Two years ago, we set out to reinvigorate our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion. For our charity, our workplace, our education programmes, and in the support and services we offer women, new parents and families, this meant putting in place commitments and plans to ensure that wellbeing and inclusion is at the forefront of everything we do.
We developed a comprehensive plan to embed equity, diversity and inclusion in our work. We created an EDI Steering Group to lead our progress, bringing together people from across our community.
The action we've taken
We’ve taken action to create a fairer and more inclusive charity:
Strengthening our governance and leadership
- We diversified our Board and governance committees. At our 2020 AGM, we welcomed Franciane Husbands-Chevot and Chi Evi-Parker to our Board as Trustees. We also introduced three new independent Committee members to support the work of our Board, Salima Shariff, Ema Ojiako and Faran Johnson. Trustees have since appointed Ema to the Board as a Trustee. Together, they bring a wealth of professional and lived experience to our Board and Committees.
- We appointed a new Director of People, Education and Inclusion. This is a vital leadership role in the ongoing transformation of our charity, placing our people, inclusion, education and wellbeing at the centre of everything we do.
- We appointed a full-time, permanent Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead. This postholder will help to ensure that diversity and inclusion is embedded in every workstream within our plan for the years ahead, including our content and communications, volunteer and practice support, service delivery, quality assurance, campaigning and influencing, and complaint handling.
- We undertook our first all-community diversity survey to inform our future workforce and education goals.
- We worked with brap, a charity transforming the way organisations think about equality, to engage our Board, senior leaders and managers in anti-racism training and development.
Creating spaces to learn, co-produce and build communities
- We are continuing to develop and grow our NCT Diversity Network. This is a space for NCT’s community to explore issues, identify opportunities, learn together, co-produce work and policies, and to build a community of consultees and champions for equity, diversity and inclusion at NCT.
- We supported the creation of the Affinity network. The Network is an independently run support network for NCT’s Black and Brown practitioners, students and staff, led by experienced Senior Practitioners voluntarily. The network works with the Diversity Network to collaborate with NCT and improve our understanding of discrimination in areas such as assessment, teaching, learning, recruitment and career progression. Contact chaya@positivebirth.org if you'd like to find out more.
Creating inclusive, supportive spaces for parents
- We launched an anti-discriminatory practice unit within our university-accredited higher education for NCT student practitioners.
- We have continued to learn alongside, and co-design services with parents.
Campaigning for change
Externally, we have submitted evidence to an inquiry into racial injustice in UK maternity services led by Birthrights. We are members of the RCOG Race Equality Taskforce. We continue to raise awareness of key Black maternal health campaigns including those led by Five X More and The Motherhood Group, which are bringing vital attention to the inequalities in outcomes experienced by Black women. As a charity with a proud heritage in campaigning for improvements to maternity care, we are prioritising this external work to bring about better experiences and more equitable outcomes.
Our continuing work and commitments
We know we’ve got further to go. We are committed to challenging ourselves to be better and go further in this most important work. Our next priorities include:
- Reviewing the language we use across our information platforms and services to ensure that they are inclusive of all parents and all parenting experiences.
- Strengthening the Infant Feeding Line and reviewing our Infant Feeding Message Framework.
- Continuing to take a holistic review of our parent feedback and quality review processes and approach, to reduce the risks of bias and discrimination. We wanted to learn from best practice and look at our approach through an EDI lens. We have also committed to a continuing programme to tackle bias through learning and development for the teams involved in this important work.
- Developing a programme of CPD, learning and development for our staff, practitioners, students and volunteers, including anti-racism and anti-discriminatory practice, as well as work to support wellbeing in the workplace.
- To find out more email Louise Oliver, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, NCT: louise.oliver@nct.org.uk
