Equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) annual report 2023

In December 2021 we launched our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy and road map to our EDI vision for 2024: “We support each other so no one has to face MS alone. By recognising and respecting all our different lived experiences we will be stronger and our voice louder.”

In our second annual report, we provide an update on each aspect of our strategy and our gender pay gap report. Many people from across the organisation and the wider MS community have contributed to progress against our objectives. We thank them for their dedication.

It’s been a challenging year for our community. The cost-of-living crisis has pushed many to breaking point. The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) process continues to fail people living with MS. And we’ve been working hard to address these pressing issues.

Standing with our community and campaigning for what’s important to them has never been more important. We’ve built on our EDI achievements from last year and started the process to define our next EDI strategy.

However, we cannot be complacent. We need to build confidence in the EDI space. To raise awareness, provide more opportunities for education, and support our ambition to be a fearless ally for everyone living with MS. We must continue to amplify the voices of communities that are under-represented and campaign for the issues that are important to them.

As our current EDI strategy comes to an end in 2024, we’re already thinking about the next steps on our EDI journey. We’ll continue to report on our progress in an open and transparent way. And we’ll listen to our community to help us shape our EDI work as we move forward with it.

Nick Moberly (He/Him), CEO

(#MyNameIs Nik Moh-ber-lee)

For many of us, 2023 has been a challenging year.

Hate crimes and discrimination against people across the protected characteristics (links to gov.uk website) are on the increase. National and international events have impacted and hurt many in our community. The cost-of-living crisis has stretched many of us. However, we remain a community. And we remain committed to our promise to be a fearless ally for all our community. To challenge discrimination and stand with our community to tackle inequality.

We’ve achieved a lot together this past year. I’m proud of the progress that we’ve made, but there’s still work to do.

To help us reflect on our progress and think about the next steps on our EDI journey, we’ve commissioned an EDI audit. Working with the Social Justice Collective, we’ll review our progress and identify priority areas for 2024. From there, we’ll start building our vision for our EDI work beyond the end of this current strategy.

We’ve continued building on our EDI foundations as well as our momentum for change. By working with people living with MS through our EDI reference group we made sure that their voices and experiences informed our work. This has allowed us to focus on and develop projects that are important to them.

Since joining, in July 2022, I’ve seen an increase in how EDI is considered as a key part of our work across many teams throughout the organisation. So many people have contributed to our achievements and there’s so much passion and drive to make sure we get this right.

But we can’t take our foot off the gas. We need to do more. And there’s more need than ever for us to stand with and campaign for our community, to amplify their voices.

By supporting each other, we’ll make sure that no one has to face MS alone.

Amy Reeve (She/Her)

(#MyNameIs Am-ee Reeve)

EDI programme manager

Since December 2021 we’ve been working to fulfil the commitments set out in our EDI strategy. We wanted to do better as an organisation to represent and support the whole MS community. To stand with our community and amplify voices of those from under-represented communities. And to be a fearless ally.

In 2023, we’ve gathered momentum by building on the foundations that we created in 2022. We’ve achieved more this year and we’ll continue building on this work as we move forward. In 2024, we’ll be looking to define how we’ll continue our commitment to EDI beyond this current strategy.

Here, we provide you with a detailed description of what we’ve achieved as an organisation this year. We’ve published a short highlights report to give you the headlines of our achievements. We also explain delays which have occurred and our next steps on this EDI journey.

We recognise this is a long report and we’re committed to improving its accessibility for everyone. But we’ll always provide an open, honest appraisal of our progress. And that’s because it’s our responsibility to report on the steps we’ve taken to improve EDI across the organisation.

This report will:

• update you on progress made against our implementation plan
• reaffirm our commitment to put diversity and inclusion at the centre of all we do as an organisation
• acknowledge and recognise the many contributions which have made our progress in this area possible

We’ll give a detailed update on all the objectives in our EDI strategy:

• Support and promote the voices of people who face discrimination
• Broadening our reach
• More inclusive experiences for people affected by MS
• Recruiting and fostering diverse talent
• Building an inclusive culture
• Recruiting and retaining diverse volunteers
• Research, research funding and clinical trials
• General EDI commitments

We’ve included previously reported gender pay gap data. We’re still not able to include pay gap reporting for other protected characteristics. But we’ve changed the way we ask for people’s sensitive personal information, so we hope to start this important reporting next year. We recognise the importance of reporting our disability pay gap in particular. And we’re sorry that we haven’t been able to do this yet.

We end by reporting on delays to our strategy and the mitigations we’ve put in place to address them.

We’ve been collecting data this year to help us improve our understanding of the diversity in our organisation and the people we support. This will also help us to understand the impact of our EDI work and identify key areas that are important for our community.

If you’d like to get involved in our EDI work or discuss anything related to EDI, please get in touch. Whether you’re a volunteer, staff member or an interested member of the public, you can email us at [email protected].

An important focus of our EDI strategy is to make sure that the principles of EDI are at the heart of everything we do. Not because we feel we have to, but because it’s the right thing to do. It will allow us to support the whole MS community and challenge inequalities experienced by people living with MS.

It will also mean that all the work we do, and hope to do in the future, considers everyone and their experiences and challenges. And removes barriers for them.

Supporting equality means we make sure that everyone who interacts with us has the opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents.

Improving our diversity means we recognise and value the differences between people and how these different perspectives can have an impact on our success.

We want to be inclusive. So no one has to face MS alone. We want everyone who needs us to be able to find a meaningful connection with us.

We’ll continue to listen to our community and welcome everyone’s feedback. We acknowledge that, while we continue to make progress, we still have work to do. Our EDI audit which started in November, will help us to shape our EDI plan beyond this current strategy.

We know there’s still a problem with micro-aggressions and discriminatory behaviours within our organisation. We need to find ways to address and prevent this issue. We need to support people to recognise these behaviours and be more confident to be active allies to those who are experiencing them. We also need to be clearer in our expectations of the people we work with particularly when they’re not meeting our standards.

In short, we need to improve our whole organisational culture to prevent any discriminatory behaviour while encouraging inclusion.

In December 2023, we celebrated 70 years of the MS Society. Our organisation was founded in 1953 by Richard and Mary Cave. They started by bringing people together because they were frustrated at the lack of treatment options and support for Mary who was living with MS.

The world has changed a lot in the past 70 years. So has the world of MS. This has meant that what we fund, campaign for and how we support our community, has also changed. But our aim to be there for everyone living with MS has remained constant.

Since 1953, thousands of people have campaigned for equality and fought against discrimination. For 70 years, we’ve also been fighting for the rights of our community and campaigning for the changes that matter to them. And we won’t stop now.

It’s more important than ever that we amplify the voices of those who face discrimination and those from marginalised communities. And we’ll continue to make sure this is a priority for us.

70 years of change for society and our MS community.

1950s - Even in its earliest years, our organisation was already raising the voices of people living with MS in Parliament and funding our first research centre.

Across the Atlantic, Rosa Parks (links to an external site) refused to give up her seat on a bus. This sparked the civil rights movement in the US, a major turning point in the fight against racial discrimination.

1960s - The world heard Martin Luther King, Jr’s (links to an external site) ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and women at the Ford Dagenham factory (links to external site) went on strike for equal pay.

Meanwhile, our organisation had grown to 18,000 members. We opened our 100th MS Society branch and held our first MS week.

1970s - There were the Equal Pay Act (1970), Equal Employment Opportunity (1972) and Race Relations Acts (1976). Maternity leave legislation changed to include paternity pay and the first LGBT Pride march (links to external site) took place in London.

We opened our first holiday home and our spending on research projects reached £750, 000.

1980s – A total of 180 MPs pledged their support for the MS cause and we launched our Tissue Bank appeal.

Stonewall UK was formed and the work which led to the Disability Discrimination Act began.

1990s - The Disability Living Allowance (1991) and Disability Discrimination Act (1995) aimed to protect disabled people against discrimination and remove financial barriers to care. The Carer’s Bill was also passed.

We launched our first website and our MS Helpline. GLAMS, our first LGBTQ+ support group, was formed and we fought against the proposed cuts to the Disability Living Allowance.

2000s - We committed £2 million to the MS nurse programme, invested in the most powerful scanner dedicated solely to MS research and supported the first ever MS clinical trials into stem cells.

The Gender Recognition Act (2004) became law. The MeToo movement (links to external site) started. The law changed to allow LGBTQ+ people and unmarried couples to adopt children and Section 28 (links to external site) was also overturned.

2010s - We launched our biggest campaign ever, Stop MS Appeal which aims to raise £100 million. We also launched MS-SMART, a clinical trial focussing on treatments for secondary progressive MS.

The Equality Act (2010) (links to external site) made it illegal to discriminate against anyone who identified with the nine protected characteristics. This Act was the basis used by many organisations to evaluate diversity and inclusion in their workplace. Same sex marriage became legal in the UK and the first Muslim MPs were elected.

2020s so far - We launched our Octopus trial, a revolutionary approach to speed up the discovery of new treatments for MS. We campaigned for changes to PIP and for better support for people living with MS, through #BreakingPoint.

In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement (links to external site), there were renewed and stronger calls to end systemic racism. We were faced with the COVID-19 pandemic and a cost of living crisis. But we have also elected, for the first time, a Prime Minister, Mayor of London and First Minister of Scotland, from minoritised ethnic groups.

