Institutional priorities
Your feedback and responses from the 2017-18 Pulse staff survey have led to a number of different institutional priorities for the University - here's what's happened:
Disability Standards
The 2017-18 Pulse responses from those declaring a disability were consistently less positive than for colleagues who did not declare a disability. As a result, in 2018/9, the Group Finance Director, Rosie Drinkwater was appointed as Senior Disability Champion and The Provost, Chris Ennew, as Chair of Warwick's Disability Standards Steering Group. Members of the Disability Standards Steering Group are currently assessing each business area against the framework of the Disability Standards with a view to creating an action plan of tasks that will need to be completed prior to the University submitting to the Business Disability Forum Disability Standards Charter Mark.
Updates have also been made to the Disability, Mental Health and Inclusion Policy (for staff and students) to include a more comprehensive section on mental health. Additionally, the University has subscribed to an Employee Assistance Programme (Health Assured) which, as well as offering free wellbeing support, provides staff with access to counselling, legal advice, bereavement support, advice on medical problems/disabilities and a range of information resources and self-help tools. A second support tool for mental health issues has also been launched in the form of the ‘Big White Wall’, a clinically led digital mental health service, allowing for both staff and students to seek wellbeing support online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, complementing existing provision.
The Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) team have created three new publications: 'Guidance and Support on Disability', 'Disability Checklist for Line Managers’ and 'Disability FAQs for Candidate and Employees', to ensure that staff across Warwick who experience disability or who have long term health needs are able to access the support they need. In addition to these, web-based guidance for recruiting managers and new job candidates, fact sheets on visible and non-visible disabilities, mental health videos and a Disability Confident Moodle have all been made available to increase staff understanding.
The ED&I Team hosted a Wellbeing Week in February 2019 with an overall theme of Dignity and Respect and held a Disability and Carers Event to showcase support available on a variety of disabilities and caring responsibilities internally and through external agencies. Similar events are planned for 2020.
Moreover, a new Accessibility Officer role has been recruited to in the Estates Office team to help improve how our campus works for people with disabilities. Additionally ITS and a new online accessibility working group have been reviewing the accessibility of the University website to ensure it works for all users in accordance with accessibility regulations. Read more here.
Respect
'Respect' has been identified as an ongoing theme for the University, and was first highlighted through the previous Pulse survey in 2015-16 - institutional results showed that some colleagues had experienced or witnessed inequality of treatment, and were calling for increased diversity at all levels.
Since this last survey, all colleagues are asked to discuss Inclusion and Respect as part of their PDR conversations. This ensures that all colleagues are aware of the Respect agenda and can reflect on their role in creating a respectful Warwick community. Respect and inclusion are also key items in our management and leadership development courses.
A Respect Day was held in February 2019 and another is planned for the next year. Dignity and Respect training is also available on the Open Programme and the five Principles have been introduced to support future change in this area.
