CAYSH

Who we are

About CAYSH

 As a London based Charity, CAYSH has been delivering services to vulnerable and homeless Young People aged 16-25 since 1981, offering safe homes, support and advice to enable them to achieve their potential.

The Young People we serve play a crucial role in the design of our service delivery and the appointment of our Young People's Ambassador supports to ensure best impact.

CAYSH operates services in a number of Boroughs across the UK, partnering with Local Authorities to support our communities. We place our Young People at the heart of all we do and listen and learn from their experiences.

We provide:

- Supported Accommodation (24/7 Assessment Centre / Small shared housing staffed and unstaffed / Supported Lodgings)

- Floating Support

- Mediation - ‘restoring families and maintaining tenancies

- Mental Health Counselling

- Night Concierge

- Employment Mentoring

- & much more

Our Team:

Our team comprises of a diverse Board of Trustees, Senior Leadership Team and Operations Staff who are all dedicated to our cause to best support the homeless and vulnerable Young People we serve.

Our culture and values

Our Mission

- Provide safe and decent accommodation for young people facing homelessness along with advice and support that can enable our service users to live independently and sustainably.

- Create and develop inspired services so that those facing homelessness have access to safe homes and better futures.

- Identify and generate opportunities for our service users to engage in activities that build confidence and ability.

- Work within communities to ensure our service users and their neighbours are safe and create community engagement opportunities.

Values

Our values provide the framework within which we work embracing the diversity of our staff and service users.

- Commitment

- Fairness

- Inclusivity

- Responsiveness

- Compassion

- Professionalism

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

CAYSH's Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy & Procedure:

1 Introduction:

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policy and procedure is designed to provide guidance on preventing and eliminating all forms of unlawful discrimination.

The document provides an outline of CAYSHs legal duties, according to current equality legislation and the responsibility of all staff to put equality, diversity and inclusion into practice. 

CAYSH is committed to:

- Eliminating unlawful discrimination, inequality and unfair treatment and will ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is implemented and encouraged throughout the organisation.

- Promoting a positive and diverse culture, where all staff and young people feel respected and valued.

- Improving the wellbeing of the organisation, for the benefit of all staff and service users.

- Taking account of the views of, employees, service users, hosts and our contractual obligations to make decisions, through consultation, participation and involvement, including decisions which impact on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.

- Ensuring that service users receive equal access to services and resources and that decisions applicable to them are based on merit and genuine need.

- Working with partner organisations to ensure compliance with the principles of this policy and procedure.

- Ensuring fair tendering processes, based on merit and valid specific criteria.

- Representing and respecting all sections of society and our local community.

- Applying this policy and procedure to staff, agency workers, volunteers, interns, hosts, trustees and service users.

- Extending our commitment to partner organisations, contractors and suppliers, who are referred to as stakeholders for the purpose of this policy and procedure and who can expect to be treated fairly and respectfully and to feel valued.

2 The Legislative Framework:

To ensure that unlawful discrimination is tackled and is not tolerated we comply with the terms of the Equality Act 2010 to tackle. The following nine protected characteristics are defined within the Act:

- Age

- Disability

- Gender reassignment

- Marriage and civil partnership

- Pregnancy and maternity

 - Race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin)

 - Religion or belief

 - Sex

 - Sexual orientation

3 Implementation:

We implement policies, procedures and practices designed to ensure fairness and to oppose and eradicate unlawful discrimination, in the following areas

- Pay and benefits.

- Terms and conditions of employment.

- Grievances and discipline.

- Dismissal.

- Redundancy.

- Leave for family and dependants.

- Requests for flexible working.

- Selection for employment, promotion, training or other developmental opportunities.

4 The Procedure – Equality, Diversity & Inclusion into Practice:

CAYSH will:

- Promote equality, diversity and inclusion, including applying the framework published in our Equality Action Plan. 

- Provide mandatory equality and diversity training at our technical induction sessions and online refresher training at regular intervals. Training will include an outline of the terms of the Equality Act and the responsibilities and expectations according to this Policy.

- Promote dignity, respect and awareness through our bespoke unconscious bias training, where attitudes of bias, prejudice and dogma are challenged and addressed, to prevent and eradicate bullying, harassment, victimisation, unlawful discrimination and unfairness. 

- Liaise with external partners and suppliers to implement and develop support methods, including Access to Work, Mindful Employer (accredited), Disability Confident (accredited), Stonewall, Inclusive Employer training organisation and the EAP. 

- Raise awareness that individuals (as well as CAYSH) can be held liable for acts of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination, while employed, volunteering, or acting as a Hosts, trustee or intern.

- Take appropriate action where acts of bullying, harassment, victimisation and unlawful discrimination are alleged against staff, agency workers, volunteers, interns, Hosts trustees, service users, partners, suppliers, contractors, visitors, the public by group or individual.

- Implement appropriate recommendations if an allegation is upheld, which could include withdrawal of services, barring individuals from our premises, reporting acts to appropriate authorities or appropriate action according to the CAYSH disciplinary procedure.

- Exercise its duty to deal with sexual harassment as both an employment rights matter and / or a criminal matter, such as sexual assault allegations and accepts that harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (which is not limited to circumstances where harassment relates to a protected characteristic) is a criminal offence.

- Ensure opportunities for training, development and promotion are available to all staff, who will be supported and encouraged to reach their full potential.

- Base all decisions relating to staff on merit and in accordance with our policies and procedures (apart from in any necessary and limited exemptions and exceptions allowed under the Equality Act).

- Implement our duty to make reasonable adjustments, to ensure that disabled staff and service users receive fair and as reasonable as possible access to services and resources.

5 Discrimination and Unfair Treatment:

- Staff who believe that discrimination, inequality or unfair treatment, on the grounds of a protected characteristic, has taken place, must contact their line manager or human resources for support and advice.

- Staff will be expected to support allegations of discriminatory behaviour with evidence, including dates and times of incidents and the names of those involved and witnesses. 

6 Rights and Responsibilities:

- All staff have a responsibility for promoting and delivering matters of equality, diversity and inclusion

- The leadership team has responsibility for the implementation and updating of this policy and procedure, led by human resources

- The leadership team has strategic responsibility for the promotion and direction of equality, diversity and inclusion

- CAYSH Board members (trustees and directors) are responsible for promoting equality, diversity and inclusion

- Human resources is responsible for implementing, monitoring and assessing the Equality Action plan and ensuring actions are carried out.

7 Monitoring:

- CAYSH will review, update and impact assess employment practices, policies and procedures at set intervals, including this policy and procedure, the Equality Action Plan and the Code of Conduct, to ensure they are fair, reflect societal developments and changes in the law

- To ensure equality, diversity and inclusion is implemented and meet the aims and commitments set out in this policy, CAYSH will review the composition of our organisation in terms of age, sex, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion or belief, and disability

- We regularly obtain feedback through various methods, including customer satisfaction surveys, complaints, performance indicators, exit interviews for staff and young people, our ambassadors, the annual staff conference and staff supervision. Any data obtained through these methods that relate to equality, diversity and inclusion will be used to determine whether our practices are effective or whether action is necessary to address any identified shortfall.