Policy templates / Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy
Charity Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy Template (Free, UK)
Highlighted parts are yours to complete. A starting point to adapt, not legal advice.
1. Purpose and scope
[your charity] is committed to treating everyone fairly. This policy explains how we prevent discrimination and make sure people are included, whoever they are and whatever their background.
It applies to everyone connected with our work: trustees, employees, volunteers, members, people who use our services, job and volunteer applicants, and the contractors and partners we work with.
2. Our commitment
We believe everyone has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. We will not tolerate discrimination, bullying or harassment of any kind.
We aim to make sure that:
- no one is treated less favourably because of who they are;
- our services are open and accessible to the people we exist to help;
- staff and volunteers can take part fully and safely; and
- concerns are taken seriously and dealt with fairly.
3. The protected characteristics
The Equality Act 2010 protects nine "protected characteristics".2 We will not discriminate against anyone because of:
- age
- disability
- gender reassignment
- marriage and civil partnership
- pregnancy and maternity
- race (including colour, nationality and ethnic origin)
- religion or belief
- sex
- sexual orientation
We also treat people fairly regardless of things the law does not list, such as caring responsibilities or socio-economic background.
The law does allow some exceptions to this general promise. See clause 7.
4. What we will not do
The law recognises four kinds of unlawful behaviour, and we will not allow any of them:1
- Direct discrimination: treating someone worse because of a protected characteristic.
- Indirect discrimination: a rule or way of doing things that looks neutral but puts a group at a disadvantage, without a good reason.
- Harassment: unwanted behaviour that violates someone's dignity, or creates a hostile, humiliating or offensive environment.
- Victimisation: treating someone badly because they have raised a concern about discrimination, or supported someone who has.
5. Reasonable adjustments for disabled people
We will make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people are not put at a disadvantage, both as an employer and when people use our services.1 This might mean changing how we do something, providing equipment or support, or giving information in a different format.
We do not wait to be asked. Before an interview, meeting or event we ask everyone whether they need any adjustments.
If you need an adjustment to work or volunteer with us, or to use our services, tell [name or role, for example your manager or the chair] and we will talk through what we can do.
6. Fair recruitment and involving people
We recruit staff, appoint trustees and involve volunteers on the basis of what the role needs and what a person can offer. We will:
- advertise roles openly rather than filling them by word of mouth, and ask every candidate the same questions against the same criteria;
- base decisions on skills, experience and suitability, not on protected characteristics, unless the law allows an exception (see clause 7);
- make application and interview processes accessible, and offer adjustments; and
- welcome applications from people who are under-represented in our team.
7. When the law allows an exception
In limited cases the Equality Act 2010 lets a charity focus a role or a service on people who share a particular protected characteristic, where that is a proportionate way to meet a legitimate aim. For example:
- a genuine occupational requirement, such as a women's refuge employing only women support workers, or a role that genuinely requires a particular religion or belief;
- a single-sex or separate service, where the law allows it; and
- limiting help to the group we exist to serve, where our governing document defines that group.
We can also take positive action to support people from a group that is under-represented or disadvantaged. This is allowed under sections 158 and 159 of the Act.3
If you think an exception applies to a role or service, check the position before you rely on it. This template is a starting point, not legal advice.
8. Raising a concern
If you experience or witness discrimination, harassment or unfair treatment, please raise it.
- People who use our services should follow our complaints policy.
- A member of staff who wants to raise a personal grievance should use our employment grievance procedure. That procedure sits with our HR and employment policies, outside this set of governance policies.
- Volunteers do not have a formal grievance procedure. A volunteer with a concern should raise it with [name or role], who will deal with it fairly and promptly.
We will look into concerns promptly and fairly, and we will not treat anyone badly for raising one in good faith.
9. Responsibility and review
The trustees are responsible for this policy and for making sure [your charity] meets its duties under the Equality Act 2010. Day-to-day responsibility sits with [name or role].
We adopted this policy on [date] and will review it at least every two years, or sooner if the law or our circumstances change.
More about this policy
When you need it
The Equality Act 2010[1] applies to every charity as an employer and as a provider of services or goods. You must not discriminate against, harass or victimise people because of a protected characteristic, and you must make reasonable adjustments[1] for disabled people. Those are legal duties whatever your size or income.
Having a written EDI policy is not itself a legal requirement, but it is the clearest way to show you understand and meet those duties, and it is expected under the Charity Governance Code (Principle 6). Any charity with staff, volunteers, members or public-facing services should have one.
One thing that is not a general duty: the public sector equality duty[4] applies only if your charity carries out public functions on behalf of a public body. Most charities are not caught by it, so do not copy council or NHS wording assuming you are.
This template is a starting point, not legal advice. Adapt it to your charity, and if you are unsure how the law applies to a particular role or service, take advice.
What it protects against5 examples
A disabled applicant or volunteer can't take part because no one arranged access. A wheelchair user applies, the interview room is up a flight of stairs with no lift, and they quietly withdraw. Or a volunteer with dyslexia is handed a wall of text and never asked what would help.
