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Policy Statements

Our Commitment to Equality & Diversity

‘Valuing each Individual’ is one of our core values at Compass and is underpinned by equality of opportunity and celebrating diversity. We are committed to promoting equality and inclusivity in all that we do through the deployment of staff teams that are representative of the communities we serve and proactively respond to local diverse needs.

We will:

  • Promote an organisational culture of awareness, fairness, openness  and responsiveness
  • Create a culture and environment in which individual differences and the contributions of children, young people and families, and our staff are recognised, celebrated and valued
  • Provide equitable and accessible services to all children, young people and families are entitled to regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, past offending, caring responsibilities or social class
  • Ensure our services are delivered flexibly using a person-centred approach to meet the diverse needs of our beneficiaries by understanding, adapting and meeting their individual needs holistically
  • Select those for employment, promotion, training, or any other benefit on the basis of knowledge, experience, skills and values
  • Have clear policies and procedures and support processes in place that enable our beneficiaries, candidates for jobs, paid and non paid staff make a complaint if they feel they or others within Compass have been unfairly treated
  • Review all our service delivery employment practices and procedures to ensure fairness
  • Treat all breaches of our equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policy seriously
  • Continue to further improve our EDI Policy Framework, procedures and practices through the organisational steering group and thematic working groups.
  • Commit to shared learning across staff teams and a cycle of continuous improvement that will improve our internal policies, procedures, processes and practices that in turn further increase positive service user and staff experiences

Our named lead for Equality & Diversity is Rachel Bundock, CEO. If you require this policy statement in an alternative format, please email: info@compass-uk.org

Gender Pay Gap

Our ambition is for our people to be representative of the children, young people and families we support as well as the communities we serve. This is the first gender pay gap report that we have completed following our significant growth during 2023. Read more here.

Safeguarding

At Compass, safeguarding is our top priority. Read more.

Compass Safety Incident Response Plan

Many of Compass services are provided on behalf of NHS organisations which allows us to develop best practice in line with the standards people expect from their health and care services. One of our shared priorities is the safety of people who encounter Compass health and wellbeing services, continuously learning and improving our safety practices both as an individual organisation but also as a partner in care.

We are pleased to publish the Compass Safety Incident Response Plan in line with the requirements of the new national NHS safety strategy which has been endorsed by our Board of Directors. Our plan sets out our safety priorities, what and how we will investigate to ensure we fully understand how incidents happen, how we will learn and where we will focus our improvement work. Read the plan here.

Privacy

As a core provider of public health services, Compass recognises that confidentiality and consent is at the heart of its delivery of high-quality services which includes the storing and sharing of personable identifiable information (data).

There are certain circumstances where the obtaining of consent may not be possible and or in ‘best interests’ such as safeguarding children and vulnerable adults or emergency one off clinical interventions. Therefore, Compass will use as its legal basis for the storage and sharing of service user data as the provision of public services.

Where the data is sensitive i.e. includes details of clinical and therapeutic interventions the legal basis will be the provision of health services. In all other circumstances such as for employees, Compass will rely on consent as their legal basis for storing and sharing data.

Whatever legal basis is being used the following principles will apply to the storing and sharing of data to ensure confidentiality is maintained:

Policy

These principles will be applied in accordance with the following policies:

  • Data Protection policy – sets out the principles that Compass will adopt to ensure the safe and appropriate storing and sharing of personable identifiable information
  • Information Governance policy – sets out how the Compass principles will be embedded and put into practice across the organisation

Named Leads

  • The named Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) for Compass is Olakunle Dare (Finance & Corporate Services Director)
  • The named Caldicott Guardian for Compass is Sue Cody (Quality Assurance Lead)

If you have any questions, you can contact us on email at info@compass-uk.org or 01904 636 374.

Social value

Together we are stronger and everyone can contribute.

Bringing value to communities is central to our charitable aims. We focus on supporting local projects that deliver social, economic and environmental benefits to residents. We achieve this by:

  • Bringing people together to generate ideas and solutions, rather than working in isolation
  • Sharing resources to create maximum effect
  • Using knowledge and data to respond to challenges and empower people within their communities to work together to bring about change

Our social value policy helps Compass staff to achieve these things; as an employer and a provider of services. Each service has its own plan so it can actively support identified needs and opportunities within local communities.

Comments & Complaints

Our aim is to ensure people receive the best service and experience and it made a difference when it mattered.

We would like to hear about your experience of using a Compass service and any suggestions for how we might do things better or differently.

Health and Safety

Principles

The health and safety of employees, non-paid staff , service users and the general public undertaking Compass managed activities or accessing a Compass managed building is paramount.

Compass, as well as acknowledging the responsibility of everyone for their own and others safety, will ensure that the health and safety of individuals is protected as far as possible by:

  • Ensuring appropriate risk assessments are carried out and where risks are identified they are either eliminated or mitigated to an acceptable level.
  • All employees, volunteers, service users and the general public are made aware of their responsibilities for health and safety.
  • All paid and non paid staff receive adequate training on health and safety matters and this training includes regular updates.
  • Local procedures are in place to ensure all mitigation identified is in place.
  • A system of audit is in place to ensure compliance with all health and safety procedures.
  • A system is in place and understood by all employees; where health and safety incidents are reported, with causes investigated and any learning shared.

Named Leads

  • The named Health and Safety Lead for Compass is Olakunle Dare (Finance & Corporate Service Director & Executive Director)
  • The named Competent person for Compass is Bell Global Property Services (UK) (H&S Consultant to whom the role has been subcontracted)

Emotional Health & Wellbeing Statement of Intent

Compass recognises the importance of emotional health and wellbeing within the workplace and is committed to ensuring it is given the same priority as physical health and safety.

Emotional wellbeing is a shared responsibility between staff and Compass. Everyone has a responsibility to proactively safeguard their own wellbeing and offer peer support when appropriate. Compass has a responsibility for fostering the wellbeing of all staff (paid and non-paid) by ensuring:

  • Work related causes of poor health and wellbeing are identified and mitigated where possible.
  • All employees and volunteers receive appropriate training on issues regarding emotional health and wellbeing.
  • All employees, volunteers, and service users are made aware of how to challenge stigma and can support their own and others’ wellbeing.
  • Local procedures are in place to support all staff with any health and wellbeing issues.
  • Staff understand the prevalence of wellbeing issues, its effects and how to implement low cost / no cost preventative initiatives within their teams.
  • Emotional health and wellness culture is embedded across the organisation

Our commitment to achieving Net Zero

Compass are committed to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. To assist us in achieving this, we have established our first Carbon Reduction Plan (Baseline). This baseline will be the basis of a more detailed review into our carbon emissions and establish firm reduction targets for the future.