Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Words: Katie Fraser, Women in Prison Head of Prisons Partnerships and Participation, and Dean Hall, Quality Standards & Training Manager for the Greater Manchester Women’s Support Alliance Illustration: PPaint

F or some people, things in life can be harder to achieve because of where they were born, their experience of education, a disability, their sex or race. When we talk about equality, diversity and inclusion we are talking about making things fairer for everyone in society. This means fairer treatment and opportunity for all, without prejudice or discrimination against someone based on their identity or protected characteristic.

So how do we achieve this? Should everyone be treated the same? It isn’t as straightforward as that. When we talk about equality we mean that everyone should have, as far as possible, equal chances in life and not be treated differently because of who they are. Diversity refers to respecting and celebrating the fact that everyone is different. And inclusion means to create an environment that caters to everyone, and makes everyone feel valued and welcome, regardless of their background.

Ultimately, the aim is to make a society that is fair for everyone, while recognising and celebrating that we are all different.

To achieve this, we need to make changes to how we do things, to make it fairer for people who face greater challenges and fewer opportunities.

For example, we have ramps to access buildings for people with disabilities, we

The nine protected characteristics recognised by the 2010 Equality Act

provide information in different languages for people who don’t speak English, or we provide special facilities for pregnant women.

These are just a few examples of how we can make things more equal, recognise our differences and promote inclusion for everybody, whatever their individual needs might be.

A prison is a re ection of society, so the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion apply there as much as anywhere.

Sometimes, things may be adapted or changed because of someone’s needs. It’s not about getting special treatment; it’s about understanding and respecting everyone’s unique differences and creating a fairer environment that is inclusive for all.

So, what does this mean on an individual level? One of the easiest ways of promoting equality is to think about how you communicate and behave with those that are different to you. Words and language we use about others, as well as our actions, can really make a difference to how included someone feels.

If we are as inclusive as possible and take time to think about the challenges that others may face and see a situation from their point of view, we can all do our part to create a fairer, happier society for everyone.

Valuing diversity is every individual’s responsibility, because every individual is unique and if we weren’t, it would be a pretty boring world.