Author information
Produced by: Director of HR
Date created: November 2015
Approval by: SMT
Last updated: January 2025
Updated by: Head of HR
Audit date: January 2026
Version history
November 2020 updates
The policy has been updated to the new accessible format.
Key Information
The policy defines equal opportunities and covers discrimination, harassment and equal rights. It sets out the legal responsibilities of the organisation under the Equality Act 2010.
Introduction
Our organisation is made up of brilliant people. Each of us is unique, whether in terms of our background, personal characteristics, experience, skills or motivations. And we value our people for the differences they bring to the table. These differences – this diversity – is powerful.
We are committed to working towards the vision of a world where people who are blind and partially sighted enjoy the same rights, responsibilities, opportunities and quality of life as people who are sighted. As part of this commitment, we are recognised as a Disability Confident Employer.
We seek to create an inclusive environment where everyone is respected and valued, and where everyone inspires actions which promotes equality, encourages diversity and participates in providing an accessible and inclusive culture.
We work to understand and meet the needs of all our young people, staff, stakeholders and visitors. We will strive to embrace the differences and develop the potential of all our people who work for us and with us.
The young people who attend InFocus are visually impaired and many have additional disabilities and come from a range of cultural and minority backgrounds. Our prime objective is to enable all our young people to reach their personal potential in a happy, challenging and caring environment that acknowledges their individual strengths and challenges by providing a holistic specialist learning environment, promoting individual opportunities and the potential to make decisions and informed choices leading to increased independence and responsibility for their own learning and future.
Scope
This policy applies to our governance, education provision, service delivery, employment and volunteering practices. Everybody at InFocus has an individual responsibility to promote equality and we will continue to work with young people, staff, stakeholders and parents to develop and share good practice and to bring about change.
In order to achieve this, we aim to:
- Ensure that all our young people and staff are encouraged and able to reach their full potential.
- Protect the rights of all young people, staff, parents, trustees, volunteers and visitors.
- Respect and value differences between people.
- Promote good relations between different groups within the organisation and within the wider community, wherever possible.
- Meet the diverse needs of our young people, staff and volunteers.
- Prepare InFocus young people for life in a diverse society.
- Ensure that an inclusive ethos is established and maintained.
- Acknowledge the existence of racism and be proactive in tackling and eliminating discrimination.
- Ensure that issues related to discrimination are recognised across all areas of activity.
- Ensure that equality is an integral part of all planning and decision making.
- Ensure effective training in this area is available to all staff and students.
Responsibilities
We expect all young people, staff, stakeholders and volunteers to take personal responsibility for observing, upholding, promoting and applying this policy. Our culture is made in the day-to-day working interactions between us so creating the right environment is a responsibility that we all share.
Managers will ensure compliance with the policy.
Monitoring and compliance will be carried out by the Executive Team and reported to the Trustee Board twice yearly.
All new policies and policy reviews will reflect the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Policy.
Implementation
The policy will be published on the intranet in the new accessible format.
Policy Text
Process
We define equal opportunities as:
The removal of direct discrimination – ensuring that people are not treated less favourably because of their disability, ethnicity, national origin, colour and race, sex, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, religion or belief, political opinion, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, age or trade union membership/non-membership.
The removal of indirect discrimination – ensuring requirements or conditions do not unfairly or unjustifiably limit access to education, services, jobs, or volunteering opportunities.
The removal of associative discrimination – ensuring that people are not directly discriminated against or harassed because of their association with another person who has a protected characteristic; such as disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, sex or gender reassignment.
The removal of discrimination by perception – ensuring that people are not directly discriminated against or harassed based on a perception that they have a particular protected characteristic, when they do not; such as disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, sex or gender reassignment.
The prevention of harassment – harassment occurs when, for a reason which relates to a person’s age, race, sex, disability, religion or belief, gender reassignment or sexual orientation, another person engages in unwanted conduct which may violate the person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person.
Disability Equality – We will on occasion take positive action, in terms of our employment of visually impaired people. The law allows charities, which promote the interests of a particular group of disabled people, to treat people from that group more favourably than others where this is connected with their charitable purposes.
Equal rights – the achievement and respect of equal civil rights for all.
Equal access – increasing access to our services, employment and volunteering opportunities by having policies and practices which take account of diverse needs.
Our commitment
We will not tolerate any form of behaviour or activity, which discriminates on the grounds of, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, age, sex or sexual orientation.
We will create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination, promoting dignity and respect for all, and where individual differences and the contributions of all young people, staff and stakeholders are recognised and valued.
We will take seriously complaints of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination by young people, employees, stakeholders and visitors in the course of the organisation’s work activities.
We will make opportunities for training and development available to all staff, who will be supported and encouraged to develop their full potential, so their talents and resources can be fully utilised to maximise the efficiency of the organisation.
We will review and update employment practices and procedures when necessary to ensure fairness and changes in legislation.
We will, as part of our Gender Pay group reporting, annually assess any anomalies and where necessary develop an action plan to address this.
Associated documents
Equality will also be embedded in a wide range of other documents including policies and procedures: Human Resources Policies and related procedures, Quality Assurance and the complaints procedure, Curriculum policy and Learner Care & Welfare and related policies.
Access to this document
Please contact the MIS office if you would like a copy of this document in an alternative format such as Braille or large print.