Equality, diversity and inclusion matters to all

Care, respect, honesty and accountability are our CHAS values and ensuring an environment that is equal, diverse and inclusive will give families and those working within the organisation the best possible experience. Our EDI Strategy will help us improve the quality of care we provide, reach more children with life-shortening conditions and their families, and provide an opportunity to develop our knowledge, experience and expertise organisation-wide.

Our EDI Strategy sets out four key outcomes that we aim to achieve over the next 3 years:

• To reach and support more families from diverse backgrounds
• For children, families and supporters to experience a culturally competent service
• For our employees, volunteers and supporters to be more diverse
• And for employees and volunteers to experience CHAS as an inclusive place to work and volunteer

Our ambition is to reach every family in Scotland who needs us. By focusing on these four outcomes we believe we will reach, represent and include more families who need us, as well as provide the best environment for all within and out with CHAS.

Progress already made under the strategy includes setting up an LGBT+ network for staff and volunteers, implementing a new board recruitment process, developing a quarterly EDI newsletter and collating baseline data that we can measure progress against.

However, we know that we still have a lot of work to do and we need to get this work right. Therefore, we are sharing our EDI Strategy so that we as an organisation can hold ourselves accountable for the changes we wish to make. We pledge to publish annual updates on our progress towards these milestones and continually reassess where we need to improve.

Astrid Smallenbroek, Volunteering Team Coordinator and EDI Committee Co-chair, said: “It has been really positive to see the number of staff and volunteers who have been engaging with, and championing, equality, diversity and inclusion within CHAS. We are already making strides and are excited to continue this programme of work to ensure that CHAS is open and inclusive to everyone.”

You can read the EDI Strategy on our publications page.