About Forces Employment Charity
Founded in 1885 and operating across the UK, RFEA has the specialist knowledge and understanding to bridge the gap between military life and civilian employment. We work in partnership with other organisations and employers who, like us, respect and value the unique qualities and abilities of all those who have served.
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Statement
Introduction
The Forces Employment Charity is committed to providing equality, fairness, and respect for all in employment and service delivery. We take pride in our increasingly diverse community and all the cultural richness that it brings with it. This statement outlines our intention to promote equity, diversity and inclusion among our staff and clients.
Our people, whether client-facing or in a supporting role, are excellent – they inspire great ideas, drive new plans forward and help make the Forces Employment Charity a fantastic workplace.
Ensuring that we are always recruiting, retaining, and promoting a diverse mix of colleagues who are representative of the diversity in our local communities gives us an excellent opportunity to access a broad range of ideas. It allows us to provide you with the overall mix of services you know and expect from us.
Statement of intent
The Forces Employment Charity recognises that certain groups in society have historically been disadvantaged on account of unlawful discrimination they have faced based on their race, gender (Including gender reassignment), physical or mental disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origin, marital or parental status, colour, or age. We will implement various actions to eliminate prejudice, unlawful discrimination, and victimisation within the communities we serve and our workforce.
Our aim
We want to see a sustainable and inclusive community. We will continue to develop and promote policies and systems that ensure that the communities we serve and our workforce are not unlawfully discriminated against.
We aim to:
- Promote equity of opportunity
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, and
- Promote good relations between people from different backgrounds
- Promote inclusion
How will we deliver our commitment?
We recognise the value of diversity within the community and our workforce and the contribution of people from different backgrounds.
We are committed to ensuring that our services meet the varied and complex needs of people living and working in our communities.
Our commitment is supported by a legal duty to provide all services and employment opportunities without unlawful discrimination reasonably. We have a solid moral and social duty to recognise unlawful discrimination, challenge prejudice and discrimination, and promote equity and inclusion.
We are committed to promoting equity as this recognises everyone’s needs and circumstances differ and allocates the resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome.
Objectives
Where appropriate, we will work in partnership with other organisations and local voluntary and community groups to provide services which promote equitable opportunities to all by:
- Building on good practice
- Consulting with and involving all sectors of our community
- Providing accessible information and ways people can comment on our services
- Delivering services which are appropriate to the needs of the community
- Removing barriers which deny people access to our services
- Using our powers to make sure that organisations providing services on our behalf work in line with this statement
- Promoting an environment which gives all clients an equitable chance to learn, work and live free of unlawful discrimination and prejudice
- Equitable and appropriate treatment in employment, training and recruitment opportunities
Responsibilities
The Forces Employment Charity is an equity opportunities employer and service provider. To support this public commitment, managers and staff play a crucial role in ensuring that our services and practices do not give rise to unlawful discrimination of any kind, that we have a shared understanding of the relevant issues, and that we know how best to deal with them.
All charity employees are expected to comply with our values of promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion and treating colleagues and clients with dignity and respect. This commitment must be evidenced in practice.
Managers are expected to:
- Be at the forefront of best practices on equity within their respective areas
- Mainstream equity within their respective service areas
- Raise equity-related issues with their staff and senior colleagues
- Encourage leadership on equity amongst their staff and clients
- Train staff on equity issues
- Make guidance readily available to staff
- The mainstreaming of equity is part of a proactive agenda. This demands proactive thinking, planning and action.
Implementation and evaluation
The Forces Employment Charity wants to meet the aims and commitments set out in this statement. This includes not discriminating under the Equality Act 2010. The equality and diversity questionnaire will help us maintain best practices and identify barriers to workforce equity, diversity and inclusion.
The Forces Employment Charity needs your help and co-operation to enable us to do this. The questionnaire is optional at the point of registration. The information on the questionnaire will only be used for evaluation purposes to ensure we meet our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Policy and will play no part in the registration or service delivery.
The analysis intends to establish if there are different success rates between genders, people of other sexual orientations, ages, different ethnic backgrounds or faiths, and people with disabilities. If there are differences in these areas, it will enable action to be taken to ensure that no group is mistreated.
All questions are optional. You are not obliged to answer any of these questions, but our evaluation will be more effective with more information you supply. All information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence.
With the help of feedback from our community groups, clients, and staff, we will continue to develop arrangements to review and evaluate the effectiveness of our employment and service delivery policies. If our evaluation reveals any policy gaps, we will take necessary action.
