Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Ambition Statement

The Chilterns Conservation Board is committed to putting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the heart of our core values. In the AONB Management Plan, this includes ensuring that the Chilterns are protected for everyone and can provide a valuable resource for people’s enjoyment, health and wellbeing. The CCB’s Business Plan also includes a key priority to not only develop inclusion and diversity policies, but also to genuinely and actively champion Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, both internally and externally.

Our vision along with our statutory duty is to increase understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the Chilterns, where this is compatible with the conservation and enhancement of those special qualities. Integral to this is that our ways of working include diverse and representative groups of people in order to truly and fairly achieve this vision.

Our aspiration is that everyone should feel welcome, confident and safe to participate in activities in the Chilterns landscape, and that they feel genuinely included. We will strive to remove structural barriers to participation, both through the ways we recruit staff and influence Board member recruitment, and the means by which we engage with the public. For example, we assisted the Defra Public Appointments Team in its recent recruitment campaign, to encourage applications for board members from a very diverse range of people. See more examples of our work so far 

All staff and Board members at the Chilterns Conservation Board, as well as our partners and others who represent us, are responsible for taking concerted action to realise this ambition, across our places of work, through volunteering, and as part of the diverse ways that we engage and work with the public.

Equality: Equality, at its core, means fairness. Part of ensuring fairness is equality of opportunity.

• We strive to ensure that all individuals or groups of people are treated in a way that is right and reasonable and fair, regardless of their race, religion, socio-economic background, age, ability, sex, gender identity, sexuality or marital status. .

We strive to ensure that people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds have a fair chance to work for the Chilterns Conservation Board, and to be aware of Board member recruitment opportunities.

• or take part in our volunteering opportunities and public engagement activities.
• Equality does not mean that we must treat everyone in exactly the same way, but that we must treat everyone fairly. Recognising and actively seeking to form relationships with those who aren’t accessing our activities, and actively striving to provide for people’s different needs, is a part of achieving equality, where these needs form a barrier to fairness or might reduce equality of opportunity to enjoy the Chilterns or participate in our leadership, workforce or public engagement activities.

Diversity: Diversity is recognising, respecting and celebrating each other’s differences. A diverse environment is one that embraces and embeds people from a wide variety of backgrounds and mindsets, to create a more dynamic culture with diverse voices.

• We strive to attract a wide range of people to our staff team, our volunteering and public engagement programmes, festivals, events and other activities.
• We actively seek to find new ways to increase involvement of groups of people that we are currently not reaching for a variety of reasons.

Inclusion: Inclusion is creating an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued.

• We take positive action to enable different groups of people opportunities to access and benefit from the Chilterns landscapes and our engagement programmes when there are real or perceived barriers.
• We have policies and procedures to ensure that all staff, board members and partners working on our projects undertake training to tackle and manage unconscious biases and to better understand the needs of the particular communities that they are striving to include.

Equality, diversity and inclusion are linked concepts, and all need to be built and worked on at the same time.

*The Equality Act 2010 protected characteristics include:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin)
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation

The Equality Act 2010 requires us to have due regard to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Key objectives for 2022 – 2023

1. Develop and implement an EDI Ambition Statement and make this publicly available on our website.
2. Complete a detailed assessment of the current picture at Chilterns Conservation Board in relation to EDI within our engagement work with the public.
3. Create an Engagement Strategy and Action Plan with EDI at its heart.
4. Complete a review of our recruitment policies and procedures.
5. Actively seek to diversify our staff recruitment and support diverse Board recruitment.
6. Establish an Engagement and EDI Group of board and staff members to oversee this vision and strategy and the workplan.

Key objectives for 2023-2024

1. Secure funds for an Engagement & Partnerships Officer to move forward our Engagement Plan.
2. Plan and implement a programme of training for all staff and board members, including new recruits, to include:
   1. Specific, bespoke training for staff involved in public engagement.
   2. Training for all staff and Board members in our policies and core values.
   3. Inviting project partners and key volunteers to training sessions.
3. Identify and adopt an agreed shared language within our organisation to describe our approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
4. Draw on the expertise of others, including staff, volunteers, and members of our communities who have lived experience of barriers and enablers to improving inclusion.
5. Develop a joined-up plan for connecting with diverse communities across all our projects.
6. Maintain a welcoming website and social media presence showing how we welcome participation across diverse groups.
7. Involve the wider community in identifying ideas and plans for spending DEFRA’s Access funding for 2024/25 – through a ‘Widening the Welcome’ Chilterns-wide conference or event.
8. Embed the CCB’s EDI Ambition, policies, and practice in the next Chilterns AONB Management Plan and at the heart of our 2023-24 Business Plan.
9. Continue to explore opportunities for collaboration with academic institutions, for example working with the University of Bedfordshire to progress the research the CCB commissioned to understand the barriers and enablers to accessing green space and the countryside.
10. Support and share learning with the National Association of Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (NAAONB) and other AONBs. Collaborate with NAAONB to develop an arts commission exploring ways of engaging diverse communities with landscapes through art and words.