BABCP Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Statement

In 2020, the BABCP commissioned an independent diversity audit, which highlighted that the BABCP can be perceived as “speaking from a ‘white’ perspective”. The audit asked the challenging and uncomfortable question: “are all voices involved in BABCP being heard?” Our organisation took a long hard look in the mirror and began engaging with a process of intentional change, which included the necessity of acknowledging how different forms of social and cultural exclusion might influence how we think about ourselves as a professional body, and also affect our clinical practice, intentionally or not.

Consequently, this organisational statement is intended to provide information on equity, equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) for our members, our staff, people with lived experience of diversity and exclusion, and external stakeholders. We appreciate this statement will be an evolving and iterative one, and we will revise it as we improve our awareness. A programme of work has begun to embed EDI principles throughout our organisational culture and in our behaviour, working practices and organisational policies. We aim to ensure that this paradigm shift includes the ways that we communicate and engage with those involved in the business of the Association. We recognise this needs to be owned at every level, and we have begun this process with the Board. We acknowledge that we have much work to do, and we will ensure that there is greater transparency and openness throughout our decision-making processes. We intend to continually learn and develop as an organisation and will reflect upon our practice and seek to improve it, even when and where this is an uncomfortable process.

As per our Articles and Memorandum of Association, we intend to take such actions as is consistent with the Objects of the Association, and is committed to the public interest. Therefore, the Board will not stay silent about unethical practice. We will not tolerate members who are intentionally discriminatory through their actions. Members who express racist (or xenophobic), sexist, transphobic, biphobic, homophobic, ableist, or religious based hate speech such as Anti-Semitism or Islamophobia, or maliciously show any related prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour, have no place within the BABCP. In addition to not tolerating members who are intentionally discriminatory through their actions, as an organisation we take a clear anti-oppressive / anti-discriminatory / anti-racist stance. This is of importance as even though it may seem that not being racist and being anti-racist are the same thing, we consider they are not. Within the context of any mental healthcare setting, anti-racist practice requires more than just not tolerating racism. It requires proactively working to counter prejudice, unpicking systemic racism, and tackling the discrimination of racially minoritised communities in so many ways (Edwards et al, 2022).

Nor will the BABCP ignore the key issue of accrediting practitioners who are unethical in their private practice, and we are currently drawing up standards for Independent Practitioners around this. For example, we are reviewing our accreditation processes to ensure all practitioners must undertake training and professional development activities in relation to EDI, promoting awareness of equality and equity, and requiring regular updating during their careers. The Board have reviewed the entire Complaints Procedure to be better able to deal expediently with such matters, and we will take action as necessary to protect the public, patients, or other practitioners.

We want to take this opportunity to remind all members of the recent change to our Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics (Section 1.2)

“You must not allow your views about a service user’s characteristics to affect the way you treat them or the advice you give. Some characteristics are legally protected. You must not assume that service user characteristics, protected or otherwise, are inferior to others and must not seek to change or suppress them on that basis. You must treat service users with respect and dignity.”

As a further statement of intent, the BABCP are a signatory to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU2). The primary purpose of the MoU2 is the protection of the public through a commitment to ending the practice of ‘Conversion Therapy’ in the UK. This has the backing of all major psychological, psychotherapeutic and counselling organisations in the UK. A link to our signatory is found here. Therefore, any member who is alleged to carry out ‘Conversion Therapy’ will be investigated in line with our Complaints procedure, and will be expelled from BABCP if this is found to be the case.

In our roles as an employer, professional body and holder of a voluntary accreditation register for training programmes and individual practitioners, the BABCP Board opposes all forms of discrimination and discriminatory practice of any kind. We understand that discrimination based upon an individual’s characteristics and circumstances is also a denial of their opportunities, and consequently prevents the achievement of potential.

Within the workplace, the BABCP is committed to providing an environment free from harassment and bullying, and as an employer we require people to be treated with respect and dignity. We will also ensure that all who come into contact with our organisation are treated equitably and with courtesy. We will adhere to all anti-discrimination legislation and associated codes of practice across the devolved nations. We pledge to respect the dignity of all our staff and members and associates and value the contribution they make. We operate a zero tolerance policy for the following kinds of discrimination: Direct discrimination, Indirect discrimination, Harassment, and Victimisation (please see definition list at the end of this document). We are clear that discrimination of any kind is unacceptable and we aim to create a safe and welcoming atmosphere for all. We recognise that discrimination can range from overt to more covert forms and can include micro behaviours and microaggressions.

