Equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity and inclusion statement

Oakhaven Hospice is dedicated to creating a culture in which diversity and equal opportunities are valued and promoted actively, in which discrimination is not tolerated and where everyone feels welcome; whether that is our patients who we care for, their families, our dedicated team of staff and volunteers or our local community who support us.

We ensure that individuals are treated fairly, with dignity and respect, regardless of their age, marital status, disability, race,  sexual orientation, faith, pregnancy, gender, language, social/economic/political background or any other distinction based on protected characteristics.

We recognise that diversity brings strength to the organisation to help us achieve our vision of making every moment matter for our community.

Individuals should have equitable access to our services and recruitment opportunities and be treated with kindness and respect. We work closely with our patients and families to fully understand what is important to them and their individual needs.

We recognise that there is more work to do to collaborate with our wider community and to engage with people who may feel that Oakhaven cannot meet their needs.

We are gathering information such as age, gender identity, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion/belief and disability. This enables us to understand how this reflects our local community and assess equality and diversity across the organisation to understand where the gaps may be within our service and inform our priorities for action.

We want to recruit and retain the most diversely talented people and have a workforce representative of our community. We are committed to an inclusive and safe workplace, free of bullying and discrimination. To support us in this, we provide training and a range of learning opportunities and support, for employees and volunteers, on what an inclusive organisation looks and feels like.

We are a disability-confident committed employer and have an accessibility toolbar on our website, which allows users to get information from our website in the format they prefer – for example, translated into their language, read aloud, or in a large format.

Some of our future plans include;

• Progressing to Level 2 of the Disability Confident Employer Scheme
• Engaging with community and health partners across the New Forest to improve our understanding
• Providing specialist training for employees and volunteers, across the whole hospice to help further develop understanding and awareness
• Understanding the referrals process taken by our health partners, to ensure they know that our services are accessible to all
• Addressing any barriers to inclusion

We will continue to update this page as we take action. Feedback is always welcome. If you think you can help us improve or would like to offer us some feedback, please contact info@oakhavenhospice.co.uk