There’s more need than ever for us to stand together. More need for us to be a fearless ally. More need for us to be able to be there for everyone living with MS. So no one has to face MS alone.

marginalisation, exclusion and discrimination. It involves making sure there are opportunities for input from people with such experiences, without placing the burden of doing the work on them.

Most actions within our EDI strategy are implemented by subject expert teams from across our organisation. But we also gather feedback and insight from other groups including the EDI reference group and our staff networks.

This group has oversight and responsibility for delivering our EDI strategy. It’s made up of senior staff and subject experts from across our organisation. The group has representatives from every team in the organisation from volunteering and services to engagement, fundraising and research.

Members of the group provide valuable feedback on behalf of the teams and networks they represent. And they lend their insight whenever we need to plan actions or gather evidence.

Insight from the staff networks, EDI reference group and EDI champions (see below) is shared with the group. This makes sure that diverse voices are heard and together we can develop meaningful actions to address concerns. We’re aiming to extend our group further by including voices from people living with MS and our volunteer community.

How have we done this year?

The group is uniquely positioned to see our EDI work across the whole organisation. All through the year, we’ve had detailed updates from the research, volunteering and digital engagement teams, and from our ASPIRE groups. We also get to know how those different teams are supporting us to reach out to communities that are currently underserved.

It is great to see more and more teams and colleagues across the organisation proactively looking to challenge their existing practices. They’re also considering how they can embed EDI principles into their day-to-day work.

It feels as though we’ve seen a significant step change in 2023. This report contains numerous examples of how we’re delivering on our plans to represent and support the whole MS community.

This year, we’ve seen many changes in how we engage with and listen to our community. We’ve piloted projects and new services to extend our reach and offered guidance to help staff and volunteers along this journey.

However, we recognise that there’s still a lot more to do. We need to be a stronger, active ally to our MS community, particularly against discrimination and champion the causes that are important to them. This was highlighted recently by the transphobia we experienced in response to our use of the Progress Pride flag in June.

It’s hugely exciting that our Board of Trustees is investing resources into four new transformation projects. These projects will deepen our understanding of the MS community, extend our reach and broaden our engagement with them, and improve our services and support. They’ll also ensure that we have a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

We also welcome the EDI audit that we’ve commissioned. It’ll help us to identify our progress to date, where we could’ve done more and our priority areas as we look ahead.

The EDI reference group is made up of people living with MS and people with a personal connection to MS. The members of this group are experts by experience and they’ve helped us to shape our EDI strategy.

It’s a diverse group that works with our EDI programme manager on specific projects to fulfil our strategy. They’re all passionate about ensuring we become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. And this year, they received a Volunteer Impact Awards nomination for their commitment to supporting our EDI strategy.

We welcomed nine new members to the group this year. Our meetings with the group alternate between supporting our organisational EDI strategy work and focussing on the research EDI action plan. You can read more about the work the group has done to support our research EDI action plan later in this report.

The group also gave their feedback on this report and our progress this year. Here’s what they said:

“It's been great this year that the EDI reference group has expanded to include more members because it's meant more diverse voices are being represented in the MS Society's EDI work. It's not only about helping the MS Society, but I also learn loads from other group members too!

The EDI reference group has offered some important input into key areas of work for the MS Society this year, including research communications, accessibility checks and the MS Research Network. We don't just talk about it - we're kept updated with how our insights are being utilised and what changes are being made."

Trishna Bharadia (She/Her), EDI Reference Group Member, MS Society Ambassador and Asian MS Committee Member.

“I am Dean, I sit on the EDI reference group for the MS Society. EDI remains important to us at the MS Society and will continue to do so. As a gay man living with MS, I’m proud to say over the last 12 months we have achieved a good amount of work:

• started to embed equality impact assessments
• supported the creation of the annual report
• started discussions around pay gap
• had discussion about how and when to speak up

To name just a few!

The MS Society is looking at training in 2024 which I’m supporting the procurement of. The group continues to meet and forms part of the MS Society as an important critical friend.

I think for 2024, my advice to the MS Society is to pay particular focus on the protected characteristic of disability. The reason for this priority is, as the MS Society is a disability charity and the population it serves is largely disabled. The MS Society should therefore maintain a strong focus on this.”

Dean Owens-Cooper (He/Him), BA Hons, MCIPD.

We meet monthly, online, in the early evening and create a safe space to discuss EDI-related matters. Our meetings are relatively informal and support open conversations.

We’re always open to new members. You can find more information on our website. And if you’d like to join us, you can email [email protected].

Our staff networks provide supportive forums and safe spaces for colleagues to share their experiences. Run by our staff members in their own time, they provide feedback on our organisational work, including EDI, whenever they can.

REACH (Race, Equality and Cultural Heritage) colleague network

REACH is our colleague-led network for people with Black, Asian and ethnic heritage. Our chair has shared some of the network’s highlights from this year.

In 2023, members of REACH have been busy with these activities:

• supported the project groups for ASPIRE, one of our management development programmes.
• fed into our organisations Pay and Benefits review.
• contributed to the EDI training working group.
• attended a mental health and wellbeing workshop to support the group, facilitated by a mental health first aider
• helped to shape our organisations Black History Month activities, both internally and externally
• collaborated with the other staff networks to deliver an external, remote workshop for the Roundhouse Theatre, Camden. The workshop, designed for their senior staff and EDI champions, gave an overview of our networks, their purpose and structure. They discussed:
• how our networks fit into our organisational structure
• examples of influence in organisational change
• how to overcome challenges
• how leading or joining a network can build personal skills

It was a great collaboration, and the networks received some great feedback.

Our REACH chair also joined a panel at the Fundraising Everywhere conference to discuss staff networks.

Spectrum

Spectrum is our colleague-led staff network which supports LGBTQIA+ colleagues and organises events like Pride marches. The group is open to all LGBTQIA+ staff and allies, and there’s no expectation to disclose your gender identity or sexuality to join.

Our chair has shared some of the network’s highlights from this year.

In 2023, members of Spectrum have:

• organised our biggest Pride march yet, with a co-produced slogan, marching together with our community and colleagues in the face of external transphobia
• provided feedback on policies and programmes, including our EDI glossary, transitioning at work, EDI training offer, and pay and reward review
• held space for each other through difficult times
• co-delivered an EDI talk for the Roundhouse Theatre with members of our REACH and Purple networks
• organised our stand and represented the organisation at our first ever UK Black Pride
• designed and delivered a workshop on pronouns for the REACH network members
• been accepted onto Stonewall’s LGBTQ+ Leadership programme

Another highlight was that this year we signed up to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

The Purple Network

This is our colleague-led network for disabled people, and people with physical or mental health conditions, neuro-divergence or invisible illnesses. There’s no expectation to disclose your disability or condition to join.

Our chair has shared some of the network’s highlights from this year.

In 2023, members of the Purple network have:

• provided feedback on proposed changes to our organisational sick leave policy, ensuring the impact on disabled people was considered as part of the process
• helped shape an accessibility checklist and guidance for booking venues
• provided feedback on organisational policies and processes, including reasonable adjustments, EDI training offer, and pay and benefits review
• co-delivered an EDI talk for the Roundhouse Theatre with REACH and Spectrum networks
• provided support to each other

If you want to find out more about any of these network groups, contact [email protected] and we’ll direct you to the appropriate contact.

Our EDI champions are members of staff who are passionate about EDI values and want to see us achieve the culture change we aspire to. They’re subject experts from various teams across our organisation and the four nations.

This year the EDI champions developed our equality impact assessment. This assessment helps us to understand the impact of our work on people across the protected characteristics. It allows us to assess if our work risks disadvantaging or discriminating against people from marginalised groups.

The EDI champions developed our assessment, along with some guidance and FAQs to help people to complete it. We’ve asked colleagues to undertake an assessment for new pieces of work, including events like Frontiers 2024 and other new projects. We’ll review each assessment every 12 months where appropriate. We’ll also save completed assessments as a resource for others to access.

This was an important achievement for us in 2023. Over the next few years, we’ll embed equality impact assessments as a key part of the planning of our work to support our approach to inclusion.

For their next project, the EDI champions will be helping us shape our accessibility policy and standard. This will be used across all our internal technology and digital applications to help us improve accessibility for our colleagues.

When you engage with us, we might invite you to provide sensitive personal information about your identity.

We may ask you about your gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age and whether you have a disability. We may also ask about any personal connection you have with MS.

You may wonder why we do this and may be unsure about whether to disclose this sensitive information to us.

We want to reassure you that this data is always stored confidentially and either anonymously or if identifiable with limited staff access. And whether or not you share it with us is always your choice. You also have the choice to withdraw your consent to our processing of your sensitive data. We will refresh these consents every two years to always have the most accurate information and allow for changes you may want to make. Please note that if we have included your data in aggregate reports we would be unable to remove it as you would not be identifiable.

Whenever we use EDI data to help us understand more about the make-up of our staff and the people we support, we look at the overall numbers. And we don’t report information on groups which contain fewer than five people which makes it more difficult to identify individuals from the data.

How will we ask you for this information?

To support our EDI data collection, we use the same questions across all areas of our organisation. This year we decided that we would use the Daisy guidance (links to external site) to ask people about their sensitive, personal information.

