Champion equality, diversity and inclusion Assignment PDF

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Level 5- Champion equality, diversity, and inclusion Assignment Learning Outcome 1 Understand diversity, equality, and inclusion in own area of responsibility. 1.1 Explain models of practice that underpin equality, diversity, and inclusion in own area of responsibility. My role as a Youth Worker is a key role in my orginsations as, I am responsible for showing equality diversity and inclusion to both staff and the service user that we are working with. As an organisation we also work alongside many partners/funders and it is also important that they practice and follow our policies. There are many models/legislations in my job role we use to underpin equality diversity and inclusion. Firstly, The Equality Act 2010 is one which underlines our company ethos. This single act legally protects myself, my colleagues, and our service users from discrimination in the workplace. From this we have developed an Equality and Diversity policy which specifically was written by our Business Support Manager to ensure that:  

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Equality- We promote equality of opportunity by seeking to remove barriers, eliminating discrimination, and ensuring equal opportunity and access for all groups of people. Diversity– We accept each person as an individual. Our success is built on our ability to embrace diversity –and we believe that everyone should feel valued for their contributions. By working together, we will deliver the best possible services for our children, young people and families, learners, and delegates and for our staff and stakeholders. Inclusion–We are committed to creating a culture where differences are not merely accepted but valued; where everyone can develop in a way that is consistent with, and adheres to, Brathay’ s values of ‘inspire, support, share and achieve’. Our aim is to be an organisation where people feel involved, respected, and connected.

Within the policy there is also reference of the Race Relations Act 1976 which specially looks into racial discrimination, this again had been developed further into the Equality Act 2010 which covers age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, marriage and civil partnership, gender reassignment and sexual orientation. Another model which is essential is The Human Rights Act 1998 this law treat everyone equally as it promotes dignity and respect. The act itself lets me as a Youth worker defend my rights in the UK courts and against public orginsations many in which we are partnered with or commissioned by. Relevant rights which underpin equality, diversity and inclusion are, The Right to equality and freedom from discrimination, freedom of belief and religion and the freedom of opinion. Working in the Youth sector a lot of our work in the orginsation is working with young people. The Children Act 2004 model underpins equality, diversity, and inclusion for the young people and promotes safeguarding acting upon Keeping Children Safe in Education 2019. Sometimes the young people we work with are either in education or NEET, so therefore these models enable me as a youth worker to promote the welfare of the young people. In some cases, we work with some young people who are unfortunately not able to make decisions for themselves due to not having mental capacity so therefore another model which underpins equality diversity and inclusion is The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (Amended 2019). Due to the nature, decisions are required to be made either by the young person parents etc. The Deprivation of Livery Safeguards these young people to ensure decisions are made which do not deprive them of their liberty. This is important for the welfare of the person who is unable to make the decisions as well promote their equality, diversity, and

inclusion. Majority of young people also come from the care background/facility where they have been put in by the local authority. The Care Act 2014 is one which relays this and for those they are provided with services such as accommodations, and other factors to give them the same life as any individual that is not in the care setting. This model again underpins the ethos of equality diversity and inclusion, giving them the opportunity as anyone else. In my job role I have worked with many young people who have been diagnosed/undiagnosed with special needs. For them it is even more important that they are given them same right as anyone else and the same equality diversity and inclusion opportunities. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2014 (SEND) set guidance for the children aged from birth to 25. It focuses on a detailed plan for teacher and other professionals such as myself to exercise these rights to sensory or physical needs, the need for communication/interaction and cognitive learning. 1.2 Analyse the potential effects of barriers to equality and inclusion in own area of responsibility. In my workplace there are many potential barriers to equality and inclusion, and these can be a whole range of firstly communication and speaking out is one barrier. In my orginsation there are a whole range of people from diverse backgrounds with strong views and opinions who overshadow their opinions amongst those who are less confident which make them more reserve of expressing their opinion as they may consciously think that they will not be heard. Another barrier is faith, in my orginsation there are groups of people from different religious backgrounds and beliefs and employees may require time out/ holidays. Some of these holidays are non-mandatory and require me to use my holidays to take the day off for others they may think or feel that there are special requirements made for certain people such as on Fridays, where in the Muslim Faith there are Friday Prayers, some may argue well they can read in the orginsation rather than taking time out and this can be a potential barrier. Age is another factor we have a whole range of staff in my orginsation who all have a different approach to the work they do this can be a barrier as those workers in the orginsation who more experienced and elder staff members may feel as though they are slack and maybe criticised for the quality of work whereas the young generation may find it hard to communicate. This can simultaneously work against equality and inclusions as everyone working at different paces of tasks. Finally, the biggest barrier is opinions and judging other work colleagues this is a barrier as some staff may clash with other due to not agreeing or even clash of personality causing them not to engage with one another or even work alongside each other. As an orginsation we are lucky enough to have the right support mechanisms in place to tackle these barriers, managers doors are always open for queries/concern, meetings can be arranged, Disciplinary investigations can take place to ensure all staff are adhering to equality and inclusion which is part of the staff code of conduct right from induction day. 1.3 Analyse the impact of legislation and policy initiatives on the promotion of equality, diversity, and inclusion in own area of responsibility. At Brathay trust our HR team and Business manager who writes the policies are great to make sure that equality, diversity, and inclusion is echoed through our company and its implementer in our ethos. As an orginsation we have regular meetings, whether that’s team meetings, individual meetings, when new policies are being put in place or being updated to enables us to generate our opinions for best practice purposes. It also gives us the opportunity to consider any issues such as equality diversity and inclusion. We also follow a complaint procedure which can be done

