Equality Strategy

Introduction to our Equality Strategy

As a UK national park, our equality strategy and objectives are guided by the Equality Act and the Public Sector Equality Duty. We are committed to ensuring that all individuals, regardless of their race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or disability, are treated fairly and equitably. We recognise the importance of promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of our operations, including service provision, employment practices, and decision-making processes.

Our equality strategy is founded on the following objectives:

  • To eliminate discrimination, harassment, and victimisation on the basis of protected characteristics identified in the Equality Act
  • To advance equality of opportunity and promote good relations between people with different protected characteristics.
  • To actively engage with individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds to ensure that their voices are heard, and their needs are addressed.
  • To promote an inclusive culture within our organization that celebrates diversity and values the contributions of all staff and stakeholders.
  • To monitor and evaluate our progress towards achieving equality objectives and take corrective action when necessary.

Equality Strategy for the Lake District National Park (PDF, 145Kb)

Our Equality Vision

The purpose of the Lake District National Park Authority is to inspire a sense of freedom and wellbeing for the nation so people and this spectacular landscape flourish. The Authority works in partnership with a range of other organisations to achieve the long-term Vision for the Lake District National Park. The Vision agreed by the Lake District National Park Partnership (LDNPP) following public consultation in 2006 is:

“The Lake District National Park will be an inspirational example of sustainable development in action. A place where its prosperous economy, world class visitor experiences and vibrant communities come together to sustain the spectacular landscape, its wildlife and cultural heritage. Local people, visitors and the many organisations working in the National Park or have a contribution to make to it, must be united in achieving this."

Our values support the delivery of the Vision and our purpose; they are our identity. Our values specify how we will accomplish our goals and guide how we make decisions. Our values underpin the delivery of the Equality Strategy. It is important to the Authority that we have a workforce that feels nurtured, where we build good relationships, partnerships and networks and everyone is treated fairly. We seek to respect the needs and opinions of others, to deliver the best experience, service, and environment that we can for our many different stakeholders and to sustain the Lake District National Park. Our values are embedded in our culture.

We are:

  • Empowered
  • Forward thinking
  • Leaders
  • Nurturing
  • Proud
  • Team player

Equality objectives

To achieve our Equality Strategy, we aim to achieve these objectives and following actions:

Develop and implement policies and procedures that promote equality, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of strategic and day-to-day operations.

  • Ensure all staff receive the same line management processes including regular one to ones and meaningful annualised performance reviews where staff can discuss future ambition, promotion, reward, and recognition.
  • Pro-actively encourage staff to participate in mentoring schemes, reverse mentoring schemes, shadow boards and encourage participating in voluntary activity outside the organisation.
  • Develop a feeling of belonging within the team and develop channels for staff inclusion within the Organisational Development plan.
  • Ensure consistency with line management in training about how to raise concerns through the implementation of policies such as grievance and whistleblowing.

We will increase the diversity of our talent pool and talent pipeline through progressive working practices embedded in our employee value proposition.

  • Continue to develop hybrid working practices to attract people into our organisation from outside of the Lake District National Park boundary (resulting in people from different socio-economic, minority groups and geographical locations).
  • Engage with educational institutions and charitable establishments to embed youth development into our organisations in different forms including apprenticeships, internships, and work placements / experience.
  • We must identify a reward and recognition program/platform to embed a positive culture of recognising individuals and teams for their contributions and achievements. This framework must ensure fair and equitable pay across all protected characteristics.

Work in partnership with local communities, businesses, and organisations to identify and address barriers to equality and promote social cohesion ensure accessibility of the Lake District National Park and our services for all sectors of society.

  • Accessibility to the Lake District National Park is reflected in our planning and development policy.
  • We will partner with external groups/advisors/consultants who advocate for under-represented groups on relevant policy and project development. We will work with these groups to understand and break down the barriers that prevent people accessing the park. A key vehicle for achieving this will be through our support and leadership on the LDNPP’s Lake District for Everyone Key Outcome Group.
  • We will proactively build links to understand how we can involve hard to reach groups in our work, for example through our partnership group.

Monitor and evaluate our progress towards achieving our equality objectives, and regularly review and update our metrics to influence our strategy to ensure that it remains relevant and effective.

  • Create a safe and supportive way for staff to voluntarily disclose sensitive personal data including Religion, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation in order to ensure our policies and processes are inclusive and support of people.
  • Promote people undertaking new volunteering packages are from a combination of low socio-economic groups, Visibly Minority Ethnic, and young people by pro-actively promote volunteering recruitment strategies towards any underserved groups.

We will raise awareness that the Lake District National Park is available for everyone to access, championing equality of opportunity to all people.

  • Continue to review and update our image libraries to ensure all sectors of the community are visually represented.
  • Ensure all staff are Equality, Diversity and Inclusion trained and acquire specific communications training in this area as part of their Continuous Professional Development.
  • Continue to develop our internal and external communications channels to ensure that all demographics can access our content with regular accessibility reviews to ensure our website meets all government communication standards.
  • We will provide in-person information from our network of tourist information centres allowing people to have a fantastic experience whatever their background or experience.

Implementation and Governance

We will adhere to the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 by publishing our equality strategy and objectives on our website and making them available to the public. We will also provide regular updates on our progress towards achieving our objectives and encourage feedback from stakeholders to ensure that our approach remains responsive to the needs of the communities we serve.

The following arrangements are in place to effectively manage and monitor equality and promote diversity across the Authority. The Executive Board has approved the strategy and will review the annual monitoring information and any subsequent actions will be reviewed on a regular basis. Every decision taken by our Members at Authority or Committees takes account of the equality and diversity considerations of the decision. We will work with our Trade Union and / or Staff Representatives, colleagues and with partners from external groups and networks on:

  • policy development work of relevance to equality and diversity issues
  • project developments, ensuring equality and diversity matters are considered in project development
  • monitoring progress and constructive challenge around equality, diversity and inclusion across the Authority
  • sharing of best practice
  • promoting equality and diversity issues internally.