We chose Daisy because it’s up to date and aligns with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which generates the census. These questions were formed by the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health group (links to external site). Importantly, these questions have inclusive options for responses.

By offering people the option to answer the same questions, irrespective of their interaction with us we can compare data from across all of our communities. And to continue improving the way we collect and analyse data, we’re currently investing in a new database. This will allow us to collect, manage and learn from data we’ve collected from across the whole organisation.

Whenever we ask people questions about their identity, we’ll always give the option of ‘prefer not to say’. Some people do not feel able to share parts of their identity, or they may still be trying to understand what their own identity is.

The answer options for these questions will never be able to capture the individuality of the way any single person identifies. We’re all unique and the way we describe our identities is also unique to us. And so wherever possible, we’ll also provide the option for people to self-identify or self-describe a particular aspect of their identity.

Often, the options given to answer EDI questions still group people together. This is particularly true when we ask about ethnicity. Providing people with the option to self-identify gives them the option to use the terms which they feel best represent their identity, without using the term ‘other’. And this impacts on how we can report the data because the number of people who use the same term will be very low. We recognise that the available options are still not perfect.

It’s also important for us to say this. If we need to analyse and report the data from people who chose to use their own terms or self-identify, unfortunately it will often need to be grouped under an umbrella term for reporting.

These approaches will provide an evidence base for us to identify underserved groups. We can also begin to understand the barriers which prevent people from these groups from engaging with us.

A key part of our EDI strategy is to make sure we reflect the diversity of the whole MS community. It includes actions that support diversity in the people who interact with our services, website and volunteers as well as increasing diversity in our senior leadership positions.

In this section, we present the current picture of our organisation.

The data included in this report is not yet perfect or complete. And because of the way it was collected, it’s reported in slightly different ways. But with the roll-out of our standardised approach to data collection, this should improve year on year.

All data has been rounded to the nearest 1%. We don’t present actual numbers to protect the anonymity of individuals. Groups which contain fewer than five people are not included.

This year we’ve expanded our data collection to also include our supporters. We look forward to being able to share this information with you in future reports.

This part of our report is accompanied by graphic breakdowns (PDF 6.9 MB).

Current staff 

This year we changed to a new staff portal. The new system lets us record all our leave and personal information, including sensitive, personal EDI information. When it went live, the personal sensitive data questions that we’d developed weren’t included by the provider.

The system has now been updated to reflect the Daisy guidance. But we suspect this issue may have contributed to the low number of colleagues who have shared their information. By November 2023, only 54% of colleagues had been able to answer these questions and share their information.

This in turn means we’re unable to provide an accurate and full report on the diversity of our staff. We provide some data below, but it is essential to consider that this data came from just over half of our workforce. It doesn’t fully capture the diversity of our colleagues. We’ll make sure we continue to improve people’s confidence in providing this information in the coming months. 

Prospective staff

The data is for 24 months from July 2021 to June 2023, and it shows the total numbers from across our organisation. There were 2,237 applications for 112 vacant roles and 545 candidates were short-listed.

Over this period, we’ve seen an increase in the proportion of disabled people who were appointed or who reached the final stage from 11% (July 2021) to 15% (June 2023). And for people from minoritised ethnic groups, we saw an increase from 15% (July 2021) to 22% (June 2023). There were, however, fluctuations between these two time points.

Of our current Trustees (as of December 2023), 36% identify as being from minoritised ethnic backgrounds. All our trustees have a personal connection to MS or an allied condition and you can read about these connections on our website. Presently, 55% of our trustees are women and 45% are men.

We want to make sure our services are accessible to everyone. It’s important that everyone feels supported by our services and doesn’t experience any barriers to using them.

Sometimes, when it’s appropriate, we might ask people who use our services to complete a short survey that includes some sensitive personal questions.

MS Helpline 

We’ve included some information to show the diversity in the people who used our MS Helpline in 2023. Over the first nine months of the year we received over 19,000 enquiries to our MS Helpline or Helpline Specialist services.  

The top three subjects people have contacted us about in 2023 were:

• symptom management
• treatments and healthcare
• benefits and financial difficulties

Over 500 people shared their personal sensitive information with us in the form of a short feedback questionnaire at the end of their call.

We’d like to be able to discuss the diversity of the people who use our services in more detail in the coming years. This will help us to identify if particular groups or communities are not engaging with our services.

We can then commission projects to understand whether we’re creating barriers. And we can take action to remove those barriers, making our services more accessible and inclusive.

Our Wellbeing Hub in Scotland

Here we share with you some information about the diversity of people who attended group activities organised through the Wellbeing Hub in 2023. This year 430 people came along to our events.

Since 2021, over 2,200 people who applied to become a volunteer with us shared their sensitive personal data.

Of our appointed (those successfully recruited) volunteers, over 900 chose to share their EDI data with us. But people who were still in the application stages, people who chose to withdraw their application and people who were unable to complete their application and were unsuccessful in being appointed also chose to provide their EDI data.

This year, we appointed a number of trans volunteers. The average age across all our appointed volunteers is 46. We’ve seen an increase in the number of younger volunteers applying for roles, with the greatest proportion aged between 25 and 34. The average age for volunteers has fallen over the last 3 years, it was 47 at the end of 2021 and ad the end of September 2023 it was 39.

However, we still have under representation of people from various communities and we need to consider how to reach these people with our recruitment process.

This year we wanted to understand more about the people who support us through donations. In September we sent out a survey that included personal information questions to 785 of our supporters. Over 650 people responded and shared their information with us.

Here we share some key findings from our 2022 demographic data on our research applicants and award holders:

• 11% of applicants are from an ethnic minority background. This is lower than the proportion of staff from an ethnic minority background in the medical academic sector (17%), but equal to the proportion of those staff in the biosciences academic sector (10%).
• There was a 38% success rate for applicants from an ethnic minority background compared to 32% for White applicants.
• 49% of our award holders identify as female. This is lower than the proportion of female staff in the medical academic sector (55%), but higher than those in the biosciences academic sector (47%).
• 9% of them declared a disability. This is higher than the proportion of medical and biosciences academic staff who declared a disability (4%).

Demographic data from our research governance committee members:

• 6% are from an ethnic minority background. This means we're below our target of 10% representation from people from ethnic minority backgrounds across our various governance panels.
• None are from Black or Mixed/Multiple ethnic backgrounds.
• 59% identify as female.
• None are under 40 years of age. The largest proportion of our governance members are aged between 40 and 49. We’re making an active effort to recruit Early Career Researchers to each of our governance panels. This will help us to increase the diversity of our panels and support a growing, more diverse group of experienced researchers to make up future panels.
• 17% have declared a disability. And all 17% declared they have MS.

Our governance committee members are researchers, clinicians, MS healthcare professionals and people affected by MS. They sit on our various governance panels. These panels guide our research programme and oversee many of our funded projects. An example of one of these panels is the Research Strategy Committee.

You can read more about this data and our ongoing plans in our 2022 Demographic Data Report.

Since 2018, we’ve been reporting annually on our gender pay gap on our website. Recent improvements to our systems will help us to report on our pay gap for other protected characteristics in the coming years. Several other charities already report their ethnicity pay gap. We want to report our disability pay gap as well. We hope to be able to report on both of these areas in the next 12 months.

Our last reported mean gender pay gap (reported in April 2023, the requirement for 2022) was 4.57% (4.45% 2021) based on 265 employees.

This is low compared with other charities that we use for benchmarking (see table). But we’re committed to closing this gap entirely. And these are some of the ways we’re working to do this.

This year we’ve commissioned an external pay and reward review to make sure our pay structure and approach is fair and transparent. We’ve reviewed our current pay structure. And with the support of our external partner, we’ve conducted up-to-date evaluations and benchmarking to enable us to design a new pay structure and progression routes that are clearer and fairer. We’ll be conducting an equality impact assessment. This will help us to review the impact on our pay gaps as we go through the process to ensure we’re not disadvantaging people from marginalised groups.

We’ve spent a lot of time this year talking about the development of our managers. This is to address how we work in what’s quite a changed world, and especially in relation to the employment and retention of both our staff and volunteers. We’re taking a new approach to make sure all our colleagues are supported, managed and led sensitively, inclusively and confidently. We’re developing new training for our managers, a new toolkit for managers and new opportunities for them to come together for peer support. This is more important than ever in a new hybrid working environment.

We offer all candidates the option to request reasonable adjustments throughout our recruitment process. We’ve reviewed our reasonable adjustments procedure to make it clearer and more inclusive.

Last year we reported that, while we hadn’t achieved all that we had hoped to, we had built a good foundation for our EDI work. We gave an update against each objective within our strategy together with some priorities for this year.

In 2023 we’ve continued to build momentum for our work. This has been strengthened with new approaches we’ve taken as we started several big projects which will transform our organisation. The changes we’ve committed to are taking time. However, we’ve taken further steps this year towards achieving these changes.

In this section we provide updates on key deliverables in our implementation plan. In the appendix we provide updates on each of the deliverables which were scheduled to start or be completed in 2023. We also provide updates on those which were delayed in 2022.

Our commitment

• To do more to understand the reach of our services.
• To focus research on different groups of people with MS.
• To campaign on injustices that affect minoritised groups in our community.
• To use data and insight to understand the impact of our new approaches.

What have we achieved in 2023?

