Equality and Diversity

Equality and diversity are not minority interests: a fairer society benefits everyone in terms of economic prosperity, quality of life and good relations within and among communities.

We know that equality is about recognising, respecting and accommodating difference, ensuring that all our customers, stakeholders and staff are treated fairly according to their needs, merits and abilities, and given the chance to achieve their full potential.

Diversity interrelates with equality and is about creating a culture of inclusion that positively welcomes difference; embracing and harnessing it to produce a better society for everyone.

Working with the National Centre for Diversity to achieve the Investors in Diversity standard we have:

• Carried out a staff diversity survey and held staff focus groups to test understanding of equality and diversity issues.
• Established a residents' focus group to review our aids and adaptations service.
• Introduced new policies that cover all aspects of equality and diversity.
• Launched our new equalities impact assessment procedure.
• Established equality and diversity key performance indicators covering apprenticeships, codes of conduct and customer satisfaction in our Procurement for All partnering contracts.

Accent Nene's disability working group has established:

• The introduction of a password system for visits to visually impaired residents.
• A review of the emergency repairs response times for disabled customers.
• A reduced time between sign up and new tenancy visits for all disabled customers.