1. Equality, Diversity & Inclusion at Salix Homes

We continue to build on the achievements of 2022. Our Inclusion Group remains active, and we host a Menopause Support group on a regular basis. We also continue engagement with the Boost Leadership Programme which is a reciprocal mentoring scheme which encourages people from ethically diverse backgrounds to work with leaders in housing organisations to share their experiences to improve organisational approaches to inclusion, whilst receiving support to personally progress in their careers. We have committed to this programme for 3 years and will play an active role in shaping its development.

Continual improvement of our recruitment and selection practices to reduce and remove any potential barriers to entry remains a key focus for us. This year we have been exploring new approaches which we hope will attract more ethnically diverse candidates and have worked with Unlimited Potential, a local social enterprise, to understand how we can better encourage young adults into employment.

A key commitment for delivery in 2023/24 was to confirm our approach to agile working by March 24. We have achieved this earlier than anticipated with the launch of our Hybrid Working Policy in July 23 following a comprehensive engagement process with all colleagues through which their views were considered and influenced the outcome. We now believe we have an approach that continues to support our commitment to achieving a work life balance without compromising the quality of service provided.

We have also achieved, ahead of target, accreditation to the Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter, which is a voluntary membership and assessment scheme that aims to raise employment standards across Greater Manchester. This standard aligns to our values, and we are proud to be part of this movement which positively addresses socio-economic discrimination in areas such as secure and flexible work and pay.

It is important that our inclusion activities remain responsive to the environment we are operating within. This year colleagues have highlighted the challenge of supporting customers who have been adversely affected by the economic crisis. To address this and continue our focus on positive mental health provision for colleagues, we have delivered resilience and wellbeing sessions, introduced new coping skills enabling colleagues to continue to deliver high levels of customer service.

We are active members of a number of housing equality, diversity and inclusion groups within Greater Manchester and on a regular basis meet to benchmark, share best practice and learn from each other.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at Salix Homes. We’re passionate about ensuring their voices are heard and providing opportunities for our customers to help shape and improve our services.

One way in which we use customer information to shape services is through equality impact assessments. In undertaking these this year we have identified that we need to improve the information we hold about our customers so that we can better understand how to improve access to services and learn more about the diverse range and needs of the people living in our neighbourhoods.

Therefore, we launched our ‘Getting To Know You’ campaign in July 23, which commenced with customer being invited to update and share information with us about their personal characteristics, circumstances, and preferences through a range of different communication channels. This initial phase is now complete, and we have had over 1,000 responses, which are already providing new insights to inform future plans and priorities. Through partners we will continue to collect the remaining information through to March 24 and continual maintenance of this information will be achieved through regular tenancy audits.

Other activity which supports us to better understand our customers wants and needs has been in the establishment of three new customer panels, an Apartment Living Forum, Complaints Oversight Group and a Procurement Panel, which provide scrutiny and guidance to a wide range of strategic decisions.

In April 23, Tenancy Satisfaction Measures were introduced which require housing organisations to collect and provide information to support effective scrutiny of performance. In quarter 2 of 23/24 89% of customers asked, stated that our colleagues treated them fairly and with respect, which is very encouraging.

We continue to review how we communicate with our customers in our conversations and our letters to ensure our communications are as effective as possible.