At The Forward Trust, we celebrate diversity, champion equality and equity, and foster inclusion. However, we’re always striving to do more, and we continually look at new ways of building on what we've achieved. The EDI landscape is always evolving so we must, too.
We are committed to ensuring equal access to our services and promoting fairness, equity, and accessibility for all employees, volunteers and service users.
At The Forward Trust, we aim to foster a fair and accessible workplace and community.
Equality: Ensuring fair treatment, equal access, and opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances.
Equity: Recognising and addressing existing inequalities by providing tailored support to create a more level playing field.
Diversity: Embracing differences, including people from various social, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, as well as different genders, sexual orientations, and abilities.
Inclusion: Going beyond diversity to ensure that all individuals, without exception, are welcomed, respected, and valued as integral members of our community.
By embedding EDI principles into everything we do, we create a stronger, more representative, and inclusive organisation where everyone can thrive.
The Forward Trust, equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are central to our mission. We believe that everyone should get the chance to build a positive future, however marginalised and whatever their history or circumstances.
We aspire to be an organisation defined by inclusion, fairness, and mutual respect, in which all our service users, staff, and volunteers feel that they belong and can reach their full potential.
Our work is driven by the need for social justice. We aim to empower individuals from all backgrounds, striving to address and challenge discrimination and structural inequalities in the process. We are committed to building a truly inclusive and representative organisation where everyone belongs. This will enable us to deliver the best possible services to all who engage with us.
A message from our CEO
“Like any large organisation, Forward Trust has to examine its history, structures and service delivery to ensure that we are living up to our values and principles around equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. We want our workplaces to be welcoming and inclusive, so that all our staff and volunteers feel valued and supported. And we want our services to be accessible to everyone who could benefit from them, and of equal value and relevance to the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our clients. These challenges are significant and require constant review – from our leadership and across our teams.”
- Mike Trace, CEO, The Forward Trust
In April 2024, we published our first three-year Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy. The strategy reinforces our commitment to EDI, strengthening our focus as both an inclusive employer and a service provider committed to accessibility and fairness. Our EDI strategy consists of three key strategic goals:
Develop and embed a culture of inclusion throughout the organisation → Mandatory EDI training for all new starters, regular webinars to upskill staff and encourage staff to share their own experiences, and employee resource groups to encourage shared experiences and peer support.
Maximise opportunities to attract, develop, support, and retain diverse talent → Dedicated HR support to recruit a diverse workforce, with a focus on hiring individuals with lived experience. We are also enhancing diversity data collection to ensure progress among other underrepresented groups.
Ensure our services are accessible, welcoming, and inclusive to all → Established a Service Accessibility Working Group to drive a cross-organisational approach to inclusivity and accessibility across our services.
These objectives inform all our work, from our recruitment and policy reviews to communications and service delivery. We developed our EDI strategy from an organisation-wide perspective. Oversight and ownership from senior staff allow us to deliver a consistent and thorough approach. At the same time, we support grassroots initiatives, ensuring frontline staff voices are heard and actively shape inclusion.
We are embedding EDI at every level, including within our trustee group. When recruiting new trustees in 2023, we introduced an additional EDI-focused interview panel to ensure a commitment to diversity and inclusion at the highest level. Additionally, we have appointed two trustees as EDI leads, reinforcing leadership accountability in driving our vision forward.
What's in the Forward Trust equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) three-year strategy?
Read Forward's EDI Strategy (2024-2027)
Key Achievement: To support the implementation of the EDI strategy, we have established an EDI Board. This is made up of a diverse group of senior staff and subject experts across the organisation. We aim to ensure that insights from our Employee Resource Groups, EDI Champions, service users, as well as those with lived experience, are regularly shared with the group.
During the second year of our EDI strategy, key priorities include:
Developing an action planned owned by the senior leadership team to strengthen and evolve our organisational culture.
Improving our use of EDI data; we will run a self-ID campaign to educate staff about the importance of equality monitoring data and further developing our understanding of how applicants from different protected characteristic groups progress through the recruitment lifecycle.
Increasing recruitment and progression opportunities at Forward for people from underrepresented groups through our new leadership development and mentoring programmes, and more targeted and localised recruitment initiatives.
Continuing to implement and monitor the impact of our service accessibility plans for women and clients with a language barrier, while developing two new accessibility plans for other under-served groups.
Further embedding our new Equality Impact Assessment process across the organisation.
Overseeing the delivery of new refresher EDI training and online EDI learning content for staff.
Developing our ERG and EDI Champions model to allow us to better utilize and distribute EDI Champions across the organisation and continue to support the development of our ERGs.
Working closely with our Comms team to ensure that accessibility and inclusion are embedded into our internal and external communications, including the launch of Forward's new website and developing guidance on inclusive language and terminology for staff.
The Forward Trust are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 1), as well as a proud member of the Armed Forces Covenant, supporting veterans and service personnel in employment. We have expanded our EDI training to ensure all staff understand the key principles of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion.
We have established five staff-led Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) which provide a supportive, inclusive, peer-led network for colleagues. These groups allow staff to share diverse lived experiences and offer insight into unseen barriers.
Our ERGs help The Forward Trust to develop practical, creative, and effective solutions around Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). The primary goal of our ERGs is to empower everyone to thrive in their working environment and to feel comfortable being their authentic selves.
At The Forward Trust, we are committed to transparency and equality in all aspects of our operations. Our Gender Pay Gap Report outlines steps we are taking to address any disparities and ensure equal pay for all employees.
Read our Gender Pay Gap Report to learn more about our ongoing efforts to promote gender equality.
We have reviewed our equality monitoring data and identified under-served groups among our services. As a result, we have established a cross-organisational approach to improve how we support these groups. The Service Accessibility Working Group looks to reduce inequalities in access, experience, and outcomes for our clients.
Forward Trust - an LGBTQ+ friendly organisation
Key achievement: We have established a central EDI team, including the Head of EDI and an EDI Coordinator. The team continues to put EDI at the heart of everything we do. The Head of EDI's role is to provide strategic leadership and create impact across the organisation.
Statement from the Head of EDI:
"I am delighted to be supporting Forward on its EDI journey. As an organization we are committed to developing a culture of inclusion, supporting diverse talent and ensuring that our services are accessible to all who need them. It’s important that we enable everyone to understand what EDI means to the Forward Trust, their teams and their individual roles. We want everyone at Forward to take personal responsibility for their learning, be equipped to recognise and challenge discriminatory behaviours and embed inclusive practices in all aspects of their work."
- Ketiwe Anjorin, Head of EDI
