improve performance and/or mitigate shortfalls that need to be embedded in the design of a successful policy.

3. Customer segmentation in action. HMRC identified that some 40% of its customers (tax payers and working tax credit recipients) would comply with the Department's requirements but had difficulty doing so.
Foreign workers had particular problems understanding the use of National Insurance numbers. A simple, cheap solution was to issue them with straightforward explanation cards with their NI numbers.
Others had problems understanding complex correspondence and instructions. The Department commenced work on more straightforward information.

4. Disabled business support customers example.
4.1 Publicly-funded business support policy offers an example of how equality and diversity has performance potential. This is an area where progress has already been made, with particular focus on women. The Business Support Simplification Programme introduced a new policy development in 2008 and made special provision for under-represented groups (women, ethnic minorities and disabled people) with targeted products (Intensive Start Up Support and Enterprise Coaching). Additionally, in recent months, Regional development Agencies, Business Links and their providers have been active in undertaking research, Equality Impact Assessments, capacity building training for staff, re-designing customer information etc. National standards for the accreditation of front-line Business Advisers are being revised to include equality and diversity. However, while such progress is positive, other areas such as provision for disabled people remain patchy.

4.2 Customer segmentation/impact assessment. Taking the example of disabled people and business support:
Potential target market. Information indicates that:
Disabled people represent about 20% of the population;
About half a million businesses are already run by disabled people and around a further 175,000 who want to work would be willing to start a business;
Disabled people wanting to work are proportionately more likely to start businesses than non-disabled people.
Actual market. In contrast, the numbers of disabled people receiving publicly-funded business support is very low. Business Link in one Region has reported that 0.1% of their customers are disabled people. This suggests that this diversity group are not under-represented in enterprise but are under-represented in publicly funded business support. Hence current provision may be considered to have disproportionately negative impact on this group.
Causes of performance shortfall. The following are some of the causes that are increasingly recognised for disabled people:
Data. Current information gathering tends to ask the wrong questions and ignore some key questions resulting in inadequate and inaccurate data.
Marketing. Promotion that focuses on "business, enterprise and entrepreneurship" and primarily uses business outlets can be less effective in engaging disabled people who have limited confidence and modest aspirations for self-employment through a home-based micro-venture. Business language and outlets can be alien to them
Information. Disabled people tend to have lower qualifications and skills than others and some have limited IT capacity. Hence, information that is complex and garnished with business jargon delivered primarily through IT and the web may not reach them.
Funding. Many disabled people may have very limited business capital and may be wary of taking on debt.
On the positive side, disabled people who have encountered disadvantage and discrimination in finding employment can be highly motivated towards self-employment as the only viable route to work.

5. Solutions. The necessary mitigating actions need not be difficult or costly, especially if addressed during policy design. Equally significant is that many of the causes, and their solutions, are common to other diversity groups. Hence, actions to engage and support disabled people have wider benefit across other diversity groups. For example:
Data. Improved data collection and recording by trained staff applies to all diversity groups, especially those where no data is currently available (on religion/faith, sexual orientation etc).
Marketing. Women, ethnic minorities and older people have all been under-represented/resistant to Business Link support alongside disabled people. They all need promotion that is targeted effectively in branding, language, content and outlets.
Information. Older people, like disabled people, can tend to have lower IT skills so multi-channel communications are needed. With some 50% of the population having a reading age of 14 and English being a second language for others, simple straightforward and relevant business information is necessary for more than just disabled people.


Funding. Other diversity groups such as women can have little business capital. Although Jobcentre Plus enterprise credits, ISUS micro-grants and working tax credits can all help. Other business grant/loan policies still remain too remote for many micro-businesses.
But again, the benefits of making such changes can be significant as many of these other diversity groups also face difficulty in getting jobs (women with dependant children, some ethnic minorities, older people) so their motivation towards starting a business can be higher.

