Equality & Diversity Annual Report 2017/2018

EQUALITY& DIVERSITY

Annual Report 2017/18

Contents

03

Introduction

05

Delivering better

05

Allocations

06

Involvement and

09

Supporting residents

10

Satisfaction

13

Preventing domestic

participation

services

through the ongoing changes to the

welfare benefits system 11

Creating stronger communities

12

Links with local businesses to

improve economic

abuse and supporting victims / survivors

and social

opportunities 13

Preventing hate crime and harassment and

14

supporting victims /

Promoting equality,

community cohesion

17

Going digital

and social, digital and

survivors

financial inclusion

18

Our people

19

Equality and diversity

19

Employee

20

SwanProud (Swan

20

Graduates, school

21

Our residents,

LGBT+ Employee

Network), Essex Pride and London Pride 22

Conclusion

training for employees

leavers and

apprentices

engagement data

communities and employees

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

1. Introduction

3

4

Swan Equality and Diversity

This report helps to show our equality

Our Equality Scheme 2018-2022

key equality objectives for 2015-2018.

key objectives over the four-year

outcomes and progress in relation to our During the year we completed our Equality Scheme 2015-2018 Action Plan and

developed our Equality Scheme 2018-2022 and accompanying action plan.

Our commitment to equality is supported by the Housing Diversity Network

accreditation we were awarded in June 2016, the successful retention of our Customer Service Excellence (CSE)

Accreditation in March 2018 and our place (at position 22) on the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Not for Profit organisations to

work for. We are delighted to have been

shortlisted for and to have won a number of awards this year which are referenced throughout this report.

focuses on achieving the following five period 2018-2022:

• Promote diversity in leadership;

• Be innovative, aspirational and meet best practice;

• Measure equality outcomes and publish what we do;

• Develop our workforce to deliver our

values and embed these in all that we do; and

• Support our customers to ensure

equality outcomes in times of change.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

We want to deliver services that enable us to

achieve excellent customer satisfaction, and most importantly meet the needs of our residents and customers. We recognise that residents and

customers want a quick and personal service and

therefore we must ensure that we understand and meet their diverse needs.

Each year we carry out a schedule of impact assessments to identify and address any

negative equality impacts. During 2017/18 we

carried out 12 equality analyses on a range of service areas including:

• Allocations and lettings

• Resident Involvement and Community Development including CSR

(Corporate Social Responsibility)

• Income / Rents • Repairs

No negative equality impacts were identified.

Being able to measure ourselves against the

sector is important in enabling us to understand

our strengths and weaknesses. This year we were

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2.

Delivering better services

272

In 2017/18, we allocated 272 general needs

properties: 194 (71%) in Essex and 78 (29%) in London. 75% were to households nominated

by the local housing authority and 25% were to applicants on our transfer list.

identify the hardest to reach or disadvantaged

2.1 Allocations

services to meet their needs.

primarily by the local authority’s allocation policies

accreditation report noting that we continue to groups and individuals and have developed

We were proud when our Customer Services Team who handle complaints and customer enquiries were shortlisted at the Housing Heroes Awards

2018 in the Frontline Team of the Year category for their work supporting our customers to resolve issues they may have with our service. Their

customer-centred approach ensures that the team provide a key link between those who receive our services and those who provide them and that a resolution is found.

2.2 Involvement and participation

Resident training and development

Community Development Team’s work is to ensure

and that means we look to create opportunities for

A key part of our Resident Involvement and

that residents can influence our services. This year 500 residents took part in our resident

engagement activities. This ranged from formal

engagement on a regular basis through Swan’s

governance structure to informal engagement at events such as SwanFest.

SwanFest 2017

SwanFest 2017 was held at Barleylands Farm,

Essex on 8 July 2017 and attended by over 240

residents. The theme was ‘Digital’ and the event was a great success, with high resident

attendance, engagement and consultation taking place.

