Council Membership Diversity Policy

Purpose and Scope

1. The purpose of this policy is to:

a. set out the Council’s commitment to ensuring diversity within its membership and how this will be achieved; and, in doing so:

b. enable compliance with the Medr Terms and Conditions of Funding requirements.

2. The Medr Terms and Conditions of Funding state the following:

27.         The governing body must consider the diversity of its composition, particularly in terms of protected characteristics. At each step of the recruitment exercise for new members, care should be taken that an applicant’s ability is not conflated with their experience. Recruitment efforts for governing body memberships should be proactive and target under- represented groups. We do not consider it sufficient to openly advertise a vacancy without taking proactive measures to bring the advert to the attention of under-represented groups.

28.         The accountable officer must inform Medr’s Chief Executive if neither an external search consultancy nor open advertising has been used in the appointment of a governing body member. The use of an external search consultancy or open advertising is not a condition of grant, however, we consider it to be good practice.

29.         Medr will consider the composition of the governing body and the provider’s report on its equality and diversity policies within its Provider Risk Review process.

Policy

3. A diverse and inclusive governing body comprising a heterogeneous range of people, perspectives, experiences, and skills is imperative to effectively challenge and oversee the University’s affairs.

4. The Council is committed to achieving diversity and inclusivity within its membership to enable it to effectively discharge its duties.

5. Diversity data will be gathered annually on all Council members in line with the requirements of the annual HESA monitoring return and to inform the annual review of Council diversity.

6. Data will be collated and benchmarked against staff and student population diversity data and sector data on board diversity (published periodically by Advance HE).

7. The People, Cynefin and Governance Committee will undertake an annual review of Council membership diversity and make recommendations to the Council on any actions required to improve membership diversity and any priorities for future recruitment exercises. Reporting to the People, Cynefin and Governance Committee will be in line with Data Protection principles (i.e., all data will be anonymised, and raw data with numbers fewer than 5 will not be provided).

Roles and Responsibilities

8. The University Secretary is the University Executive Board Sponsor of this policy and is responsible for approving the need to develop or substantively amend it, presenting the final draft to the approving body, and ensuring that this policy complies with and is monitored and reviewed in accordance with the University policy framework.

9. The Corporate Governance Team is responsible for gathering, collating, and reporting to the People, Cynefin and Governance Committee and Council on membership diversity data, as well as reviewing the currency of and compliance with this policy annually.

10. The People, Cynefin and Governance Committee is responsible for reviewing the composition of the Council's membership, including its profile against the agreed skills matrix and how it ensures equality, diversity, and inclusivity in membership.

Monitoring and Review

11. Compliance with this policy will be reviewed annually as part of the annual confirmation of compliance with the Medr Terms and Conditions of Funding undertaken by the Corporate Governance Team.

12. This policy will be reviewed annually.

Related Policies and Procedures

13. This policy is drafted per the University’s Strategic Equality Plan (SEP). Any specific targets or objectives established due to the analysis of diversity data will be included within the SEP action plan.