6. This example has concentrated on business support. However, other public policy areas are equally likely to benefit from such customer segmentation: revealing commonality of causes and solutions with resultant potential performance improvement.
Risks. The above covers some of the positive benefits of embedding equality and diversity in policy development. Failing to do so also results in some specific risks:
Performance. Again, using a business support example. One Business Link reported that their current offer was predominantly aimed at the traditional market of white, middle-aged, non-disabled men. However, this group represent only 23% of the respective Regional population - and this group is shrinking further with the demographic trend and the increase of disability with age. Expecting high performance from an organisation with such a limited market represents considerable risk.
Leadership and influence. Policies that have gaps and flaws are open to re-interpretation by those undertaking delivery. Inconsistency in policy implementation can then place overall performance at risk. Additionally, maintaining control and consistency avoids end-users receiving conflicting messages about Government policy which can occur if equality and diversity is advocated via some channels but ignored in others.
Non-compliance. Although some may consider that the risk of judicial review or investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission is unlikely, the consequences of being subject to either, or legal action through the courts or tribunals, can be considerable. The experiences of the Ministry of Defence and Metropolitan Police demonstrate how long-lasting and far-reaching the damage to reputation and operation can be.

7. Conclusion. While the above has focussed on one aspect of Government policy, the principles are equally applicable more widely. There are three key messages:
Don't think of equality and diversity as tedious, bureaucratic box-ticking but as a potent tool to enhance performance.
Don't leave Equality Impact Assessments until the end of policy development but embed it throughout the design and development.
Don't abdicate from your position of control, leadership and influence but exert the power of your area of public policy to deliver impact that succeeds due to its inclusivity.
A policy that excludes sections of the population from the outset is never likely to achieve the optimum success desired.

For more information about our business support activities, visit www.businessability.co.uk.

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Information about disabled people.

1. Often monitoring data has become an end in itself rather than a tool to improve equality of opportunity.

2. Asking the wrong questions means the answers are wrong too. For example, monitoring questions will often not identify everyone protected by the Disability Discrimination Act. A research survey conducted by the Office of Disability Issues found that two thirds (66%) of disabled respondents preferred to use the term 'health problem' and 26 per cent preferred the term 'disability'. Less than one in ten (eight per cent) said that they would prefer to refer to their impairment as an 'impairment'. So the re-wording of questions may produce more accurate response rates. People asked for monitoring data should know that their responses are optional, anonymous and the reasons for its collection.

3. Detail to avoid. Unless you are a doctor and able to interpret medical terminology, asking for medical conditions is likely to leave you none the wiser - and holding highly sensitive personal data. Even if you do recognise a particular condition, you may not know the consequences which are likely to vary for every individual.

4. Reasonable adjustment needs. Focussing on needs rather than different impairments can be more productive. People with different impairments can share common needs. Meeting those needs will often help other non-disabled people as well. Employers should make reasonable adjustments needed once they know about a disabled employee. Those providing services to the public must anticipate the needs of disabled people and make reasonable adjustments. Information about needs should be linked to the individual if adjustments are to be effective.

5. Other needs. Disabled people, like anyone else, can have dietary preferences, care commitments and other individual needs. These can be good to know to improve management or customer service but meeting these needs will not normally be a legal requirement.

6. Good record keeping. Keeping a record of adjustments is sensible and sharing that information with others can help if the disabled person agrees. Records can:
Demonstrate performance;
Provide evidence if there is a complaint;
Ensure consistent support;
Contribute to planning and budgets.

7. Check list for information gathering.
Effectively worded question?
Record of adjustment needs?
Record of adjustments provided?
Permission to share sensitive personal information?
Record of other needs?
Record of other adjustments?

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Digital divide and disabled people.

1. There seem to be three interlocking factors relevant to many disabled people:
1.1 Disability.
About 20% of the UK population are protected within the definition of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This proportion is likely to grow as propensity for disability increases with age. The demographic trend means that the overall population is ageing. Currently some 40% are aged over 45 and, by 2030, 40% will be aged 50 and over.
The substantial majority of people protected by the DDA have "hidden" disabilities ranging from HIV and cancer through hearing impairments and mental health conditions to the huge range of medical conditions that limit day-to-day activities in the long-term. People with such "hidden" disabilities tend to encounter the most negative attitudes from others.
The substantial majority (70%) of disabled people acquire their impairments during their working lives. This means that many face massive changes: in their careers, incomes, family arrangements and more.

1.2 Poverty.
About 50% of working age disabled people depend on social security benefits for their income.
The majority of disabled people live on incomes below the national average.
There is a tendency for higher proportions of disabled people to live in deprived and disadvantaged areas.