My MS, My Needs. This year we tried a new approach with our survey, My MS, My Needs. It’s a vital survey that helps us to understand more about the needs of people living with MS, their family and friends.

We were hoping to be able to gather responses from people across the MS community and increase the diversity of these responses. More than 6,000 people responded to our survey.

The results of this survey provided us with an updated picture of life for people living with MS. It’s also helping us to develop how we support the needs of the whole MS community.

Deepening our understanding of the MS community. We’ve commissioned a project to provide us with a more detailed picture of the MS community in the UK. We’ll use the findings as a starting point for our work on inequality and intersectionality in the year ahead.

Campaigning. In autumn 2023, we launched a new campaign focussed on Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Together with 22,524 other people, we signed our #10yearsofPIP petition calling for a full review that considers:

• scrapping the 20metre rule, and replacing it with a 50metre threshold
• scrapping informal observations for people with fluctuating conditions
• changing the 50% rule for assessing fluctuating conditions

We delivered our petition to the UK Government in October and hosted a drop-in event in parliament, which 30 MPs came along to. We’ll continue to update you on the progress for this campaign.

We’ve also been working hard to challenge disastrous changes to the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Statement. The change to the WCA criteria could see many of the least well-off people with MS losing out on £390 in benefits each month from early 2025 onwards.

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Use our understanding of evidence from projects commissioned in 2023 to develop a new project that looks into the intersectionality of MS and other characteristics.
• Campaign for positive changes for the MS community in the lead up to the general election, which will take place at some point in 2024 or at the very start of 2025.

Our commitment

• To deliver a programme of bespoke outreach to groups we struggle to engage with.
• To build on our insight and research to understand the experiences of MS for people from these groups.
• To work with other organisations, giving them a platform and support.
• To grow our impact and reach the whole MS community.

What have we achieved in 2023?

Research 

Our work to improve the diversity of our research and clinical trials falls under this objective of our strategy. The research team has expanded their EDI work and developed a dedicated action plan. You can find a summary update at the end of this section. The research team also produced their first annual report this year.

Representation

We’ve worked hard this year to make sure our community feels seen and represented in all aspects of our charity marketing and activities. We’re incredibly grateful to all our contributors who’ve chosen to share their stories to help us convey the depth and breadth of the MS community.

We’ve worked with community members who are at different stages of their MS journey and those living with different types of MS. We’ve also been working with people who live with different symptoms, have different experiences due to location, gender or life stage, and people from different cultural backgrounds. This helps us to convey the different groups, stories and experiences of all those in our community.

This year we’ve built a new elevated brand for the charity as we wanted to improve the accessibility and flexibility of the brand. At the heart of our brand is our desire to be representative and non-isolating to any part of our community. And part of this project is to review where we can improve the visual parts of our brand to help us become more accessible to those who need us most.

Our new colours and new font all have a WCAG 2.2 AAA rating (links to external site), the highest level of accessibility. And we’ve built a more diverse range of illustrations and suite of branded photography to help us ensure we represent the whole community. These resources will be developed into our brand guidelines that we’ll share with our staff and volunteers across the organisation. This will give them the tools they need to bring more diversity into any branded marketing activities.

We recognise this is a continuous improvement activity. We’re building criteria and principles that we hope will create a culture of awareness and consideration in all our branded communications.

Making connections

In Northern Ireland, a book club led by our Community Development Officers marked this year’s Pride Month by reading Douglas Stuart’s “Young Mungo”. This book was chosen by our book club members in an online poll. It was among a list of titles suggested by members of the LGBTQIA+ community and it prompted lots of discussion, observation and reflection.

In Wales, we’ve developed a project to support carers. The Breathing Space project is aimed at unpaid carers who support people living with MS. Our project will be delivered pan-Wales and will connect with the footprint of our local MS groups. We’ll deliver a mix of short breaks and activities, as well as peer information and support through virtual cafés. The project is funded by the Welsh Government and Carers Trust - Amser funding. This funding will enable us to complement and grow our reach into more areas in Wales with the aim of reaching marginalised communities.

Meaningful experiences

To enhance the experiences of people when using our digital services, such as our website, we frequently engage with our audience through usability testing. This work often involves substantial preparation, such as identifying individuals with the relevant experience and recruiting them. Historically, we conducted our recruitment through phone calls and we usually recruited those people who responded quickly and met the criteria first. It has led to a lengthy manual internal process as well as biases in who we spoke to.

At the start of 2023, we explored ways to automate this process. It would reduce the team's burden of making phone calls and expand the screening process to reach a broader audience. One of our main goals was to be able to reach participants from different age groups and those representing diverse ethnic backgrounds, religions, genders and sexual orientations.

Later in the year, we were able to introduce a digital screener for remote user testing. This has allowed us to have larger sample groups and select participants in a way that promoted a more diverse representation of the MS community. This supports our goal to attract a more diverse pool of audiences so that we can better serve and engage with underrepresented communities.

Impactful interactions

Working with MS webinar – Northern Ireland

Through informal conversations, we identified a need to support people who are working while living with MS in Northern Ireland. We aimed to provide local information and show them that they’re not alone but part of a community. We hoped to decrease isolation and increase awareness of the support that’s available to them.

The webinar was completely co-produced with three people living with MS in our community. Each of them was at a different stage of their life and had a different experience of working while living with MS (self-employed, young family, new graduate in work etc.). The session’s host also lives and works with MS. The event included a session on energy management led by our lead counselling volunteer who lives with MS and a session from Disability Action. Twenty-five people attended the webinar. We also created a video highlighting the positive impact of the co-production experience for our participants and shared it more widely with our staff across the UK.

A member of our coproduction group, who also participated in the session, said “I was struggling a bit I have to say with my own MS and balance in the work life. I was going to let MS win, that is what I was struggling with. But listening to everybody in it (the webinar) it really put a positive spin on my mental attitude towards it. And it actually, I'll be honest, it made me stronger, thinking why am I ashamed of this? Like why am I ashamed of possibly contacting Disability Action. There are things there that I could ask about, you know. So it helped me both ways. It helped me actually, you know, with my confidence.”

All out trekking, Northern Ireland

In August 2023, 12 people, including a mix of family members and people living with MS (aged 16 to 60s), took part in a trek in Gosford Forest Park, Armagh. Everyone was able to navigate the forest trails independently with our event partner Disability Sport NI. And everyone used the same equipment - all terrain buggies and bikes that were powered with hand controls. Passers-by wouldn’t have known who had MS and who didn’t, or who used a wheelchair and who didn’t. The age barriers were also broken down. Family members of those living with MS didn’t need to provide any physical support and they could simply enjoy the forest alongside their loved ones, all under their own steam. It was a really enjoyable experience.

“Absolutely loved every second! It was my first time meeting other people with various stages of MS and it was really wonderful to see everyone take part regardless of ability”

Event participant

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Continue to pilot different ways to reach people who are struggling on their income and who are from minoritised ethnic groups.
• Improve representation of people from minoritised groups in our work, including representation of people at different stages of MS.
• Continue to make sure EDI is embedded in our brand and our representation is bolder.
• Trial new channels in our channel mix to help diversify our reach across the MS community
• Explore other opportunities and provide budget to support other events important to our community.
• Align our local and national engagement programmes to make sure we’re reaching underserved communities. Build strategic partnerships to support this.
• Our Change projects will transform the way we work as an organisation. Two of these projects are focussing on making sure we are engaging with, supporting and reaching the whole MS community.

Our commitment

• To make sure that any interaction with us is welcoming and accessible.
• To create an infrastructure and build insights that consider the experiences of people living with MS, so that the outputs of our work are welcoming and accessible.
• To ensure that our communications are inclusive and tailored to our different audiences.

What have we achieved in 2023?

Building cultural awareness into what we do

In December, we ran a webinar with the Greater Manchester Neurorehabilitation and Integrated Stroke Delivery Network. The webinar showcased some of the approaches that healthcare professionals have taken to provide support that was more responsive to the needs of each person. And this included an awareness of people's cultural, ethnic and religious needs. For example, for some people being able to kneel on a prayer mat or dress in a hijab might be a more important rehabilitation need than being able to walk the dog or make a cup of tea.

Over 70 people joined the webinar. Practitioners shared approaches to integrating cultural awareness into their support, as well as case studies showcasing the impact this had on individual people. The webinar covered ways to overcome barriers around faith and religion, language and ethnicity for our community. We also reflected on whether certain communities are hard for us to reach or whether it’s our services that are hard for those communities to reach.

We’ll revisit this session in six months’ time to see whether the participants changed their practice after attending the webinar. And we’ll also assess whether starting these conversations with the people they support has led to additional questions that could be discussed in a future webinar. We're also planning to do more work more in partnership with the network to promote their resources. We’ll share these learnings with other teams across our organisation so that they can consider how they can embed cultural awareness into their support for our community.

Grow your community

This year we ran a pilot of our new approach to help people set up community groups around shared interests, called ‘Grow your community’.

As part of this, we ran a survey and workshop. In total, 61.5% of people who responded were considering setting up a new MS group following the pilot. This is important for us to know, as we can potentially support more social opportunities to grow these communities.

We also had very positive feedback on the information and resources that we’ve created to help people grow their communities. People found our resources easy to find, easy to understand, relevant and useful. And 69% of them said that we’d provided all the information they needed and that we had created holistic content.

