1. Introduction

1.1 Our latest Corporate Plan, ‘Our Sustainable Future’ 2023-25, recognises the wide range of challenges faced by the sector, our organisation, our customers and colleagues. It outlines how we will proactively meet these challenges, maintain high standards of customer service, and continue to provide, safer, cleaner, greener homes and neighbourhoods. The commitments outlined in this document support our corporate priorities in relation to optimising our service delivery model, ensuring that the right service is provided at the right time and the provision of an inclusive working environment.

1.2 We believe that being inclusive is everyone’s responsibility at Salix Homes and have reaffirmed this commitment through the development and launch of a new values and competencies framework. ‘We are Inclusive’ is our new value through which colleagues are encouraged to advocate for others whilst embracing and promoting inclusion. The other core values include ‘We are Successful’ and ‘We are Trustworthy’ both of which also promote the importance of positive customer experiences. These were formally launched in October 2023 alongside our Corporate Plan.

1.3 It is commonly accepted that commitment from the top is vital in establishing an inclusive organisation and our Board and Committees model our values, in particular they play a crucial role in providing guidance, feedback and oversight of our collective activities relating to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) ensuring that this is considered within strategic decision making.

1.4 When preparing the latest version of the Inclusion Strategy for Salix Homes, this influence became evident. Inclusion had featured in many of the key strategic decisions in newly developed strategies and action plans. In setting the strategic direction of their services, our wider leadership team had considered opportunities to reduce barriers to accessing services and promote positive practice. In short, there was evidence that commitment to inclusion was present and becoming embedded in critical thinking and decision making.

1.5 This is positive progression. Inclusion is a cross-cutting theme for all service areas and although there is recognition of the need to capture this activity in one place, it is now felt that a separate Inclusion Strategy is no longer necessary. Instead, this document sets out our fresh approach of collating approved strategic activities, and other commitments, in relation to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in one place to enable visibility and transparency of the work that will be undertaken.