Putting people first: Equality and Diversity Matters 2 - Think Local Act ...

34 Putting people first – equality and diversity matters 2Tackling race discrimination – goodpractice pointersPrevent discrimination by addressing theorganisational culture and staff attitudes.Set clear standards on acceptable staffbehaviour, communicate these to staff andmonitor practice.Encourage people using services to report theirexperiences through both formal and informalmethods, for example by enabling people to feelconfident to approach the manager.Ensure staff are aware why black and minorityethnic people using the service may notreport complaints and work with individualsto increase trust, their expectations of servicequality and to share concerns.Ensure service user guides make clear theorganisation’s expectations of both staff andpeople using services, around all equality anddiversity issues.Ensure policies on complaints, harassmentand discrimination are available to everyoneusing the service in an accessible formatand that these specifically mention racialharassment and discrimination, confidentialityand non-victimisation and the availability ofindependent advocacy.Always check whether a report ofdiscrimination should be dealt with as asafeguarding issue or requires disciplinaryaction to be taken.Be clear if there are limits on confidentiality, forexample if a complaint is a safeguarding issue,and keep people informed about the progressof their complaint, as far as possible.Intentional racism, or other intentionaldiscrimination, from staff should be considereda serious disciplinary matter and included inthe disciplinary policy.Ensure staff are familiar with whistle-blowingprocedures and raise the profile of using theseprocedures when staff witness discrimination.Monitor the types of complaints received andactions taken, to see whether these indicatethe need to change any services.Consider a programme of work with peopleusing the service to look at prejudice anddiscrimination.