Unfortunately, there has been a substantial delay to some of our website functions. This includes ‘Near me’, which will allow people to find groups close to them.

We’ll continue to upgrade our website functions and will fully launch ‘Near Me’ in 2024. Look out for more details next year.

Community focused events

We want to engage better with groups within the MS community who are currently underserved and under-represented. To do this, we’ll continue to organise specific events and opportunities for these groups.

Our research team held an event with Parkinson’s UK and Alzheimer’s Society to discuss research with members of the Black MS community. You can read more about it in the research team update below.

We also held a Living Well event in north east London for the Black MS community. We discussed key issues faced by Black people living with MS. Twenty-two people attended the event, to hear more about MS research, mental wellbeing and fatigue. The event also discussed the barriers to participating in research. Those who attended the event said they really appreciated the opportunity to come together to discuss things that are important to them as a community. Many of them had never been to one of our events before, and they enjoyed having the time and space to come together.

Asian MS has delivered two webinars this year for the Asian MS community. Thirty-nine people joined to hear more about the MS tissue bank and MS register, while nearly fifty people joined to hear more about fatigue.

Our ASPIRE programme

ASPIRE is a management training programme for our staff. For the last two years, colleagues on this programme have undertaken an EDI-related project.

This year, one of the ASPIRE project teams provided their recommendations on supporting managers to embed EDI across all of our work. They made some amazing recommendations and we’re looking at how best to implement them. This includes looking at making our EDI strategy more accessible, supporting managers to build relationships with their teams and giving them tools to have sensitive conversations.

Sarah-Jane (She/Her), who was part of this year’s EDI project team, shared the following reflection:

“I am enormously proud of the work our EDI project team delivered throughout our ASPIRE course. The generosity of our colleagues who took the time to share their experiences helped us to deliver some authentic and achievable recommendations. We are delighted to see some of these recommendations being taken forward already.”

The next projects to be undertaken by our ASPIRE teams will look at how managers can support their team members with reasonable adjustments. And how they can manage and support hybrid working more effectively.

Regional targeted outreach

Through our ‘Digesting Science’ events, we supported children who have a parent living with MS. This year we delivered 6 of these events, which were attended by 22 families.

Our ‘newly diagnosed days’ helped to support people as they navigate the early days of an MS diagnosis.

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Review and evaluate rewards and recognition policies to support people who engage with us.
• Fully launch ‘Grow your community’ and feature new communities on our website.
• Implement the recommendations from ASPIRE’s EDI project.
• Implement our Change projects that will transform the way we work as an organisation. Two of these projects are focussed on making sure that people’s interactions with us are meaningful, inclusive and accessible.
• Share with other teams the learnings from the ‘cultural awareness in neuro-rehabilitation’ approach to improve our cultural awareness across all our work.&

Our commitment

• To evolve our recruitment, learning and development, and talent management to improve the diversity of our staff at all levels 
• To build an approach that attracts diverse candidates 
• To ensure inclusive recruitment and management processes

What have we achieved in 2023?

iTrent

This year our new employee management system came online. It brings everyone’s personal data recording and requests into one place, alongside their sensitive personal information. When we went live with the Employee Self Service module the questions relating to people’s sensitive personal information did not reflect what we had requested and built within the test environment. We’ve updated them over the summer, and they now reflect our standard EDI questions that are based on the Daisy guidance.

As we develop and implement the recruitment and selection module, this web-based platform will also help us to support inclusive recruitment. Through our new system we’ll make sure jobs are advertised as widely as possible and all applications are assessed “blind”. And we’ll embed and accommodate reasonable adjustments according to each applicant’s needs.

Colleague development

We’ve created a mentorship scheme to support the development of all colleagues. Mentoring can foster diverse talent by providing guidance on how to navigate organisational structures. It helps identify talented individuals and supports our aspirations to grow and diversify our leadership.

We currently have 10 mentees and 11 mentors on the scheme. We’re providing external coaching to seven other managers. There is currently insufficient information to report on the diversity in this group.  

ASPIRE programme

This programme supports the training of our staff for managerial roles. Part of the programme each year includes an EDI project (see ‘ASPIRE project recommendations’).  

This year, we’re focussing on how managers can support employees to apply for reasonable adjustments and how they can better manage and support hybrid working.  

We’re currently developing an internship procedure that we’ll be launching next year. This internship will provide an additional route for people to allow us to learn from their knowledge, skills and experience. We’ll also support them to learn and develop in preparation for successful careers. 

This year, we’ve taken time to review and reflect on our culture and how we would like it to develop over time. We recognise the key role our managers provide in supporting this work. Updating our leadership and management development offer will have an impact on all our colleagues across the organisation, our wider MS community and our culture. 

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Improve our recruitment process through the development and implementation of iTrent recruitment and selection modules. Update of our approaches to attract and hire more diverse colleagues. This will include more targeted advertising of opportunities through channels that can help us to reach communities that are currently under-represented. For example, through Proud Employers, Stonewalls recruitment channel. 
• Establish our paid internship scheme. This will be targeted at candidates from backgrounds currently under-represented at our organisation.  
• Find new approaches to support colleagues to feel confident to provide their sensitive personal information. This will help us to understand more about the diversity of our staff community and the impact of our EDI work. For example, sharing what proportion of our staff are living with MS and how to consider intersectionality. 
• Continue to assess and evaluate our EDI data to support the reporting of other pay gaps (ethnicity and disability) in our 2024 annual EDI report. This was partly delayed due to problems with our sensitive personal information questions and the time it took to review and arrange for these issues to be corrected. We’re continuing to work on encouraging people to complete all sensitive data questions by including “prefer not to say” and “prefer to self-describe" options. We explain clearly who has access to this highly sensitive information. We also explain how it‘s used to positively influence the development of employment policies and practices, particularly when inadvertent impacts are identified through the data or other feedback. 
• Improve our insight into the application of reasonable adjustments throughout our processes and across our organisation. Review the current reasonable adjustments and access to work processes with input from experts by experience.  
• Implement a new pay policy and an updated pay structure and pay progression approach, to enable more transparency and fairness for pay and allowances. 
• Develop a performance management approach, including reviewing and updating our personal development review (PDR) reporting. This will support consistent management and development of talent at our organisation. 
• Our Change projects will transform the way we work as an organisation. One of these projects will support us in building an inclusive and nurturing working environment for all our staff.

Our commitment

• To build skills and confidence to identify biases and micro-aggressions.
• To tackle racism and prejudice, wherever it occurs.
• To review our policies to make sure that we’re supporting and valuing differences.
• To embed EDI into decision making at every level.
• To ensure that colleagues have an EDI objective within their formal objectives.

What have we achieved in 2023?

EDI training. A key part of building an inclusive culture is supporting people to improve their knowledge and understanding of EDI and topics related to it. This year we’ve identified our EDI training needs as an organisation to maximise the impact training will have. We’ve shared these training needs with several suppliers and we’ll finalise this training by the end of the year.

At the start of 2024, we’ll also be asking our volunteers for their EDI training needs. This will ensure that whatever approach we take it’ll support cultural change for both our staff and volunteers.

Equality impact assessments

As mentioned above, this year we’ve implemented our equality impact assessment and asked for an assessment to be completed for new pieces of work. We’ve already completed these assessments MS Frontier’s 2024 and the Volunteer Impact Awards 2023 event. We’ll make sure that they’re built into the planning of any new projects to support the embedding of EDI considerations across our work.

Policy

This year, a number of our policies were reviewed by external organisations as part of our EDI audit and our Stonewall Diversity Champion year.

Our Reasonable Adjustments policy was an important one that we reviewed this year. Reasonable adjustments are changes to the workplace, tasks or work patterns that remove or minimise barriers experienced by disabled colleagues and job applicants.

We realised that there were inequalities in the way colleagues were supported to apply for reasonable adjustments. Our existing policy didn’t support those not wanting to disclose their condition or impairment to their manager.

Along with the launch of our new staff portal, iTrent, we reviewed this policy, together with colleagues from the Purple Network. Our new procedure now provides more information to disabled colleagues and gives them more choices for how and what they can choose to disclose. It also provides more guidance and information for managers on how to support reasonable adjustment requests. It now better reflects the social model of disability, which helps to recognise barriers that make life harder for disabled people. This model was developed by disabled people and describes people as being disabled by barriers in society, not by impairment or difference. If modern life were set up in a way that was accessible disabled people wouldn’t be excluded or restricted.

EDI principles

We’ve started to develop EDI principles so that we can clearly articulate our approach to this work for our staff and volunteers. Workshops taking place in early 2024 will further shape these principles, with a launch later in the year.

Inclusive perspectives

We have continued to share Inspiring Stories with colleagues. This year we heard about LGBTQ+ allyship and neurodivergent inclusion. We welcomed two incredible speakers who shared their stories and top tips for inclusion and allyship.

We also continued to mark awareness days and months which are important to our community. Colleagues have written about and shared their stories for Pregnancy and Baby Loss Awareness Week, Diwali and Transgender Awareness Week. We need to do more of this.

For this year’s Black History Month, we ‘saluted our sisters’ by creating some images of iconic Black women. We shared stories of women from the MS community, from medicine and science, the women who support you as well as Black women who work at the MS Society. We shared these stories on social media and as posters in our offices. We asked for nominations from our community and created two videos with Abdul Mohammed (links to external site). These videos celebrated Black women who support you and our staff community. We also held an event our London Office, so we could all come together to watch the videos and celebrate together.