Residents also had the opportunity to talk to staff

from different teams across Swan and gain advice and guidance from 16 different partner agencies including Age UK Essex, Basildon Community

Diversity Council (formerly Basildon Hate Crime

Panel), Barnardo’s Children’s Centres, Changing

delighted to have again retained our Customer Service Excellence Accreditation with the

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Although our allocation of properties is determined we are keen to ensure that we develop and

promote cohesive communities that are places where people want to live.

The annual equality analysis of allocations and lettings data included detailed analysis of the

profile of both new and existing tenants allocated

properties during 2017/18 and of responses to the new lettings survey which measures satisfaction

with the service. The equality analysis identified no negative equality impacts.

Pathways (formerly Basildon Women’s Aid), One Voice (Basildon BME Community Network), Tell MAMA (who support people experiencing anti-

Muslim hate), The Listening Post CIC (community counselling service), Essex Fire and Rescue Service and Essex Strategic Hate Crime

partnership, represented by Victim Support Essex.

Residents who attended SwanFest helped us to shape our digital offer by answering questions

around their digital priorities and gained a greater awareness of support available for older people,

parents, the BME community, people experiencing domestic abuse or hate crime and people who may benefit from free counselling.

Our social purpose underpins everything we do our residents and indeed the wider community through our work. This year 60 residents

completed training with us as part of a programme

designed in consultation with our residents to meet their needs.

In 2017 – 18 we added online learning to our

programme to ensure that those juggling work and / or family commitments can still benefit and we continue to remove other barriers by covering transport and childcare costs.

Our annual residents’ training programme has enabled us to identify individuals who would

normally be classed as N.E.E.T (not in education, employment or training) and support them further to progress through other training offered as part of our community development work. We have

been able to recruit residents who were living with anxiety and depression onto training and have been able to progress these individuals onto

community development courses such as “parents back to work” and improve their confidence and self-worth.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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Our Income Team were shortlisted at the UKHA Awards 2017 for their Outstanding Approach to Income Management. In 2017/18 they helped residents to reduce their debt and met arrears targets by:

514

Supporting 514 households in receipt of Universal Credit

Ensuring that all staff are able to engage with residents on Welfare Benefit changes wherever and whenever they come into contact with affected residents

8

Contacting 2179 residents to explain the changes

42

Referring 42 residents to in-house training and external agencies for debt advice and training

Running a series of awareness raising campaigns during the year

86%

Supporting residents to make 495 Discretionary Housing Payment applications with an 86% success rate – The team supported residents to obtain 427 Discretionary Housing Payments totalling £192,235

Carrying out 1186 home visits

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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2.3 Supporting residents through the ongoing changes to the welfare benefits system

Financial Inclusion

In 2017/18 we spent ÂŁ215K on adaptations to enable our residents to continue to enjoy their homes

We have two Welfare Reform Officers and will be recruiting

In 2017/18 we spent ÂŁ215K on adaptations to enable our

needs residents through the changes. Our knowledge and

of major adaptations or decorations carried out under the

to a further post in 2018/19 to continue to support general understanding of customers and their needs has been enhanced by the appointment of these officers. The

London Welfare Reform Officer speaks both English and Bengali which supports our resident profile in London.

We have provided, and will continue to provide, targeted information and individualised support for residents

affected by welfare reform and we understand that our residents have different needs. In order to inform our

supported housing residents, we produced an easy read Universal Credit leaflet, distributed it to residents and

discussed it with each individual, so they fully understood what it meant to them. We have continued to work with

care providers and tenants to record the different type and level of support received by each tenant, which in turn has meant that we are able to support those tenants affected by the reforms.

ÂŁ215,000 10

residents to continue to enjoy their homes. On completion Assisted Decorating Scheme , satisfaction questionnaires are left with residents to complete and return to Swan. In 2017/18 56 households were assisted under these

programmes (47 with major adaptations and 9 through the Assisted Decorations Scheme).

