Scoping Exercise Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Belonging

Overview

The Social Care Council has over the last year or so been taking small steps to begin the conversation related to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Our strategic plan 2023-2027 references this as an important area for us to address. Our two workshops conducted with staff and board members and our recently established internal working group reflect some of the incremental work that we are doing.

This internal group consists of volunteer members (identified below) who came together because they were interested in exploring how we could move forward on diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. As such it is important to note that this group is concerned with good practice and is not responsible for the formal reporting of progress.

At our last meeting of the internal working group in September we discussed some of the things that could be undertaken to make this work meaningful. We acknowledge that work in this area can be challenging especially with limited resources. But we also agreed that it is important to make a start and that the rewards will outweigh the challenges.

As an initial starting point, we considered it a useful exercise to scope out some things we are already doing or plan to do within our functional work areas that ultimately are about diversity equity, inclusion and belonging, but are often not described in those terms. These are all the intertwined values that help create an organisation that recognises difference, where people are encouraged to engage and participate and when they do they feel that their perspectives are valued and respected.

What do we mean by diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging?

We already have section 75 statutory equality and good relations duties and our disability duties in place. Whilst we do not have diversity legislation, it still covers many facets it could be about, for example:  

Ethnicities; Ages; Genders; Sexual orientations; Talent; Lifestyles; Education; Language; Personality; Characteristics; Physical disabilities; Class Personal belief; Geographical location; the list could go on as people’s diversity is multi-layered.

As Diversity and Inclusion are also about having the conversations, listening to ideas and be open to different perspectives. Please take the opportunity to share this at your team meetings and across your team.

We are not intending that this scoping exercise be turned into an onerous task and should only take about 10 minutes completing.

Our Diversity working group includes

Mairead Harkin

Helen McVicker

Julie Ann McCann

Rita McCullough

Catherine Griffin

Hollie Bishop

Jaimie Harvey

Sharon Foster

David Hamilton

Daniel Mills

Michael Robb

Gillian McAuley

Nigel Wilkinson

Andriana Alkiviadou

Sandra Stranaghan

Anne McGlade

This is not an exclusive group if a member of your team would like to connect with us please encourage them.

Why your views matter

Undertaking this scoping exercise will help us to develop and generate a baseline of activities that align diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging to existing business priorities and objectives. Initially our focus is on internal responsibilities but in due course we will explore how we can better use our influence externally with other stakeholders and our registrants.