Equal Opportunity

Policy Statement

In fulfilling its objectives, The Martlets Hospice actively seeks to achieve equality of opportunity and fair treatment for all persons.

The Hospice recognises that certain groups and individuals in society may be disadvantaged because of the discrimination they experience as a result of their race, colour, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, disability, health status, sexuality, age, political or religious belief. There is both direct and indirect discrimination and this takes place at both a personal and organisational level.

The Hospice is committed to the adoption of positive policies and practices to combat all direct and indirect discrimination and to ensure full compliance with the terms of the Race Relations Act, The Race Relations Code of Practice, The Disability Discrimination Act and the Age and Sex Discrimination Act.

The implementation and promotion of this Policy is the responsibility of the Hospice’s Board and of all members of staff and volunteers. The Hospice also expects the co-operation of its service users.

Application of Equal Opportunities to Recruitment and Promotion Procedures

• The Hospice will ensure that Job Descriptions and person specifications for each vacant post will be either newly drawn up or have been subject to review in order to eliminate references to non-essential experience or qualifications, which might directly or indirectly, discriminate against some applicants.
• Job Advertisements will mention that the Martlets Hospice is an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from any under-represented groups.
•  Job Advertisements will be displayed and promoted both internally and externally and be visible to all workers, by use of the Hospice Notice Boards and Intranet.
• Hospice Job Application packs will include a copy of the equal opportunities policy, job description and person specification, available on request in large print or on computer floppy disc.
• The Hospice will ensure accessible to disabled candidates in order to enable their attendance at interview.
• The timing of interviews will be as flexible as possible, in order to accommodate candidates with family commitments.
• Interviewers will conduct interviews with individuals on the basis of an interview matrix, developed from the new or reviewed Job Description and person specification.
• Selection will be made on the basis of a scoring system based on the interview matrix and will be judged in respect of the candidate’s relative merits and abilities in relation to the competencies and behavioural criteria identified.
• No Hospice worker who excels in his/her current position will be blocked from making applications for departmental moves or promotion.
• The age, gender, sexual orientation, disability status, colour, race, religion, nationality, ethnic or national background of the candidates will be monitored by the use of a questionnaire sent out with the application pack, in order to enable the Hospice after selection to determine the types of applicants for a particular post and those who were short listed so that future advertising may be adjusted to avoid discrimination.