Supporting our staff networks

This year we supported our Network chairs to take part in the Radius training programme. This training enables them to create effective networks that can influence change across organisations. Our EDI lead also undertook sponsor training to help her provide support to our networks.

We attended both London Pride and UK Black Pride this year. Our CEO Nick Moberly joined us at the London Pride march. Colleagues from the Spectrum network organised our attendance at both events. We provided detailed information ahead of each event, including information about accessibility. This enabled people to make decisions about attending based on their own needs. We also commissioned photographers from the LGBTQ+ and Black LGBTQ+ communities to document the events.

Building inclusivity

We want to support and represent the whole MS community. And we want to make sure that people can be their authentic selves when they engage with us. We’re on a journey and to support this we’ll partner with other organisations. For example, we’re already Disability Confident ‘committed’. In the year ahead, we’d like to achieve the next level, Disability Confident ‘employer’ (links to external site). This scheme can help us to recruit and retain people in an inclusive way. It will encourage us to challenge attitudes and increase our understanding of disability.

This year we’ve also signed up to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion. We’ve done this to build a good foundation for LGBTQ+ inclusion at our organisation, and to challenge ourselves to improve inclusion and consider intersectionality. As a Diversity Champion, we’ll have more opportunities to support the development of LGBTQ+ colleagues, for example through the LGBTQ+ Leadership programme. This year, two of our colleagues were supported to take part in the programme. We can also now advertise job opportunities through Stonewall’s Proud Employers jobsite.

Embedding EDI

All employees at our organisation have an EDI objective as part of their annual review. This creates an EDI focus for everyone and allows us to embed it as part of all roles.

One of our colleagues has shared their EDI objective:

“One of my objectives this year was to find new and diverse MS stories. An action that I set myself was to work closely with Asian MS to find and share new stories about stigma in the South Asian community. Our community have been telling us about this issue for a long time now, but we’ve never carved out the time and resource to make it a priority.

I worked collaboratively with Asian MS to find new storytellers and shared their stories with media. The aim of this piece of work was to represent these experiences in our press work, but also to signpost people towards Asian MS’s support. I secured a piece of national coverage in the Metro and also worked with the digital team to share some of these stories on our website and social media.”

Our board of trustees

To further support our commitment to EDI and improving our culture, the board has developed its own EDI action plan. This aims to improve diversity among our trustees by removing barriers to candidates applying for positions on the board.

We want to ensure that trustees are appropriately supported to deliver their role, and we’re putting a focus on learning and development in 2024. We also want to be a place where individual trustees have opportunities to develop new skills and reach their full potential, for example by becoming potential Chairs of the future. And we want to make sure that our trustees understand the importance of EDI to help promote inclusion and ensure this remains visible within decision-making. Read more about the board’s EDI action plan here.

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Continue the roll out of our equality impact assessments and build this into our refreshed approach to policy review.
• Develop the EDI calendar to decide which awareness days to mark and agree on our approach to celebrate these.
• Ensure that we mark Disability Pride Month.
• Roll out our EDI training.
• Make sure volunteers and people living with MS have a voice in our EDI activity group.
• Review our pathways for reporting concerns, making sure that we provide formal and informal routes, and review options to do so anonymously. An important aspect of this is providing enough reporting routes so that most people will find a resolution to their concern.

Our commitment 

• To widen our reach and attract a more diverse audience of volunteers.
• To break down the barriers to volunteering, ensuring roles are flexible.
• To build a more inclusive volunteering culture.

What have we achieved in 2023?

EDI training 

This year we’ve developed EDI training for our volunteers but we’re sorry we haven’t yet rolled this out. But it’s ready to go. We’ll be launching it alongside an EDI hub on our volunteer website in early 2024. This will contain lots of resources to help supplement peoples learning journey. We’re considering our volunteers in the design of our new EDI training offer, which will build on our e-learning modules, and have facilitated sessions, built around conversations. As part of developing this training, we’ll be sharing a very short survey so we can understand what our volunteers think we should include.

Our social media toolkit

We developed a toolkit to support our group volunteers to set up and get the most out of their social media channels. This includes guidance on how to create inclusive content and cover key awareness days.  In 2024 we’ll be developing a follow-on tool specifically about online communities. It will focus on how we can proactively grow our online communities and reach out to those who don’t currently engage with us through social media.

EDI communications plan

By developing our EDI communications plan, we’ve identified and begun delivering actions to support the continued development of an inclusive volunteering culture. It’s important that we also build the confidence and capability of our volunteers to do this at a local level. This included sharing blogs from volunteers from diverse backgrounds. And next year, we’ll also be supporting groups to connect with local MS communities that they don’t currently engage with. You can find our blog with Oberuomo Odili, Group Coordinator for the Newcastle and Gateshead group and our spotlight on Robby Khullar, a member of our EDI reference group, on our website.https://www.mssociety.org.uk/authors/oberuomo-odili

Volunteer Impact Awards

This was our second year of running the event. We used the Equality Impact Assessment as a mechanism to consider what else we could do to ensure the event was as inclusive as possible. We published details of the panel and process on the volunteer website and in the MS Matters magazine to ensure that the event was transparent. We proactively shared the measures we had in place to make sure that the process was equitable. We also invited all those involved with the event to share their pronouns ahead of the live stream.

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Delivery of the EDI communications plan.
• Roll out EDI training for our volunteers, including real-life stories and learning from people’s experiences.
• Implement a Volunteer Management System through Assemble. This will allow us to collect and report on existing volunteer EDI data more effectively.
• Develop new volunteering opportunities that target seldom heard and under-represented groups. We’ve already recruited a Volunteer Transformation Coordinator who will lead on this project.
• Implement the updated volunteer journey to support the removal of barriers to participation, with ongoing regular reviews.
• Understand more about the barriers to being recruited as a volunteer with our organisation.

Our commitment

• To collect and report data on the diversity of clinical trials and research programme participants.
• To understand the barriers to recruiting people with MS from diverse backgrounds into research studies.

For more information see the Research EDI action plan.

What have we achieved in 2023?

Leave position statement

 We’ve now shared our position on researchers’ leave entitlement and part-time fellowships. We strongly believe that researchers we fund should be able to take periods of leave whenever they need to. This includes maternity, paternity, adoption and carer leave (family leave) as well as sick leave. We also support our early career researchers to complete their research on a part time basis, giving people the chance to progress their careers.

Data collection

We collected demographic data on our applicants, award holders and governance members for the first time in 2022. This evidence base is the first step in identifying barriers to individuals getting involved with and continuing within our research into MS. We want to lead by example. And in 2023, we became one of only a handful of charities to publicly publish demographic data on our research programme. We’ve included some key data highlights in the data section above.

We’ve also developed and implemented a survey to collect demographic information on our Research Network members. The Research Network is a group of people affected by MS who help shape our research programme. We’ll analyse this data to help us understand how diverse this Network is and identify ways to improve it.

Showcasing stories

We continue to showcase stories of researchers from diverse groups and highlight the inclusive research that’s being conducted by our researchers. Here are four examples:

• Meet the researchers who want seldom-heard groups to be at the centre of their research into fatigue
• Meet the researchers connected by their goal to stop progression
• Equality, diversity and inclusion at the ECTRIMS research conference 
• "Spit in a cup and potentially become part of history in the making!"

Research outreach event

Our clinical research doesn’t currently include representation from all people affected by MS, leading to treatments and services that may not be appropriate for everyone. It’s really important for us to understand the needs of people from different communities of people and the existing barriers that prevent their inclusion.

We partnered with Parkinson’s UK and the Alzheimer’s Society to deliver a research outreach event, specifically aimed at the Black community in south London. This event was held at Lambeth Town Hall in March 2023. At the event, people were able to talk with stallholders including local support group members, neuro-physiotherapists, benefits advisers and clinical researchers. A panel of people affected by each condition (MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s) also shared their real-life experiences as participants in clinical trials.

Most importantly, the people who attended the event were able to meet and hear from other people with similar experiences. They could connect with each other and share their own personal journeys, and in some cases for the very first time.

The friendly atmosphere at the event enabled people to share and ask questions about their experiences in research and healthcare. And a common barrier to participation became clear. A lack of trust in healthcare environments caused by systemic discrimination left people from this community feeling isolated and unheard by healthcare professionals.

We can’t repair this trust overnight. But we hope the learnings we gain and the connections we build through events like this will help us to make positive changes. We want to empower people to feel more comfortable engaging with healthcare professionals, manage their own conditions and participate in research. Treatment and support services can only help everyone when research includes everyone.

Making our clinical trials inclusive 

The Octopus trial has an important role in widening participation in our research studies. We’re supporting the Octopus trial team to recruit people from diverse backgrounds to make sure their results are more widely applicable to people with MS. And to think about what challenges there are to make this possible.

Together with the Octopus trial team, we hosted an EDI workshop and consulted with people affected by MS to discuss the barriers to taking part in the Octopus trial and how we can be overcome them. This led to clear actions that are being implemented into the design of the trial.

