Advonet’s Trustees welcomed a new ‘Model for Inclusion’ at its board meeting on 15/09/20. The model sets out the responsibilities of members of staff, teams and the organisation needed in order to create an inclusive culture. Trustee Dr Mushtaq Ahmed said that this was an important initiative and that Advonet must actively promote inclusion.

In July, against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter, Advonet invited employees who identified as BAME to create a Task Group to reflect privately on its experiences of the organisation. Members of the Task Group shared their experiences privately, including difficult situations and looked at ways in which the outcomes could have been more positive.

They shared their findings with our Staff and Trustee Involvement Group (STIG), who in turn passed on what the Task Group found to the wider staff team. By sharing our Task Group’s experiences, this will help Advonet on the road to becoming a more inclusive organisation.

Chair of our Board of Trustees, Cllr Peter Gruen, said “This is a timely, valuable piece of work which will help us to be stronger in the future.

“We can use the model in appraisals and when reviewing policies and procedures. Now we’ve got it, we‘ve got to use it to make Advonet an even more inclusive organisation in the future.”