Monitoring information
Policy/Procedure/Strategy: Equality and Diversity Strategy
Version: V1
Date Approved: 11/09/2014
Expiry Date: 11/09/2017
Date amended (if applicable) :00/00/0000
Owner: Paula Birbeck
Job Title: Director of Services
Approval route: Board
Equality and Diversity Strategy
Our vision
We are dedicated to raising the standard of our housing services in Teignbridge through
investment and adapting to changing needs. We are committed to working with our tenants
and partners to provide opportunities and develop thriving communities in our local area.
Our values
Respect
Proud and passionate
Resourcefulness
Ambitious
Supporting our vision
This strategy will support our vision and values by making sure it is achieved fairly and in a
way that everybody can access its benefits and have the same opportunities.
Legislation
The Equality Act 2010 introduced new protected characteristics and replaced previous antidiscrimination laws with a single Act that simplifies the law, removes inconsistencies and
makes it easier for people to understand. This strategy has been written to meet the
requirements of the Equality Act 2010 as a housing provider and employer.
The protected characteristics
We recognise that discrimination is unacceptable and unlawful on the grounds of people’s:

Age

Disability

Gender reassignment

Marriage and civil partnership

Pregnancy and maternity

Race

Religion or belief

Sex
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Sexual orientation
Regulation
As a registered provider, we must also fulfil our requirement set by our regulator to:
Understand and respond to the diverse needs of tenants. Under this standard we must:

Treat our tenants with fairness and respect

Demonstrate that we understand the different needs of our tenants, including in
relation to the nine protected characteristics and tenants with additional support
needs
Our approach to equality and diversity
We have set a corporate objective to ‘Champion the equality and diversity across the
organisation’.
We are committed to providing fair and equal treatment to all our staff, tenants and
contractors. We do not discriminate against any person, or group on the grounds of any of
their protected characteristics. We will eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation
through greater knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the differences between us.
We will:

Ensure all our policies and strategies are fair and reflect our approach to equality
and diversity

Make sure that we clearly communicate our approach to our tenants, external
partners, suppliers and contractors

Embed our approach with staff, board members and involved tenants by including
this strategy in our inductions and by providing regular training and awareness
sessions

Provide fair services that everyone can access

Operate fair recruitment and employment practices

Collect equalities data about our tenants so that we can make sure we are inclusive
and their diverse needs are met

Set targets and objectives for equality and diversity within our corporate plan
Staff profile
As of the beginning of the year 2014/15 we had 96 members of staff including fixed term
contracts. We have to be careful of how we report these figures. Because we are a relatively
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small business, we don’t report figures of less than five if we think people would be
identifiable. This limits the amount of data that staff outside of the HR team can access. Of
the 96 members of staff:

63.5% are female

1 employee identifies themselves as disabled

100% are white British

75 are employed full time and 21 are part time

Of the 21 part time employees 81% are female

Male part time employees make up 4% of the workforce

The average male salary is £29,808

The average female salary is £25,108

There is a 16% pay gap as the average female salary is 84% of the average male
salary.
Board profile

Of our 10 board members eight are male and two are female

One board member has a partner, one is widowed and eight are married

All board members are heterosexual and white British

Three board members have a disability, one prefers not to say and six do not have a
disability

