Policies

Diversity Equality and Inclusion Policy

1. Statement of Intent

Portsmouth Primary SCITT is committed to equal opportunities for staff, trainees and prospective trainees in its admissions, in all aspects of teaching and assessment and in its provision of trainee services.

Portsmouth Primary SCITT will provide training, advice and guidance in key areas. This is confidential and bespoke – designed to meet the needs of individual trainees in order to promote equality of opportunity and provide the platform to enable them to reach their full potential as both trainees and graduates.

In line with The Equality Act 2010, Portsmouth Primary SCITT recognises that the relevant ‘protected characteristics’ are: • age • disability • gender reassignment • marriage or civil partnership • pregnancy and maternity • race (including ethnicity) • religion or belief • sex • sexual orientation

2. The Legal Framework
   2.1 Legislation designed to eliminate unfair discrimination and promote equality of opportunity is in place:

• The Equality Act (2010)
• The Sex Discrimination Act (1975)
• The Race Relations Act 1976
• The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000
• The Disability discrimination Act (1995)
• The Protection from Harassment Act (1997)
• The Sex Discrimination (Gender reassignment) Regulations 1999

3. What is unacceptable practice?
   3.1 Four types of action come under the general heading of unacceptable practice:

– Direct discrimination – which is treating a person less favourably than others.
– Indirect discrimination – which occurs when conditions, although applied equally, operate to the detriment of people from a particular group e.g. rules about clothing, which cannot be justified, and result in a group being proportionately disadvantaged.
– Victimisation – this is the taking of action against people who give information, give evidence or bring proceedings in cases of alleged discrimination.
– Harassment – which is the use of threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour or language thus causing people to feel threatened or intimidated.

4. Who has responsibility?
   4.1 All staff and students have a responsibility for their own actions to ensure that neither by commission or omission do their actions infringe policy.
   4.2 The SCITT Lead has a particular role in promoting equal opportunities.
   4.3 The SCITT Lead is responsible for the collection of sufficient and appropriate information to monitor and evaluate progress in implementing equal opportunities.
5. Admissions and Recruitment
   5.1 Portsmouth Primary SCITT ensures that admissions procedures are clear and consistently applied with a concern for prospective trainees’ abilities and potential to gain from higher education.

5.2 The SCITT Lead is responsible for ensuring that staff CPD is regularly updated and remains high priority in order to ensure that we do not, either consciously or unconsciously, show any actual or perceived bias towards or against any identified group or characteristic.

* Refer to the Policy for Recruitment and Selection of Trainees.

6. Student Placements
   6.1 Portsmouth Primary SCITT actively pursues its commitment to equality and seeks assurance that trainees undertaking placements as part of their study programme will be treated fairly and equitably by host organisations.

6.2 Portsmouth SCITT work alongside our mentors to ensure a firm understanding of the protected characteristics and how these relate to the trainees in their classrooms. We include CPD on these characteristics in our training for mentors.

* Refer to Partnership agreement.

7. Training for Students

7.1 Trainees receive specific training in the Taught Element of the programme (from relevant experts) on the following protected characteristics: gender reassignment, disability, race, marriage or civil partnerships, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

7.2 In order to ensure there are clear links between the taught element and school-based placements, trainees have a DE&I experience list (including the 4 areas of SEN need from the Code of Practice 2015) which Link Tutors discuss with them during pitstop meetings on each placement.

8. Leadership and Management
   8.1 The SCITT Management Consortium Group is responsible for:

• Ensuring the policy is working in practice
• Monitoring the success of the policy
• Identifying and remedying any failures of the policy

• The SCITT Executive Committee is responsible for:

• The day-to-day implementation of the policy
• Reporting any failures to the SCITT Management Consortium Group

8.3 Procedures
Stage 1

1. Any accusation of failure of the policy shall be raised with the SCITT Lead.
   2. The complainant will be invited to discuss the complaint with the SCITT Lead and a member of the SCITT Executive Committee. The complainant will be required to submit a written version of the complaint at this meeting.
   3. If after discussion the staff, consider that there is insufficient evidence the process should then be terminated.

Stage 2

1. If the matter is referred to this stage of the process a meeting of three members of the SCITT Quality Assurance Risk Committee will be convened. All members of this panel should be independent of the enquiry to date.
   2. The panel should interview:

The complainant.

Any relevant members of the partnership

3. The panel must decide whether there is evidence of discrimination and any further action to be taken. The panel will use its discretion in the light of the seriousness of the offence to decide on the consequences.

9 Publishing Policy
9.1 This policy will be available to all Partnership schools and copies given to trainees.

Wellbeing Policy

At Portsmouth SCITT, wellbeing is a golden thread which runs throughout our course. This starts from the recruitment stages and is a constant conversation with consistent tracking to ensure the positive mental health of our trainees. We believe that a strong focus on wellbeing is important in order to prepare trainees for the rigour and realities of the classroom.

How we support wellbeing:

• *Interview questions are designed to check on potential trainee’s resilience around workload and current strategies for managing their own wellbeing.
• Fitness to Teach check designed to ensure that any adjustments can be made where necessary to support both physical and mental wellbeing.
• We store a confidential data base with any wellbeing concerns or issues a trainee may share with us. These are shared on a need-to-know basis with other professionals in order to support the trainee.
• Trainee reps assigned and meet with SCITT team on half-termly basis to feedback from trainees. This ensures their voice is listened to and valued. Minutes from these meetings are provided to all trainees once agreed by reps.
• Leaflet produced with services to support with cost of living and University Hardship fund signposted to all trainees. Additional support and guidance provided to trainees around financial wellbeing on a individual basis.
• Wellbeing is an ongoing conversation within both the school-based and taught-element of our course.
• Explicit session delivered on Resilience and Wellbeing in Autumn term during taught element.
• Mentors check in weekly with trainee wellbeing. They also have more regular and more informal check-ins with trainees.
• Link tutors complete a wellbeing check with trainees at all 3 meetings during school-based placements and also regular catch up with trainees through the use of Teams.
• Pedagogy Journals give an insight into trainee mental health and wellbeing and are monitored on a weekly basis by course co-ordinator. A specific section on is provided each week on the Pedagogy Journals for trainees to comment on wellbeing and/or workload.
• SCITT Lead is trained in Supervision:

–              A weekly group supervision open-session is offered by the SCITT Lead. Trainees can ‘drop-in’ to this session on a needs basis. If SCITT Lead feels it necessary, an individual session is also offered following this. – Every trainee has the offer of an individual formal supervision meeting where they feel it is needed.

• The SCITT Lead is also available once a week for a drop-in Supervision session with mentors if they would like to discuss anything around their own wellbeing whilst supporting trainees.
• Wellbeing suggestions for both home and school are added to the weekly training plans every term.
• Our SCITT Course Co-ordinator is trained in Mental Health First Aid. She has a list of trainees with pastoral or emotional needs who she regularly checks in with and provides support where needed.
• We observe World Mental Health day on an annual basis with our trainees in the centre.
• Our half-termly newsletter to schools has a focused section on wellbeing with suggested tips and support signposted.
• Our mentor/trainee weekly meeting sheet also includes a wellbeing tracker which mentors can highlight in order to monitor the self-help strategies which a trainee is developing.

Planned next steps:

• Trainees are provided with training in Mental Health First Aid
• Our website a page dedicated to wellbeing and encouraging good mental health to be updated.
• Ensure our trainees have all relevant support through the lens of DE&I.