Equal Opportunities Policy

1. Our commitment

Photo 51 CIC is committed to equal opportunities for all. We believe that diversity strengthens our work and that everyone, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. These are the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, and our commitment extends beyond legal compliance to genuine inclusive practice.

This policy covers all aspects of our work: recruitment and engagement of staff, volunteers and sessional workers, programme design and delivery, partnerships, and the communities we serve.

2. Our approach to inclusion

We actively work to remove barriers to participation. In practice, this means:

• Designing activities that are accessible to young people with SEND, including autism, ADHD and learning differences, built into programme design rather than added afterwards
• Welcoming newly arrived young people, including refugees and asylum seekers, with culturally responsive practice
• Providing specialist provision for girls, women, and those impacted by adverse childhood experiences
• Offering single-sex provision where it enables participation and open engagement, as permitted under the Equality Act 2010
• Ensuring our materials and language are accessible and inclusive
• Never making assumptions about a participant’s ability, background or identity
• Reflecting the communities we serve in our team, our partners and the stories we platform

3. Responsibilities

All staff, volunteers and sessional workers are responsible for:

• Upholding this policy in all their work with Photo 51 CIC
• Challenging discriminatory behaviour, language or attitudes wherever they arise, including from participants
• Reporting any concerns about discrimination to the partners

The partners are responsible for ensuring this policy is implemented, reviewed and communicated to everyone working on behalf of Photo 51 CIC, and for considering equality impact when designing programmes.

4. Complaints

Any participant, family member, staff member, volunteer or partner who believes they have been treated unfairly or discriminated against should raise this with the Photo 51 CIC partners at info@photo51.org.uk. All complaints are taken seriously, investigated promptly and handled confidentially. Where a complaint concerns one of the partners, it is handled by the other two.

5. Policy review

This policy is reviewed annually and updated as needed to reflect changes in legislation or organisational practice.