Statement and Action Plan

At the Barrow Cadbury Trust we believe in the equal value of all people. This fundamental belief drives everything we do. We recognise that people are discriminated against at many levels due to disrespect of their identities, heritage or characteristics. We understand that this is profoundly damaging to individuals, to groups and to society at large. It is also compounded by discrimination over more than one characteristic, such as race, gender, age or income for example. Discrimination takes many forms including violent hate crime, deliberate and overt discriminatory behaviour, actions due to institutional or organisational structures and culture and unconscious bias at the individual level.

We know and understand that no individual or organisation is immune from this and that it takes deliberation, self- examination and continuous effort to become less discriminatory and more inclusive, both at the personal and at the organisational level. Power and privilege play out in all areas of our lives from the macro to the micro. We believe in the broad and positive benefits of better DEI practice – to productivity, to individuals and to society itself. We will be brave and transparent in speaking out about these issues.

Our board and staff pledge ourselves to examine our own power and privilege, not forgetting the discrimination experienced by any of us as well, with the intention to detoxify damaging behaviours, structures and attitudes. We will take a ‘whole organisation’ approach to improvement, building on areas of work we have already engaged in. This means looking more closely than ever before at all aspects of our organisation, its work and its heritage, including historic injustice.

We will critically examine further our governance, management, communications, internal operations, relationships with our partners, our programmatic work and our financial base (in our case an endowment).

We will draw up an annual action plan on DEI, seek and be open to challenge and feedback and transparent in our reporting on progress, both internally and externally. Recognising that culture drives change more surely than does strategy, we will build on our existing organisational culture, ensuring that all voices can be listened to and heard as we move forward.

Proposed Action Plan 2022-23

We have reviewed opportunities to improve our DEI performance. This is an iterative process with the aim of continuous improvement to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation, better serving our mission and our partners by sharing power, being approachable and being advocates for action to challenge and change discrimination in all its forms, within ourselves, our own organisation and in society at large. We will also encourage and support the efforts of our partners to improve their own DEI progress.

Governance: We said we would:

• Audit our board diversity and take action to improve it, avoiding tokenism.
• Ensure all trustees have access to further learning on DEI issues by a variety of means.
• Include discussions of the Trust’s actions on DEI in our annual cycle of board meetings.

Management/Internal operations: We said we would:

• Revisit and DEI-proof our recruitment process.Publish our race, gender and other equality pay gaps.
• Audit our staff diversity and take action to improve it when opportunities arise.
• Ensure all staff have access to further learning on DEI issues by a variety of means.
• Include discussions of DEI issues routinely in our ongoing work and specifically at staff away days.
• Explore our supply chains and switch to more DEI-friendly suppliers where possible.

Communications: We said we would:

• Improve accessibility to our four websites as part of the findings of our recent digital review.
• Ensure all our publications have DEI-friendly graphics and visuals.
• Encourage our partners to use DEI friendly visuals in reports they publish with us.
• Use our social media channels to promote work challenging and changing discrimination in all its forms.
• Take care to use plain English, avoiding acronyms and jargon in our publications and other text.
• Ensure our application process is transparent, straightforward and accessible.

Relationships with partners: We said we would:

• Always acknowledge the power imbalance between those who have resources and those who seek them, with a view to maintaining open, honest and respectful relationships which value what each party brings to our shared goals.
• Be open to challenge and feedback on our behaviours where they fall short without being defensive.
• Participate in networks for learning and sharing of good practice.

Programmatic work: We said we would:

• Review our grant portfolios again using the Funders for Race Equality audit tool and publish our results.
• Ensure DEI- lensing is a part of all our grant assessments and awards and that all funded partners explain the DEI implications of what they are trying to achieve.
• Ensure that work on all our programmes is informed by the input of people with lived experience of the issues being tackled by the programme and where those people are not acting in their own paid employment role, we will compensate them for their time.
• Ensure our partners’ panels and events are diverse.

Finances: We said we would:

• Take further steps to improve the DEI-friendly selection of our investments including with regard to historic injustice.
• Audit our social investments and take further steps to seek out opportunities to support DEI-led initiatives.

Action Plan 2022-23 Update

We have reviewed opportunities to improve our DEI performance. This is an iterative process with the aim of continuous improvement to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation, better serving our mission and our partners by sharing power, being approachable and being advocates for action to challenge and change discrimination in all its forms, within ourselves, our own organisation and in society at large. We will also encourage and support the efforts of our partners to improve their own DEI progress.

