EDI Maturity Self-Assessment Tool

Who is this tool for?

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Tool will help leaders of homelessness organisations to improve equity, diversity and inclusion for staff, volunteers and people who access their services.

It may be more suited to medium to large organisations, i.e. those with an annual turnover of £1+ million, but small organisations can also benefit from using it.

Why is it relevant?

EDI is vital to developing and delivering effective homelessness services, and recruiting and retaining high-performing staff and volunteers.

The self-assessment tool and report it generates, enables organisations to learn about their EDI policies' and practices' maturity; benchmarking, monitoring progress and achieving best practice.

The tool was developed in response to demand from homelessness sector leaders for practical support in implementing EDI within their organisations. It is founded on established practices in driving EDI for different sectors and was developed through engagement with homelessness services.

What are the key takeaways?

The report you receive on completing the self-assessment will suggest next steps and signpost useful resources to help you further develop your EDI credentials.

The tool is not intended to reduce your organisation’s journey towards being equitable, diverse and inclusive to a single word judgement. The process of conducting the assessment will help you better understand EDI and identify your organisation’s strengths and areas for improvement.

Organisations should be looking to improve their EDI maturity in four key areas:

• Governance, strategy and leadership: to achieve sustained EDI progress, an organisation needs to ensure diversity of perspective and expertise; have a clear strategy with measurable and achievable goals; and effective leadership.
• Culture and voice: organisations should work towards a culture where the workforce and people accessing services feel safe, comfortable, valued and able to contribute. Leaders should understand the experiences of the full range of people involved in the service.
• Recruitment, management and progression: organisations should aim to connect to diverse talent pools and ensure inclusive routes into and through the organisation to achieve a diverse, high performing workforce.
• Data, monitoring and evaluation: analysing diversity data helps devise, implement, monitor and evaluate initiatives to address inequities in the workforce and in services.