Equality, Diversity & Inclusion statement

Curious Minds is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment and actively building a truly inclusive environment.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are the foundational principles of this policy.

1. Context

Equality means ensuring everyone has the same opportunities to fulfil their potential, free from discrimination and systemic barriers.

Diversity is the celebration of individual differences across our workforce, recognising that varied perspectives, cultures, lifestyles, and circumstances strengthen our organisation and enrich our work.

Inclusion means fostering a culture where every individual feels comfortable to be their authentic self, knows their contribution is valued, and has a strong sense of belonging.

2. Scope and commitment

We will:

Actively champion diversity and inclusion, ensuring all our employees are valued, treated with dignity and respect, and encouraged to reach their full potential.
Value every individual with diverse opinions, cultures, lifestyles and circumstances.
Ensure this policy covers all job applicants, employees, and workers, including agency staff.
Ensure this policy applies to all areas of employment, including recruitment, selection, training, career development, and promotion.
Actively monitor all areas of employment, using data and feedback to proactively amend policies and practices, ensuring no unfair or unlawful discrimination—whether intentional, unintentional, direct, indirect, overt or subtle exists.

3. Legal and regulatory framework

Equality of opportunity, valuing diversity and compliance with the law (The Equality Act 2010) is to the benefit of all individuals in our Company as it seeks to develop the skills and abilities of its people.

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.

We will:

Ensure that specific responsibility for eliminating discrimination and providing equality of opportunity lies with managers and supervisors.
Ensure that individuals at all levels are aware of their responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect. The personal commitment of every employee to this policy and application of its principles are essential to eliminate discrimination and provide equality throughout Curious Minds.
Ensure that recruitment, selection, training, development, and promotion procedures result in no job applicant, employee, or worker receiving less favourable treatment due to a protected characteristic as defined by the Equality Act 2010. These include race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, and caste), religion or belief, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership and age.
Ensure that, in accordance with our overarching equal treatment ethos, no one is treated less favourably based on their trade union membership or non-membership, or whether they are a part-time or fixed-term employee.
Ensure individuals are selected, promoted, and otherwise treated solely on the basis of their relevant aptitudes, skills, and abilities.
Commit to addressing and mitigating the impact of unconscious bias and systemic barriers that might impede this objective.
Ensure this policy is circulated to all agencies responsible for our recruitment. A copy will be made available to all employees and prominently shared with all job applicants. The policy will also be communicated to all private contractors, reminding them of their responsibilities towards equality of opportunity.
Ensure this policy is implemented in accordance with appropriate statutory requirements and will fully consider all available guidance, particularly relevant Codes of Practice.

4. Responsibilities

Our primary responsibility for successfully meeting these objectives includes:

Not discriminating in the course of engagement against employees, workers, or job applicants.
Not inducing or attempting to induce others to practice unlawful discrimination.
Bringing to the attention of our workforce that they may be subject to action under the disciplinary procedure, or other appropriate action, for unlawful discrimination of any kind.
Educating our workforce that any unlawful discrimination will lead to action under the disciplinary procedure or other appropriate measures.

We can each contribute by:

Not discriminating against fellow employees, workers, clients, suppliers or members of the public with whom we come into contact during the course of our duties.
Not inducing or attempting to induce others to practise unlawful discrimination.
Reporting any discriminatory action or behaviour to our Line Manager.

The successful achievement of these objectives requires a contribution from everyone. As individuals, we have an obligation to report any act of discrimination known to us, enabling management to take swift and appropriate action.

If you have any further questions or queries regarding our EDI policies and procedures, please contact our Finance & Operations Manager, Lucy Evans via email at lucy.evans@curiousminds.org.uk or via telephone 01942 387083 or via text message at 07843 501945

Approval

This EDI Statement is approved by our CEO, Derri Burdon.