We have partnerships which support financial inclusion

and money management and we also signpost to other organisations. We have Service Level Agreements in

place with Havering CAB and refer residents to them for

debt management advice and help to access mainstream

financial products. In Tower Hamlets we signpost residents

to the Bromley by Bow Centre and In Basildon we signpost residents to the CAB

2.4 Satisfaction

We measure our performance through our annual

customer satisfaction survey. Each year surveys are

carried out by telephone by an independent customer

experience consultancy across our general needs and

supported properties. The surveys carried out in 2017/18 found no significant difference in satisfaction between

male and female residents, disabled and non-disabled

residents or White British and BAME residents with the

overall service provided by Swan, the way that Swan deals with repairs and maintenance or that Swan listens to their views and acts on them.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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3.

Creating stronger communities

We have developed successful partnerships across a wide geographical area including seventeen local authorities. Our ability to make a real difference to communities and ability to grow depends on internal relationships and those with external partners.

Throughout the year we focused on being “the local partner” working closely with our Borough partners to support a range of activities including: Taking part

in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Junior Young Citizens event, working with the Police, Fire Brigade, Transport for London and the Borough to reach out to over 1,000 children about who keeps their neighbourhood safe and how ASB can change areas and ruin lives; and working with Basildon Borough Council and Essex Police to tackle “cuckooing”; whereby criminal gangs infiltrate a resident’s home, leaving them vulnerable and open to abuse.

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3.1 Links with local businesses to improve economic and social opportunities

In 2017/18 we worked with local businesses to provide

smartphone repair training, childcare training and security training. We also worked with Essex County Fire and Rescue Service to run the Firebreak course and

successfully encouraged four residents to participate in the Middleton Murray traineeship and apprenticeship programme.

Smartphone repair training: We worked with the Mobile Phone Repair Training School (MPRTS), a private

enterprise, to provide a five-day training course for

residents at MPRTS’s business lab in Ilford, London

borough of Redbridge. Eight residents gained an entry

level 3 qualification and provided positive feedback about the course. Some of the residents are now working towards setting up their own businesses.

Childcare training: We worked with Riverside Care, a business based in Poplar (London borough of Tower Hamlets), to provide a childcare training course for

residents that was delivered from The Reach Community Hub in Tower Hamlets weekly over a three-month period.

Twelve residents participated in the training and nine of them successfully completed the course and gained a childcare level 1 qualification. Participants have been supported by the Community Development Team to

continue with their learning with some progressing to achieve a level 2 qualification.

Middleton Murray Traineeship and apprenticeship

programme: During the year we successfully encouraged four Heather Court foyer residents to participate in the Middleton Murray traineeship and apprenticeship

programme. The residents completed four weeks of

classroom-based learning and a six-week paid work

experience placement. During the classroom sessions participants worked on developing ICT, telephone and research skills, wrote CVs and participated in mock interviews.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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3.2 Preventing domestic abuse and supporting victims / survivors We continue to work in partnership to prevent domestic

3.3 Preventing hate crime and harassment and supporting victims / survivors

Forced Marriage (FM) and Female Genital Mutilation

and harassment and to help victims / survivors of hate

abuse (including so-called Honour Based Violence (HBV), (FGM)) and to help victims / survivors of domestic abuse and we have strong links with local authorities, local

refuges and other domestic abuse organisations across

Essex and East London. Our Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure ensure employees receive domestic abuse guidance and training appropriate to their role.

Information and advice is provided on our website, in our Tenant Handbook and across our digital platforms in a

number of ways and we include articles about domestic

abuse in The Communicator (our newsletter for residents).

We are using the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance online toolkit to further improve our work in relation to domestic abuse. We have also signed the Make a Stand pledge launched in June 2018 by the Chartered Institute of

Housing in partnership with the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance and Women’s Aid.

We have also once again offered the six-week ‘Go Girls’

course, which is run free of charge by Basildon’s Health Outreach Worker, to all of our female Dove Cott House

Foyer residents. The course aims to raise young women’s self-esteem, promote positive relationships and reduce vulnerability in relationships by identifying individual strengths and talents. The ten young women who

participated in the course all noticed an improvement in the way they responded to situations and increased

confidence to address relationship issues. All of the young women set new goals in their support plans as a result of the course and worked towards resolving family disputes and rebuilding damaged relationships.

