Strategic Equality Plan 2024-2028

Since the publication of our Strategic Equality Plan in 2020, all of us have experienced significant turmoil and change as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sport and leisure facilities, including our own Sport Wales National Centre, were closed for significant periods, reducing opportunities for people to access sport and physical activity.  Survey data indicates that, consequently, inequalities have widened in participation among men and women and between those who are well-off and those who are not.

The ongoing cost of living pressures are further exacerbating inequalities, threatening to further reduce participation on the grounds of affordability.  

However, whilst the macro environment presents challenges, we must also see the opportunities.  Sport and physical activity have a key role to play in improving the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the nation.  We want to deliver the Vision for Sport in Wales - an active nation where everyone can have a lifelong enjoyment of sport.  Sport can transcend boundaries, unite communities, and empower individuals to surpass their potential.  We must remain resolute in using the power of sport to deliver an inclusive sport system, led by need and providing a great experience for all.  

We must also recognise that there is more to do within our own organisation.  We want to develop and foster an inclusive work environment where people feel respected and valued for their individual talents and the insight that they bring through their own lived experience.  

This plan is not merely a document; it embodies our collective dedication to championing equality in every facet of our operations.  It reflects the voices of our staff and the communities we serve, articulating our shared vision and reflective of the journey we are on towards a more inclusive sport system.

Diversity is our strength, and inclusivity is our cornerstone.  By fostering an environment where diversity is celebrated and inclusion is embedded into our practices, we pave the way for a more vibrant, resilient, and enriched sporting landscape.

I extend my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to shaping this Strategic Equality Plan.  Your insights, perspectives, and commitment have been invaluable in crafting a roadmap for the journey that truly reflects the ethos of equality and fairness.

Brian Davies
Chief Executive Officer
Sport Wales

Our Strategic Equality Plan (2020-2024) was launched during a period of heightened societal focus and growing expectations relating to all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion.  The subsequent debate, dialogue and discourse highlighted that previous work had failed to change the landscape sufficiently or move from committing to delivering change to actually achieving change.   

Our commitment over the period of the Strategic Equality Plan was to listen, learn and involve those affected by these inequalities to ensure that we took the right action to bring about long term, meaningful change. 

To inform our fourth Strategic Equality Plan for the period 2024-2028, we have taken the opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made and the areas of further focus. 

Establishing Foundations

We know that good governance drives and influences progress.  It facilitates effective scrutiny of organisational culture as well as legal and regulatory compliance.  During this Strategic Equality Plan period, we established our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee as a formal sub-group of the Board. This recognised the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion across all of our activities.    The Committee has played a key role in monitoring and challenging progress against our Strategic Equality Plan. 

Sport Wales has also invested in an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager role to add expertise to and insight to our work.  Our learning from this is that it has been beneficial to have in-house subject matter expertise on hand to support the development of resources, provide ad hoc advice and guidance to staff.  This has supported us in moving away from routinely commissioning external advisers for short term pieces of work and to embed change in a more sustainable manner. 

Engaging with staff and communities

As part of our commitment to listening and learning, Sport Wales undertook a staff survey in 2021.The objective was to better understand our working environment and to identify areas for change.  The findings of this survey identified that we needed to do more to make Sport Wales an attractive place to people from diverse backgrounds.  The survey also highlighted that most staff didn’t feel comfortable reporting discrimination.  In response to the survey findings, Sport Wales established a Staff Engagement Group to develop and implement improvement actions. 

A follow up staff survey relating to equality, diversity and inclusion was undertaken in December 2023 to aid our understanding of progress and to inform the development of our Strategic Equality Plan.  This survey highlighted significant progress in ensuring that Sport Wales is an inclusive place to work.  It also identified that staff were much more likely to report acts of discrimination and felt empowered to challenge other colleagues or contractors in the event of inappropriate comments or behaviour.  The survey did signpost that more work is required to adopt an inclusive approach to staff social events, to enhance diversity in leadership positions, to respond to staff needs such as the provision of a faith room and to create a supportive and safe environment where people can learn. 

In 2022, we undertook the School Sport Survey, one of the world’s biggest surveys of young people, giving us rich insight into participation levels, behaviours and attitudes. The timing of the survey also ensured that we captured insight around the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people’s activity habits.  Over 116,000 pupils took part in the survey which highlighted disparities in participation across a range of protected characteristics, geographies and demographics.  The data from this survey has directly influenced our allocation of resources. 