In terms of religion, one is not religious and nine are Christian
Tenant profile
Lead and Joint
tenant age
18-25
4%
26-35
11%
36-45
14%
46-55
18%
56-65
15%
66+
32%
Unknown
6%
Lead and Joint tenant gender
Female
61%
Male
39%
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Lead and joint tenant
marital status
Partner
9%
Divorced
10%
Married
33%
Unknown
12%
Refused
1%
Separated
2%
Single
13%
Widowed
10%
Lead and joint tenant ethnic origin
Unknown
9.89%
Asian/Asian British
0.33%
Black/Black British
0.18%
Declined to say
0.55%
Gypsy/Romany/Irish traveller
0.26%
Mixed background
0.13%
Other
0.11%
White British
87.43%
White Other
1.12%
Lead and joint tenant religion
Unknown
21.06%
Any other religion
2.22%
Buddhist
0.18%
Christian (All denominations)
47.67%
Hindu
0.04%
Jewish
0.02%
Muslim
0.20%
None
Prefer not to say
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25.67%
2.94%
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Lead and joint tenant sexual orientation
Unknown
28.74%
Bisexual
0.18%
Gay man
0.15%
Gay Woman/Lesbian
0.15%
Heterosexual/Straight
65.49%
Other
0.64%
Prefer not to say
4.65%
Lead and joint tenant disability
Unknown
46.34%
Disabled
34.95%
Not Disabled
17.13%
Prefer not to say
1.58%
We report our data percentages to Housemark who have targets of how much data we
should hold on our system. We currently do not meet their targets for date of birth (target 9399%, actual 4%) and disability (target 71%, actual 45%)
Respect for People Group
The Respect for People Group will ensure that our corporate objective to ‘Champion the
equality and diversity across the organisation’ is met. They will plan, oversee and monitor
our activity in all aspects of equality and diversity that are outlined in this strategy.
The group meet four times a year and is made up of staff, tenants and a board champion for
equality and diversity to make sure that there is a consistent approach at all levels of the
business.
Staff and tenants are ambassadors for each of the protected characteristics, taking the lead
in promoting awareness and building greater knowledge in these areas. Ambassadors will
have the option to switch characteristic every 12 months so that they can gain better overall
knowledge.
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Staff members will also assist their line manager or head of service to complete Equality
Impact Assessments (EIA) for any strategy that goes to the board. Staff have the option for
their EIA form to be reviewed by the group. The EIA forms will be administered by the
Corporate Administrator and published on Pulse with the approved policy and strategy.
These forms will be reviewed on an annual basis by the group.
Recruitment
We operate fair recruitment and employment practices that are managed by our human
resources team. They write and monitor our recruitment strategies which consider the
equality and diversity in our recruitment process and training.
Working with contractors, consultants and suppliers
We recognise the importance of ensuring that all our services are free from discrimination.
We will ensure that all contractors, consultants and suppliers provide their equal
opportunities and diversity policies and example of how they implement fairness.
Small companies who employ less than 10 employees will be asked to adopt our equality
and diversity policy and code of conduct when working on contracts
SWOT for 2014/15
Strengths

Alternative formats for key
Weaknesses

documents are offered

Currently hold the positive about
members and staff

disabled people two ticks award

Offer an in-house OT service

Disabled adaptations service

Active E&D group who monitor
Harassment and Hate Crime is
Limitations to how we can report
staff data

Low number of female board
members

Staff only represent the white
British race
activity

We collect different data for board

We do not hold the required % of
monitored and covered by the
data for tenants regarding age
Anti-Social Behaviour strategy
and disability

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Currently have a 100%
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heterosexual board

Equality Impact Assessments are
not consistently completed
Opportunities


Promote our flexible approach to
Haldon completion and negative
press in relation to gypsy and
Good practice in relation to gypsy
travellers

Devon County Council will no
In-line with the digital marketing
longer be providing funding for
and inclusion strategy. There are
supporting people, which will
opportunities to engage more with
effect older people and those with
youngers tenants and groups who
support needs
represent the nine protected


working parents and new parents
and traveller sites

Threats

Any potential change in
strands using social media
government regulation in relation
Large proportion of tenants are
to employment or service
older (32% age 66+)
provision would have an impact
on our strategy and approach
Action plan for 2014/15
These actions have been set using the data and SWOT analysis above, which will be
reviewed each year to make sure that we achieve our corporate objective and fulfil our
commitment to equality and diversity.
1. According to current data, we do not know the sexual orientation of 29% of our tenants.
Therefore we will reinforce Teign Housing as a gay, lesbian and bisexual (LGBT) friendly
organisation by:
1.1. Support the Tenant Insight Lead by running a campaign to gather/input more tenant
data relating to sexual orientation
1.2. Positively promote the LGBT community through our marketing and recruitment
campaigns
1.3. Use social media to build good relations and reputation amongst LGBT online
community
1.4. Represent different sexual orientations in our marketing and recruitment materials
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2. Review and re-launch Equality Impact Assessments internally by providing training for
Respect for People Group members and strategy writers.
3. Support the Tenant Insight Lead to gather more data regarding disabilities.
Run a campaign to create more awareness of how living with disabilities can affect
access to our services
4. Support the Tenant Insight Lead to gather more data regarding Dates of Birth
Run an age awareness campaign
5. Become a Dementia Friendly organisation for carers and patients
6. Create a designated Respect for People Group page on Pulse to clearly promote our
approach to equality and diversity to staff and the role they play in its success
7. Put together a user friendly version of this strategy which will be made available to
current and new tenants
8. Positively promote the Haldon traveller site and traveller lifestyle through our publications
and local and national media.
Monitoring and review
The Respect for people group will led and monitor the actions set out above and will
evaluate its success at the end of each year. The Director of Services will report on its
progress at Senior Management Team meetings and at Board.
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