Every child deserves to be recognised and celebrated for who they are. Through building the foundations of equality, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the fostering community, we can better support all children and young people in foster care to have the opportunities they deserve.
What do we understand by equality, equity, diversity and inclusion?
Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion are distinct concepts, but it is important to consider them together.
- Equality is about giving everyone an equal chance to take part and be successful.
- Equity is about acknowledging that not everyone starts from the same place in society, so some people need additional resources to make things fair.
- Diversity is about recognising and celebrating differences between people, and placing value upon these differences.
- Inclusion is about making sure everyone is involved, by removing barriers that prevent equality and undervalue diversity.
What is intersectionality?
Intersectionality is a term used to help understand how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage, which can include class, gender, race, sexuality, age, religion and belief. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing.
About equality, equity, diversity and inclusion in foster care
The fostering community is made up of a diverse range of individuals from a range of different backgrounds, all with different experiences and identities. Treating everyone fairly and valuing their identity enriches the way we live our lives and influences the way we treat and support each other. It directly impacts on the experiences and welfare of all children and young people who need to be recognised and celebrated for who they are.
Legislation in the UK (including the Equality Act 2010, see also the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone with protected characteristics. These include age, gender reassignment, disability, religion, sex or sexual orientation and ethnic or national origin.
Country-specific children's and fostering legislation, regulations, guidance and standards also outline important principles and values in relation to equality, equity, diversity and inclusion. These underpin the need to promote a child’s identity, as well as safeguard and promote their welfare and wellbeing. It is essential for the team around the child, including foster carers, social workers and others, to understand anti-discriminatory practice and how experiences of discrimination can be complex and compounded by intersectionality.
Inclusion and The Fostering Network
The Fostering Network, like many organisations, is working to better understand and support the development of anti-discriminatory practice both within our own organisation and in the wider fostering community.
We are keen to work with our members on this journey and are developing awareness and new resources. Get in touch with us at [email protected].
Making Practical changes towards inclusive practice
As well as understanding the importance of equality, equity, diversity and inclusion, there are practical steps you can take to embed inclusive practice in your fostering service. You might want to consider:
- What does your organisation look like?
Do you have the right people in your fostering service to represent, support and inspire a diverse range of children and young people? Make sure that your recruitment and progression policies are designed to attract, retain and reward people with different experiences and perspectives.
- Who makes the decisions?
Does your fostering service have a range of voices feeding into the organisational decision making? Take proactive steps to ensure that your existing policies and procedures are explicitly anti-discriminatory by setting up a working group for diversity, equality, equity and inclusion. Under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, public authorities have a statutory duty to promote race equality.
- Do you have conversations about discrimination?
Do you recognise that not everyone’s values, beliefs and experiences are the same, or shared. Think about how you can stimulate conversations about discrimination and how people feel about and respond to it. This may be uncomfortable, but being aware of the impact of discrimination, and understanding where it comes from, is an important part of making lasting change.
- What are you saying about inclusion, and to who?
Does your fostering service use words and phrases that accurately represent a range of different people? Think about what resources, tools or training you can offer to help people in your fostering service talk to each other, and to children and young people, about issues of discrimination.
- What support is in place?
Does your fostering service offer specific staff, foster carer and/or young people’s support groups for those who have or are experiencing discrimination? Are there opportunities to discuss and reflect on issues of discrimination, for example in supervision?
Does your fostering service encourage everyone in your fostering service to think about their responsibilities, as part of the fostering community, to champion inclusion and challenge discrimination in all its forms. What support or training opportunities are in place, or could be introduced, to help everyone to do this?
- What does sustainable change look like?
Listen to and learn from others – in your organisation, in the wider fostering community, and in society as a whole – to make sure that your fostering service and community is being proactively inclusive, rather than just ‘ticking a box’.
How The Fostering Network can help
- Our advice lines - provide confidential, independent and impartial advice for foster carers and fostering service staff in the UK.
- Practice support - The Fostering Network offer practice support to our member fostering services across the UK.
- Learning and development - drawing on expertise across a range of fostering topics, our training and consultancy team can work with you to provide a range of products including in-house training, open courses and a suite of consultancy. Contact training and consultancy to find out more.