EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION (EDI)

At The Outward Bound Trust

We believe that everyone has undiscovered potential and part of unlocking that is creating an inclusive culture where different experiences and characteristics are welcomed and embraced.

Within our core values is the “belief that everyone has the right to feel valued, welcomed and encouraged to be themselves. At the heart of this is a recognition that everyone benefits from a variety of experiences, ideas and perspectives. A strong organisation is diverse and inclusive.”

We want everyone who is involved with Outward Bound to have an equal opportunity to experience this right. Central to this is the principle of equity, which involves recognising that everyone is different, and so ensuring equal opportunity sometimes means treating people differently. We use an equity approach to ensure that each individual has access to what they need to be successful.

By 'diversity' we mean the ways in which people are different, particularly those ways which are known to create disparities in life outcomes. We recognise the characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010 and intend that no-one is discriminated against due to their age, disability, sex, race, religion, marital status, gender reassignment, pregnancy / maternity or sexual orientation. We are also aware of other factors which can lead to discrimination such as socio-economic status, caring responsibilities, and mental health, and include these in our thinking.

There are EDI Champions throughout Outward Bound whose purpose is to proactively consider and take action to ensure everyone feels valued, welcomed, and encouraged to be themselves.

Young People and Visiting Staff

We seek to work in partnership with visiting clients to understand the needs of the people who visit our centres to ensure we eliminate any potential for discrimination and maximise opportunities to promote greater inclusion.

All staff receive EDI training at induction, and depending on their role further sessions relevant to their interactions with clients.

We strive to ensure that equality of opportunity and respect for diversity is evident and developed in all areas of our work. When working with young people and visiting staff, our employees will be conscious of how their behaviour may be perceived and will act to promote inclusion and avoid discriminatory behaviours in line with our safeguarding policies. We explicitly consider the needs of people with protected characteristics in our work.

Our Employees

All prospective and current employees of Outward Bound will be given equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment and training, and will be made aware of our commitment in this area. Our ambition is an Outward Bound staff team which reflects the diversity of the young people whom we exist to serve. We recognise that we are on a journey towards realising this and we must work purposefully to that end.

Our strategy Outward ReBound states that by 2024 we will:

• Create a more diverse Board of Trustees
• Recruit and retain a greater proportion of staff from underrepresented backgrounds
• Undertake further initiatives to promote an inclusive culture.

Read more about how we are working towards attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce.

Finally, we recognise that our policies, systems, and processes have the potential to produce unintentional discrimination, and so we include equity, diversity and inclusion considerations when these are reviewed in line with our continual improvement process.