Equality & Diversity Policy
Surfing is for everyone and always will be.
Gather & Glide is committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all members of staff and students. Gather & Glide values the rich diversity of the community it serves and will take all necessary steps to ensure that its services reflect the needs of all people within the community.
Our policy
All individuals can expect to receive fair access to learning opportunities, including staff & students at Gather & Glide.
It is out duty actively promote disability, race and gender equality includes recognising that fundamental change is required, not just in the physical environment, but also in people’s perception of these issues and this will be undertaken through training and awareness raising and consultation with directors, employees and volunteers, clients and the wider community.
Key principles
Gather & glide will do more than merely adhere to anti-discriminatory legislation. It will take appropriate positive action to promote equal opportunities for all and maximize the potential of all directors, employees and volunteers and clients through valuing their different ethnic, religious and social backgrounds, genders, sexual orientation, ages, skills and experiences.
This means:
-
Actively promoting the right that all members of staff and students have to be treated equally and have the same opportunities
-
Reaching out to groups of people who are marginalised or traditionally or socially excluded
-
Working together to identify and eliminate all forms of discrimination whether deliberate or unwitting and making it clear that such behaviour will not be tolerated
-
Embracing and promoting the understanding and benefits of diversity in our workplace and within our programmes
-
Ensuring that all marketing, publicity, learning materials and information includes positive and appropriate representation where images are required
Staff & management
This Equality and Diversity Policy seeks to ensure the effective use of human resources in the best interest of Gather & Glide and its directors, employees and volunteers. It is a commitment by the organisation to the development and use of employment procedures and practices that do not discriminate and which provide genuine equality for all members of staff and management.
All employees and volunteers of Gather & Glide and all applicants for employment will be given equal opportunity, irrespective of their age, sex, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins in all aspects of employment and training.
No job applicant or employee will be disadvantaged by conditions or requirements, which cannot be shown to be justifiable.
Gather & Glide is committed not only to the law but also to the promotion of equality of opportunity in all employment fields.
The operation of recruitment, training and promotion policies to all individuals will be on the basis of job requirements and the individual’s ability.
In respect to people with disabilites
Full and fair consideration will be given to people with disabilities for all types of vacancies. All applicants with declared disabilities who meet the minimum requirements for the job will be guaranteed an interview
-
Wherever possible, employees who newly acquired disabilities will be encouraged and supported to continue in employment
-
Wherever possible, Gather & Glide will modify equipment, use special aids to further employment, or job restructuring to enable a person with disabilities to be employed or remain in employment
Directors, Employees and Volunteers will be pursued through the Grievance Procedure [within 3 months of initial grievance] but this shall be without prejudice to the individual’s rights
Equal opportunities for students
Gather & Glide will contribute towards the creation of an accessible learning and working environment, which is free from discrimination and prejudice and one that encourages and helps clients to achieve their full potential.
Gather & Glide will seek to deliver equality of opportunity to all clients, irrespective of their age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, whether or not they have a disability or learning difficulty or any other characteristic.
Gather & Glide will do this by:
-
Developing a learning environment in which the needs, interests and concerns of all clients are equally valued
-
Enabling all clients to develop self-esteem and reach their full potential
-
Treating every client according to their individual needs through client differentiation
-
Increasing awareness within the organisation of stereo-typing, discrimination and equal opportunity issues and of their negative consequences
-
Providing learning resources and communications which are free of bias and include positive and representative images of clients where appropriate
-
Encouraging clients to understand issues relating to equality and diversity as appropriate
-
Ensuring that the Gather & Glide ethos promotes equal opportunities and that this image is projected to the community
-
Monitoring the extent to which participation in learning reflects the diversity of the local population in terms of gender, age, ethnic background and disability
-
Setting targets to increase access and participation by Clients from underrepresented groups
-
Identifying strengths and weaknesses in the promotion of equal opportunities
-
Ensuring that development planning includes ways of widening participation to embrace under-represented clients
Access
All Gather & Glide staff will take details at the time of booking of any known disabilities, so we can organise a staff member to be available and ready to deal with any issues that may arise during the customer’s time with us (Notification of any allergies/health conditions should also be make during the booking process). If required, we will advise on any available support available on public transport for people with disabilities, to assist with their journey to and from Gather & Glide.
Disability training awareness
Gather & Glide are continuingly researching various ways in which we can improve access for all those who take part in our provision with regards to age, sex, disability, culture, race and sexual orientation.
