Last week we launched our second Cognitive Diversity & Inclusion survey. This measures twelve different aspects of cognitive diversity, ranging from protected characteristics to socio-economic background. We carry out this survey in partnership with Included - a global, impact-led, diversity and inclusion consultancy.
In this anonymised survey, similar to the first one, we want to find out more on how colleagues feel about inclusivity at the Bank of England. We are also interested in examining if feelings around inclusivity issues have changed since we carried out the first survey in 2018.
The survey became available at the beginning of NIW during a keynote event with Stephen Frost, Chief Executive of Included. Stephen gave us his perspectives on how the past 18 months has had an impact on the inclusion agenda.
During the week we held events with Inclusive Employers - the organisation behind National Inclusion Week. Our aim was to give colleagues an insight into different aspects of inclusion.
Our seminars focussed on areas such as trans and non-binary inclusion, as well as understanding and improving disability inclusion. Both our LGBT+ and Allies network and our disAbility network have held follow up events that supported these seminars – including an awareness raising event on neurodiversity.
We heard from both National Emergencies Trust and NHS Charities Together, as they explained their work, and how the donations received were used during and after the pandemic.
Both charities also spoke about their work with ethnic minority communities (which have been heavily impacted by Covid) and how they have supported the mental health of people on the front line and in local communities.
Our Bank of England Ethnic Minorities network and our Jewish network held a music festival as part of the inclusion week events programme, raising funds for one of our charities of the year, Shelter.
Following our Court Review on Ethnic Diversity and Inclusion, we know we are not making progress fast enough. One key step we are taking to improve this is to create new diversity and inclusion roles within our People & Culture directorate at the Bank of England.
During NIW we published news of these five new diversity and inclusion roles. We are constantly striving to do more for inclusion and an important factor in that is building a diverse and inclusive workforce. This is one of our strategic priorities. You can read more about this in our annual report.