Here’s a snapshot of these actions:

• Introducing a needs-based assessment for travel expenses. This is to enable the inclusion of people living in remote areas who face significant travel distances to the nearest trial site.
• Additional provisions for those needing assistance with written and spoken English. For example, people with low vision, English speakers with low literacy level and non-English speakers.
• Developing resources to support radiographers as well as people with MS who may struggle to undergo an MRI.
• Non-digital methods of registering interest in the Octopus trial to avoid excluding people with limited access to technology.
• Factsheets that explain the absence of animal products in the medications being tested and the approach to religious fasting during a clinical trial.
• Increased number and variety of communication channels to reach people who may not have previously engaged with our clinical trials.
• Build in regular feedback from trial participants to identify barriers to participation as the trial progresses.

Working with the EDI reference group

For us to meet the objectives of our EDI action plan, its implementation must be informed by those who experience being under-represented and the barriers they faced. We’ve really appreciated the chance to engage with the EDI reference group several times this year to receive their feedback on our plans and ways of working.

When we look at how we can increase the diversity of our Research Network, we first needed to look at how the network functions, and how we inadvertently create barriers to inclusion. We reviewed feedback on the network’s structure, processes and communication methods and have already made several changes based on this feedback.

Here are some of the changes we’ve made: 

• Our welcome email to new network members now includes an invite to share with us any access requirements or reasonable adjustments that would facilitate their involvement in our research opportunities.  
• Our welcome email now states that members can request to receive our monthly research involvement opportunities by post or a telephone call, if email is less accessible to them.
• We’ve also restructured our monthly email to reduce the bulk of text and make it easier for people to scan the information. There’s now a short contents list to help people navigate to more information if it’s of interest.
• Our monthly email now includes an estimated reading time at the top.

Suggestions we plan to implement next year:

• Face-to-face recruitment initiatives at local MS groups and engagement events, to raise awareness of the network with those who engage less online.
• Targeted recruitment of under-represented groups. The EDI reference group has helped us identify appropriate media channels.
• Develop a strategy for ensuring the accountability of our funded researchers to fully implement their Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) and EDI plans .

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Report on the demographic figures for our Research Network members. Conduct focused recruitment to increase the diversity of our network. 
• Conduct focused recruitment to increase the diversity of our research boards, committees and panels. 
• Review and improve our communications plan to ensure people from all backgrounds are aware of opportunities and ways to take part in research.

Our commitment

• To make sure we progress our EDI plans.
• To build our insight into seldom heard groups of people living with MS.

What have we achieved in 2023?

EDI audit

An important commitment within our EDI strategy was to commission an independent review of our progress. We’ve partnered with the Social Justice Collective (links to external site) to undertake an EDI audit. The team will assess our progress including our achievements and where we haven’t had the impact we’d hoped for. They’ll also provide recommendations on where we should focus our efforts in the last year of this strategy. We can then use this information to help shape what our EDI approach looks like after 2024.

The audit process has started with a review of key documents. These included our policies, current EDI strategy and research we’ve commissioned that helped shape our EDI strategy. Alongside this, the Social Justice Collective has run focus groups (nine in total) to hear from people across the organisation, including our volunteers and people living with MS.

We’ll publish a summary of the findings from this report in 2024. This will inform and shape our continued commitment to EDI.

Building networks

This year we’ve continued to build relationships with EDI teams in other organisations. We have regular networking meetings, share best practice and insights, and provide support to each other. This year our EDI lead has also joined the EDI committee at the Association of British Neurologists to support their EDI action plan.

Standardised EDI data collection

We’ve supported colleagues to use the Daisy guidance to ask for people’s sensitive personal information. These questions have been used across our organisation. They’re included in our staff portal and have been used in many surveys that we’ve sent out to our community. This has also helped inform the way we collect information from our community as a key part of our data project and new database.

Approaches to understanding accessibility

This year we’ve reflected on our approach to organising accessible events. We’d unintentionally excluded people from some of our events either because they weren’t accessible or were organised in venues that weren’t accessible. We’re sorry for this.

To help us build accessibility considerations into the organisation of our events, we’ve created our accessibility checklists - one for venues and the other for the events themselves. We’ve also defined our minimum standard for accessibility. It’s a standard we can share across the organisation to make sure we minimise the exclusion of people from our future events.

Supporting each other

People can often feel nervous when talking about certain topics. They worry about using the wrong words or saying the wrong things. This year we’ve developed various documents to help our colleagues to feel more confident to have sensitive conversations.

We’ve launched an EDI glossary to help increase our colleagues awareness and knowledge of the terms that people use to describe their identity. We’ve used scenarios to write some guidance aimed at helping people to provide better support to each other in sensitive situations. And we’ve created a guidance document on how to support colleagues as they transition.

Our Change projects

In 2023, we’ve launched several new projects to transform the way we work as an organisation. This included projects to:

• change the way it feels to work at the MS Society
• increase and diversify our reach, provide a more personalised experience and increase our sustainable income.
• transform our services and the ways in which we support our community
• transform the way we collect and use data across all our work including replacing our main database

EDI is a core principle in the shaping and delivery of these transformation projects. Most will start to deliver their work in 2024. The project relating to the way we collect and use data is well underway now. It’s looking at how we collect information about the people who engage with us, including sensitive personal information, and how we keep their data safe. We also want to make sure any data collection we do is done inclusively. If we allow people to securely record their preferences and personal information, we’ll be able to ensure our engagement is more relevant. For example, if you don’t want to receive any Christmas greetings from us.

Through our transformation projects, we’re making sure we mitigate as much exclusion as possible. We’re also considering the impact these projects might have on people across the protected characteristics. Our new brand encompasses diversity and inclusion in its principles. It will support our new approach to engaging with our audience, particularly as we learn more about them and how they may want us to engage with them. We need to consider this in terms of communication channel, language, media type and additional accessibility needs.

What are our priorities for 2024?

• Reflect on the EDI audit findings and build on recommendations to refocus our work for the remainder of this strategy.
• Develop thinking and approach to ensure our continued commitment to EDI beyond this strategy.
• Develop our accessibility checklists. Create a version which our volunteers can use to organise accessible events.
• Commission an external review of our digital accessibility internally, including our staff website and communications channels, as well as the way we share information at meetings and events. Develop and finalise our accessibility policy.
• Continue to develop the transformation project with core EDI principles.
• Continue to provide opportunities to increase people’s awareness of EDI and their confidence to begin conversations on EDI related topics.
• Improve our approach to gathering evidence to support increasing diversity across the organisation.
• Actively listen to people from minoritised groups. Listen to the barriers they face and understand their experiences. Develop actions to counter inequalities.

The roll-out of refreshed EDI training to colleagues and volunteers has been delayed this year, but we’ve still made some progress towards it’s delivery. We have:

• run a survey with colleagues to identify what our EDI training needs are and which areas to prioritise
• developed a survey for volunteers to help us understand their needs – this is now ready to launch.
• approached several external partners who’ve submitted proposals based on the outcome of the staff survey and started the tendering process for a preferred EDI training partner.
• included the delivery of our EDI training as a key part of our transformation project, which supports the development of an inclusive culture.

We hope to be able to roll-out our training to colleagues in the spring of 2024 and with Volunteers by the autumn.

Our pay gap reporting (beyond gender) has been delayed because of low completion rates of EDI data by our staff. The new HR system has now been updated to capture EDI data as intended. We also need to increase staff understanding and confidence in providing us with this type of data.

Milestone: Giving different candidates a chance

Key deliverables: Explore establishing a paid internship scheme targeted at candidates from backgrounds that are currently under-represented.

What we've done: We'll aim to support three paid interns a year. Aiming to launch in 2024. 

Status: Completed.

Milestone: Ensuring greater volunteer diversity

Key deliverables: We’ll pilot different approaches to support local groups to be more inclusive and to reach out to their local communities.

What we've done: Started, but will be completed in 2024.

Status: In progress.

Milestone: Diversity of senior volunteers

Key deliverables: We’ll review the diversity of all our major standing advisory committees and groups and our recruitment approaches for them.

What we've done: This action has been rolled to 2024. The review will include recruitment reviews of Community Network Advisory Panel (NCAP) and Impact Awards Assessment Panel. 

Status: Delayed.

Milestone: Local outreach

Key deliverables: We’ll make sure our regional plans include opportunistic targeted outreach.

What we've done: We'll continue to embed into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll improve our strategic alignment between national and local plans.

What we've done: we'll continue to embed into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: National outreach

Key deliverables: Pilot different forms of outreach to people with MS from ethnic minority backgrounds.

What we've done: A number of pilot events have been held in 2023. we'll continue to run pilots and use learning to define outreach into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Pilot different forms of outreach to people with MS who say they are struggling on their income.

What we've done: We have launched cost of living grants pilot, we'll continue to run pilots and use learning to define outreach into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Partnership working

Key deliverables: We’ll implement a senior-level stakeholder engagement plan with partner organisations focussed on people with MS from minoritised ethnic backgrounds.

What we've done: The project expanded, it has been rolled over to 2024.

Status: Delayed.

Key deliverables: we’ll implement a senior-level stakeholder engagement plan with partner organisations focussed on people with MS who say they are struggling on their income.

What we've done: The project expanded, it has been rolled over to 2024.

Status: Delayed.

Key deliverables: Continue to build strategic partnerships.

What we've done: Relies on the action above.

Status: Delayed.

Milestone: Research participation

Key deliverables: Collect and report data on the diversity of clinical trials and research programme participants.