The BABCP is aware of its duties and responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010) and will not discriminate against any staff, member, or stakeholder under the protected characteristics. However, the BABCP believes the 9 protected characteristics form the absolute minimum, and appreciate there are a variety of useful frameworks and reflective practices to explore and understand our identities and the possible cultural contributions. Consequently, the BABCP has adapted the Social GGRRRAAACCEEESSS model (Burnham, 2013). This provides a framework to represent the different aspects of identity, the intersectionality between these facets and the influences these may have. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Member Resources highlight the importance of recognising such issues related to protected characteristics may overlap and occur together, and we acknowledge this. The Social GGRRRAAACCEEESSS acronym represents;

• Gender (including identity and expression)
• Geography
• Race (including nationality, ethnicity, cultural identity or national origin)
• Religion (faith or spiritual belief or none)
• Age
• Ability
• Appearance
• Class (social class and perceived social class, including accent)
• Culture
• Ethnicity
• Education
• Employment
• Sexuality (including biological sex)
• Sexual orientation
• Spirituality

We consider in addition the following to have significance:

• being single, married or in a civil partnership
• being pregnant or on parental leave
• disability, mobility, neuro-diversity, or chronic long-term mental or physical health impairment or having had previous disability or impairment
• income or presumed financial status
• caring responsibilities

Business Case

The Board appreciate the ‘business case’ for EDI initiatives has become increasingly compelling over recent years. Research supporting this comes most notably from ‘Diversity Matters’ by McKinsey & Co. 2020 (available at https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters), who suggest the business benefits of embedding Diversity and Inclusion result in:

• Increased productivity
• Increased efficiency and effectiveness
• Attraction and retention of talented people
• A responsive service to diverse service users
• Mitigation of business risk
• Avoiding costly litigation and damage to reputation
• Compliance with the law

Consequently, we understand and appreciate that diversity drives business benefits as well as improving clinical practice and innovation, therefore we intend to build a culture where difference is valued. We recognise that our membership is changing and becoming more diverse and we intend to fully embrace the opportunities this creates. It is central to our overarching philosophy that we recognise all those associated with the BABCP have an integral part in helping us to achieve our goals. However, as part of this process we will reject tokenism and will not make superficial or symbolic gestures in order simply to appear to be inclusive or supportive. We recognise that tokenism is directly harmful to individuals and we appreciate the importance of ensuring all connected with the Association are safe, valued, included and heard regardless of their identity and without any fear of different treatment or being ‘the only’.

As part of this process, we will implement inclusive language in our documents and use the term ‘People of the Global Majority’ (PGM) rather than the outdated BAME. PGM refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been previously described as 'ethnic minorities'. These groups currently represent approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the world's population. Although we may use the term PGM when speaking broadly across different racially minoritised communities, groups, tribes or castes, we do not intend to homogenise groups of diverse people, and so intend to specify which cultural value or group we refer to whether for example Ugandan; East African, Bengali; South Asian, Afghanistan; South Central Asian, Gypsy Roma; Northern Indian origin or Jamaican; Caribbean. We do this to demonstrate our recognition of the wide ranging differences and relational identities that exist in minoritised ethnic groups despite the shared experiences of oppression and discrimination. 

Our EDI aims for the next 2 years indicate our intention to develop a culture in which allyship is encouraged and respectful challenge is welcomed, for instance by calling out discriminatory practice and highlighting unconscious bias. We understand allyship to mean: Everyone can be an ally as privilege is intersectional - white women can be actionable allies to People of the Global Majority, men can be allies to women, cis people can be allies to members of the LGBTQI+ community, able-bodied people can be allies to those with different abilities, economically privileged people can be allies to those who are not and so on.

