Gathering Equality Data

As a charter signatory for Pledge 2 you will commit your organisation to, “ensure your opportunities are accessible to all sections of the community, and that your volunteering workforce reflects the demographics of the city”. In order to achieve and evidence this you will need to provide baseline data and then an annual check with an updated Charter “census form” submission to retain your Charter Mark.

You might find that as an organisation that you have some of the data or perhaps you haven’t been required to gather this before? We suggest a fresh, straightforward approach that will follow best practice and aim to minimise extra work in collating data from various locations (application forms, emergency contact info etc)

Aim to:

• Gather information on the nine protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010)
• Gather postcodes so that you can also describe where your volunteers live in the context of the SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation)
• Compare your data with the population data for the whole city (local authority area) and/or local ward areas to decide if it does, “reflect the demographics of the city”.
• Keep it anonymous and confidential
• Let people know why you are gathering the data and that it will be secure
• Provide an easy to complete form with simple, easy to understand, plain English language
• Keep it to the point and only gather necessary information
• Consider both letter with a stamped returns envelope and/or online survey
• Set a time frame so that people will respond sooner rather than later
• Share the reason why you are gathering data and why it is important (particularly useful for pre-existing volunteers who might question it)
• Don’t forget to gather at least basic details from one off volunteer involvement

Once you have the responses back you can then collate it into a meaningful report that will give a good profile of the current people volunteering within your organisation. From this information you might discover an imbalance that you would like to rectify. The next steps would be to create steps in the action plan. Volunteer Glasgow can offer support and resources on targeted recruitment and making improvements in your organisation’s processes.

If you have any questions please contact your Charter contact person at Volunteer Glasgow to discuss further.

And if you have any suggestions for how this blog post could be improved, please let us know so that we can share your insights and expertise with other Charter signatories!