Improving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at DYT

March 2021

As an organisation that champions young people with literacy difficulties and Special Educational Needs and Disability, we understand how important it is to actively advocate for the rights of those who are disadvantaged by systemic inequality in our education system. We also recognise our obligations to do more to ensure we are promoting and achieving equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across every area of Driver Youth Trust.

Our internal policies and processes help us to comply with the Equality Act 2010, which states that it is against the law to discriminate against someone because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. However, our aspirations go way beyond compliance. We want our organisation to reflect the communities in which we work and be inclusive of all personal characteristics and the ways in which they intersect.

DYT is a small organisation and as such does not publicly report EDI information to protect the privacy of our team. However, we recognise the changes in our society and the need to take a stand as an organisation that believes in inclusivity for all.

 

DYT’s progress on EDI

In March 2021, DYT became a Disability Confident Committed employer and committed to ACEVO’s ‘Eight principles to address the diversity deficit in charity leadership’. We have therefore committed to:

  1. Systematically record staff diversity data and to use this information in our attempts to increase diversity throughout the Trust.
  2. Ensure inclusive and accessible recruitment processes, offering an interview to disabled people.
  3. Providing new and existing employees support and reasonable adjustments.
  4. Including and reflecting on the needs of young people, particularly where there are societal barriers to their educational participation, across our activity and work streams. We aspire to reflect these young people in our staff and trustee team.
  5. Planning quarterly check-in meetings with all staff and volunteers to provide them with the space to raise ideas, issues and concerns with senior leaders.

 

We will review and report on the progress we have made against these commitments to the Board of Trustees and update this statement annually.

Key objectives

Inclusion and accessibility:

  1. We are taking steps to review our website and other online content to ensure accessibility meets the necessary standards under Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
  2. Improvements to our website and other content are underway to ensure descriptions are added to photos and other graphics using Alt+text and to ensure that documents in PDF format are created similarly.
  3. We do not currently provide British Sign Language (BSL) on the video content we produce but are ensuring that captioning in available at the point of publication.

 

Workplace practices:

  1. Where possible to improve the representation of people from diverse backgrounds at DYT across every layer of the organisation.
  2. Regularly review diversity data to identify key demographics which are not present in the staff team or board.
  3. Ensure quarterly check-ins continue with the CEO to provide space to raise any concerns or issues.
  4. Ensure our marketing and communication output reflects our EDI commitment.
  5. Include diversity and inclusion considerations as part of key business decisions and ensure that staff and trustees understand the need to address bias in decision making.

 

Governance

DYT is aware of changes to the Charity Governance Code and will have regard to:

  1. The importance of EDI across the Trust and our current level of understanding of relevant topic areas.
  2. Make space as a board to understand current systems, cultures and the broader context.
  3. Set out plans and targets tailored to the charity and its starting point. Develop context-specific, realistic and time-bound goals.
  4. Monitor and measure progress through a process of regular self-assessment.
  5. Be transparent and publish the charity’s progress, including sharing progress, challenges and learning.

 

As a leader, I recognise that I have a personal responsibility to foster an internal inclusive culture and to act to create change across the sector in which DYT operates. As such, I have instigated and created links with external partners to enhance DYT’s EDI practices.

DYT will continue to think, plan and create space for a more equal, diverse and inclusive workforce that embraces and drives change within the sectors in which we operate in order to achieve the Trust’s vision for our beneficiaries.

 

Chris Rossiter, Chief Executive