We continue to work in partnership to prevent hate crime

crime and harassment and we have strong links with local

authorities and other organisations across Essex and East London.

Our Hate Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour Policy and

related procedures ensure that our employees receive

hate crime guidance and training appropriate to their role.

Information and advice is provided on our website, in

The Communicator (our newsletter for residents), in our Tenant Handbook and across our digital platforms in a

number of ways to encourage Swan residents and others to report any hate crimes / incidents they experience or

witness to the police, seek help from appropriate specialist support providers and report to Swan any incidents that

involve a Swan resident or occur within a block or estate managed by Swan.

Our Estate Services team remove racist, sexist,

homophobic or similarly offensive / discriminatory graffiti

within one working day of becoming aware of it. In 2017/18 they were not made aware of any such graffiti.

Following a request made by our Essex Resident

Consultative Committee (RCC) that we help them to get more involved in raising awareness of and tackling hate

crime in the wider community, we arranged for hate crime

specialists from Essex Police and Victim Support Essex to deliver a Hate Crime Ambassadors training session for residents in October 2017. Five residents attended the training and are now Essex Hate Crime Ambassadors.

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3.4 Promoting equality, community cohesion and social, digital and financial inclusion Community Projects and Social Impact

In 2017/18 we delivered over 20 community projects

aimed at creating opportunities for our residents and wider communities. We also supported local resident groups and organisations to deliver small scale community

activities: £10K of Community Chest grants were awarded through our Resident Consultative Committees (RCCs) to

15 local community groups to enable them to offer a range of community initiatives including: youth groups, VE Day celebrations, Christmas parties, garden projects and pantomime visits.

Community Engagement, Safety and Cohesion:

Almost 1700 residents got involved with our community engagement, safety and cohesion projects this year.

These included the Summer Night Lights events and youth work in Essex and London (Tower Hamlets and Havering).

Summer Night Lights: Almost 1,000 residents attended

the Summer Night Lights events which were held in Essex and London and attended by 15 local service providers including organisations which aim to prevent, and raise

awareness and reporting of, hate crime. Feedback from

partners and residents is that events such as the Summer Night Lights events have an important role to play in

creating community cohesion and raising awareness of help that is available for anyone who might need it. 25

Tower Hamlets No Place for Hate pledges were signed.

267

Youth activities: 267 young people

23

engagement activities run on our

programme delivered by the London

attended youth clubs and other youth Beechwood estate in Basildon, Essex and on our Blackwall Reach and Exmouth

estates in London (Tower Hamlets) and via a youth bus in Havering. In addition:

23 young people participated in the

‘One Life’ youth confidence building Fire Brigade.

15

15 young people participated in the

300

programme delivered by the Essex County

Centre and a local school to improve

‘Firebreak’ youth confidence building Fire and Rescue Service.

300 children benefited from a project run in partnership with the Discovery children’s reading.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

Education, Training and Employment: During the year we worked with partners including the Bromley by Bow

Centre, We Are Digital, Riverside Training, Ace Security,

MPRTS (Mobile Phone Repair Training Centre) and Inspire Academy to deliver four education, training and

employment projects that benefitted 149 residents.

Examples of the projects that took place are listed below: • Digital Inclusion training (77 residents

participated): 21 residents achieved a City & Guilds Digital Skills qualification.

• Study Support Club (27 residents participated): Structured weekly tutorial support was provided on core subjects for young people to prepare for academic exams.

• Get Into Programme (25 residents participated):

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56

56 residents reported improved health including improvements in managing diabetes and high blood pressure.

A sector based employment training programme to participated achieved a level 1-3 qualification in

childcare, security or smartphone repair and three residents secured full time employment.

• ESOL (20 residents participated): 14 residents achieved an English-Speaking Board Level 1 qualification.

14

14 residents achieved an English-Speaking Board Level 1 qualification.

