Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Equity, diversity and Inclusion (EDI) are fundamental to MSSC. They lie at the heart of our mission to help young people and seafarers to achieve their potential with the support of both volunteers and employees.

EDI Position Statement

Marine Society & Sea Cadets (MSSC) is a charity focussed on enabling young people and seafarers to achieve their potential whatever their background or future path.  As a result, equity, diversity and inclusion are at the core of who we are, what we do and everything we stand for. 

How

Our charity is an inclusive organisation focussed on helping young people and seafarers achieve their potential with the support of both volunteers and employees. 

We aim to:

• Fully reflect and celebrate the diversity of the communities we serve.
• Remove barriers to inclusion, both real and perceived.
• Become more equitable.

Subject to always putting safety and safeguarding first, no one should receive less favourable treatment, nor suffer disadvantage, harassment or discrimination by reason of:

• Disability
• Ethnic or national origin, nationality (or statelessness) or race
• Religion, faith, belief or none
• Gender (including gender reassignment)
• Sex
• Sexual Orientation
• Marital or civil partnership status
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Age (adults)
• Class or socio-economic status
• Political belief

We aim to appoint effective and appropriate volunteers, trustees and employees from diverse backgrounds, wherever possible reflecting the communities we seek to serve.

We believe that all forms of prejudice and discrimination are unacceptable and contrary to the charity’s values. We encourage all such occurrences to be reported in order that appropriate action may be taken. 

Report

We recognise that we have some way to go to achieve this. As a first step we commissioned an equality, diversity and inclusion audit, engaging cadets, volunteers, students and employees to capture their views. The audit has helpfully highlighted some important areas for our improvement and, to ensure full visibility, we are publishing the full report here. An executive summary is available here together with the key findings here. The audit provides 52 recommendations, details of which are available here.

The report brings to life the lived experiences of marginalised groups across the charity. We are committed to working to support cadets, seafarers, volunteers, and employees so that together we can become truly inclusive.

Our immediate next steps are:

1. To publish an EDI position statement for the charity and to communicate this widely. You can find this here.

2. To consult with our stakeholders and to develop an EDI action plan considering how we might:

   • Develop an EDI vision statement for the charity.

   • Adjust our policies and our approach to training and education.

   • Create resources and signposting.

   • Foster and ensure appropriate behaviours.

   • Enable effective representation.

   • Establish support mechanisms and promote role models.

   • Monitor our progress and continually improve.

3. To externally recruit an EDI Lead to coordinate our delivery.

4. To report progress regularly, starting at the end of August.

We aim to complete these initial steps before the end of December 2022 to include commencing delivery of the agreed first actions under the action plan. We recognise that full delivery of the action plan will take some time. Inclusion will therefore be a central theme of the charity’s new strategy for the next five years from April 2023.

Becoming a fully equitable, inclusive and diverse organisation will take time, but we are committed to achieving this goal and have taken the first steps. We will report on progress as we move forward and will continue to both challenge ourselves to do better and consult with and learn from our stakeholders.