Statement of Service
An Outline for an Equal Opportunities Policy
- Anywhere Association is an Equal and Diverse employer. It is committed to the development of policies to provide for equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and service delivery.
- This paper has been prepared to set out Anywhere Association's commitment and as a statement of its intent.
- The Policy will be reviewed regularly and not less than once per annum, to ensure continued and effective implementation.
- Anywhere Association will take whatever steps are necessary including, if appropriate, use of the disciplinary mechanisms, to enforce the Policy. In addition, any employee, director, member, volunteer or trainee who considers that he or she is suffering from unequal treatment on any grounds may implement the grievance procedure.
- Management will bring to the attention of all employees the provisions of the policy and will provide such training as is necessary to ensure the effective implementation of the Policy.
- The Manager shall have responsibility for the operation of the Policy. However, all employees have a duty to do everything they can to ensure that the Policy operates in practice.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES STATEMENT
- Anywhere Association wishes to secure genuine equality of opportunity whether required by legislation or not, in all aspects of its activities as an employer and training provider. To this end, Anywhere Association will take every reasonable and practicable steps to ensure that there be no discrimination against any individual or individuals, including staff, directors, beneficiaries, trainees, service users on account of their disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender reassignment, gender, marital status, race or other criteria.
Codes of Practice
- Anywhere Association will ensure that job descriptions and person specifications reflect the position and do not contravene the stated intent of the Association in this Policy.
- All advertisements will state that the Association is an equal opportunities employer and that it welcomes applications from (e.g. disabled people, lone parents, people from minority ethnic groups and any underrepresented groups).
- The Association will seek, as far as is practicable, to redress imbalances in its staffing, volunteers and trainees in line with the Equality Policy.
- All vacancies for staff, volunteers and trainees will be advertised, taking account of specialist and community access points to ensure effective targeting of recruitment.
- Applications forms will seek to enable people to emphasise the positive aspects of their applications, and the forms will normally be of uniform style and content.
- A copy of the Association's Policy Statement will be enclosed with all job and volunteer application forms.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
- Subject to the requirements of them to undertake their duties, employees and volunteers will be encouraged to participate in training opportunities relevant to their duties and personal development.
- The Association will develop a structured training programme to assist in ensuring that all employees and volunteers have access to such opportunities.
WORKING PRACTICES
PREGNANCY
The Association recognises that women may need changes to their work conditions and will consider requests for such changes.
ANTENATAL AND POSTNATAL CARE
Reasonable time off with pay will be given to both full and part-time women employees who are pregnant, to attend antenatal classes and medicals.
MATERNITY LEAVE AND PAY
The Association's maternity leave and pay are set out in employee's Conditions of Service and Maternity Leave Policy.
PARENTAL LEAVE AND PAY
The Association's paternity leave and pay are set out in employee's Conditions of Service and Parental Leave Policy.
FLEXIBLE HOURS AND JOB SHARING
Consideration will be given to flexible working hours and arrangements for employees to facilitate for the caring of children and other dependants. Requests for job sharing or part-time working to meet employees' needs of shorter hours will also are considered.
The above considerations will however, have due regard to the Association's operational requirements.
DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
The Association's Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures are set out in the employee's Conditions of Service.
MONITORING
To assist in the effective operation of the Policy, the Association will seek information from all applicants seeking employment with the Association and from potential volunteers and trainees.
All such information will be treated as confidential and will be separated from all processes concerned with the appointment of staff or volunteers.
The information will be collected by people categorising themselves rather than being categorised and will be held centrally.
When monitoring information is sought, an explanation will be given that the information is needed only for monitoring purposes in order to check that the Policy is being consistently applied.
The information shall be monitored monthly by the Manager to seek to ensure the effective implementation of the Policy.
At least once per annum, the Manager shall be required to evaluate the monitoring information and report to the Management Committee of the Association. This report shall include compliance with the Policy and identify any areas or issues that require review.
June 8, 2007
News Feed