Diversity and inclusion

As England's largest provider of specialist housing and care for people in later life, Anchor ensures that dignity and respect are central to the way we work, and that the unique contributions of our colleagues and residents are valued and celebrated.

We aim to make diversity and inclusion an everyday reality for our residents and colleagues. We do this in a number of ways, including:

• Engaging with all individuals in an inclusive manner by ensuring diversity is part of our everyday language and ways of working
• We are constantly working to ensure that our resources and services are accessible and appropriate to each individual or group with which we work
• We are committed to listening and to consulting with different groups, and to learning from our past actions and experiences
• We strive to ensure our workforce reflects the communities in which we work to achieve a welcoming and empathetic environment
• Anchor aims to provide opportunities for all, where all colleagues are encouraged to develop their full potential
• We expect prospective and existing residents, contractors, consultants, colleagues and partners to respect our approach to diversity while working with us. One of our values is ‘Respect’, therefore we do not accept harassment or discrimination from any colleague, resident or third party.
• We are proud to have a range of active resident and colleague groups for those who have an interest and passion in diversity and inclusion. These include our Resident Inclusion Forum, as well as our Carers, enABLE, embRACE, Rainbow, and Inclusive Ambassador colleague networks for underrepresented groups and individuals within the organisation. These groups, along with the Diversity and Inclusion lead on the Resident Council, work closely with the Diversity and Inclusion Team at Anchor to celebrate diversity, address concerns, review policy and practice and act as allies to others.
• Anchor is a member of Inclusive Employers, a Stonewall Champion, a Disability Confident Employer, and a signatory to the Care Leaver Covenant among other accreditations.
• We contributed funding to the ‘No place like home’ research into the experiences of LGBT+ people living in social housing, which was commissioned by HouseProud. We are also an early adopter of the LGBTQ+ Housing Pledge scheme which was introduced as a result of this research.

As an organisation we also provide opportunities for colleagues and residents to mark, discuss and celebrate a whole host of national events, days and weeks throughout the year ensuring diversity and inclusion is part of our everyday conversations, and share news and information about this activity publicly to highlight this approach to new people considering joining us.