1.3 Low skills/low employment.
There is a trend for disabled people to have lower levels of qualifications than others. It has been estimated that some 50% of disabled people have no qualifications whereas only about 30% of the general population have none.
About 50% of working age disabled people are not working.
Employment discrimination remains a significant factor for many disabled people who want to work.

1.4 Hence, it seems that there are links between disability, poverty and low skills/employment. Creating effective social inclusion and increased employment requires each of these barriers to be tackled strategically and practically.

2. Consequences of those barriers in relation to IT technology.
2.1 Disability.
A report by BT in 2004 indicated that some 70% of disabled people were digitally excluded. This was forecast to increase from 2.4m people to 3.6m people in 2025 if exclusion continued at the same rate due to the ageing population.
While disabled people tend to use the internet in much the same way as the general population, their usage rates are about 25% lower, less frequent and less recent.

2.2 Poverty.
Internet usage rates drop even farther amongst unemployed disabled people.
Low income can have direct impact due to the costs of IT equipment and connectivity. The costs of adaptive software and hardware can be very high and prohibitive for the minority of disabled people who need such.
The benefits of super fast broadband can be especially relevant for some disabled people. For example, video-conferencing can be an alternative to travel. Yet, deprived areas with high numbers of disabled people may not be considered attractive markets for super fast broadband providers.

2.3 Low skills/low employment.
People with lower general skills are also likely to have lower IT skills. They may also have less confidence and motivation to gain new skills.
Current training provision is often not sufficiently accessible - in the broadest sense. This can include obvious factors such as training venues, equipment and software but also more subtle barriers such as trainers with limited understanding of the needs of disabled people plus the delivery styles and materials of the training itself.
The language of IT technology can present its own barrier with new concepts and a plethora of acronyms. It has been estimated that the reading age of some 50% of the population is that of a 14 year old. Disabled people are likely to have at least a similar proportion. Yet, IT design still seems to be too focussed on others in the industry rather than this substantial customer group.

3. Impact for disabled business owners.
3.1 Disabled people often consider that self-employment through starting a business is the only route to work in the face of barriers and discrimination. Evidence includes:
The proportion of disabled people who work and are self-employed is higher than that in the general population.
It has been estimated that there are about half a million businesses already run by disabled people and that another 175,000 who want to work would be willing to become self-employed.
However, this route to work is only recently being recognised and publicly-funded business support for this customer group has been extremely limited. Increasing business reliance on information technology simply adds yet another potential hurdle.

3.2 Running a business. Having no or limited IT skills can have direct impact on disabled entrepreneurs as they endeavour to manage routine business activities. Running accounts without electronic spreadsheets, still hand-writing invoices and juggling paper files plus handling customer details without a database can all be more time-consuming and so limit business development. Although Access to Work support from Jobcentre Plus can provide adaptive technology and support workers, disabled entrepreneurs still need the training and confidence to make the best business use of technology.

3.3 Communications. Networking can be fundamental to a successful business. However, inclusivity is not a strong feature of most business networks and organisations. Additionally, many publicly-funded sources of business support and information tend to consider the internet as their primary communications channel - with the resultant exclusion of those without access or adequate skills. Disabled people may be considerably disadvantaged as communication becomes more reliant on technology. Their lower internet usage can mean less e-mails and website use. Other communication devices can be inaccessible. Hence, disabled business owners may be more isolated than others - losing opportunities to learn from their peers, develop their customer base and increase their market share.

3.4 Competing for business opportunities. If disabled people already use the internet less frequently, this route to market can be further constrained when some 80% of websites fail even basic accessibility standards. Finding new work is made even more difficult with the increasing trend of electronic tendering. Not only is language complex and larded with jargon, but information demands may be beyond many small businesses. Adding complicated electronic forms further compounds inaccessibility. Competing for new contracts, especially in the public sector, can simply become too daunting and time-consuming to be worthwhile.

4. Conclusion. Disabled people can see self-employment as a means of fulfilling their potential and getting off benefits but publicly-funded business support may not adequately meet their needs. They may therefore depend on their own ingenuity to get a business launched but may still face significant barriers when competing in a technology-dominated environment. Although many may use basic IT skills, they remain on the wrong side of the digital divide. Consequently, they may rarely grow beyond the micro or lifestyle business. Even the most able entrepreneur will be constrained when denied some of the essential tools for growth.

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Disability into Diversity Planning

This has been written as a think-piece in preparation for the Equality Bill becoming law. It sets out what Disability Forward thinks about how disability issues should fit into an overall diversity strategy for any organisation.

Disability issues will always need to be an integral part of your diversity strategy. This is because one In five of your staff and customers are likely to have a disability, and because disability can happen to anyone at any time, most disabled people are not born with their disability and therefore unless you include disability issues in your diversity planning you are not going to be able to respond fully and effectively to the diversity agenda.

You need to take a strategic approach to disability issues within your diversity planning, How should you do this?

1. Consider what your vision is with regards to your approach to disability equality in your organisation, what are you trying to achieve overall?

For example, you may have an organisational mission statement or strategic objective on diversity that you must meet. You may not have developed this, and therefore the first thing to do is think about what doing well on diversity means to your organisation. Once you have done this, you need to think about what you specifically want to achieve around disability equality, this will require you to think about what the specific issues are for disabled people whose lives you will affect either as an employer or service provider.

2. Take a three stage approach.

You will need to tackle:
a. Issues for staff
b. Issues for those that use or buy your services
c. Issues around reputation and relationships *

This means that the way that you deal with staff, service users, contractors, partners and other organisations will not only influence your own practice but if you take the right approach, will enable you to demonstrate your commitment to disability equality to a wider audience.

3. Who needs to know what?

Most organisations know they have to do something but they are not sure what. Not everyone needs to know the same things, so when you are planning your approach consider who needs to know what and why, So:

Senior managers
Need to understand the underpinning principles of disability equality and the law and how this should be taken into account in their strategic thinking. They also need to understand that their role is to facilitate significant culture change within the organisation. They do not necessarily need to know a lot of detail.

Middle managers/Line managers
Need to understand their responsibilities in terms of implementing the company/organisations policies in a way that promotes equality for disabled people. So they will need more in depth information on disability equality issues and the law, but they will need to be given the tools to understand how this applies to their function, role and responsibilities. This isn't just about what they themselves do, it's about how they work with other managers and staff to ensure that equality for disabled people is always the end goal.

Other staff
Your staff are key. Often they are forgotten or only given basic information. These are the people that can really make your diversity planning happen in practice and in a successful way. So, they may not need information overload on everything, they will need to know enough to ensure that what they do is right, and what services, resources and processes the organisation or company has in place to assist them in their role. For example how to produce documentation in electronic formats so that is accessible to blind and visually impaired people or how to appropriately assist a person with a learning disability to access your services.

4. How do you know what needs to be done?

Step one - find out what your organisation or company already does on
disability issues, this is not just about policy, but about custom and practice

Step two - By working with disabled people in your organisation and outside it
(service users, customers, partners) you should identify what the key issues and barriers for disabled people might be in the context of what you do.

Step 3 - By working with disabled people, you can use the
information gathered in step one to see whether what you are doing is addressing the issues identified, and if not whether what you are doing needs minor changes, or whether you need to take a new approach, introduce a new service etc.

Remember:

1. By making your general policies, practices and procedures as flexible and inclusive as possible, you will reduce the need for 'special or different measures'. This is not only better for your organisation, it is better for the disabled people who may work in it or who may use your services, buy your products.

For example: you may be upgrading your customer information management software, If you ensure that you work with disabled people in your organisation to identify what their requirements might be from an upgraded system (including the actual accessibility of the system as well as the type of management information it will produce), then your upgrade will improve your business overall.

2. When seeking input and feedback from staff, service users/customers or partners, you will need to spend a little time providing them with some context about what you are doing and your thinking behind this, this will help to improve the quality of the feedback that you get.

We can offer consultancy and training on all of this and more just contact us!

Michelle Valentine, Director
Disability Forward Limited
michelle@disabilityfwd.co.uk
c/o 10 Rushmore Rd
Norwich NR7 8QR

Tel: 01603 301358 Mobile: 07949 565539
www.disabilityfwd.co.uk

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