E & D Action Plan Achievements 07/08

Equality and Diversity Action Plan 2007/08

Progress of key actions from the Equality & Diversity Action Plan 2007/08

Advertised at each housing office the availability of male/ female/ BME interviewers, translation facilities and zero tolerance statement
All housing offices have been audited for consistent signage satisfaction
Routinely equality monitor complaints, tenants satisfaction and repairs satisfaction
In conjunction with partner RSL’s in the Borough, we’ve commissioned a vulnerability study. As a result, we’ve piloted a ‘new tenants checklist’ in one housing management area and are looking to roll it out to all areas. This will help us to ensure that we’re giving our new tenants as much support as we can
A mechanism has been set up to record and use the information we hold on adapted properties to assist with the rehousing process
A disability working party has been established for tenants to help us identify the needs and requirements of disabled tenants. The group have helped in writing a ‘disability awareness booklet’ for staff
Established a BME focus group which has nominated it’s own chair and vice- chair. The meetings are focused around specific topics requested by the group and senior officers are invited to discuss these
Sent out an equality monitoring survey to all our tenants and Board members so that we can have a better understanding of the profile and specific needs of our tenants and Board
Provided free IT taster sessions for BME tenants and held a successful ‘Silver Surfers day’ for our tenants in sheltered housing schemes
Our timetable for equality impact assessments is underway and a successful training session for managers was held
As part of our commitment under our Gender Equality Scheme we’ve widely publicised the range of family- friendly working policies available to our staff
The ‘pre- qualification questionnaire’ has been amended to include a requirement for private firms wishing to be on RBH’s approved list of contractors to include a substantial amount of equality and diversity information

Rehousing:

All of our community bases are DDA complaint
Some minor adaptations have been completed on lifts to help disabled tenants. We’re looking to extend this to sheltered housing schemes
‘Homeswapper’ has been developed to assist our tenants in swapping their homes

Equality monitoring of applicants, tenancy allocations and current tenancies is regularly undertaken
Exceeded the lettings target (14%) for lets made to BME applicants: let 19.2% properties to BME applicants
Made a net gain of 186 BME tenants
10.97% of all our tenants are from BME backgrounds
36% lets made were due to medical or disability reasons
Adapted properties are highlighted as such on the HomeChoice website

Anti-Social Behaviour:

Regularly monitor hate crime reporting to ensure tenants are putting confidence in our services by reporting to us
We promptly deal with offensive graffiti and vandalism committed with the intent to harass
An article has been written for our tenants newsletter, Tenants Talkback, to highlight the actions we will take against perpetrators of graffiti
Developed and are piloting an anti- social behaviour satisfaction survey
Tenancy agreements include a clause that it is a breach of tenancy conditions to harass anyone in the area because of his or her race, nationality, sexuality, gender, religion or disability. Inflicting domestic violence is also covered as a breach of tenancy conditions

Personnel & Training:

We equality monitor employment from recruitment to termination
This year we exceeded the 14% target for recruitment from BME backgrounds: 22.89% of new recruits are from BME backgrounds
8.08% of all RBH staff are from BME backgrounds. In an attempt to diversify the workforce we have run a series of employment workshops in every township (many in community centres) to highlight RBH as an employer and give helpful employment information to local residents
75% of our housing trainees were from BME backgrounds
We exceeded the 5% target of our employees meeting the DDA definition - 5.18% of our workforce self-declared as having a disability
Of the top 5% earners in the company, 49% of these are women
We’ve committed to holding all job interviews in fully accessible buildings. All managers have been briefed and our adverts and interview letters have been amended to reflect this commitment
We’re in the final stage of conducting Job Evaluation in order to ensure our staff are being paid fairly
All staff are being trained in Equality and Diversity. This forms part of new starters’ compulsory induction
Our induction has been revised to incorporate new E&D legislation
We’ve developed training on vulnerable adults and children for front line staff to extend their knowledge and skills

Tenant Participation:

All tenant and resident (TRA) associations have been sent an equality monitoring survey to ask them to profile their representatives so that we can ensure they mirror the estates which they are representing. We will then start to set targets to ensure that all our TRA’s are representative
Held a successful tenants conference and fun day. The event included sessions on how to do home repairs, a music workshop for young people, a performance by Middleton Pop Stars, nails painting and workshops on how to make a hanging basket.
A tenant participation officer has been employed especially to work with ‘hard to reach’ groups

