Inclusive Community case study - Equality, diversity and inclusion in the School of Health and Wellbeing

When the School of Health and Wellbeing was formed in the university’s 2010 restructure, there was an ambition to take steps to improve gender equality by its leadership team right from the start. When the time came to write their first application for an Athena Swan (AS) Bronze award in 2013, it was a natural alignment with an existing way of working.  Athena Swan Gold, Silver and Bronze awards

IHW are now recipients of an AS Gold award, awarded in 2018, and continue to champion inclusivity both in the School and in the wider university community. As a result of their work, among other achievements they have now increased the proportion of their senior lecturers and professors who are women – 46% of professors compared to 28% nationally. They have also brought more inclusive thinking to the wider university – after IHW created an School-wide carers’ policy, this greatly influenced the creation and launch of one for the University.   

Work towards AS has truly been a team effort. At the start, to ensure that this work towards a more inclusive School wasn’t only done by a small group of women, all academics were expected to contribute to the Self-Assessment Team (SAT) or its subgroups. Dr Breda Cullen, current Chair of the Athena Swan SAT, values how mainstream Athena Swan has become in the School’s culture; equality concerns are a totally normal part of conversation. Frequent communications such as the School’s newsletter, Hawkeye, have also supported this. 

Careful thought has gone into the process of forming the Self-Assessment Team (SAT) that works towards Athena Swan action plans, to make sure that it is inclusive beyond gender. The team very purposefully has representation from academic and professional colleagues, students, colleagues from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, researchers from all career stages, and has subgroups looking at the experiences of different groups such as LGBTQ+ and older colleagues. There are also SAT roles for Disability and Ethnicity Champion. 

The School’s SAT are preparing for their next submission for their Gold Award renewal in Spring 2023. They continue to ask their community for direction on what should be next in the AS action plans; their spring 2022 consultation asks colleagues about the priorities for the coming five years. They are also moving into their new space, the Clarice Pears building, and making the most of that opportunity to explore how the move and new hybrid ways of working can further support equality and inclusion.  

If you would like to find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion within the School of Health and Wellbeing: