We are committed to equality and diversity, and our strategy sets out six key objectives:
- To ensure that our approach to customer care is inclusive: responsive to risk, physically accessible and culturally appropriate.
- To ensure Lewisham Homes’ design standards deliver personal dignity, independence, choice and privacy.
- To ensure that partners and contractors address equality and diversity as part of any work they do for us.
- To improve life chances for residents.
- To take appropriate action to prevent and tackle victimisation and harassment, strengthen communities and promote good relations.
The key objectives above were developed using the below information:
- The population profile of the borough of Lewisham and profiles of our tenants and leaseholders
- Profiling the people who work for us
- Community needs as set out in needs assessments and reviews
- Performance data about services and outcomes
- Perspectives from tenants and leaseholders
Public Sector Equality Duty
The Equality Act 2010 requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act
- Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a ‘protected characteristic’ and people who do not share it;
- Foster good relations between people who share a ‘protected characteristic’ and people who do not share it.
Harassment and victimisation
For further information about the support we provide to victims of domestic violence and hate crime please see our antisocial behaviour page.
In the workplace
We embrace diversity – it’s a defining characteristic of the Lewisham community, and is reflected in our teams. We believe in creating an inclusive environment and nurturing a culture where diverse perspectives can help drive us forward.
We also strive to provide a fair, equal and supportive work environment for all our employees, regardless of their age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, or affiliation to any political party or trade union. Our policy applies to recruitment and selection, terms & conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, and every other aspect of employment.
In April 2021, we conducted a data snapshot from across the organisation of our payroll data. We then analysed it by gender and ethnicity in order to better understand the equality and diversity of the people working at Lewisham Homes.
We did this research because we want to be a diverse and inclusive employer that makes a difference to its residents and its people. We want to promote a company culture where everyone feels valued and supported to do their best.
Moreover, a culture built on a diverse range of beliefs and values has been proven to increase employee engagement and reduce staff turnover. By having a highly engaged and diverse workforce, we will be better able to deliver on our business plan, and serve our residents.
Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020-2025 already contains the results of our gender pay gap. However, we have now taken this further by including the results of our ethnicity pay gap too.
Our latest analysis of pay data showed that we had a small gender pay gap based on gender that was lower than the national average and that found in Local Government.
We also found that we had an ethnicity pay gap and that at some levels in the organisation we are not as diverse as we would like to be. Currently, there is limited data on ethnicity pay gaps in the public sector or in housing to compare with Lewisham Homes.
While our pay structures ensure colleagues are paid equally for the work they do, it’s important that we promote the advancement and proportionate representation of all groups in our workforce, while addressing any imbalance.
Being transparent about this data is an important step in recognising where we are as an organisation and becoming more accountable in our commitment to do more to create a fair and diverse organisation.
We have already begun to address these gaps with the initiatives outlined below and we will continue to monitor our progress.
- Incorporating initiatives and programmes in our Equality Diversity and Inclusion action plan in collaboration with the ED&I Steering Group and ED&I staff network group
- Promoting vacancies to a more diverse pool of applicants and removing potential barriers preventing individuals from particular backgrounds applying.
- Reviewing our recruitment and selection methods, tools and practices, in order to reduce bias in all stages of the process
- Introducing mandatory unconscious bias training for all recruiting managers
- Ensuring our recruitment panels are as diverse as possible
- Training the ED&I staff group to support recruitment panels
- Undertaking the Diversity Network Accreditation through HDN
- Developing an ED&I Policy under our strategy that promotes an open and inclusive culture
- Signing up to the Race at Work Charter and committing to the seven key actions to amplify our commitment to improving quality of opportunity in the workplace
- Publish our Ethnicity and Gender Pay Gap figures
- Promoting our flexible working practices, and wellbeing and family friendly policies
- Supporting colleagues from all backgrounds to effectively manage their work, home and family commitments
- Ensuing that equality analyses are carried out in policy development and change programmes, to limit any potential adverse effects on particular staff groups
- Implementing training to bring about behavioural change and reinforce expectations about the culture we want to achieve
- Delivering campaigns and events that celebrate the diversity of our workforce
- Removing barriers to participation in personal and professional development
- Committing to review the pay gaps by the end May 2022