Diversity and Inclusion at Tonic

APRIL 2022 UPDATE

Given the recent news cycle and developments within the Government concerning Trans inclusion, the ban on conversion therapy, and the cancellation of the first ever LGBT+ Conference, we feel we need to reaffirm some things. 

Firstly, we were proud to join over 100 other organisations last week in confirming that we would not support the Safe To Be Me conference. The LGBTQ+ community has fought for years against archaic, damaging laws that have impacted different parts of our community, so we understand the need to now step-up and vocally support the Trans community.

Secondly, and most importantly, at Tonic, we have always been, and always will be, Trans inclusive. That means every part of our business and offering. We are fiercely committed to ensure that all older LGBTQ+ people have somewhere to live their lives out, and reject transphobia in all its forms. Trans people deserve respect, care and equal treatment just like every other person in our society, be that in law, healthcare or housing, and we will continue our work to ensure that we can provide safe and affirming spaces for our community. There is no LGB without the T.

OCTOBER 2021 update

After our update last year, we carried out a full Governance review of our Board, followed by recruitment for the Board positions, which was carried out by an independent recruitment consultant. In October 2021, we shared news of the appointment of a new Chair and two new Board Members, you can read a full update of that here. We also updated our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy, which can be read in full here.

We are also pleased to share that earlier this summer, we joined the Housing Diversity Network, to further showcase our commitment to equity, diversion and inclusion. We look forward to continuing our engagement with HDN as we more forward into the next stage of our journey as an organisation.

August 2020 update

At Tonic, diversity and inclusion is ingrained into our everyday. Our aim to create LGBT+ affirmative retirement communities is built upon the need for inclusive communities for older LGBT+ people. From day one, we’ve been firm in our stance that we are a community-led organisation, which means not only are we here to represent our community, but we’re directed by the community we’ll be serving.

Community Panel

To do this effectively we set up our Community Panel in early 2018, which is made up of people interested in Tonic’s work, maybe looking to become future residents, are over 50+ and identify as LGBT+. We also created our Community Panel Terms of Reference, which set out both our targets and also limits for representation on the panel, to ensure a fair range of voices are heard and represented; including ethnicity, gender, age groups, disability and sexuality. The Community Panel reports and advises Tonic’s Board of Directors, meaning they play a large part in shaping our growth and direction. Although the identity of the panel is not currently shared publicly, we can share that three of the seven members are from Black and Ethnic minority backgrounds, and that these numbers will grow as the panel does.

Board of Directors

We believe in full transparency, and in order to gain the trust of the community we serve, that means having to ensure we have our own house in order. Our Board of Directors have recognised their own lack of diversity, and over the last few months, have committed to conducting a skills and diversity audit. This will allow us to better understand the needs of Tonic moving forward, and to ensure that we have the most diverse and effective Board in place to take us on that journey.

Recruitment

For our recent full-time appointments we used a recruitment agency, Badenoch and Clark, in order to make sure we were reaching a wide-a-pool of candidates as possible. At the time of taking on the agency, Tonic’s full-time staff consisted of only Anna Kear, our CEO. Badenoch and Clark put equality, diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their recruitment processes, and their approach is designed to ensure they reach as many diverse individuals as possible. As well as the standard practice of posting the job on well-known job sites, they also lead with a proactive approach, going directly to the market, encouraging individuals to make an application. This method reaches a wider pool of applicants, some of whom may not have felt empowered to do so otherwise. This can be due to lack of understanding of the organisation, belief that they don’t fit the job criteria, or not knowing about the role as they are not actively looking or receiving job alerts. Candidates are then long-listed, and short-listed, and we were pleased to see a range of gender identities and ethnicities across all candidate pools. Badenoch and Clark have shared with us that feedback is asked for throughout the entire recruitment process, and that they received a great response from all candidates.

What’s next?

Over the next few months, we are hoping to work more closely with the community, both individuals and other organisations (in line with Covid-19 requirements), and we’ll continue to put their voice at the very heart of what we do. As it currently stands, we do not have plans for any further full-time team recruitment, but should the time come, we will review our approach to ensure that we’re reaching as diverse an audience as possible. We will also hold ourselves accountable, and encourage open conversation about how we move forward as an organisation. That’s why we will regularly review this statement, and provide updates on developments with our board, community panel and staff, alongside updates on first Tonic development.

Do not hesitate to get in touch at info@tonichousing.org.uk