Equality, Diversity and Discrimination
We are making equality and diversity a part of everything we do and our national organization, Citizens Advice, has introduced the FAIR strategy to ensure we play our part.
FAIR stands for Fair, Accessible, Inclusive, and Relevant. It is the equality and diversity strategy for the Citizens Advice service throughout bureaux. It sets two aims for us:
· to make equality and diversity part of everything we do
· to become a first point of contact for discrimination advice, in partnership with others.
Diverse people, different experiences
Being FAIR in advice giving is about acknowledging that whoever someone is may affect their problems and their options.
“Within hours of moving into local authority housing, Maria was subjected to racial abuse, and damage to her property. Her local CAB helped persuade a reluctant council that she was a victim of racism and to find her other accommodation.”
Treating people equally does not mean treating them the same. It often means treating people differently to make sure they get an equal service or an equal outcome.
“I was frightened by all the paperwork as I’m dyslexic. X cares about her clients. She helped me with the paperwork and pursued matters. She made me feel worthwhile.” CAB client.
A changing world
Equality law in the UK is changing rapidly. New laws on discrimination on the grounds of age, sexual orientation, religion and belief will soon come into force. At the end of 2006, local authorities had a new duty to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. In 2007, a new Commission for Equality and Human Rights will come into being. For clients, these changes mean greater protection. For the Citizens Advice service, they represent a huge opportunity, but also a challenge.
What we will be doing?
1. Keep up to date with changes in equality law.
2. Build our knowledge so that we feel confident to identify any discrimination issue a client might be facing and we are aware of the ways of dealing with such issues.
3. Become a first point of contact for discrimination advice in partnership with others.
4. Collect accurate client profiles. We are required to monitor clients’ ethnicity and disability status. This helps us track how we serve different sections of the community. Information on clients’ gender and age is also important to us.
5. Collect evidence (see our campaigning section) to record discrimination issues. Knowing about discrimination faced by clients will strengthen our capacity to work on discrimination issues.
6. Discuss ways to increase our knowledge and share our ideas, experience and community contacts.