Diversity: you ask the questions

Questions from Maria

Donoghue-Mills

Chief executive

Novas Group

What are the three most important performance indicators for equality and diversity for social housing organisations?

The Housing Corporation requires housing associations to set equality and diversity targets for lettings, governing body membership, tenant involvement, tenant satisfaction, dealing with racial harassment, working with contractors, suppliers and consultants, and employment. It’s difficult to choose which three are the most important as many are legal requirements, and all are regulatory expectations. Diversity impacts on all elements of associations’ work and so a range of indicators is required.

What examples of good practice in involving customers are there?

The National Housing Federation’s website has a best practice section with examples. An example that springs to mind is Green Horizons, a stock transfer organisation in Edmonton, north London. It won an In Business award for Project Hermes, which set out to boost participation among socially excluded Turkish-speaking residents. It held focus groups specifically for the Turkish community to find out their concerns about the estate and ideas about how it could be improved. These sessions led to the development of interpreting services and Turkish-language surgeries where residents could discuss housing issues.

Questions from Robert Isaac

Diversity project manager

Family Housing Association

When could we expect to see a framework produced that would offer guidance to housing associations on developing diversity strategies?

The National Housing Federation produced guidance called Race Equality: A Framework For Review and Action in 2001. We also run courses on developing and implementing diversity strategies. In terms of statutory guidance, the Commission for Racial Equality is updating its code of practice for housing, which is due out for public consultation later in April.

What funding or resources can small- to medium-sized housing associations expect to help them deliver a wider diversity strategy?

Serving the diverse needs of customers and staff is integral to any organisation’s success. Government regulators and inspectors make it clear that diversity should form a core part of the day-to-day activities of housing associations and not be viewed as an “add-on”. As such, I think it’s unlikely that any additional funding will be available to meet the diversity agenda.

Are there any plans for setting up a joint anti-discrimination body that could offer advice and support to housing associations?

The government has announced plans to merge the bodies that deal with gender, race and disability discrimination to form the Commission on Equality and Human Rights. In addition to overseeing statutory obligations in these areas, this body will also be charged with advising organisations on how to develop best practice on responding to diversity and ending discrimination.

Questions from Jackie Leonard

Assistant director, performance and quality

Aspire Housing

What information do we need to collect in order to develop a diversity strategy?

Age discrimination in employment and vocational training will be unlawful from December 2006

An excellent diversity strategy will be specific to the organisation for which it is written. The key information to feed into such a strategy will be around the diversity of the communities that you serve, be they local or spread out, and from which you draw your staff. Only when you understand this will you be able to develop a strategy that truly reflects the needs of your residents and existing and potential employees.

What are the key elements that should be included within a diversity strategy?

In addition to drawing up a profile of the communities that you serve and draw staff from, you should undertake an assessment of the needs of those communities so that you can address your strategy to the specific circumstances in which you work. As well as looking at diversity as it relates to your practices and policies of employment, governance, procurement and partnerships, as housing providers you must also look at key areas of service such as tenant satisfaction, lettings, tenant participation and, crucially, how you deal with harassment.

How can we measure the success of our diversity strategy?

The only meaningful way to measure the success of your diversity strategy is to look at whether you’re doing your best for all your residents, for people who might be your residents in the future, for your staff and for potential job applicants. Are all the tenants from the different groups you serve equally happy with your service? Are you making lettings that reflect the make-up of your local community? Do all your residents have an equal opportunity to influence the work that you do? Does your staff reflect the communities you work in?

Questions from Carollyn McDonald

Human resources and training manager

Three Valleys Housing

How do you match the emphasis of your strategy with the profile of the community you serve, especially if there is a low black and minority-ethnic population?

To perform well, housing providers need to be responsive and open to all sections of the communities they work in.

In areas of low BME population, BME people are more likely to experience discrimination and much more likely to suffer from racial harassment. This means that it is particularly important for housing associations to form strong relationships with BME groups in these areas and build up trust with different communities. Doing this will mean that it is much more likely that discrimination and harassment will be brought to your attention and that you will be able to respond effectively when it is.

What aspects of diversity will be affected when the European Union’s employment directive comes into force in 2006 and outlaws age discrimination?

The employment directives will ensure that age discrimination in employment and vocational training will be deemed unlawful from December 2006.

These changes will mean organisations can no longer assume there is a mandatory retirement age. All organisations will need to consider how they recruit and train staff and ensure they are not discriminating against staff or potential employees due to their age, whether they’re old or young.

How do you deal with tenants and employees who refuse to complete returns, in particular on faith and sexual orientation?

You need to make it clear to tenants and staff that submitting this information is voluntary, meanwhile encouraging them to do so by explaining why it is important and what you intend to do with it. It’s vital to create an environment where people feel happy to share personal information without fear of discrimination, teasing or bullying.

To do this you may need to change the culture of your organisation, which will require clear leadership backed up by action on training, recruitment and dealing with staff who don’t show respect for their colleagues.

How do you demonstrate to the Housing Corporation and Audit Commission that you have done enough to collect data?

The corporation and the commission are specific about the range of information on performance they expect you to collect and the level of performance they expect you to achieve. Their expectations are set out in the regulatory code and the corporation’s good practice notes. Members have told us that in all but exceptional cases the corporation expects all the information to be collected and will take action when standards are not met.