We have worked with the Centre for Digital Public Services to engage with communities and organisations who did not routinely engage with Sport Wales or apply for funding.  This engagement identified a series of improvements to support organisations in applying for funding, building relationships with applicants, simplifying and expediting application processes.  These recommendations were accepted and implemented on a phased basis alongside a new grant management system. 

Increasing Workforce Diversity and Inclusion

Our Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024 incorporated an objective to diversify our workforce.  We have adapted some of our recruitment practices to attract applications from a more diverse range of candidates.  The range of different practices adopted include establishing a digital apprenticeship scheme, advertising roles more widely, including via diversity networks, guaranteeing interviews for candidates from diverse backgrounds who meet the essential criteria and holding informal online drop-in sessions to aid understanding of roles. 

We have made some progress in diversifying our workforce.  In particular, our workforce data reported at 31 March 2023 identified that the proportion of ethnic minority and LGBTQ+ employees was higher than the national population average.  We know, however, that there is more to do to enhance diversity at a leadership level within Sport Wales and to ensure that people with a disability are better represented within our workforce. 

We also have an eye on the future workforce.  We have worked with local schools to talk to pupils about careers in sport, held pilot open days at the Sport Wales National Centre.  Pupils have had the opportunity to experience strength and conditioning sessions, nutritional offerings and operational roles.  Our work with schools has particularly focused on those in areas of socio-economic deprivation and has also included working in partnership with Careers Wales.  Our aim is to build a pipeline of talent, inspiring young people to explore career opportunities in sport. 

A key part of diversifying our workforce is ensuring that Sport Wales provides an inclusive environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging.  With this in mind, we have focused on enhancing the knowledge and skills of our staff through a monthly Equality, Diversity and Inclusion forum with a range of content, including sessions facilitated by external speakers such as Disability Sport Wales.  The sessions have also included supporting staff with tools outlining how to challenge and respond to discrimination and how to use inclusive language.  Our 2023 staff survey identified that 97% of staff felt that there had been some or lots of opportunities to learn and discuss more about equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. 

We have established a monthly ‘Reflect and Connect’ café where staff are invited to engage in debate and discourse on relevant social justice matters.  This has helped to foster a culture of open dialogue, debate, empathy and understanding. 

Ensuring service delivery reflects (individual) needs

Our Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024 included a commitment to implementing a new investment model that aligned funding to our priority groups, notably ethnic minority people, women and girls, socio-economic deprivation and people with a disability. This model is informed by the School Sport Survey, providing insight into the needs of young people.  We know that the impact of this new model will not be felt in the immediate short term but are committed to reviewing this throughout the period of the Strategic Equality Plan to ensure that the model is fit for purpose and maximising the opportunities that funding provides. 

Sport Wales has also sought to prioritise some capital investment into areas of socio-economic deprivation.  Following a successful pilot, a Crowdfunder programme was launched enabling clubs and community organisations to apply for funding for ‘off field’ improvements. Sport Wales pledges to match funds that the community raises with a higher proportion of match funding for projects that support under-represented demographics in sport, and greater funding again for areas with the highest levels of deprivation.  The approach has ensured that funding is directed to projects with significant local buy in, reflecting the needs of that community. 

Sport Wales works with a range of national partners to support the delivery of the Vision for Sport in Wales.  During the period of the Strategic Equality Plan, we have built relationships and funded new partnerships such as the Outdoor Partnership and the Black Swimming Association.  These relationships have provided new insight and supported our aim of taking a more person-centred approach, extending our reach and impact.

Embedding equality into procurement and commissioning

Sport Wales is firmly established as a fair play employer, paying all staff the Real Living Wage and requiring our contractors to do the same, ensuring fair pay for all. 

During the period, we undertook a competitive tender exercise to appoint a commissioned partner to operate Plas Menai.  The procurement factored in the emerging provisions of the Social Partnership and Procurement (Wales) Bill in advance of the enactment of the legislation.  The procurement included a focus upon social objectives and tackling inequalities, growing participation and using local supply chains.

Our procurement templates support our staff to build equality expectations into our procurement processes, prompting questions around actions taken by the bidders, Equality Policies, reported pay gaps etc.  There is more that we can do to embed this approach into our procurement processes and this is reflected in our objectives for the period 2024-2028. 

