Our commitment to anti-racism

Progress so far

In recent years, we have been working hard to ensure that we become a more inclusive and diverse organisation in line with our fundamental principles, as well as our organisational values - Inclusive, Compassionate, Dynamic and Courageous. This includes developing and implementing our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.

We have invested time, leadership and funds in recognition of our commitment and have made some good progress, but there is more we need to do.

In July 2022, we held our second anti-racism survey, to help us understand the experiences and feelings of our volunteers and staff even better. We commissioned FLAIR - a company that supports organisations to tackle racism and promote greater inclusion in the workplace.

While FLAIR have scored the British Red Cross above their benchmarks in some areas, the results show we are not where we want to be. People are still experiencing racism at the British Red Cross and this is not acceptable.

The results also showed that 93% of all respondents said they would respond if they witnessed racial discrimination. We are pleased that so many of our people are committed to taking action against racism. 

In October 2023 our people survey told us that 76% of our staff would feel safe to report racist behaviour they experienced and 86% of our staff said if they witnessed racist behaviour, they would feel confident to report it.  

What we're doing right now

We want to be an actively anti-racist organisation, and we are already taking steps to make the British Red Cross a more inclusive place to work and volunteer. We’re focussing on building confidence and educating ourselves about the best ways to respond to what we see and report all forms of discrimination. 

We have a zero-tolerance approach to all discrimination. Our new dignity at work policy sets out standards of behaviours that are expected from all staff and volunteers and provides a clear framework to ensure that any complaints of discrimination, bullying and harassment are dealt with promptly and fairly.

We launched a microaggressions campaign to help our people understand what microaggressions are, the impact they have, how to recognise them and change their own behaviours as well as know how to respond if they witness or experience them.

We’re introducing mandatory anti-racism learning. This learning covers the minimum we need our people to know in order to be compliant with our commitments in our EDI procedure, and anti-racism goals and to provide a consistent foundational level of racial literacy so that together we can become a more anti-racist organisation. 

We’re recruiting and developing diverse talent and have increased the numbers of our staff members who identify as Black, Asian, mixed race and other ethnicities from 8% in 2017 to 14.6% in 2023 and 15.9% in 2024. Our equitable recruitment programme is reviewing our full recruitment journey and working to remove bias to ensure more people from minoritised ethnic groups can join the British Red Cross and develop their career with us. 

We’ve introduced our REACH leadership academy to support people into leadership roles and increase our ethnic diversity at leadership level. We know that diversity of thought and representation will bring benefits to all our people and those we support. 

We've launched an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion dashboard to provide data and insight and monitor our progress to address under representation and inclusion at all levels of the organisation. Our people survey helps us understand the experiences of minoritised ethnic groups.. We want everyone to feel comfortable to be themselves at work and fully participate in all we have to offer. 

Individual directorates are working on anti-racism action plans and equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives. The action plans are tailored to suit their unique operating context and the people we support. 

Our values underpin all our work: We have refreshed our values and placed renewed emphasis on the behaviours we expect from everyone in the British Red Cross. Dynamic, Courageous, Compassionate & Inclusive are at the heart of what we stand for. They are the foundation of our culture, behaviours and ways of working. 

We still have a long way to go and we will continue to work together. 

Our anti-racism work is focused on creating meaningful change throughout the whole of the British Red Cross. It is about making a sustainable, deep and long-term commitment to becoming a more inclusive and diverse organisation. 

Last updated 15 August 2024