confidentiality in a box where the right relevant person will contact me, or I can bring up any concerns I have against this issue direct with my line manager. It is also my duty to report any potential whistleblowing or if I feel a staff member or young person is being discriminated. Working across several projects some work involves a residential setting, we have staff training before we go out on delivery to ensure we comprehend to young peoples equality, diversity and inclusion as well as safeguarding them, myself and my colleagues. So, allowing those to practice their beliefs and pray even as part of my working day I am given the time out to pray. Also offering choices to the young people is important in the evening having a range of things for young people to do is very important some prefer to have some quiet time read a book whereas other would not mind going playing a game of football giving young people the choice is a key aspect of the equality. Also, privacy issues such as knocking on doors, calling to say are you dressed we intend to promote dignity all the time. Our policies and procedures are readily available through our work centralised system Outlook SharePoint, however sometimes due to being out of reach and in places such as Lake Districts and not having that information ready at hand physical copies are essential in case of any spot checks to enable us follow protocol if any incidents or accidents occur. These policies are regularly reviewed, and an all-staff meetings are organised to discuss the changes, giving myself and others the opportunity to express our opinions. Learning Outcome 2 Be able to champion diversity, equality and inclusion. 2.1 Promote equality, diversity and inclusion in your role within your own area of responsibility. Witness Statement 2.2 Challenge discrimination and exclusion in policy and practice. As The Princess Trust Team Leader and Youth Worker we work with young people from a whole range of backgrounds and when working with the young people sometimes they make stereotypes and its my job role to be able to challenge them stereotypes and to make the young person aware that these comments are not appropriate. For some, those young people making stereotypes is common or have been bought up with this language throughout their lives. Challenging this behaviour in this setting is my role and the actions depending on the severity levels which results in the actions for this and in many cases for low level it is a warning and can get to the point where it can result in removing young people of programme as its made clear from start in behaviour contracts and code of conducts that discrimination is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. 2.3 Provide others with information about *the effects of discrimination * the impact of inclusion *the value of diversity. Witness Statement 2.4 Support others to challenge discrimination and exclusion. In my orginsation supporting others to challenge discrimination and exclusion is important to champion diversity, equality, and diversity. For some people this may be their first job in professional career or their journey from volunteer to worker. This is efficient by properly conducting Induction where staff are made aware of all policies and information, they need to be able to be aware of issues and the correct reporting procedure. As part of our orginsation we have training around Whistleblowing Policies, the complaint procedure and how I and others can support to challenge