We have adopted a five stage approach to developing our Strategic Equality Plan (2024-2028): 

1. Leveraging Experience: We conducted a critical review of our Strategic Equality Plan (2020-2024), building upon the valuable learnings and progress achieved.  We comprehensively assessed its strengths and areas for improvement. This critical self-evaluation ensured that the new plan built upon a solid foundation.
2. Aligning with the Landscape: Recognising the broader context, we undertook a detailed review of the relevant policy and legislative frameworks, including the LGBTQ+ Action Plan, Anti Racist Wales Action Plan, Social Justice Strategy 2021-2026, Fair Pay for Women Action Plan 2022-2025, and the Equality and Human Rights Action Plan 2023-2026. Our Plan was also developed in the context of the launch of the Moving to Inclusion Framework in September 2023.  This replaced the previous Equality Standards for Sport.  This ensured that our Strategy aligned with wider policy objectives and complied with relevant legislation.
3. Insight Led: Recognising the power of data to inform effective strategies, we reviewed our performance data and trajectories during the Strategic Equality Plan (2020-2024) period. We analysed data relating to staff and board diversity, pay gaps and the insight provided by our staff Equality, Diversity and Inclusion surveys.  This ensured that our future focused Strategic Equality Plan reflects our own insight and defined areas for improvement.
4. Incorporating Diverse Perspectives: We know that true inclusivity demands diverse voices.  We worked with a range of critical friends representing the full spectrum of protected characteristics. Their valuable perspectives enabled us to refine our approach and ensure our Strategic Equality Plan reflects the nuanced needs of our organisation and diverse perspectives.
5. Collaborating: Recognising the strength of collaboration, we actively engaged with the Wales Public Body Equality Partnership. We are committed to working with the partnership on shared areas of interest.  Our objectives are tailored to the specific needs of Sport Wales and our communities but remain linked to the overall objectives of the Partnership.

Our Strategic Equality Plan is inevitably centred around actions that Sport Wales can take within our own organisation.  However, our ambition is to use the levers available to us to support tackling inequality within the sector.  We believe that this will play a crucial role in delivering the Vision for Sport, whereby Wales becomes “an active nation where everyone can have a lifelong enjoyment of sport.”  In particular, some of our external facing actions are centred around how we can best utilise investment and funding to address inequalities.  As a learning organisation, we are committed to reviewing the balance and effectiveness of these actions throughout the life of the Strategic Equality Plan. 

We are unashamedly ambitious about what we want to achieve throughout the life of this Strategic Equality Plan.  However, our critical friends advised that it would be helpful to balance our ambition and timescales for delivery of actions to give greater confidence that our Plan is achievable.  We have, therefore, sought to categorise actions into the short and medium/long term.  This approach does not diminish the importance of the longer-term actions but instead recognises that some changes require planning and sequencing. 

Objective 1:  Embed equality values into the organisational culture at Sport Wales

A strong culture of equality ensures fair treatment for all staff, fosters a sense of belonging, and attracts and retains diverse talent. It aligns with the Welsh Government's vision of a fair and inclusive society and with the Wellbeing of Future Generations goal for a more equal Wales. 

Actions:

Short-term (6 months – 18 months):

• Foster a welcoming, safe and inclusive environment within our organisation, celebrating diversity and promoting respectful interactions.
• Ensure that our buildings are fully accessible and meet the changing needs of our people and those who use our facilities, giving due consideration to the Social Model of disability.
• Continue to develop and deliver comprehensive learning and development programmes for our staff to enhance awareness and understanding of equality values.
• Ensure that our training materials, communication channels, and events are accessible to all individuals.
• Deliver on site career experiences for children in schools of lower socio-economic status.
• Work with Welsh Government to attract more diverse applications for new members of our Board.
• Undertake a self-assessment using the Moving to Inclusion Framework and identify gaps and opportunities to accelerate progress.
• Conduct a critical review of our Impact Assessment approach to ensure that it is aligned to any emerging and innovative practices.
• Continue to further diversify our workforce, positively generating opportunities for people with under-represented protected characteristics.
• Provide support and understanding for people throughout the menstrual health cycle.

Medium/Long-term (18 months - 4 years):

• Continue to further diversify our workforce, positively generating opportunities for people with under-represented characteristics.
• Develop a behaviours recognition programme to celebrate and further embed our values.
• Establish peer mentoring programmes for under-represented groups in our workforce.