Warm in Winter

Focus on the Foyers

piloted in Tower Hamlets during November 2017: We

have continued to work closely with the Job Centre to

We developed a new Warm in Winter campaign which we offered to visit all Swan residents aged over 75 who live on their own to identify any residents who might benefit from

additional support / services and to identify any wellbeing or safeguarding issues. We were reassured to discover

that most of the residents we visited are coping well and

have regular contact with family members and neighbours.

Positive feedback was received from staff and residents involved in the pilot and running the

campaign enabled us to address the following issues:

• Improving fire safety awareness by demonstrations on how to test smoke alarms;

• 30 repairs were identified as being required and

support people to gain relevant skills and qualifications to secure employment. All 25 residents who

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reported to our repairs partner Axis and two

Health and wellbeing: Our community facilities offer a

range of exercise, health and wellbeing classes. This year we have successfully obtained funding to install an

outdoor gym at our Bow Cross Estate in Tower Hamlets

and delivered a training programme to ensure residents

applications were made to the Axis Foundation for additional works;

• 17 residents who did not know where to get advice on saving energy and / or money on bills, were provided

• 13 residents were signposted to organisations that can

install outdoor gyms at our Exmouth and Express Wharf

• Five reports of antisocial behaviour were made and

London Tigers, Bromley by Bow, London Recovery

• Advice and support was provided to four residents who

Estates. During the year we worked with partners including College, Prospect, Autism Anglia Barnardo Centre, and

Bikeworks to deliver 8 health and wellbeing projects that benefited 193 residents.

These projects promoted healthy living, reduced loneliness, and improved mental health and

communication skills. 56 residents reported improved

health including improvements in managing diabetes and high blood pressure.

support the young people to develop their employability skills through workshops and one to one work with Job

Centre Work Coaches and the Foyer’s Education, Training and Employment Officer. This year we have also

supported young people in navigating the changes from

the old benefit system to Universal Credit through advice from the job centre and one to one support from the

Young People Coaches. The relationships that our teams build with the young people they support changes lives

and, in some cases, has an extraordinary impact on other young people too. The young people across all three

Foyers have thrived in being able to identify what their

talents and skills are and transfer these into their choices of employment and educational development.

Understanding the Universal Credit system and what the

changes around working on benefits means to them, has encouraged more young people, especially young parents, to gain employment.

with appropriate advice;

feel confident using it. This project has been so successful that we have applied and been granted further funding to

Swan House Foyer, Dove Cott House and Heather Court

help them be more physically active; investigated; and

were worried about being able to pay energy and heating bills.

The Warm in Winter campaign has helped us to reach

some of our harder to reach customers who may be less likely to engage with us as an organisation.

We have committed to delivering this project over the next

four years to ensure that we continue to identify and assist residents who may be socially isolated.

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21 residents achieved a City & Guilds Digital Skills qualification for Digital Inclusion training

53%

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

17

39%

The age profile of the total workforce shows 53% were aged 25 to 44

The age profile of the total workforce shows 39% were aged 45 and over

5.

Our people

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We are passionate about customer service and our Corporate Strategy is clear – having the best people to deliver it is crucial. We want to have engaged employees who are well-trained,

appropriately rewarded and feel they can take great decisions to deliver great

services for us, our customers and our partners. Our Corporate Strategy and policies lay the foundations for a truly

inclusive organisation. Our recruitment and selection and learning and development policies are based on equality of

opportunity and our recruiting processes are non-discriminatory.

4.

Going digital

We have embarked on a digital transformation journey and will be encouraging residents to increasingly access and provide information in a digital way. We carried out research into residents’ appetite for digital services at SwanFest

2017, to support the development of our digital offer in line with our corporate strategy targets. This research identified the top three services that residents

wanted to access online: paying rent; reporting and monitoring repairs; asking

a question and getting an answer. Most residents told us they would be using a smart phone to access digital services.

As a result our digital offer will have strong smartphone capabilities going

forward to respond to this finding. Through completing the equality analysis for the introduction of online services an action plan has been agreed to ensure that equality of access is at the forefront of each software rollout. For those

residents who are unable to use digital access methods, support will be provided to ensure they can access our full range of services.

