The University of Sheffield - Equality Objectives

Foreword by Professor Anthony Ryan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor & Chair of the Equality & Diversity Board

We have always understood that the importance of creating a vision where diversity and inclusion are valued by all. We acknowledge that this can take time. The setting of equality objectives takes place, however, against a background of significant change in the University and we see this as an opportunity to focus on how we can accelerate our diversity and inclusion work to secure our University’s success in the longer term.

There is no doubt in my mind that, to be the strongest University we can be, we need to attract, grow and engage with talented people from all backgrounds and all sectors of society and everyone needs to feel included in the University community so that they can flourish and reach their full potential.

We are recognised for being a friendly, open, vibrant and practical university and we have an excellent track record of equality, diversity and inclusion action. But we know that we do not always get it right in every situation and we want to know ‘what are we missing?’ To do this we need to understand the experiences of staff, students and stakeholders across the board, specifically as they relate to our equality, diversity and inclusion mission and aims. What are our strengths? How might we improve things? What would help us to be more successful, more inclusive, more innovative?

Setting our equality objectives is an opportunity to transform our approach and we have been working with Simon Fanshawe, co-founder of Stonewall and an E&D transformation expert, and a number of staff and students to develop equality objectives that will drive forward the University’s strategic goals and are meaningful within our context.

Our consultations with stakeholders began in 2011 and Cross-University working groups have been working together, holding Focus Groups and one to one meetings, and considering data and the wider University context within which we operate, to develop proposals that will transform our approach to Equality and Diversity. This is an exciting time for our equality, diversity and inclusion work and I look forward to updating you regularly about our journey.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Transformation Project – our work so far

This is an ambitious project. Following ongoing data gathering exercises and meetings with our staff, students and stakeholders, we held a workshop in December 2011 with members of our University Council, University Executive Board, Trades Unions, staff, LGBT network members, students, and the Equality and Diversity Board. We heard provocations from external speakers and senior managers and listened to personal stories from staff and students. We considered contextual data and considered how we might be different and what we might do differently in order to become a modern organisation that sees diversity and inclusion as an imperative to success.
Key strategic themes identified were: recruiting for difference, for staff and students; understanding our role as a civic university and what that means for equality; and understanding whether there is any disconnect between inclusive policies and the reality of how they are implemented.
These three key themes have been explored in depth with a range of staff, students and external stakeholders. Through a series of 3 intensive Workshops, the working groups have identified and developed 12 transformational proposals out of the discussions we've had, grouped under the 3 wider objectives of:

The University Executive Board (UEB) have given their full support to these 12 proposals, at a meeting in October 2012. We are currently now identifying the appropriate people to work with us on developing specific plans and success measures to implement these proposals. You can view the 12 proposals by following the link on the right.

The role of the Cross-University working groups

This project is sponsored by Professor Tony Ryan, PVC for Science and Andrew Dodman, Director of Human Resources.
Our working groups are drawn from across the university and beyond, whose role is to investigate and collect evidence relating to our key themes. Information will be quantitative, qualitative and anecdotal. They have worked closely together to develop 12 over-arching, transformation proposals which build on our existing strengths and reflect what our people tell us matters to them. The groups will continue to work together to develop specific measurable action plans to drive these proposals forward.

Recruitment Group	Civic Group	Policy Group
Dr Chris Sexton	Dr Brendan Stone	Mr Martyn Heathcote
Miss Amy Masson	Professor Heather Campbell	Mr Zahid Hamid
Ms Elena Rodriguez-Falcon	Mr Abdi Suleiman	Ms Debora Green
Mrs Rita Saddler	Professor Julie Gray	Ms Chetna Patel
Professor Mike Siva-Jothy	Professor David Mowbray	Ms Jane Simm
Mrs Lisa Woods	Mr Steve Walmsley	Ms Helen Woolley
	Dr Sarah Barnes

Schedule of work:

20/04/2012 – Workshop 1: To consider evidence collected to date and narrow down the issues to be investigated in depth. Facilitated by Simon Fanshawe.
24/05/2012 – Project meeting: An interim meeting to bring initial findings of the in-depth research back and consider initial areas for action. Facilitated by Simon Fanshawe.
19/06/2012 – Workshop 2: A workshop to develop and refine the key themes to have emerged from the in-depth research
24/09/2012 - Workshop 3: A final workshop to develop objectives and work on a plan of action and implementation. Facilitated by Simon Fanshawe.
02/10/12 - Equality proposals presented to UEB by Professor Tony Ryan, Mr Andrew Dodman (project sponsors) and Simon Fanshawe. UEB discussed and agreed the 12 transformational proposals and agreed to ongoing UEB support and input into the action plans to follow.
22/10/12 - Equality Objectives to University Council
November-December 2012 - Development of implementation plans.
January 2013 - Project groups agree plans
TBC - Implementation plans to UEB
TBC - Implementation plans to Council
TBC - Implementation

Data

The data that investigators will initially consider, and which informs our current equality activity, can be accessed via the links at the right of this page.

Our current equality strategy and objectives

Our current key areas of activity are embedded in our Excellence Through Inclusion strategy and our Female Academic’s Progression Action Plan, both of which can be accessed via links on the right. We also have a University KPI to increase the numbers of senior female academic staff to 24% by 2015, and have identified actions from our most recent Equal Pay Review. Everything that we are currently working on and have learnt so far will be considered as an integral part of our wider Equality Objectives project.

For further details of the project (and to get involved) contact Julie Campbell in Human Resources on j.l.campbell@sheffield.ac.uk