Purpose:

• Recognise that whilst we have made progress on diversifying our workforce, we need to do more.
• A need to foster a sense of belonging within Sport Wales where people feel respected and valued for their own talents and insight through lived experience.

Link to our Strategic Intent:

• To be a highly valued organisation
• To be person-centred
• Ensure everyone has the opportunity to be active through sport

Monitoring Progress

• Workforce and recruitment diversity data (Aim: to increase diversity of workforce and applicants to Sport Wales)
• Training (Aim: to develop a comprehensive suite of accessible training content and to maximise completion rates for any mandatory training)
• Reported incidents of discrimination or bias (Aim: to reduce/eliminate acts of discrimination whilst also fostering a culture where staff feel able to challenge and/or report incidents when witnessed)
• Audits of our facilities (Aim: to ensure that our facilities are fully accessible)
• Staff engagement surveys (Aim: to embed an inclusive organisational culture within Sport Wales with high levels of staff engagement)

Alignment with legislative and policy context

Welsh Government’s Equality and Human Rights Action Plan 2023-2026, which states that “we will work to create a more inclusive and equitable Wales, where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.”  This objective aligns with the Welsh Government goal of creating a more inclusive workplace. 

Welsh Government’s Social Justice Strategy 2021-2026, which states that “we will work to create a more just and inclusive Wales, where everyone has equal opportunities to succeed.” This objective aligns with the Welsh Government goal of creating a more inclusive society. 

Welsh Government’s commitment to applying the Social Model of Disability.

Objective 2:  Eliminate pay gaps

Pay gaps based on protected characteristics create unfairness and hinder talent retention. Eliminating pay gaps strengthens Sport Wales's commitment to equality and sets an example for the wider sports sector.

The actions below (and under objective 1) incorporate our Gender Pay Action Plan. 

Actions:

Short-term (6 months – 18 months):

• Conduct regular pay gap audits disaggregated by protected characteristics.
• Continue to pay the Real Living Wage.
• Positively encourage female, ethnic minority and disabled applicants for senior leadership roles.

Medium/Long-term (18 months - 4 years):

• Explore ethnicity / disability / sexual orientation pay gap reporting alongside gender reporting.
• Offering targeted mentoring opportunities for under-represented groups.
• Progression and succession planning across directorates with a focus on diverse talent pipelines.
• Female leadership development programme / Remove any barriers to encourage female applicants to partake in leadership development programmes (depending on findings of short-term actions).
• Implement targeted interventions to close identified pay gaps.

Purpose:

• The Sport Wales reported gender pay gap at 31 March 2023 was 7%.  Whilst this is below the national average, we are committed to eliminating this gap.
• Data indicates that there are pay gaps related to other protected characteristics, including ethnicity and sexual orientation, albeit that this information does not yet meet minimum statistical reporting levels.

Link to our Strategic Intent:

• To be a highly valued organisation
• Long term
• To be person-centred

Monitoring Progress

• Annual gender pay gap reporting (Aim: to eliminate identified gender pay gap)
• Workforce diversity data including at leadership level (Aim: to achieve a more diverse workforce across Sport Wales)
• Pay gap data analysed by protected characteristics (Aim: to eliminate pay gaps across protected characteristics)

Alignment with legislative and policy context

Welsh Government’s Fair Pay for Women in Wales Action Plan 2022-2025 which states that “we will work with employers to ensure that women are paid fairly and that pay gaps are closed.” This objective aligns with the Welsh Government’s goal of closing the gender pay gap.

Objective 3:  Embed socially responsible procurement at Sport Wales

Integrating social responsibility considerations into procurement fosters positive economic, social, and environmental impacts. This aligns with the Welsh Government's commitment to sustainable development and tackling inequalities.

Actions:

Short-term (6 months – 18 months):

• Review our procurement processes and procedures to make it easier for small businesses to work with us.
• Develop an overarching Procurement Strategy that embeds consideration of social value and sustainability.
• Train staff on the new procurement approach (if existing framework is already developed).
• Collaborate with partner organizations such as WRAP Cymru to share best practices and identify emerging good practices for social value and sustainability.

Medium/Long-term (18 months - 4 years):

• Implement streamlined procedures and support mechanisms for small businesses to participate in Sport Wales's procurement processes.
• Monitor the impact of socially responsible procurement initiatives on social value, sustainability, and small business engagement.

