John Copps, Mutual Ventures – The future of social care and cooperative principles
- September 2023
Rose Marley – Embedding diversity, equity and inclusion
- 16th Feb 2021
- Social Outcomes, Strategy
Rose Marley, CEO Co-operatives UK
When Rose Marley took up her position as the new CEO of Co-operatives UK on 4 January she hit the ground running inviting CUK Members to share their ideas and plans for cooperation to build a fairer more equitable future together!
In November Cooperatives UK outlined their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Six weeks into her new role, Rose talks about the actions taken so far, admitting that there is a long way to go – both to ‘put our own house in order’ to become a more inclusive employer and to help drive and encourage more diversity within the UK co-operative sector. As the trade body which represents our co-operative members we can listen, facilitate conversations and collate information to help guide a plan of action. Ultimately though we need to connect more effectively with the diverse communities that are already cooperating together to achieve a common goal. That is what a cooperative ultimately is and this ‘cooperation’ has been happening all over the UK throughout the pandemic in the most diverse of communities.
In addition, we also need to make it easier for people from diverse backgrounds to engage with the sector. The use of language, imagery, perceptions, sector profiles all contribute to people ‘ruling themselves out’ and thinking that’s not for me – even though at their heart they are committed to the values of cooperation, social responsibility and caring for others.
We need to connect more effectively with the diverse communities that are already cooperating together to achieve a common goal
– Rose Marley, CEO, Co-operatives UK
Actions taken so far across the co-operative sector
We commissioned a report on the potential for community shares to be recognised as Shariah compliant and supported a pilot project to support BAME-led co-operatives in Preston. As part of this pilot they’re creating translated resources to reach new audiences, working alongside local community leaders and our delivery partners Stir to Action.
We lead the Community Shares Booster and Empowering Places programmes, which focus on co-op development in areas of high deprivation, and the Ownership Hub which aims to create more worker co-ops and employee owned businesses, has tackling economic inequality baked into its design.
We’ve run online workshops to stimulate discussion around diversity, equity and inclusivity with our co-op members, staff and board and hosted our first inclusion forum with the large retail consumer co-operatives, who all share this commitment. Steve Murrells, the CEO of The Co-op was the first UK boss to speak out about the tragic death of George Floyd and many of our members have done the same. Further events are planned as part of our Co-op Connections networking events.
How diverse are co-ops?
We suspect the UK co-operative movement is more diverse than people think, but at the moment data on diversity is not collated or substantiated across our sector. The Co-op Economy survey, launched in early March seeks to address this and includes some questions on the data you held on diversity by UK co-ops.
Actions taken so far getting our own house in order
A commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) needs to run through the whole organisation and we’ve created a management indicator to measure whether our staff feel we provide an inclusive work environment where individual differences are valued and respected. We’ll be including DEI content in our annual report to share progress in this area with our members.
We are committing 10% of our learning and development budget in 2021 for diversity, equity and inclusion training and support. We will continue to improve our policies and practices to ensure we embody best practice.
We became a Living Wage employer and now display the Mindful Employer and Disability Confident logo on our website. Recognising that not everyone celebrates Christmas, we’ve changed our annual leave policy, so that taking the whole of Christmas week off is no longer mandatory.
We’ve added a diversity, equity and inclusion statement to our recruitment packs and we’ll continue to improve our recruitment practices so that we are attracting diverse talent.
If you have any ideas on how we can make a more diverse co-operative movement – do reach out to Rose and the team at Co-operatives UK.
Rose Marley
CEO, Co-operatives UK
@RoseMarley1
Co-operatives UK is the trade body for the UK co-operative sector.
