What we will achieve

Consultation and feedback As set out in our Equality and Diversity Policy Statement we are committed to working with residents, customers, partners and employees to tackle the equality, diversity and inclusion issues that matter to them and to achieving shared objectives.

Before writing this Equality Scheme we invited Swan residents and employees to tell us about the equality, diversity and inclusion issues that matter most to them. We wanted to ensure that our Scheme and Action Plan were based on real priorities, rather than simply consulting on a document that had already been written.

We sought feedback from Swan residents through ‘The Communicator’ (our newsletter for residents), our website, Facebook, the Essex and London Resident Consultative Committees (RCCs) and consultation at SwanFest 2017 – our annual residents day. We sought feedback from Swan employees through CygNET (our intranet), our Diversity Action Forum (DAF), our Employee Representative Committee (ERC), SwanProud (our LGBT+ Employee Network) and through our Housing Diversity Manager’s other engagement with colleagues including through the roll out of refresher equality and diversity training.

The main feedback received from both residents and employees was that we should keep doing what we are doing including delivering, and involving residents in, our annual Diversity Day. The following suggestions were also made: The London RCC asked us to consider whether there is anything more we can do to help safeguard older residents who may be targeted through scams.

The Essex RCC asked if we could help them get more involved with work to raise awareness of and tackle hate crime in the wider community; (An initial Hate Crime Ambassadors training session was delivered in October 2017 to address this request).

Some of our employees have indicated that they would welcome the opportunity to attend further equality and diversity training including cultural awareness training.

These requests have been addressed or will be addressed through the implementation of the Equality Scheme 2018-2022 action plan.