SignHealth
Shortlist – Board Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
About the Charity
SignHealth is a passionate and caring Deaf-led charity working towards a future where there are no barriers to good health and well-being for Deaf people. The organisation provides a range of services including social care, psychological therapy, and the only deaf domestic abuse support in the country. Its services are delivered by Deaf people to Deaf people directly in British Sign Language. Working across England, the charity has sites in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, and London.
One of the largest disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) in the UK,more than 75% of SignHealth’s staff are Deaf people. It is possibly the only DPO in the world that is focused specifically on health. The charity’s work is varied and aims to promote easier access to healthcare and information; it achieves this by partnering with the NHS and other services, taking on projects, carrying out research, and raising awareness.
Charity number: 1011056 | SignHealth.org.uk
Health | England – London | 101-499 paid staff
What the Board Achieved
Diversity isn’t just a goal at SignHealth; it’s a cornerstone of its identity. The organisation – at the board level and beyond – considers itself to be expert at understanding how inequalities and inequity impact the lives of Deaf people, which guides every decision it makes. The charity prioritises lived experience and expertise, with trustees that reflect the richness and diversity of the Deaf community. The board comprises seven Deaf trustees and three hearing trustees, ensuring that Deaf voices are at the forefront of decision-making processes. Moreover, the board embodies intersectionality, with representation from various backgrounds – including eight who consider themselves to have a disability, three who identify with the global majority, seven who identify as women, and good representation from across the UK (including Scotland). This diversity is integral to SignHealth’s mission and strategy. By having a board that mirrors the Deaf community, SignHealth ensures that its services are culturally and linguistically accessible. Additionally, the board serves as a role model, showcasing pathways for all members of the Deaf community to engage with the charity, fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment.
SignHealth’s commitment to diversity is evident in its rigorous recruitment processes. Recognising the importance of representation, SignHealth amended its Articles of Association in 2017 to mandate a minimum of three trustees from the Deaf community. Through targeted recruitment efforts, SignHealth surpassed this mandate, appointing trustees with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences.
In 2023, the board embarked on a comprehensive recruitment drive, prioritising Deaf candidates from diverse backgrounds to fill four vacancies and appoint a new chair. Specifically, the board was determined to find a qualified chair representing BSL users from the global majority. When the charity encountered challenges to finding an appropriate chair, the board reaffirmed their commitment by seeking advice and permission from the Charity Commission, enabling them to advertise a paid chair position and invest in the recruitment process. Ultimately, BSL-user Sabina Iqbal, a Deaf Muslim woman with extensive leadership experience, was appointed to the role alongside other trustees that helped SignHealth meet and exceed its previous goals for improving board diversity.
SignHealth has also worked to ensure that all voices, especially minority voices, are heard and valued in board meetings. The board invests in team-building activities and prioritised a return to in-person board meetings following the Pandemic to help trustees build rapport and trust. The induction process for hearing trustees includes Deaf awareness training, and they are encouraged to learn BSL. Additionally, SignHealth covers all costs for interpreting and support services (including Speech-to-Text-Reporters), ensuring equitable participation for Deaf trustees.
Moreover, SignHealth invested in a nine-week anti-racism training course for board members, which led to the development of a full e-learning module for future trustees and members across the entire organisation. Significantly, this anti-racism e-learning course may be the first of its kind to be available in BSL.
Equity, diversity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords at SignHealth; they are guiding principles embedded in its DNA. SignHealth’s board takes a proactive approach to championing equity, diversity, and inclusion. In 2023, the board spent time overseeing the development of a robust EDI strategy, due to be approved in July 2024, that integrates EDI principles into SignHealth’s three-year strategic plan, ensuring that equity is at the forefront of its operations.The charity has also begun an ambitious project to replace all policies, procedures and resources with ones that have been created in BSL first to make them more accessible to the BSL community, its staff and wider stakeholders.
SignHealth Received a Special Commendation for Continuing Excellence
SignHealth was a previous winner of the Board Equity, Diversity and Inclusion award, returning this year with an entry that demonstrated the organisation’s continued progress. The entry showed that the board was not complacent about diversity and inclusion, and that they recognised the need for continued development and evolution. The board understood the shortfalls inherent in its recruitment process and worked to create the conditions for a more diverse board to thrive. Trustees developed their own competencies and worked together to create an inclusive, collaborative culture. Their understanding of the importance of diversity at board level was clearly evidenced through the examples given in the entry, which also showcased the board’s work to embed its diversity and inclusion practices further across the entire organisation. Deaf people in all their identities and intersectionalities are actively included and valued at the heart of decision making processes for this charity.