42% 25%

42% of our Board and Executive Team and 60% of our total workforce were women

25% of our Board and Executive Team and 23% of our total workforce were BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic)

We remain signatories to the Chartered Institute of Housing’s 10 ‘Leading Diversity by 2020’ challenges. We are well on the way to meeting the challenges with 70% fully completed and

the remaining items in progress and scheduled for completion well ahead of the 2020 deadline. As at March 2018:

• 42% of our Board and Executive Team and 60% of our total workforce were women.

• 25% of our Board and Executive Team and 23% of our total workforce were BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic)

• The age profile of the total workforce shows 53% were aged 25 to 44, with 39% aged 45 and over and 8% under 25.

• The age profile of the Board and Executive Team showed 67% aged 45 to 64, 25% over 65 and 8% aged 25 to 44.

We met our obligations to publish gender pay information and

used the opportunity to reflect on how to make the best of this key resource and to develop outreach in areas that are traditionally

male-dominated. We shall be focusing on increasing the number of women in senior roles within Swan and managing better our talent pipeline. Our transformation programme, with its focus on agile

working, will help enable the formal and informal ways of working flexibly which we promote.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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20

Our approach to Equality and Diversity was recognised at 24 Housing’s 2018 Diversity Awards with our Annual Diversity Day event being shortlisted in the Diversity Scheme category.

5.1 Equality and diversity training for employees

5.2 Employee engagement data

diversity training session as part of their induction and

engagement rather than satisfaction. This year we

All Swan employees are required to attend an equality and refresher training was rolled out during 2017/18 for all

employees who had not attended a session within the last 3 years. 202 employees attended one of the 23 sessions that were run.

Our annual Diversity Day also provides a range of awareness building and learning opportunities for employees, partners and involved residents and

employees and managers are encouraged to identify and find a way to meet any additional training needs.

Diversity Day 2017: We feel that a great place to work is one which promotes equality and diversity and this year

we held another annual Diversity Day event which around 100 people attended including staff, residents and our repairs partner, Axis. The theme of the day was

homelessness, domestic abuse and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) and the day included the following sessions:

• Homelessness: Diversity, understanding and empathy • Domestic abuse: The role of housing professionals

• Cut: One Woman’s Fight Against FGM in Britain Today • Domestic abuse and sexual violence in LGBTQ+ relationships

Our approach to Equality and Diversity was recognised at 24 Housing’s 2018 Diversity Awards with our Annual Diversity Day event being shortlisted in the Diversity Scheme category.

Our employee survey carried out in October 2017 used the Times Top 100 criteria which measures employee

improved our performance and moved from number 34 to number 22 in the Times Top 100 Best Not for Profit

100

Organisations to work for list. 290 Swan Housing Group

employees completed the survey, a response rate of 75%

and engagement levels were reported by gender and age.

Around 100 people attended our Diversity Day including staff, residents and our repairs partner, Axis

5.3 SwanProud (Swan’s LGBT+ Employee Network), Essex Pride & London Pride SwanProud, our LGBT+ Employee Network

Group was set up in 2015 in response to a staff suggestion. Links have been established with Houseproud, the network for LGBT people

working in the housing sector, a Swan employee is now on the HouseProud steering group and Swan is regularly represented at Houseproud events.

In both 2017 and 2018, Swan worked in

partnership with the Metropolitan Police LGBT

Network to run LGBT History Month celebration evenings, and in partnership with HouseProud

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Swan Housing Group is employing two graduates in graduate positions and 14 apprentices within areas of the business including Housing, Care and Support services and HR.

was an official partner at Essex Pride and participated in the London Pride parade.

Our approach to Equality and Diversity was

recognised at 24 Housing’s 2018 Diversity Awards with our Housing Diversity Manager being shortlisted for the Straight Ally award.

5.4 Graduates, school leavers and apprentices

At the time of writing this report, the Swan Housing Group is

employing two graduates in graduate positions and 14 apprentices within areas of the business including Housing, Care and Support services and HR. Courses being undertaken by these employees range from Level 2 in Business Administration to Level 5 in Care Leadership and Management: General Adult Social Care.

