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Diversity & Equality Audit

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A Diversity & Equality audit will help you assess how effectively your diversity and equality policies, procedures and, most importantly, processes are operating within your organisation. Commissioning a Diversity Audit is a proactive best-practice approach towards developing and integrating a diversity strategy in order to comply with ever changing legislation, to improve your business effectiveness and to ensure that service provision reflects best practice.

A Diversity Audit will provide: an accurate ‘health check’ for your organisations culture; a clear profile for you in relation to the key criteria that you request and the subsequent report can then be utilised as a key instrument in the pursuit of the organisation’s Diversity Strategy. For public authorities it will assist you to more accurately meet your requirements under the current Race, Gender and Disability duties and then under the forthcoming Single Equality Duty.

Recommendations from the Diversity Audit will include the actions that should be taken to address any issues revealed and make recommendations in such areas as:

• Diversity Strategy, including policies

• Leadership

• Structures including communication systems

• Processes and cultural change

• User Involvement, Access and Partnerships

• Training and related HR practices

The audit report will also advise on solutions to current issues within the organisation regarding the workforce and/or its relationship with your customers.

Whilst the audit will be open to exploring any diversity issues that arise, the main principal equality areas that will be addressed are the six principle equality strands: race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation and religion.

The audit can explore:

• Regulatory bodies requirements e.g. Audit Commission, Quality Care Commission, Ofsted etc.
   

• The levels of awareness, understanding, and behaviour and the legal compliance of Equal Opportunity and Diversity policies and procedures among the workforce, from the Board/Senior Management Team downwards.
   

• Equality issues in relation to leadership in strategy, structures, processes, reward systems, service users and people practices
   

• Strongly held beliefs prevalent within your organisation and the impact these beliefs may have.
   

• The legislative compliance and application of specified diversity and equality policies and procedures taking into account anticipated future requirements.
   

• Implementation of best practice beyond legal compliance.

Our Approach

In our understanding, diversity is an important aspect of any treatment of fairness in an organisation. We take a two-pronged approach involving the concepts of valuing and of discrimination.  

• The first involves the ways in which people in an organisation are valued for differences, and the extent to which those differences are seen as an asset in your organisation.
   
• The second relates to the need to ensure equality of opportunity and the absence of discrimination, whether direct, indirect or institutional.
   

Methodology

We will then gather information through the following channels with random and representative sampling, direct contact will include telephone and emails:

• One-to-one interviews with directors and senior managers
   

• One-to-one interviews with other members of key representative staff including union representatives and any support networks.
   

• Focus groups with selected groups such as: women managers; black minority ethnic staff; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT); disabled; and others for anyone to attend.
   

• Receive telephone calls and e-mails for those who wish to take part in the audit but are unable to attend a focus group or prefer extra animinity.
   

• We will read, report and make recommendations on relevant policies, monitoring data, staff surveys and procedures selected by you

Report

In carrying out the audit and writing up the report, we will bear in mind as appropriate the Audit Commission diversity categories, the five key concepts in organisational development as set out by Jay Galbraith and the new Local Government Equality Framework, using them as indicators which will provide a comprehensive structure for our findings and recommendations.
 

“I now know where we are and the direction that the SMT needs to follow to practically take on these issues”   Director

“The Diversity Audit was a very difficult job professionally done, excellent”   Chief Executive Officer

To download the latest diversity & equality news see the Latest Diversity & Equality News page

Jonathan Heath
Email: jonathan@samtosha.co.uk
Tel: 01672 513738   Mobile: 07977 540524
Address: Samtosha, Mildenhall, Marlborough SN8 2LR
Website: www.samtosha.co.uk