Consequently the BABCP Board have agreed the following aims and initiatives. It is envisaged these can be benchmarked against by an EDI audit at the end of 2023 and so can be measured, assessed and reflected upon to ascertain how many have actually been achieved. Consequently, we pledge to value every person as an individual and:

Organisational Policy and Strategy

• To develop a process of engagement with the membership and experts by experience and their carers around this Operational Policy and Strategy.
• To facilitate a process for members to challenge and debate this policy and strategy.
• To annually review this diversity and inclusion strategy and ensure this is communicated effectively to those involved in the business of the Association.
• To ensure clear lines for reporting progress of the strategy to the membership.
• To review the staff handbook with specific changes as suggested by p32-34 of main EDI report.
• To ensure all policies are inclusive, gender neutral and do not exclude any disadvantaged individuals/communities, including the wording in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
• To introduce a governance review and ensure policies and procedures that are missing are introduced to all involved in the business of the Association within one year of this statement.
• To implement the agreed equality analysis/equality impact assessment process regarding policies, procedures, campaigns, research and projects.
• To review the Terms of Reference for all the Standing Committees to make EDI more explicit within their specific aims and objectives.
• Develop a leadership culture in which effective strategies for equal opportunity, inclusion and diversity (whether salaried or voluntary), is seen as a sign of quality.
• To ensure people with lived experience of diversity, social exclusion or minority characteristics are represented in an equal representation on all Standing Committees.
• To ensure at least one representative from each of the devolved nations is on the Board of Trustees, so as to ensure representation from our communities in the UK and Ireland.

Learning and Development

• To implement EDI training for all newly appointed BABCP paid and voluntary staff (including Trustees) to address all protected characteristics and those not currently covered by legislation in the induction process.
• To ensure there are annual refresher courses and updates to address all protected characteristics and include EDI initiatives in annual appraisals.
• To signpost and robustly encourage members to seek out validated sources of EDI training and to provide EDI related CPD available on the BABCP website and in its events.
• To provide awareness of materials on shared drive that can be accessed by all staff and volunteers.
• To make mandatory equality analysis training for relevant employees/managers.

Networks

• From an inclusion perspective, review the structure, funding, engagement and reporting processes of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and consider how EDI initiatives can be supported within the SIGs and Branches.
• To ensure the EDI Standing Committee Chair has a place on the National Committees Forum (NCF) and also becomes an Advisor to the Board.
• To use our resources and knowledge to support a greater number of countries internationally regarding the advancement of CBT.

Internal Engagement

• Develop guidelines against discrimination at the BABCP, including advice about dealing with unconscious bias and other sources of discriminatory behaviour.
• Enhance internal communications to ensure messages about EDI are regularly communicated and addressed e.g. in every email bulletin, team meetings.
• Review our communication strategy and ensure we address important events and initiatives that address inclusion into our organisational calendar, such as Time to Talk Day, LGBT+ History month, Pride month, Black History month, Main Religious Festivals, MH awareness week, International day for persons with a disability.
• Ensure the Comms team are visible regarding their commitment to EDI initiatives in media texts such as YouTube short videos, website articles, Twitter, blogs etc.
• Build EDI related questions into routine surveys of staff, members and volunteers.
• Carry out regular volunteer engagement surveys as well as staff and member surveys.
• When planning campaigns/research/resources carry out equality analysis to ensure inclusivity and appropriate representativity.
• Build on the ‘BAME Positive Practice Guide’ and The IAPT Positive Practice Guide for Older People (available here) and consider what other guides, literature and materials should be developed.
• Make EDI reporting part of the tabled agenda for Senior Management Team meetings, board agendas and other committees.
• Consider providing CBT Today in alternative formats to ensure accessibility. 
• Review the accessibility of the BABCP website and ensure it meets accessibility guidelines and also has a clearly accessible statement on the BABCP EDI goals.
• Consider external outreach activities to promote and provide wider awareness of BABCP and its services with excluded communities.
• Consider how BABCP could be more accessible internationally in collaboration with EABCT and WCCBT.

External Engagement

• Continue to include EDI in CBT Today and professional journals published to address any gaps in information.
• To continue to share messages about EDI and therapies on social media.
• To consider what additional information could be shared that would be beneficial to those accessing BABCP social media (e.g. LGBTQIA+ inclusion, disability inclusion, faith.)
• Carry out an equality analysis prior to conference programmes being finalised.
• Develop additional materials which could engage and raise awareness with different communities (e.g. easy read, audio, BSL, translation) and to also consider each protected characteristic.
• To produce guidelines for third party employers of CBT therapists as a way of promoting our members well-being while at work.
• Improve the transparency of the workings of various Standing Committees.
• Enhance content of the website so it clearly demonstrates BABCP's commitment to EDI, and the key EDI messages relating to therapy, and campaigns BABCP have signed up to, how to access alternative formats, reference EDI on jobs page.
• Encourage the undertaking of EDI related pieces of research as part of the process of awarding grants.
• Ensure we re-review our progress with the same people who undertook our original Diversity Audit