We are currently updating our Talent Strategy to allow the business to take on more apprentices and graduates to support the growth of the business.

We are also working to develop the first modular construction apprenticeships at our new factory and have been working in

partnership with PROCAT to develop this. We have also been working in partnership with Essex County Council as they

recognise that modular construction will be a key construction method of the future and want to ensure that they are training

young people to have the appropriate skills to work in this sector.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18

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63% of our London-based Community Development, Neighbourhood and Income Team employees are from a non-white BAME background.

6. Conclusion

22

22

During the year we completed our Equality Scheme 20152018 Action Plan and developed our Equality Scheme

2018-2022 and accompanying action plan. This work has

enabled us to ensure that equality and diversity is embedded

Move up from 34 to 22 on the Times Top 100 Best Not for Profit Organisations to work for list

fully within our organisation and promoted with our communities.

Our continued commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion helped us to:

• Retain our Customer Service Excellence Accreditation with the accreditation report noting that we continue to identify the hardest to reach or disadvantaged groups and

individuals and have developed services to meet their needs;

5.5 Our residents, communities and employees

We manage over 11,000 properties and employ over 350 people, all in East London and Essex. Approximately two thirds of our properties are located in Essex (mainly in

Basildon) and approximately one third are located in East London (mainly in Tower Hamlets but with significant

numbers in Havering and Redbridge). In terms of ethnic

origin and religion, the diversity profile of our residents and the general population varies greatly, particularly between Essex and London.

As set out in our Equality and Diversity Policy Statement, we aim to recruit and retain a workforce that is

representative of the local areas in which we are based or, where we identify a legitimate need, representative of our resident / customer profile.

The following information summarises what our April 2018

resident profiling information for our rented properties and our April 2018 employee profiling information tells us.

Gender:

Our communities: Approximately half male and half female

Our tenants: Just over two thirds of our tenants are women

Our employees: Just under two thirds of our employees are women

Disability: We (as authorised by the JobCentre Plus)

• Move up from 34 to 22 on the Times Top 100 Best Not for Profit Organisations to work for list; and

display the ‘disability confident employer’ symbol on

• Be shortlisted for a number of awards during the

applications from disabled people.

• 24 Housing Diversity Awards: Best Diversity Scheme and

representative of the local areas in which we are based.

• UKHA Awards 2017: Outstanding Approach to Income

profile of East London there is, in terms of age profile, no

• 2017 Housing Heroes Awards: Support and Care Team of

www.swan.org.uk/jobs to show that we encourage Age: In terms of age, our workforce is broadly

While the age profile of Essex is slightly older than the age significant difference between our Essex tenants and our London tenants.

Ethnicity:

Our communities: The ethnic profile of the areas in which we work differs significantly. In Essex, where our head

office is based, and the London borough of Havering, the majority of the population are White whereas the other boroughs in which we operate have a large BAME population including a large Asian / Asian British population.

Our tenants: At least 23% of our tenants are from a nonwhite BAME (Black / Asian / Minority Ethnic) background.

This figure rises to 58% in London where the tenant is Bangladeshi in at least 37% of our properties.

In Essex the tenant is White English / Scottish / Welsh / Northern Irish / British in at least 81% of our properties.

Our employees: 63% of our London-based Community

Development, Neighbourhood and Income Team

employees are from a non-white BAME background.

year including:

Straight Ally Award; Management;

Having delivered our Equality Scheme 2015-2018

Action Plan, we are already making good progress in delivering our Equality Scheme 2018-2022 action plan.

Our ongoing commitment to equality, diversity and

inclusion will enable us to deliver our Social Purpose by being a successful, innovative and growing housing organisation that continues to put our

diverse residents and customers at the heart of everything we do.

the Year; and

• Foyer Federation awards: Shortlisted in five categories

including Foyer of the Year with our Education, Training and Employment Officer winning the Young Persons’ Choice Award.

2017 Housing Heroes Awards: Support and Care Team of the Year

www.swan.org.uk