As we would have hoped, the report is bold, and it is clear we need to do more.
The report’s key findings were that:
- The organisation is divided in its ambition and sense of purpose around anti-racism.
- SafeLives lacks a shared understanding of what anti-racism means strategically and operationally.
- The organisation lacks some of the core capabilities to deliver this work.
- There are high levels of fear around anti-racism and what it might mean.
- Organisational culture is the key obstacle to delivering change.
The report’s recommendations were to:
- Pause and reformulate staff training on anti-racism.
- Conduct comprehensive anti-racism scoping.
- Develop the organisation’s narrative and sense of purpose regarding anti-racism.
- Improve internal communication.
- Strengthen people and culture.
We have accepted all the findings and the recommendations and shared these with our teams. In response, our Board and senior leadership team have embraced the need to do this properly and thoroughly, starting with the recruitment of a new Director reporting to the CEO.
We’re pleased to welcome our new Director of People and Culture, Dawn Codrington. Dawn joins SafeLives in August 2023 to lead our people and culture work. She has spent her professional life working nationally and internationally in the field of people development and change and transformation; working with individuals, teams and organisations to create positive people-centred environments. She has worked with health and social care, education and international charities, including a global volunteer led organisation, where she developed women leaders on the Stop the Violence Campaign. Most recently, she has been at Turning Point, the leading health and social care enterprise, and Transform Trade, a trade justice organisation in the international development sector.
Dawn says:
I am so pleased to be working in the area of people and culture, at a time when so many organisations are wanting to ‘do better.’ Transforming organisations to become places of genuine inclusion, belonging and well-ness deeply matters to me – as an individual, a member of staff and as a senior leader. This is what has brought me has brought me to the role of Director of People and Culture at SafeLives.
Dawn brings a powerful background and expertise and will start her role by working with us on a thorough listening exercise, to venture into difficult but necessary conversations about what we mean by respect and how we can create a place where everyone feels included and empowered through their experiences with SafeLives.
She’ll also be involved in continuing and extending our equity, equality, diversity and inclusion work, as we make sure our core activities – domestic abuse practice, research intelligence, authentic voice, training and workforce development, and quality standards – are reframed in partnership with more diverse voices, and in ways that recognise that exclusion, including racism, is systemic in responses to abuse, and needs to be dismantled.
We have also taken action around our staff training and our internal communications and will be working closely with Dawn and our teams to develop this further in the light of her initial work.
We don’t want to prejudge what our journey towards anti-racism will involve, but a fair guess would be it will consider how we share power in decision-making, growing our cultural knowledge and competence, and taking positive action to lift up the voices and presence of survivors who have been minoritised, and the support services established by and for them.
