The Members and Partners of LACA who work in the School Meals Industry, come from diverse backgrounds and circumstances. They are of all ages, races and ethnic groups, disabled and non-disabled, they are from faith and non-faith backgrounds and from the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community.
Having a diverse community is a great asset to our organisation. However, some communities experience disadvantage and discrimination that has a negative effect on the quality of their lives.
As the voice of the School Meals People, LACA is committed to providing equality of opportunity and tackling discrimination, harassment, intimidation and disadvantage.
This policy is endorsed by the Board of directors of LACA.
The purpose of this policy is to set out guidance and details our responsibility under the Equality Act 2010. Our general duties are to:
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
- Ensure equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
- Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
LACA will not tolerate less favourable treatment of anyone on the grounds of any protected characteristics and we will:
Take action to eradicate discrimination and inequality when delivering services, when employing others to deliver services on our behalf and when providing funding to others to provide services to our members and partners of LACA. Everyone who uses our services will be treated in a professional manner, with courtesy, respect and dignity.
Adopt legal and national guidelines, relevant legislation, codes of practice and LACA policies or strategies that seek to ensure equality of opportunity and promote good relations between all of our members and partners.
Evaluate and monitor the impact of our policies, services and functions on our members and partners through consultation, and make changes to them where they impact unfairly or adversely on any group/s.
Provide inclusive and accessible services for our members and partners, by making our public information accessible to all, providing alternative formats, interpretation and sign language services where necessary. We will build a comprehensive understanding of our membership, though customer survey and other intelligence – this will be used for the annual business planning and marketing and communications planning.