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Home About RBH Business Plan Annual Report Equality and Diversity Governance Annual General Meetings RBH Board Area Panels Organisational Structure Employment Directors Reports and Financial Statements * * *		Equality and Diversity Action Plan 2007/08 Progress of key actions from the Equality & Diversity Action Plan 2007/08 Advertised at each housing office the availability of male/ female/ BME interviewers, translation facilities and zero tolerance statement All housing offices have been audited for consistent signage satisfaction Routinely equality monitor complaints, tenants satisfaction and repairs satisfaction In conjunction with partner RSL’s in the Borough, we’ve commissioned a vulnerability study. As a result, we’ve piloted a ‘new tenants checklist’ in one housing management area and are looking to roll it out to all areas. This will help us to ensure that we’re giving our new tenants as much support as we can A mechanism has been set up to record and use the information we hold on adapted properties to assist with the rehousing process A disability working party has been established for tenants to help us identify the needs and requirements of disabled tenants. The group have helped in writing a ‘disability awareness booklet’ for staff Established a BME focus group which has nominated it’s own chair and vice- chair. The meetings are focused around specific topics requested by the group and senior officers are invited to discuss these Sent out an equality monitoring survey to all our tenants and Board members so that we can have a better understanding of the profile and specific needs of our tenants and Board Provided free IT taster sessions for BME tenants and held a successful ‘Silver Surfers day’ for our tenants in sheltered housing schemes Our timetable for equality impact assessments is underway and a successful training session for managers was held As part of our commitment under our Gender Equality Scheme we’ve widely publicised the range of family- friendly working policies available to our staff The ‘pre- qualification questionnaire’ has been amended to include a requirement for private firms wishing to be on RBH’s approved list of contractors to include a substantial amount of equality and diversity information Rehousing: All of our community bases are DDA complaint Some minor adaptations have been completed on lifts to help disabled tenants. We’re looking to extend this to sheltered housing schemes ‘Homeswapper’ has been developed to assist our tenants in swapping their homes Equality monitoring of applicants, tenancy allocations and current tenancies is regularly undertaken Exceeded the lettings target (14%) for lets made to BME applicants: let 19.2% properties to BME applicants Made a net gain of 186 BME tenants 10.97% of all our tenants are from BME backgrounds 36% lets made were due to medical or disability reasons Adapted properties are highlighted as such on the HomeChoice website Anti-Social Behaviour: Regularly monitor hate crime reporting to ensure tenants are putting confidence in our services by reporting to us We promptly deal with offensive graffiti and vandalism committed with the intent to harass An article has been written for our tenants newsletter, Tenants Talkback, to highlight the actions we will take against perpetrators of graffiti Developed and are piloting an anti- social behaviour satisfaction survey Tenancy agreements include a clause that it is a breach of tenancy conditions to harass anyone in the area because of his or her race, nationality, sexuality, gender, religion or disability. Inflicting domestic violence is also covered as a breach of tenancy conditions Personnel & Training: We equality monitor employment from recruitment to termination This year we exceeded the 14% target for recruitment from BME backgrounds: 22.89% of new recruits are from BME backgrounds 8.08% of all RBH staff are from BME backgrounds. In an attempt to diversify the workforce we have run a series of employment workshops in every township (many in community centres) to highlight RBH as an employer and give helpful employment information to local residents 75% of our housing trainees were from BME backgrounds We exceeded the 5% target of our employees meeting the DDA definition - 5.18% of our workforce self-declared as having a disability Of the top 5% earners in the company, 49% of these are women We’ve committed to holding all job interviews in fully accessible buildings. All managers have been briefed and our adverts and interview letters have been amended to reflect this commitment We’re in the final stage of conducting Job Evaluation in order to ensure our staff are being paid fairly All staff are being trained in Equality and Diversity. This forms part of new starters’ compulsory induction Our induction has been revised to incorporate new E&D legislation We’ve developed training on vulnerable adults and children for front line staff to extend their knowledge and skills Tenant Participation: All tenant and resident (TRA) associations have been sent an equality monitoring survey to ask them to profile their representatives so that we can ensure they mirror the estates which they are representing. We will then start to set targets to ensure that all our TRA’s are representative Held a successful tenants conference and fun day. The event included sessions on how to do home repairs, a music workshop for young people, a performance by Middleton Pop Stars, nails painting and workshops on how to make a hanging basket. A tenant participation officer has been employed especially to work with ‘hard to reach’ groups Back to Equality & Diversity