HR Recruitment and retention

• To mandate EDI training for all existing members of staff and all volunteers
• To mandate EDI within our recruitment processes and to ensure EDI related questions are asked in all interviews
• Ensure this process is annually reviewed by the EDI committee.
• To mandate EDI questions as mandatory in all recruitment processes in including interviews and to see if these questions can be enhanced and be under annual review for appropriateness.
• Identify a preferred supplier who can provide application materials in different formats if needed in a timely manner.
• Ensure all advertisements state a clear commitment to EDI, and state applications can be requested in different formats.
• Become familiar with the Workplace Wellbeing Charter and promote this within recruitment processes.
• Review role descriptions to ensure they are gender neutral and do not discriminate on any protected characteristic.
• Review induction and enhance to demonstrate EDI commitment (e.g. info on SIGs, processes around reasonable adjustments, ensuring they have read EDI policy - dignity at work, EDI training, how to access support).
• Consider due diligence review for organisations whose vacancies are promoted on BABCP website eg do they have an EDI policy, training, etc.
• Collate EDI/demographic data of current members, volunteers, staff and trustees and ensure clear communication around purpose of collecting data.
• Consider undertaking exit interviews for staff leavers, conducted by a third party provider to encourage honesty and openness.
• To develop equality analysis guidance, process and procedure.
• Develop line manager guidance documents re supporting diverse teams effectively.
• Carry out in-depth inclusive recruitment review of whole recruitment process from advertising to induction for staff volunteers and trustees.
• To update policies and procedures as a result of the audit (e.g. enhancing reasonable adjustment process, including EDI Qs at interview, demonstrate core value of EDI within induction, ensure adverts are gender neutral).
• Deliver inclusive recruitment training to recruiting managers (volunteer and staff) to support recruitment of more diverse staff and volunteers.
• Enhance the reasonable adjustment process so a formal process is clear and in place.
• Improve the transparency of, and remove bias from, all recruitment and promotion processes.

Monitoring

• Ensuring that all aspects of BABCP organisation has effective and timely EDI assessments to ensure greater participation, equality, and respect at work.
• Ensure annual appraisals take place and consider implementing 360 appraisals for members of staff and encourage members of BABCP to feedback to the Board and Staff on how they think we are performing as an organisation.
• To introduce mentoring and reverse mentoring for staff and volunteers.

Service Delivery

• Consider development of additional intersectional projects e.g. LGBTQIA+ and MH, impact of MH in PGM communities. To continue to involve the voices of people with lived experience of social exclusion or minority status. Consider a more structured and co-ordinated service user/co-production engagement projects to inform new work, conferences and deliveries within BABCP.
• Review public engagement strategy to see if this can be more inclusive to wider communities.
• Carry out an equality impact assessment of the accreditation process to assess if it can be enhanced to fully consider diverse communities such as people with disabilities who may not meet the threshold for hours worked etc.
• To consider ways that members and non-members can communicate with us, and the training that is required in our responses to people who contact us.
• Consider mandatory EDI actions for all accredited practitioners during their first accreditation and in subsequent re-accreditation, including mandating EDI in reflective statements and a requirement of 3 hours’ specific EDI activity. This is not limited purely to CBT.
• When developing new learning e.g. online learning, to ensure content and learning objectives are EDI inclusive where possible.
• To ensure that equity is considered at every stage of planning and delivery.

Conference, Events and Physical Access

• To check that the owners of our offices have carried out accessibility assessments for the BABCP office.
• To source additional meeting places which can be used if visitors have mobility issues, to be considered as a reasonable adjustment.
• Carry out equality analysis prior to finalising conference/seminar events so that programmes are inclusive and wide reaching and accessible to those with mobility issues or hearing impairment, and where possible other related conditions.
• To ensure the EDI rep on the scientific advisory group is made a permanent position so the programme includes EDI and is inclusive.
• Ensure those who are attending as Mental Health Lived Experience representatives have support and an established protocol if required to ensure wellbeing.

Suppliers and Procurement

• Review and enhance BABCP procurement policy or develop one if there is not one in place.
• To ensure EDI considerations are an important part of tender processes. Review tender process to see if this could be enhanced e.g. EDI expectations of suppliers.
• During tender management ensure EDI compliance is part of reviews.

EDI Memberships and accreditations

• In 2022, the Board agreed to sign up to be a Supporter Organisation for White Ribbon. There was consideration of applying to benchmark organisations such as Stonewall Top 100 Workplace Equality Index, Mind Workplace Wellbeing Benchmark and the Disability Confidence Scheme. However, we concluded at this time not to buy our way into accreditation but to perform the meaningful work and to review an application in twelve months time. The Board are reminded of Emmeline Pankhurst’s motto “deeds not words”.

Concluding comments:

As an employer and professional body, the BABCP aims to enhance the equality of opportunity for all involved in our work, so that there is a felt sense of being supported, valued, respected and enabled. Consequently, we want to ensure the voices of all staff, members and stakeholders are heard and we are working on delivering our Strategic Vision for the coming term of office for our President, Saiqa Naz. We recognise that the CBT workforce is not representative of the populations it serves, and we will make changes to improve that. We are committed to improving access to evidence based psychological therapies for diverse groups within society, and to improve representation of those groups within the CBT professional community. We appreciate the importance of diversity and inclusivity and seek to maximise participation and engagement from all with an interest in CBT, in particular those from under-represented groups. The organisation understands that multiple approaches and divergent opinions are needed to improve inclusivity and will provide fora for debate so we can learn about this better.

As has been demonstrated, we also aim to design our activities, services and decision making processes specifically to encourage and support participation from people who face disadvantage in society, including for example women, PGM people, disabled people, LGBTQIA+ people, and people on low incomes. As part of this process, we are working towards improving the accessibility of our services and resources to fulfil and exceed our legal and ethical obligations. We have agreed to implement Equality Impact Assessments, which will be used to assess proposals for new or revised services, policy and procedure, or significant expenditure, to ensure fairness and consistency for all people who may be affected.

With regards to our external stakeholders, we are working towards building requirements for compliance, whereby we aim to ensure the purchase of goods and services follows our commitments to equality and diversity. This will include our ethical investments as we intend to use suppliers who share our values. We will establish procedures to ensure business from diverse communities have an opportunity on an equal footing to supply goods and services.

As hopefully can be seen by the above, the Board of Trustees of the BABCP are committed to change and to effectively ‘use our voice’ to challenge the status quo. However, we don’t expect the move away from the ‘white perspective’ and towards ‘hearing all voices within the BABCP’ is going to be simple or comfortable. We will make sure that all the voices that should be in BABCP are in fact here. There is an understanding within the organisation that this paradigm shift and structural change will not be created overnight, and it will take time to embed these changes and weave them through what we do. As part of this process, we will strive to be authentic and endeavour to try our very best, but we also recognise there are going to be times when we get it wrong. We understand that with the concept of equity we are going to be unable to ‘please all the people all the time’, but we hope we can respond with transparency, humility and sensitivity when we do make mistakes. We want to take this journey to ensure our Association deserves to be the lead organisation for cognitive and behavioural therapies in the UK and Ireland, and we as a Board intend to lead by example.

Defining the terms: (Available at https://www.york.ac.uk/about/equality/edi-glossary-terminology/)

Ally - a person who uses their privilege to support and advocate for others who may be under-represented or discriminated against, in order to create an inclusive environment

Discrimination - Discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly, in relation to a protected characteristic, in one or more of the following ways: 

• Direct discrimination refers to discrimination because of a person's protected characteristic.
• Indirect discrimination occurs when a provision, criterion or practice is applied in the same way for everyone but creates disproportionate disadvantage for a person with a protected characteristic as compared to those who do not share that characteristic.
• Discrimination by perception occurs due to the belief that someone has a protected characteristic, whether or not they do have it.
• Discrimination by association occurs against a person who does not have a protected characteristic but is discriminated against because of their association with someone who does

Diversity - recognising that everyone is different in a variety of visible and non-visible ways, and that those differences are to be recognised, respected and valued.

Equality - Equality is about ensuring that every individual has an equal opportunity to make the most of their lives and talents, and believing that no one should have poorer life chances because of where, what or whom they were born, or because of other characteristics. Equality recognises that certain groups of people with particular characteristics e.g. those of a certain race, disabled people, women, gay and lesbian people etc, have and continue to experience discrimination.

Equity - Equity relates to the proposition that individuals should be provided with the resources they need to have access to the same opportunities as the general population. Where ‘equality’ sometimes indicates uniformity and the even distribution of resources among all people, ‘equity’ tends to represent the distribution of resources in such a way as to meet the specific needs of individuals by acknowledging that some groups and individuals require more or less resources in order to access the same opportunities as other people and groups. Treating everyone equally does not necessarily lead to equality, rather equal treatment often perpetuates existing hierarchies. 

Harassment - harassment is unwanted behaviour relating to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity or which creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

Harassment may occur where an individual or group is targeted on the grounds of:

• an actual protected characteristic, for example, a disabled person,
• a perceived protected characteristic, for example, a manager decides not to support the advancement of a member of staff because they believe they have a disability.
• a person who is linked to one of the protected characteristics via association.

Harassment may be a single event, sporadic events or a continuing pattern, and can include behaviour via any means including verbal, non-verbal, physical, written or by means of electronic communication including social media. Harassment (or bullying) may not be deliberate or intentional. In some cases the person being accused of the harassment may be unaware that their behaviour is having a detrimental impact on another person, has caused offence or has been interpreted in a particular way.

Inclusion - concerns the active creation of a learning, working and social environment that is welcoming, which recognises and celebrates difference and is reflected in structures, practices and attitudes

Intersectionality - the theory of intersectionality was originally coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights activist, and was used to describe the specific inequalities faced by African-American women. The term is now used more broadly to refer to the idea that an individual’s identity consists of various biological, social and cultural factors, including their race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation etc, and that each of these contributes to their overall identity and to who they are as an individual. As such, it is important to note that a single person may experience multiple forms of discrimination and systematic social inequality as a result of belonging to more than one social category simultaneously. It may also mean that they experience either privileges or disadvantages on the basis of differing aspects of their identity, and they may experience barriers or even be excluded from one particular group as an indirect result of their identification with another.

Microaggressions - these represent daily verbal and non-verbal indignities that occur in the form of subtle insults or demeaning comments, whether intentional or unintentional, that amount to a form of abuse. Microaggressions are often, but not always, associated with racial abuse and have been described in the following way:

Microaggressions provoke distress because they dismiss a person of colour, leading to isolation, perplexity and a lack of belief in oneself. They are subtle forms of racism and more challenging and difficult to identify because they operate against the typical understanding of racism as something that is easily identifiable and blatant. As such, the vague nature of subtle racism makes it less recognisable and more insidious.

Tokenism - Tokenism is the practice of making only superficial or symbolic gestures to appear inclusive of members of underrepresented or minoritised groups. For instance, by recruiting people from minority ethnic groups an organisation may attempt to give the appearance of racial integration or balance within a workforce, but may make no further efforts to invest additional resources into exploring the root cause of such imbalance, or to improving the experiences of minority groups once they are part of the workforce.

Unconscious Bias - refers to the unconscious associations and beliefs that are said to form outside of our own conscious awareness, which lead to positive or negative inclinations towards or against other people, groups or communities. Unconscious biases can lead to stereotyping and interfere with impartial judgement and decision-making and have been shown to influence recruitment and selection decisions, as people tend to form positive associations for those who are like them, which leads to more negative outcomes for those people who are not like them. 

Victimisation - treating someone less favourably because they have taken or intend to take action under a particular policy or procedure, or because they are supporting someone else who is taking action.

We are very grateful for the work undertaken by the Equality & Culture SIG and the Women’s Equality and Gender Diversity (WOMGEND) SIG and wish to publicly acknowledge the significant contribution they have made to facilitating much-needed change. These two SIGs have put a huge amount of time, effort, reflection, and commitment into advocating for positive change, as well as sharing developing much needed training resources, including the BAME IAPT BABCP Positive Practice Guide, and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Member Resources. The involvement of the WOMGEND SIG was instrumental in encouraging the BABCP to become a White Ribbon Supporter organisation. The BABCP condemns all forms of gender-based violence.

We are also grateful to the University of York for permission to publish their excellent EDI glossary.

The Board of Trustees would also like to acknowledge the help of the following in drafting this document:

Professor Sally Munt

Professor Shirley Reynolds

Paul Edwards

Helen Macdonald

Bea Carrington

Leila Lawton

Members of BABCP EDI Committee

Burnham, J. (2013). Developments in Social GGRRAAACCEEESSS: visible-invisible, voiced-unvoiced. In I. Krause (Ed.), Cultural Reflexivity. London: Karnac. 

Edwards, A., Santhosh, S., & Kunorubwe, T. (2022). Cultural Change in IAPT - A Work in Progress. CBT Today, 50 (2).

McKinsey & Co. (2020) Diversity Matters (available at https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters). Accessed 18/10/22