Does your organisation have rainbow perspectives or portfolios on the board or at a similar strategic level?
The responsibility for the rainbow action plan needs to be held by people at all levels of the organisation. Even if there is no current rainbow action plan, the organisation will be strengthened by rainbow perspectives at a governance level. Ideally, rainbow staff members and service users would have ways of participating in the strategic work of the organisation. Creating committees or advisory groups or board portfolios or roles may help. Be clear about the difference between incorporating feedback from rainbow staff or rainbow service users and offering them a seat at the decision making table.
Rainbow input can be achieved by valuing feedback from staff about how rainbow issues are relevant to their work, e.g what challenges they are currently facing, which areas of knowledge they most want more support about.
To be most effective, rainbow input must be more than a staff survey. It needs to be embedded into governance structures.
When the organisation is undertaking strategic planning consider how that plan or the resulting work will impact rainbow communities. Are there areas of work that are particularly relevant to rainbow populations? Is this reflected in the organisation’s strategies, vision, and plans?
Take Action
Create advisory groups, roles, portfolios or opportunities for rainbow voices to be heard and rainbow perspectives to be a regular and ongoing part of the governance of your organisation.
Develop strategic plans and key documents that reflect your organisational commitment to rainbow people, and show how this connects to the organisation’s work.
Value and seek out rainbow staff and service users’ perspectives when planning, developing, and reviewing rainbow strategies and work.
Collect anonymised data from your service to feed into strategic planning, policy, and programme responses to rainbow people.