Diversity and inclusion

Our road network provides links to communities and businesses, and contributes to the UK’s national wellbeing and economic growth. We aim to ensure our services are fair and accessible to people.

We try to achieve this by:

• using better data and insight into customer needs through research and engagement
• targeting messages about how to use our roads safely to specific groups such as disabled or deaf people
• improved customer contact channels such as SMS text messages
• more accessible infrastructure such as changing places at motorway service areas
• providing information about the accessibility of the network
• making sure vulnerable road users have the right support if they break down on the network
• listening to and engaging with our customers and key stakeholders

We get information to help check our progress from:

• customer and community insight gathered when we consult about the equality implications of our schemes or services
• monitored telephone and email correspondence

• We’ll encourage more employees to share their diversity information with us to inform better decision-making and enable us to track our successes
• We’ll support our employee networks to grow and thrive
• We'll reduce the number of pay gaps between diverse groups of our people 
• We’ll embed inclusion throughout all HR policies, procedures and processes.
• We'll provide an inclusive working environment that enables all our employees to thrive and bring their whole selves to work 
• We’ll increase the diversity of our people, to better reflect the communities we work in.

We ask our supply chain to support our D&I ambitions by focusing on four priority performance areas:

• Attracting and recruiting a talented, capable, and diverse workforce that reflects the communities we work in
• Creating inclusive working culture, practices and environments that enable everyone to perform to their full potential
• Considering and valuing the diverse needs of customers and neighbouring communities at all stages of their work
• Developing wider supply chain capability around D&I

We encourage them to achieve these goals by:

• providing clear criteria in our pre-qualification, tender and performance monitoring processes
• offering learning sessions, webinars, and one-to-one sessions with our suppliers
• gathering D&I performance information through its Collaborative Performance Framework
• supporting and developing our supplier diversity forum
• collecting and benchmarking supplier workforce diversity data
• listening to and learning from a range of industry bodies as well as the supplier diversity forum

Supplier diversity forum

This is a voluntary group of supply chain representatives which has been running since 2007.

The forum’s vision is: "To work together to create a more inclusive and diverse industry, benefiting the highways customer and communities in which we operate".

It focuses on:

• improving inclusive behaviours – helping us to think about how our behaviour and interactions can impact on others
• sharing and adopting best practice – learning from peers
• creating catalysts – helping others on their inclusion journey

The forum is part of our Collaboration Board and influences the wider supply chain D&I practice.

Equality and diversity are key components of our decision-making processes. We undertake equality impact screening and assessments when we change or introduce new policies, practices, guidance or organise events.

Our internal decision-making processes ensure diversity considerations, potential impacts and opportunities to advance equality, diversity and inclusion are intrinsic to how we deliver schemes and services.

All recent equality impact screening and assessments are held with overseeing directorates so that they can be reviewed and updated during their lifecycle. This ensures EDI is considered on an ongoing basis by our projects and as such, are ‘living’ documents.