Equality for all

As a social housing provider, one of our core aims is to support equality of access to housing for those in the greatest housing need, ensuring that your home improves your quality of life. However, we recognise that sometimes it is difficult for individuals to communicate their needs or to get effective support - especially if they have experienced discrimination in the past.

30/09/2011

With this in mind, we take a proactive approach to ensuring that all our services are responsive to the needs of key groups and individuals. We do this by developing a three-yearly Single Equality Scheme (SES) in partnership with residents, which outlines our approach to service improvement for all people at risk of discrimination and disadvantage. The Single Equality Action Plan is revised on an annual basis (in support of the Scheme) and can be downloaded by clicking on the link found on the right-hand side of this page.

The single equality scheme is based on a number of key principles:

(1) We know our communities

In order to address the needs of key groups and individuals we need to know the make-up of our local communities and how they are changing over time. We continually seek to map out our communities’ needs by:

• Collecting information on the needs, preferences and personal circumstances of our residents
• Listening to what our residents tell us through our complaint procedure
• Learning from the experiences of other organisations

(2) We challenge ourselves

We recognise that sometimes the way that services are designed may have unintentional negative impacts on particular individuals or groups. We therefore undertake an internal Equality Analyses (EAs) of every service and policy that we develop. An EA is a process where services are rigorously assessed by an equality and diversity expert to ensure that all potential negative impacts are removed.

(3) We involve residents in the design of our services

We know that you know best, so we work in a wide variety of ways to enable customers to influence the design and management of our services. Activities range from simply speaking to your Customer Advisorright up to becoming a paid member of our board. We are particularly keen to work with disabled residents to ensure that we deliver services and develop housing which meets your needs, to find out more about how you can get involved visit our customer involvement page.

(4) We measure the experiences of different groups who use our services

To ensure that our services are meeting the needs of all key groups we undertake quarterly satisfaction surveys with both tenants and leaseholders. We use this information to see if there are any trends to suggest that we need to improve how we deliver a service to a particular group of people.

(5) We communicate in lots of different ways

We know that poor communication is one of the main barriers to getting the most out of a service. To support the communication needs of all our residents we use a wide range of methods including audio tapes, Braille, large print text and home visits. We also have an external translation service for people for whom English is not a first language and have 39 employees able to provide ad hoc interpreting services in a wide range of languages. We also seek to ensure that wherever we meet residents face-to-face we use disability friendly venues.

If you would like to know more about the different ways that you can receive information from RHP please contact Eddie Kelly, Head of Communications, on 0800 0322 433 or at eddie.kelly@rhp.org.uk

(6) We make sure our employees have the right training

Our employees are our biggest asset and the main point of contact for all our services. We therefore seek to support you by ensuring that all our employees, no matter where they work in RHP, are aware of the key issues faced by people at risk of discrimination and disadvantage.

All employees joining RHP attend equality and diversity induction training. We run annual refresher training in the principles of equality and diversity All our managers attend equality impact assessment training. Key employees undergo specialist training in areas such as welfare, benefits, and the Disability Discrimination and Race Relations Acts. We offer training to our key partners – particularly those involved in repairs, maintenance or grounds maintenance

(7) We set targets for improvement

We want to ensure that all groups are accessing our services equally, so we set service targets to promote better equality of access. Our targets are based on the objective of achieving fair access for all the groups that live in our communities.

(8) We walk the talk

In addition to being an equality aware housing provider we also want to be an equality aware employer. We believe that a diverse workforce is more able to understand and support the needs of our customers. In a recent survey we found that many of our employees are from an ethnic minority, have some form of disability or have dependent care responsibilities. In order to support all our employees to maximise their potential whilst achieving good work-life balance we:

• Regularly survey employees to find out their needs
• Proactively support disabled people working, or wanting to work, for us
• Consult employees over changes to working practices through our Joint Consultative Committee
• Offer flexible approaches to work including the options of part-time and home working wherever possible
• Have family-friendly policies to help employees manage their dependent care responsibilities
• Are meeting the standards for a London Living Wage employer, ensuring that all our employees receive rates of pay that reflect the higher costs of living in Richmond

(9) We pass it on

We recognise that we have a responsibility to encourage all of our partners and contractors to support the same aims and objectives for promoting equality and diversity. We expect our subcontractors to meet the same standards that we require of our own employees and services. We ensure that this happens by building in contractual obligations which require them to undertake equality training, assess their service design processes, and treat their employees fairly. Our decisions to contract with particular providers are also influenced by their track records and proactivity in promoting equality and diversity.