Equity, diversity and inclusion

Our customers come from all walks of life. But one thing is always the same – everyone is valued and gets fair treatment.

A collage of five different images made up of five different groups of people of different backgrounds

Wheatley Homes South is committed to the principles of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) which is at the heart of the common values shared across Wheatley Group.

For us, this means:

  • equity  - people with different characteristics are treated fairly and have access to equal opportunities
  • diversity - respecting and valuing individual differences and unique characteristics, both in our organisation and in our communities
  • inclusion - making sure our employees and customers feel comfortable being themselves and that they feel valued, enabling them to feel a sense of belonging in our organisation and communities.

We don’t discriminate against anyone on the grounds of race, ethnic or national origin, language, religion, belief, age, gender, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family circumstances, employment status, physical ability or mental health, or any protected characteristic. We aim to achieve fair outcomes for all, threading an EDI approach through our decision-making and service design and delivery.

For more information on our approach to EDI, including how we do this, our statement of commitment, equality data collection and some recent EDI achievements, visit the Wheatley Group website here.

Annual Equality Report
 

This report includes details of information about customers we have collected, why we have done this and how we will use it.

Check out the data we have collected over the last year and what this has informed in our Annual Equalities Report in 2024.

Previous  reports

EDI Calendar
 

We held our first ever equality and diversity survey in 2022, which provided us with valuable insights into the make up of our staff and customers.

From this information we have created an EDI calendar, available to download below.

The calendar includes key religious, cultural and awareness dates throughout the year that we know are celebrated or acknowledged by our staff and customers, as well as information about our Different Together EDI campaign.

Different Together Calendar 2025

Written information 
 

You can get a copy of most documents in different languages, large print, in Braille and audio formats. Find out more at accessibility.

Telephone
 

We can arrange for someone to speak to you in your own language and offer help for people with hearing difficulties. Find out more at acccessibility.

Hate crime and harassment
 

You may feel you’re being picked on because you have a disability, mental health condition or because of your ethnic or national origin, or sexual orientation.

If you think you’re the victim of hate crime or harassment, get in touch. We treat all complaints of harassment very seriously.

If you prefer, you can make a complaint through a third-party support organisation. By signing a mandate, you can ask someone from that organisation to make a complaint on your behalf.

Zero tolerance on abuse, harassment and sexual harassment
 

As of 26 October 2024, the UK government has introduced key changes to sexual harassment legislation.

Wheatley Homes South, under the new duty must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers.  This new preventative duty is contained in the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023.  The preventative duty under this new legislation relates only to sexual harassment not other “protected characteristics” as this included in the Equality Act 2010.  It is an addition to the current protection from discrimination, harassment and victimisation contained within that Act.

Our Zero tolerance on abuse, harassment and sexual harassment

All of our customers have the right to be heard, understood and respected. Our staff also have these same rights.

As an organisation, we have a zero-tolerance approach for abuse, harassment and sexual harassment towards our staff.  The new duty also extends to the need to take steps to prevent sexual harassment by third parties.  Third parties may include clients, customers, service users, contractors and visitors to our workplaces.

We ask our staff to be polite, helpful and sensitive to your needs and circumstances.

We do not tolerate physical, verbal or written abuse, harassment or sexual harassment of our staff. Please treat them with respect.

Aggressive, violent, abusive and harassing behaviour of any nature will not be tolerated and may result in your services being restricted. In extreme cases, we may contact Police Scotland.

Unacceptable behaviour includes:

  • using bad language or swearing at our staff;
  • any physical violence towards any member of staff, such as pushing or shoving;
  • verbal abuse towards our staff in any form, including verbally insulting our staff;
  • racial abuse and sexual harassment;
  • abusing staff on our social media channels;
  • and verbally abusing our staff on telephone calls.

We have an Unacceptable Actions Policy