Governance:  We have:

• Commissioned external consultants to undertake a governance review with a DEI lens, particularly focussed on board composition and diversity.
• Had a presentation to board members from Equally Ours and the Funders for Race Equality.
• Had a presentation to board members from Switchback on its work with an Experts by Experience board.
• Had a presentation to board members from Settled, on the situation for Ukrainian migrants to the UK.

Management/Internal operations:  We have: 

• Tweaked our recruitment process but there is more to do. 
• Published our race and gender pay gaps. 
• Audited our staff diversity (and will publish that soon). 
• All staff have had learning opportunities on DEI issues – collectively and individually. 
• Had staff team discussions on DEI and a long session at an awayday exploring being an anti-racist organisation. 
• We have added another minority-led small business to our regular catering list. 

Communications: We have: 

Been developing a new BCT website mindful of DEI issues including: 

• Better accessibility 
• DEI friendly visual and graphics 
• Encouraged partners to do the same in publications. 
• Used our social media channels to promote work challenging and changing discrimination. 
• Improved our use of plain English (still a work in progress). 
• Ensured our application process is transparent, straightforward and accessible.  

Relationships with partners:  We have: 

• Made efforts to acknowledge the power imbalance between those who have resources and those who seek them, with a view to maintaining open, honest and respectful relationships which value what each party brings to our shared goals. 
• Made efforts to be open to challenge and feedback on our behaviours where they fall short, without being defensive. 
• Participated in networks for learning and sharing of good practice. 

Programmatic work:  We have: 

• Reviewed our grant portfolios again, using the Funders for Race Equality audit tool, and published our results. 
• Ensured DEI-lensing is a part of all our grant assessments and awards and that all funded partners explain the DEI implications of what they are trying to achieve.
• Ensured that work on all our programmes is informed by the input of people with lived experience of the issues being tackled by the programme and, where those people are not acting in their own paid employment role, have compensated them for their time. 
• Not constructed un-diverse panels at any of our events or those we pay for.  

Finances: We have: 

• Taken further steps to improve the DEI-friendly selection of our investments including with regard to historic injustice. 
• Signed up to the Diversity Forum manifesto. 

Action Plan 2023-24 

Governance: In 2023-24 we will: 

• Audit our board diversity and take action to improve it, avoiding tokenism. 
• Ensure all trustees have access to further learning on DEI issues by a variety of means. 
• Include discussions of the Trust’s actions on DEI in our annual cycle of board meetings. 

Management/Internal operations:  In 2023-24 we will: 

• Redesign and DEI-proof our recruitment process. 
• Publish our race and gender pay gaps. 
• Audit our staff diversity and take action to improve it when opportunities arise. 
• Ensure all staff have access to further learning on DEI issues by a variety of means. 
• Include discussions of DEI issues routinely in our ongoing work and specifically at staff away days. 
• Explore our supply chains and switch to more DEI-friendly suppliers where possible. 

Communications: In 2023-24 we will: 

• Improve accessibility to our four websites, with particular focus on a new BCT website in development. 
• Ensure all our publications have DEI-friendly graphics and visuals. 
• Encourage our partners to use DEI friendly visuals in reports they publish with us. 
• Use our social media channels to promote work challenging and changing discrimination in all its forms. 
• Take care to use plain English, avoiding acronyms and jargon in our publications and other text. 
• Ensure our application process is transparent, straightforward and accessible. 

Relationships with partners: In 2023-24 we will: 

• Make efforts to acknowledge the power imbalance between those who have resources and those who seek them, with a view to maintaining open, honest and respectful relationships which value what each party brings to our shared goals. 
• Be open to challenge and feedback on our behaviours where they fall short without being defensive. 
• Participate in networks for learning and sharing of good practice. 

Programmatic work: In 2023-24 we will: 

• Review our grant portfolios again using the Funders for Race Equality audit tool and publish our results. 
• Ensure DEI-lensing is a part of all our grant assessments and awards and that all funded partners explain the DEI implications of what they are trying to achieve. 
• Ensure that work on all our programmes is informed by the input of people with lived experience of the issues being tackled by the programme and where those people are not acting in their own paid employment role, we will compensate them for their time. 
• Not construct un-diverse panels at any of our events or those we pay for. 

Finances: In 2023-24 we will: 

• Take further steps to improve the DEI-friendly selection of our investments including with regard to historic injustice. 
• Audit our social investments and take further steps to seek out opportunities to support DEI-led initiatives. 
• Report on progress on the Diversity Forum manifesto.