discrimination. Majority of times we are working and to challenge and to notice behaviours as such is key to create a safe, happy working environment. Understand how to develop systems and processes that promote diversity, equality, and inclusion. 3.1 Analyse how systems and processes can promote equality and inclusion or reinforce discrimination and exclusion. We as an orginsation take pride in promoting equality, inclusion as well as reinforcing discrimination and exclusion. We have written policies which are made available for the staff to read, we have regular training sessions on how to implement this in our practice. As a youth worker I work on projects such as NCS, Princess Trust where sometimes we have large groups of young people from a whole range of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and sexual orientation. The policies we have enable us regarding Legislation to reflect these rights to tackle issues such as Sexism, Racism etc. One way is setting a code of conduct where at the beginning of any group setting establishing ground rules what is acceptable and getting a signature from the young people to follow these. If these are broken this jeopardises the young persons place resulting for them to being removed and the right procedure being followed. This allows all individuals to be treated fairly and exercise their right giving us as staff the right to go back to the contract which the young people have made and re in force discrimination and exclusion. As an orginsation and working in the Youth sector it is our responsibility to promote equality and inclusions and challenge any discrimination and exclusion, we are trained according to this and are aware of legislations to back up and reinforce our decisions. Partnership working and sharing best practice is a key element to look at previous case studies to help staff again promote anti-discrimination. In practice there are systems which effectively allow us to monitor this regular reviews and reports are written. Staff are regularly debriefed and made aware of any sorts of discrimination or exclusion which they may have picked from young people or even staff. Our complaints procedure for both staff and young people is a great system to voice opinions and make the relevant aware so this can be reenforced. As a staff member for Brathay Trust I have a duty to reinforce this is both in a group setting and sometimes sessions such as discrimination are delivered to make young people aware that this is not a place for this, and we do not tolerate this as an orginsation and staff team. 3.2 Evaluate the effectiveness of systems and processes in promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in own area of responsibility. In my job role it is important that we regularly evaluate how effective our systems are in promoting equality diversity and inclusion this is usually done by reviews firstly managers review our systems and policies between themselves and then they are bought to the staff team including myself to review. We also can go through our policies with Partners, as majority of work involved is partnership working and the partners we work with may have their own systems and it important that collectively we impose a system that we can both work off. The reviews gather opinions and are essential to implement any changes if need be. We are also given evaluation forms via SharePoint to fill out to voice our opinions in more of a private and confidential way, in our orginsation we have a diverse staff team some will strongly voice their opinions whereas others would prefer one to one conversation the evaluation and feedback forms are a great way to effectively promote equality, diversity and inclusion in my organisation by increasing staff self-esteem.

3.3 Propose improvements to address gaps or shortfalls in systems and processes. A proposition to address gaps or shortfalls in systems and processes is by suggesting actions to my manager so they can produce report. The actions can be put into an action plan and from management they can decide on the necessary actions within a certain time scale. In terms of team members and staff members we should all be then made aware from our line manager and they will then in terms of our personal roles and responsibilities make them aware of this to help improve the systems and processes.

Be able to manage the risks presented when balancing individual rights and professional duty of care. 4.1 Describe ethical dilemmas that may arise in own area of responsibility when balancing individual rights and duty of care. Working in the Youth sector and working with Families with strong needs we as an organisation are faced with many ethical and moral dilemmas where families make decisions reflecting their own culture which can impact the rights to duty of care we have as orginsation. We all have a responsibility to safeguard ourselves and our service users by providing the right duty of care. In some cases, confidentiality is broken due to a disclosure being made, as an orginsation we are governed to do this under The Data Protection Act if it means an individual is at risk or harm, exploitation, or abuse then this can be this itself is seen as ethical dilemma. Another ethical dilemma is challenging behaviours resulting into conflict this itself can be an issue when looking at an individual rights for example we have worked with young people who have challenging behaviour and display behaviours such as banging head on doors this will need to be addressed ethically and needed to be balanced to enable the right duty of care. Finally, another ethical dilemma is the issue between principles and good practice this where some of the families we work with are heavily involved in the child’s care and choices when they do not need to be causing conflict. 4.2 Explain the principle of informed choice. The principle of informed choice is whereby service users, young people can make that informed choices about the most suitable treatment or service they receive. When a service user is making an informed choice all the relevant information about the advantages and disadvantages of all the possible courses of action in agreement with the individuals’ beliefs should be considered in the end, they have the decision and share the responsibility for the outcome. 4.3 Explain how issues of individual capacity may affect informed choice. For service users it is important that the decisions that are made are voluntary and the decisions to consent must be done by the service user themselves without the influence and pressure of friends/ families and staff members. One issue which can affect one’s individual’s capacity to decide is on mental health. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 covers this whereby it provided a legal framework for making or acting on decision on behalf of those who can not make the decisions themselves this is one issue which effect one’s individual capacity. Secondly ones age can be a big factor to affect informed choice, in many cases young kids who do not understand the nature or even the elder people who have issues with communication and understanding maybe from suffering from memory loss can contribute to making informed choice. Processing the options ones religion/culture and beliefs may affect their informed choice as this may act against what they believe and what they consider right and wrong.

4.4 Propose a strategy to manage risks when balancing individual rights and duty of care in own area of responsibility. One strategy to manage this in my work is to have the appropriate risk assessments which are put in place to cover all right of duty of care in my orginsation. As an orginsation we do a lot of community work with young people and residential based therefore risk assessments such as sleeping arrangements and medical information is all put in place to provide the best duty of care for the individuals we are working with. Another strategy is to regular review and monitor policies according to legislations to enable good practice and enable we are updated with following right policies and procedures this can be done by allocating roles and responsibilities to individuals in the orginsation to do. As an orginsation we have a designated person who write the policies alongside our CEO and Head of Children and Young People. Working in partnership with children to include the family in the duty of care, we have parent meets where we explain how we will be keeping their children safe whilst on residential or in our care....