The reader asks everyone, before an interview, meeting or event, what adjustments they need, and arranges them. Reasonable adjustments are treated as a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010, not a favour.
A volunteer or staff member makes racist or homophobic 'jokes', or keeps touching a colleague who has asked them to stop. People shrug it off because 'that's just how they are' or they don't want to lose a hard-to-replace volunteer.
The reader knows harassment and bullying based on a protected characteristic is never acceptable, knows who to report it to, and knows the charity will act rather than protect the person because they are useful.
Every new trustee or staff member is a friend of an existing one. Roles are never advertised, so the team stays the same kind of people year after year and quietly shuts out anyone outside that circle.
The reader advertises roles openly, uses the same questions and criteria for every candidate, and can show how the decision was made on merit.
A beneficiary is treated worse because of a protected characteristic. Someone with a learning disability, or who speaks little English, gets rushed, talked over, or turned away, while others get proper time and support.
The reader gives every beneficiary the same standard of service, adapts how they communicate to the person in front of them, and treats worse treatment of a service user as a complaint to act on.
A normal practice quietly excludes a group without anyone meaning it to. All meetings are at 7pm, which shuts out parents and carers. A form only offers 'Mr/Mrs'. The office is only reachable up steps.
The reader spots when a 'standard' way of doing things puts one group at a disadvantage (indirect discrimination) and changes it, rather than assuming no complaints means no problem.
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How to enforce it
Practical steps to make it live, not just filed:
- Name one trustee as the lead for equality and inclusion. They bring it to the board once a year: any complaints, any patterns, anything to change. Put it on the agenda so it does not get forgotten.
- Give people a clear way to raise a problem and a named person to raise it with, including a route that skips their line manager if the manager is the issue. Log every complaint and what was done, even the minor ones.
- Ask about access needs up front. Put one line on application forms, event invites and meeting agendas: 'Tell us what adjustments would help you take part.' Then actually arrange them.
- Advertise every trustee, staff and regular volunteer role somewhere open, and ask the same questions of everyone. Keep a short note of why each person was or was not appointed.
- Collect basic, anonymous diversity monitoring (age, sex, ethnicity, disability) for trustees, staff and, where you can, the people you serve. You cannot fix a gap you cannot see, and it shows whether the policy is working or just filed.
What larger charities add9
Pull one in only when it matches something you actually do:
- Equalities monitoring Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Training and awareness Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Our EDI action plan Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Accessible and inclusive communication Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Diversity of our board and leadership Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Suppliers, partners and grant recipients Mid-size (£1m to £10m)+
- Gender pay gap reporting Large (£10m+)+
- EDI governance, reporting and accountability Large (£10m+)+
- Public sector equality duty (only if it applies to you) Large (£10m+)+
What people get wrong
- Adopting a large charity's 20-page EDI strategy, with staff networks, external accreditations and data dashboards, that a small team could never actually run.. A two-page policy built from the "small" clauses (1 to 9) already meets the Equality Act 2010 duty. Add the mid and large sections only when you have the people to deliver them.
- Writing a warm values statement but leaving out the parts that carry the legal duty: the four kinds of unlawful conduct, reasonable adjustments for disabled people, and a clear way to raise a concern.. Keep every "small" clause. Those are the ones that make the policy do its legal job, not just state good intentions. A statement of commitment on its own is not enough.
- Copying council, NHS or other public-sector wording, including the "public sector equality duty", when your charity is not a public body.. The public sector equality duty only applies where you carry out public functions for a public body. Delete section 18 unless it genuinely applies to you.
- Listing only some of the protected characteristics, commonly dropping gender reassignment or marriage and civil partnership.. Name all nine from the Equality Act 2010, or refer to the protected characteristics as a whole so none is left out.
- Signposting a staff grievance to a procedure that does not exist, so a complaint of discrimination falls into a gap between policies.. Say plainly where each route sits: services complaints in your complaints policy, staff grievances in your HR/employment grievance procedure, and volunteers to a named person. Do not point at a document you have not written.
Terms used here4
- reasonable adjustments
- Changes an organisation must make so a disabled person is not put at a disadvantage.
- public sector equality duty
- An extra Equality Act duty that applies only to bodies carrying out public functions, which most charities are not.
- protected characteristics
- The nine grounds the Equality Act protects, such as age, disability, race, sex and religion or belief.
- positive action
- Steps the Equality Act allows to support a group that is under-represented or disadvantaged.
Sources10
Numbered to match the [n] citations in the template.
- Equality Act 2010 (full text, contents) legal duty
- Equality Act 2010, section 4: the protected characteristics legal duty
- Equality Act 2010, sections 158 and 159: positive action legal duty
- Equality Act 2010, section 149: the public sector equality duty legal duty
- Gender pay gap reporting service (gov.uk) legal duty
- EHRC: guidance for business and employers on the Equality Act Commission guidance
- Acas: improving equality, diversity and inclusion at work Commission guidance
- Acas: equality, diversity and inclusion policy template good practice
- Charity Governance Code, Principle 6: Equality, diversity and inclusion good practice
- Charity Commission: 5-minute guides for charity trustees (incl. EDI) Commission guidance