Purpose:

• We want to be an exemplar organisation for adopting a socially responsible approach to our procurement, leveraging our influence to enhance the social, cultural, environmental and economic wellbeing within Wales.

Link to our Strategic Intent:

• To be a highly valued organisation
• To be person-centred

Monitoring Progress

• Contracts Register (Aim: greater transparency of procurement activity)
• Data on supply chains, including ‘local’ contract awards and SME spend (Aim: to support a circular economy approach and support local supply chains)
• Reported carbon emissions (Aim: reduced carbon emissions).

Alignment with legislative and policy context

The Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 requires Sport Wales to put environmental, social, economic and cultural wellbeing at the heart of procurement activity.

Welsh Government’s Equality and Human Rights Action Plan 2023-2026 which states that “we will work to ensure that all public bodies in Wales are equipped with the knowledge and skills to implement equality and human rights principles.”  This objective aligns with the Welsh Government goal of ensuring that all public bodies are aware of their equality and human rights obligations.  

Objective 4:  Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement within Sport Wales and with partner organisations

A culture of continuous improvement ensures adaptation to changing needs, embraces innovation, and drives excellence in delivering on strategic objectives. It aligns with the Welsh Government's focus on public service excellence and the Moving to Inclusion Framework approach of self-reflection and continuous improvement. 

Actions:

Short-term (6 months – 18 months):

• Conduct thorough user testing of the School Sport Survey to ensure inclusivity and accessibility for all young people.
• Use data and insight from staff surveys to identify immediate areas for improvement and service adjustments.
• Implement the learning from our review of the community investment approach to ensure that our process for receiving and monitoring funding is accessible to all communities.
• Review the impact of changes to the investment model on partners to ensure that the intended outcome of addressing participation gaps in underserved communities is progressing.
• Develop a revised Capability Framework, supporting continuous improvement of partner organisations so that they are sustainable and best prepared to achieve their potential.  This will include consideration of board diversity and cultures.
• Consider the learning from partner’s implementation of the Moving to Inclusion Framework.

Medium/Long-term (18 months - 4 years):

• Foster a culture of collaboration and knowledge exchange to drive progress towards equity and inclusion.
• Deploy our service design team to adopt a user needs approach to key projects and areas of change, particularly in the digital space.
• Establish a system for tracking the long-term impact of changes and interventions on addressing equity and accessibility goals.

Purpose:

• We are a learning organisation and committed to responding in an agile way to the needs of our staff and the people of Wales.
• We are committed to the Moving to Inclusion Framework, which encourages the development of inclusive practice via self-reflection and continuous improvement.
• We want to maximise the impact of all that we do to deliver the Vision for Sport in Wales.

Link to our Strategic Intent:

• To bring people together for the long-term
• To be person-centred
• To be a highly valued organisation

Monitoring Progress

• New and different organisations / requests for funding (Aim: to increase our reach and investment into more diverse organisations who have not typically approached us for funding)
• Participation rates (Aim: to reduce participation gaps as identified in relevant national surveys)
• Growth of diversity and inclusion in sports sector leadership roles and workforce in Wales.

Alignment with Welsh Government 

This objective aligns with the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015

We recognise the vital importance of data and insight to both monitor and drive progress during the Strategic Equality Plan period.  We collect a wide range of robust data across a range of areas, including workforce (across all protected characteristics), participation rates, demand and investments.  We also routinely work with academia on specific research projects that assist us in considering intersectionality aspects of inequality.

Sport Wales will publish the following information in its annual Public Equality Duty report:

1. An update of progress against the Strategic Equality Plan objectives
2. Staff diversity data
3. Board member diversity data
4. Recruitment diversity monitoring
5. New starters / leavers diversity data
6. Gender pay gap
7. Pay gap related to other protected characteristics (where statistically possible)
8. Complaints, Grievances, Disciplinaries
9. Training information 
10. Participation data (including National Survey for Wales and School Sport Survey)
11. Investments analysed across priority areas

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee will play a key role in monitoring and challenging progress throughout the Strategic Equality Plan period. 

Integrated Impact Assessment 

Sport Wales uses an Integrated Impact Assessment tool to understand the potential impact of proposed changes to policy or practices.  This is typically a collaborative and iterative document aimed at developing an understanding of the impact on those with protected characteristics and our wider public duties.  The tool enables Sport Wales to develop mitigating actions if any negative impact is identified or to identify opportunities to consider how a positive impact can be further enhanced.