After many conversations, discussions, questions, answers, drafting and redrafting, more questions, more answers, we’ve done it. The Equality Outcomes 2017-2021 have been approved and published today.
We learned a lot from our previous four year programme of work, from the positives and the negatives. This gave us some good ideas to start with. The different faces and places we encountered along the way added to the mix, and the resulting outcomes are the fruits of this engagement,The new equality outcomes aim to be simple, specific and strategic and reflect the priority equality and diversity issues identified through the involvement of a wide range of internal and external sources.
Our Equality Outcomes for the next four years are:
- Equality Outcome 1: Our people have strong knowledge of equality and diversity so that our behaviours promote dignity and respect for people with protected characteristics
- Equality Outcome 2: Our University is accessible, safe and welcoming to all people from different protected characteristic groups
- Equality Outcome 3: People with protected characteristics have the same opportunities as others and achieve positive outcomes in relation to their work and study experiences
These are supported by nine themes and an action plan, which outlines the steps we need to take to achieve the outcomes.
The outcomes build on our previous set and support our commitment to meeting our public sector equality duty obligations. Equally important, however, they are aligned with our mission as the University for the Common Good and Strategy 2020 – they are part of our DNA, our identity.
This is just the beginning though – in some respects, we’ve done the easy part and the hard work begins now to find creative and engaging ways of achieving our new outcomes. we look forward to working with the GCU community and beyond over the next four years.
Find out more about our new equality outcomes on our equality and diversity website.
Look out for more updates here and at twitter.com/GCUEqualityÂ