Our public sector equality duty objectives

We've set progressive and challenging public sector equality duty ambitions and objectives that follow the 2020-2025 timeline of our second road investment strategy.

We appreciate that everybody has a unique perspective shaped by characteristics such as age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, ethnicity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, as well as social factors such as culture, education and background.

Our focus will be to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are key to the business decisions we take.

We'll work to get better at listening to our customers, so that we can deliver effective and inclusive services more quickly.
We'll use insights from our own people and supply chain partners to develop our policies and practices.
We'll provide expert and timely workplace adjustments for our people, removing all physical and psychological barriers to inclusion.

EDI will be embedded into all we do and we'll report on our progress in our Annual Report.

Ambitions

Building an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates diverse voices to improve the experience of our people, supply chain and our customers.

What is public sector equality duty?

As a public sector organisation, we're required to carry out our work with due regard to the objectives set out in the Equality Act 2010.

Find out more about the Equality Act 2010 objectives

Objectives and the Equality Duty: A Guide for Public Authorities

People and places

Creating a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we work in, recognises and develops potential, and enables everyone to bring their whole self to work.

Supply chain

Developing a diverse and inclusive supply chain, that delivers more effectively for its workforce, our road users and our communities.

Customers and communities

Delivering an inclusive, accessible road network and services that meet the needs of the diverse customers and communities we serve.

Enablers

Goals	People and places objectives	Supply chain objectives	Customer and communities objectives
Insight We understand the diverse needs of our customers and our employees, and apply this insight to our planning and decision-making.	We’ll increase the quality of our workforce diversity data to inform better decision-making and enable us to track our successes.	We’ll require 70% of key suppliers to provide their workforce data to monitor how we reflect the communities we serve.	We’ll make sure all schemes are designed using customer insight into the needs of diverse groups.
Engagement We involve those affected by our decisions in the planning, design and delivery of our policies, roads and services.	We’ll support our employee networks to thrive and work in partnership on design and delivery of objectives.	85% of key suppliers will be engaged with the Supplier Diversity Forum and will share good practice that shape improved experiences for employees, supply chain, customer and communities.	Schemes will be designed after community and stakeholder engagement with hard to reach groups.
Governance We understand the impacts our decisions could have on diverse groups.	We’ll reduce the number of pay gaps between the diverse groups of our people.	60% of our key suppliers will either undertake an external EDI accreditation or use the EDI growth matrix to evidence EDI improvements.	All schemes will be assessed for their equality impact.
Capacity and culture Our people and supply chain have the skills, commitment and support to deliver accessible and inclusive services.	We’ll embed inclusion throughout all HR policies, procedures and processes to increase the capability of our people.	60% of suppliers will achieve a score of 8 (out of 10) on the EDI metric in the Collaborative. Performance Framework reflecting their EDI capability and approach to sharing best practice.	We’ll ensure employees have the learning and development they need to deliver accessible, and inclusive services.

Improvements

Goals	People and places objectives	Supply chain objectives	Customer and communities objectives
Inclusive network Our roads, schemes and services are accessible and inclusive to our diverse customers and communities.		60% of our suppliers will be achieving a score of 8 (out of 10) on the Equality Diversity and Inclusion metric in the Collaborative Performance Framework which includes rating community engagement.	Diverse customers will be satisfied that they can use our roads and services confidently, safely, and inclusively when they need to. Any customers with communication needs will be able to access our support and information.
Inclusive workplaces Our workplaces are accessible and inclusive for all our employees.	We’ll provide an inclusive working environment that enables all our employees to thrive and bring their whole selves to work.	60% of our key suppliers either undertaking an external EDI accreditation or are using the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion growth matrix to demonstrate how they are making their working environments inclusive.
Diverse supply of talent Our industry has a stable supply of talent, drawing on the skills of all diverse communities.	We’ll increase the diversity of our people, to better reflect the communities we work in through proactive outreach campaigns.	We’ll expect a 5% increase in diversity of supplier workforce (baseline 2020 levels for diverse groups) to better reflect the communities we work in, and a 10% reduction in ‘unknown’ diversity data responses.

Goals

People and places objectives

Supply chain objectives

Customer and communities objectives

Inclusive network

Our roads, schemes and services are accessible and inclusive to our diverse customers and communities.

60% of our suppliers will be achieving a score of 8 (out of 10) on the Equality Diversity and Inclusion metric in the Collaborative Performance Framework which includes rating community engagement.

Diverse customers will be satisfied that they can use our roads and services confidently, safely, and inclusively when they need to.

Any customers with communication needs will be able to access our support and information.

Inclusive workplaces

Our workplaces are accessible and inclusive for all our employees.

We’ll provide an inclusive working environment that enables all our employees to thrive and bring their whole selves to work.

60% of our key suppliers either undertaking an external EDI accreditation or are using the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion growth matrix to demonstrate how they are making their working environments inclusive.

Diverse supply of talent

Our industry has a stable supply of talent, drawing on the skills of all diverse communities.

We’ll increase the diversity of our people, to better reflect the communities we work in through proactive outreach campaigns.

We’ll expect a 5% increase in diversity of supplier workforce (baseline 2020 levels for diverse groups) to better reflect the communities we work in, and a 10% reduction in ‘unknown’ diversity data responses.