Wessex Cancer Support is committed to having a supportive, inclusive and safe environment for everyone including our volunteers, employees and service users.
As outlined in our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, we are currently on a journey to improve EDI across Wessex Cancer Support.
Our key priorities are:
- to increase the diversity across our staff, volunteers and leaders and,
- to increase our diversity of service users and remove barriers which could prevent someone from accessing our cancer support.
As a Charity, we are truly committed to our EDI Strategy and the achievement of our priorities as part of this.
The purpose of this policy is to:
- make clear our commitments and how we intend to implement courses of action.
- ensure equity, fairness and respect for all volunteers, full time and part time employees and job applicants (potential or actual).
- commit us to ensuring that there is no discrimination throughout any of our processes including recruitment and training on the basis of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
In line with our EDI Strategy, Wessex Cancer Support is committed to:
- having a supportive, inclusive and safe environment for everyone including our volunteers, employees and service users.
- creating an environment which shows dignity and respect for all and where individual differences and the contributions of everyone are recognised and valued; that is free of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination.
All employees are expected to abide by the policy and to create and support a working environment that embraces equity and diversity for staff, volunteers and clients.
In order to implement this policy, Wessex Cancer Support will ensure that:
- this policy is communicated to all employees and will be made known to job applicants.
- appropriate training and guidance will be provided to managers and employees to ensure they are aware of their rights and responsibilities under this policy.
- all complaints of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination by fellow employees, clients, supporters, customers, volunteers, suppliers, visitors, the public and any others in the course of the charity’s work activities, will be taken seriously and dealt with promptly, confidentially and in line with, where required, our Whistleblowing or Grievance Policies.
These internal processes do not replace from the right of an employee pursuing a complaint under Equality Legislation.
Wessex Cancer Support will collect and monitor statistical data on all full time and part time employees and job applicants. This will be used to assist us in the monitoring and delivery of equal opportunity measures and will help us achieve our commitments to equal opportunities for all. This information and how it is used will be within the scope of the Data Protection Act 2018 which allows for the collation and reporting of sensitive data for monitoring purposes.
The information will be treated in strictest confidence, will remain anonymous and will be treated in line with our 2020 Data Privacy Policy.
For more information about how we use personal information, our legal basis to use this information and who can be contacted in regards to this, please refer to the relevant sections of our Privacy Policy.
Download a copy of our EDI Policy