Author: Rossi

VALUING DIVERSITY AND PROMOTING EQUALITY

February 2023

Policy Date: February 2023 / Policy Review Date: February 2024	This policy was reviewed and adopted by the Committee of Our Lady’s Pre-school. / Chair Signatory: _______________________

This policy runs alongside the SEN Policy
This policy is in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage 2021
Legislation Links: Child Act 1989 & 2004, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015, Equality Act 2010, Race Relations Act 1976, 2000, Sex Discrimination Act 1997,1986, Child Care Act 2006, SEND Act 2001, Education Act 1996, Equal Pay Act 1970, Disability & Discrimination Act 2005
This is a Statutory Policy
Policy Statement
We will ensure that our service is fully inclusive in meeting the needs of all children. We recognise that children and their families come from diverse backgrounds. All families have needs and values that arise from their social and economic, ethnic and cultural or religious backgrounds. Some children have needs that arise from disability or impairment, or may have parents that are affected by disability or impairment. Our setting is committed to anti-discriminatory practice to promote equality of opportunity and valuing diversity for all children and families. We aim to:
Provide a secure and accessible environment in which all our children can flourish and in which all contributions are considered and valued;
Include and value the contribution of all families to our understanding of equality and diversity;
Provide positive non-stereotyping information about gender roles, diverse ethnic and cultural groups and disabled people;
Improve our knowledge and understanding of issues of anti-discriminatory practice, promoting equality and valuing diversity;
Challenge and eliminate discriminatory actions;
Make inclusion a thread that runs through all of the activities of the setting;
Foster good relations between all communities.

Procedures
Admissions
Our setting is open to all members of the community
We base our admission policy on a fair system.
We ensure that all parents are made aware of our equal opportunities policy.
We do not discriminate against a child or their family, or prevent entry to our setting on the basis of a protected characteristic as defined by the Equalities Act (2010). These are: disability; race; gender reassignment; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation; age; pregnancy and maternity, and marriage and civil partnership
We do not discriminate against a child with a disability or refuse a child entry to our setting for reasons relating to disability.
We develop an action plan to ensure that people with disabilities can participate successfully in the services offered by the setting and in the curriculum offered.
We take action against any discriminatory behaviour by staff or parents whether by:
Direct discrimination – someone is treated less favourably because of protected characteristics e.g. preventing families of some racial groups from using the service;
Indirect discrimination – someone is affected unfavourably by a general policy e.g. children must only speak English in the setting;
Association – discriminating against someone who is associated with a person with a protected characteristic e.g. behaving unfavourably to someone who is married to a person from a different cultural background; or
Perception – discrimination on the basis that it is thought someone has a protected characteristic e.g. making assumptions about someone’s sexual orientation because of their mannerism or how they speak.
Displaying of openly discriminatory and possibly offensive materials, name calling, or threatening behaviour are unacceptable on or around the premises and will be dealt with in the strongest
manner.
Employment
Posts are advertised and all applicants are judged against explicit and fair criteria.
Applicants are welcome from all backgrounds and posts are open to all.
We may use the exemption clauses in relevant legislation to enable the service to best meet the needs of the community. The applicant who best meets the criteria is offered the post, subject to references and checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service. This ensures fairness in the selection
process.

All job descriptions include a commitment to promoting equality and recognising and respecting diversity as part of their specifications.
We monitor our application process to ensure that it is fair and accessible.
Training
We seek our training opportunities for staff and volunteers to enable them to develop anti-discriminatory and inclusive practices, which enable all children to flourish.
We ensure that staff are confident and fully trained in administering relevant medicines and performing invasive care procedures when these are required.
We review our practices to ensure that we are fully implementing our policy for promoting equality, valuing diversity and inclusion.
Curriculum
The curriculum offered in the setting encourages children to develop positive attitudes about themselves as well as to people who are different from themselves. It encourages children to emphasise with others and to begin to develop the skills of critical thinking.
Our environment is as accessible as possible for all visitors and service users. If access to the setting is found to treat disabled children or adults less favourably then we make reasonable adjustments to accommodate the needs of disabled children and adults. We do this by:
Making children feel valued and good about themselves and others;
Ensuring that children have equality of access to learning;
Undertaking an access audit to establish if the setting is accessible to all children;
Making adjustments to the environment and resources to accommodate a wide range of learning, physical and sensory impairments;
Making appropriate provision within the curriculum to ensure each child receives the widest possible opportunity to develop their skills and abilities. E.g. recognising the different learning styles of girls and boys;
Positively reflecting the widest possible range of commities in the choice of resources;
Avoiding stereotypes or derogatory images in the selection of books or other visual materials;
Celebrating a wide range of festivals;
Creating an environment of mutual respect and tolerance;
Differentiating the curriculum to meet children’s special educational needs;
Helping children to understand that discriminatory behaviour and remarks are hurtful and unacceptable;
Ensuring that the curriculum offered is inclusive of children with special educational needs and children with disabilities;
.

Ensuring that children learning English as an additional language have full access to the curriculum and are supported in their learning;
Ensuring that children speaking languages other than English are supported in the maintenance and development of their home languages.
Valuing diversity in families
We welcome the diversity of family lifestyles and work with all families.
We encourage children to contribute stories of their everyday life to the setting.
We encourage mothers, father and other carers to take part in the life of the setting and to contribute fully.
For families who speak languages in addition to English, we will develop means to ensure their full inclusion.
We offer a flexible payment system for families of differing means.
Food
We work in partnership with parents to ensure that the medical, cultural and dietary needs of children are met.
We help children to learn about a range of food, and of cultural approaches to mealtimes and eating, and to respect the differences among them.
Monitoring and reviewing
To ensure our policies and procedures remain effective, we will monitor and review them regularly to ensure our strategies meet the overall aims to promote equality, inclusion and value diversity.
We provide a complaints procedure and a complaints summary record for parents to see.
Useful Links/Documents
www.unicef.org
Www.kelsi.gov.uk

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