Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion annual report 2023/24

We are delighted to share our very first Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Annual Report highlighting our work, commitments, and achievements during 2023/24. 

Our EDI report summarises the impactful work and achievements we have made over the past year to reduce inequalities and promote diversity and inclusion within our organisation and the communities we serve, including:

• Ensuring our services are accessible and enhancing the support provided to our tenants and customers

• Working with our colleagues to create a more inclusive workplace culture

• Increasing the diversity of our boards

• Strengthening and supporting our EDI working group and employee networks

• Creating our EDI Impact Statement

• Measuring our progress and setting new goals.

Our Non-Executive Director and EDI Board Champion, Maggie Shannon, said: “Equality, diversity and inclusion are themes which run through Progress Housing Group, underpinning our services and shaping our ethos and approach.

“For us, EDI is not a tick-box exercise; it defines our organisational culture. All our decisions consider the effects on our people and in our communities who may be disadvantaged or under-represented, and we are committed to continuing this journey to build on the excellent work already undertaken at the Group and achieve our aims.”

Debbie Atherton, Executive Director (Governance, People and Communications), added: “This report demonstrates our commitment to promoting EDI and a culture that recognises that people from diverse backgrounds and experiences bring valuable insights to our organisation and enhance the way we work. The range of our activities - from how we provide services to our tenants, how our network groups respond to colleagues' needs, how we recruit, and how we work in partnership with external agencies, underpins our EDI approach. 

“Whilst we are proud of our successes as highlighted within this report, we know that achieving our EDI goals requires ongoing effort and dedication which is derived from embedding key principles throughout all aspects of our work. 

"We hope you enjoy reading our report, and we look forward to achieving our EDI ambitions in 2024/25.”

Our inclusive and accessible communications

Our EDI report 2023/24 has been produced in a format that meets established accessibility standards. This ensures that most people, including people whose vision, hearing, mobility, or cognition is impaired, are able to view, read, or interact with the report. 

The report supports assistive technology such as screen readers and text-to-speech programmes; it has also been produced in plain language and meets contrast requirements for digital and physical print. 

As our first fully accessibility-compliant PDF report, the process has helped to shape our approach going forward and has informed our accessibility standard for documents.  

We are also prioritising HTML (web page) over PDF where possible to improve the accessibility of our reports further and where possible, we also provide reports and some documents in other languages, audio, Easy Read, Braille and large print on request. 

You can read our EDI report here: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Annual Report 2023/24