What we've done: Ongoing actions which will continue into 2024. But progress continues to be made.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Understand the barriers to recruiting people with MS from diverse background into research studies.

What we've done: Ongoing actions which will continue into 2024. But progress continues to be made.

Status: Complete. 

Milestone: Accessibility

Key deliverables: We’ll emphasise accessible communications as a key strand of our new content strategy. 

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Implement accessible communications plan as part of the content strategy.

Status: In progress.

Milestone: Embed EDI in decision making

Key deliverables: We’ll audit our processes, policies, and procedures to improve EDI considerations in decision-making.

What we've done: This is a continuous process so this will continue into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll review all our policies to make sure we’re reflecting strong expectations on EDI.

What we've done: This is a continuous process so this will continue into 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll make equality impact assessments a formal part of planning and implementation, including all project and programme management.

What we've done: Equality impact assessments now live. Will embed in new work throughout 2024.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Making EDI everyone's business

Key deliverables: Directors will be accountable for promoting accessible and inclusive behaviour within their directorate.

What we've done: An ongoing process which is further supported by other initiatives for example the EDI training.

Status: In progress. 

Key deliverables: We’ll review our processes to build EDI into programme management.

What we've done: Supported by the inclusion of equality impact assessments as part of our programme and project planning.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Implement the results of the review into including EDI into programme management.

Status: Delayed. 

Milestone: Making sure everyone has the skills and knowledge to contribute to EDI

Key deliverables: Set up training or other dedicated time for teams to think about embedding EDI in their work and behaviour.

What we've done: Supported by new EDI training offer, offering each employee 7 hours of training time per month and sessions at away days.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Top up training for new starters.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Mentoring

Key deliverables: We’ll establish a mentoring and coaching programme that will support staff development and help build connections.

What we've done: We currently have 10 mentees and 11 mentors enrolled.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Reflecting everyone's perspective

Key deliverables: Review our HR policies to make sure they embody EDI principles.

What we've done: Key policies being reviewed by Stonewall and as part of the EDI audit.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: Make sure staff networks like our REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) network have the resources and input on strategic decisions that they need to play a full part in MS Society life.

What we've done: Part of EDI budget set aside to help support Networks. Chairs can ask for money to support events or initiatives. Network chairs also all supported to undertake Radius training.

Status: In progress. 

Key deliverables: Continue our "inspiring stories " series of staff talks to centre different perspectives and spark conversations.

What we've done: Two held in 2023 around neurodivergent inclusion and accessibility, and trans awareness and LGBTQ+ allyship.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Tackling unacceptable behaviour

Key deliverables: Review current processes for reporting unacceptable behaviour.

What we've done: We have reviewed all current channels and provided support for people to navigate them. We are also looking at additional routes to report anonymously.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: More chances to connect

Key deliverables: Implement our “Grow your Community” offer.

What we've done: Pilot implemented with resources. Some functions delayed, but will go fully live in 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Develop communities of interest around different themes (including demographics or identity).

What we've done: We've partially completed this, but we will continue to develop this in 2024.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: Offer rallying points for people to connect on different themes related to identify or EDI more broadly through our digital content.

What we've done: We've partially completed this, but we will continue to develop this in 2024.

Status: In progress. 

Milestone: Reflecting diverse perspectives and experiences in our work

Key deliverables: Implement ASPIRE project recommendations from 2022 and 2023.

What we've done: We have already implemented some of these with others planned to be included as we develop our managers toolkit.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Fair and inclusive recruitment practices

Key deliverables: Reform our interview processes more to eliminate unconscious bias and attract more diverse pools of candidates.

What we've done: Will be included and supported as we develop iTrent further.

Status: In progress. 

Key deliverables: Continue our existing apprenticeship scheme where we look to recruit candidates with strong potential, but some experience gaps to vacant roles. Then support them to learn on the job.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: Explore establishing a paid internship scheme targeted at candidates from backgrounds currently under-represented among our employees. 

What we've done: HR have started work on draft internship approach.

Status: In progress. 

Milestone: Making sure we get diverse candidates for our roles

Key deliverables: Advertise our vacancies in media that will reach candidates currently underrepresented.

What we've done: Roles this year have been advertised in platforms to reach marginalised communities, for example with Stonewall Proud Employers.

Status: In progress. 

Key deliverables: Publish our gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.

What we've done: Delayed due to issues with iTrent personal information questions when the system went live.

Status: Delayed. 

Key deliverables: Continue improvements in staff data collection.

What we've achieved: Support all colleagues to use the Daisy guidelines to ask about peoples' sensitive personal information.

Status: In progress. 

Milestone: Dedicated development offer for employees from under-represented backgrounds

Key deliverables: Introduce local inductions designed to suit needs of new recruits.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: Make sure development opportunities (formal and informal) are fairly distributed.

Status: In progress. 

Milestone: Data and insight on our volunteers

Key deliverables: Gather EDI data accurately through REACH and PowerBI.

What we've done: Data is collated for new volunteers. Plans to collect further data with introduction of new Volunteer Management System in 2024.

Status: In progress. 

Key deliverables: Gather EDI data and measure satisfaction through our volunteer survey.

What we've done: Volunteer Survey 2023 delayed, this action is rolled over to 2024

Status: Delayed.

Key deliverables: Gather informal feedback.

What we've done: Minimal data available due to our current systems, this will improve with implementation of new Volunteer Management System.

Status: In progress. 

Milestone: Diversity of senior volunteers

Key deliverables: Revise recruitment approaches for major standing committees and groups.

What we've done: Action rolled over to 2024.

Status: Delayed. 

Milestone: Ensuring greater volunteer diversity

Key deliverables: Support groups to increase our use of online recruitment, to help us reach a wider and more diverse pool of applicants.

What we've done: Partially completed but will continue into 2024. Supporting volunteer managers to manage their own recruitment.

Status: Complete. 

Key deliverables: Review the volunteer journey, identifying and removing barriers to participation.

What we've done: The journey is continually reviewed and updated

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll update the volunteer journey with what we learned from the review.

What we've done: This will be continually updated to reflect changes and best practices.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll pilot different approaches to support local groups to be more inclusive and to reach out to their local communities.

What we've done: A social media toolkit has been developed and launched. A new staff role in the pipeline will support delivery of this milestone.

Status: Delayed.

Milestone: Inclusive volunteering culture

Key deliverables: Research the effectiveness of our recruitment.

What we've done: Recrutiment will have an ongoing review and research.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Implement EDI e-learning for volunteers.

What we've done: Due to be rolled out to volunteers in Spring 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Establish peer support groups for volunteers.

What we've done: Launched virtual drop in sessions for some roles, remaining role specific sessions will be delivered in 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: We’ll continue our e-learning and peer support roll-out.

What we've done: Volunteers also included as key stakeholders for the development of expanded EDI training.

Status: Complete.

Milestone: Building evidence on inequality

Key deliverables: Commission more evidence focussing on the most significant findings from My MS, My Needs.

What we've done: Action rolled over to 2024.

Status: Delayed.

Milestone: People who face discrimination have a chance to raise their voices

Key deliverables: Provide myth-busting evidence and support for minoritised people to dispel prejudices within their own communities.

What we've done: The project has been expanded to gather more evidence and so has been rolled across to 2024.

Status: Complete. 

Key deliverables: Provide know your rights material to empower grassroots activism.

Status: Delayed.

Key deliverables: Our policy campaigns will routinely focus on inequality within a wider campaign theme (like welfare reform, treatment access).

What we've done: This year we focussed on PIP, we will continue to campaign in these areas into 2024.

Status: Complete. 

Milestone: Building our insight in seldom heard groups of people with MS

Key deliverables: Co-ordinate data collection and insight research work to broaden the breadth and depth of insights and evidence especially on seldom heard groups.

What we've done: Updating of prevalence data, with inclusion of diversity data. Strengthening of data. Centres around making better use of the data that we have on people at the moment. Built into project SAGE. Interviews and focus groups happening, but we need to recognise them as an important way to gather insight. Rolled over to 2024.

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Implement standardised EDI data collection.

What we've done: Support colleagues to use the Daisy guidelines.

Status: Complete. 

Milestone: Making sure we make progress with our plans

Key deliverables: Publish an annual report on progress. 

What we've done: 2022 and 2023 reports published.

Status: Complete. 

Milestone: EDI central programme

Key deliverables: Decision taken on which standards to hold ourselves to, as an organisation in terms of our approach to EDI. For example Disability confident, Stonewall WEI.

What we've done: Aiming for disability confident level 2 in 2024 and signed up to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion with a view to applying to the workplace equality index.

 Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Internal communication of EDI has improved with development and implementation of internal comms plan.

What we've done: Developing a new approach to engage with our internal audiences around EDI.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: External auditors for EDI implementation plan, annual report and EDI work to support achievement of our goals identified and report. produced.

What we've done: EDI audit process started in November 2023, the outcome of this audit is expected in spring 2024

Status: Complete.

Key deliverables: Colleagues are supported in the development of EDI objectives as part of their PDR, impact of these objectives has been measured and achievements and successes have been shared.

What we've done: Need to find a way to collect successes and achievements from individual objectives. And support people to carry EDI through their roles day-to-day.

Status: In progress.

Key deliverables: Need to find a way to collect successes and achievements from individual objectives. And support people to carry EDI through their roles day-to-day.

Status: In progress.