EDI Guidance and Operational Framework

EDI Committees are essential to the EDI governance structure and decision-making processes of the University. To ensure consistent practice and parity for monitoring and evaluation and to eliminate extraneous effort through duplication of EDI activity all EDI committees are required to adhere to the same core elements. As follows:

1. At Loughborough, ‘EDI is everyone’s business’, the role of EDI Committees should not be confused with the general EDI responsibilities of every member of staff. The committees and working groups may generate Task and Finish groups to carry out specific EDI related tasks however, it is the role of all committees to promote embedded best practice across all areas of the university.
   
   
2. Committees’ agendas must be in alignment with the University strategy, Creating Better Futures. Together | Loughborough University and the EDI specific/ EDI related elements of all strategic core plans i.e. Research and Innovation, Education and Student Experience, International Engagement and Impact and Sporting Excellence and Opportunity. It is the responsibility of those governing the committee process e.g. the chair and secretary to promote this alignment in committee agendas and action plans while members share responsibility to keep EDI priorities in mind. Through the agenda committees should set out to:
   • Identify and contribute to the resolution of emerging local EDI related concerns and EDI development (resolution includes collaborating with colleagues who are not members of the committee or school and escalation to the Dean)
   • Set SMART action plans and report progress through EDI Board for monitoring and evaluation according to an EDI Action Plan schedule using an EDI Action Plan Template (see appendix)]
   • Contribute to developing a Loughborough community of EDI practice
3. Committee membership needs to;
   • Be aligned with the scope of activity identified ib your local action plan so that every member has a clear purpose on the committee with lines of accountability through the monitoring of progress with KPIs and the process of evaluating the success and impact of activity.
   • Have membership that represents and is as representative of protected characteristics and marginalised groups as possible
   • Represent students and staff at all levels.

A recommended model for committee membership is to have a maximum of up to 8 people utilised in the following way.

Committee membership

In addition to committee members, you may want to consider inviting input from other people across the university from time to time as consultants or ‘critical friends’.

Secretary to the committee could either be rotated amongst members or separately allocated, depending on resource/capacity.

See a link to a Template for Terms of Reference for Local EDI Committee ( March 2025) here and in appendix.

The EDI Governance Structure at Loughborough University (March 2025) demonstrates how important the interrelationship is between key decision making forums, such as Senate and Council ,and the vital EDI work going on at a local level in schools, services and networks.

Terms of reference

It is important for all EDI committees to be clear about the scope of their decision making, including how the sub-committees/ groups will report to their senior committee and the type of decisions which are delegated to (sub) committees and working groups. These factors are clarified in the Terms of Reference for the following:

EDI Governance Committee - This is a senior body established by Council and reporting to Senate and Council. Its purpose is to give assurance that the university is compliant with EDI legislation and external regulations and is making appropriate progress meeting key performance indicators. This committee is chaired by a member of the University Executive Board.

EDI Board - This is subcommittee of EDI Governance Committee, reporting to EDI Governance Committee. Its purpose is to guide and inform the operation of EDI through identified best practice and provides a schedule for reporting on the progress of local action plans and a framework for monitoring and evaluating the anti-discriminatory impact of plans.

EDI working groups are subgroups of the EDI Board – These groups are aligned to the development of areas of EDI which represent specific protected characteristics, marginalised groups or areas of university activity, culture or behaviours that are known to have a discriminatory impact on specific protected characteristics or marginalised groups.

All terms of reference need to be written on the templates (see Appendix). It is acknowledged that schools and clusters vary in size and differ in terms of their stage of EDI development and culture. All these differences will impact on action planning and prioritisation. However, it is important that committees are established based on the following core STARE principles.

Strategic alignment – to avoid a proliferation of local activity that the university cannot sustain, and which may not meet the priority need identified in the EDI core plan, it is important that local action plans are established with reference to the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Core Plan and EDI related actions in other strategic plans. Local action plans should:

• be in alignment with university values
• take an anti- discriminatory approach
• demonstrate commitment to EDI principles outlined in the EDI Core Plan
• directly co-relate to strategic objectives, and where possible, contribute to meeting key performance indicators.

Transparency – There needs to be clearly stated rationale for issues brought to the committee and an understanding about the committee’s role so that discussions are purposeful and time is optimised and to ensure there is clarity in schools and services about the scope and the limitations of the committee.

Accountability - the process of reporting action plan progress through EDI Board is designed to keep everyone accountable to our EDI commitments and, through the oversight of EDI Governance Committee, to provide assurance to Council of the same. The intention is that the reporting process will also provide support and guidance, where helpful and be an opportunity for reciprocal mutual learning.

Resource – should be commensurate to the identified work required for the action plan). The approach promoted through the EDI core plan is that we take a phased approach to EDI development within available resources, that we will be honest about our limitations and that we will ensure that we work to reasonable and achievable plans to support staff wellbeing.

Evidence based – we will use a progressively strong foundation of both qualitative and quantitative data evidence to inform the start, progression and ending stage of actions and interventions, including monitoring of progress and evaluation of intended outcomes.

Review

The EDI Board is responsible for decisions taken by their sub-committees e.g.  School EDI Committees and Professional Service Cluster EDI Committee and working groups and has responsibility for ensuring that they are operating effectively. All committees and working groups are required to be reviewed on an annual basis (typically at the start of the academic year) with any necessary amendments made to the Terms of Reference, including membership and composition. Any significant changes identified (i.e. to purpose or composition) should be proposed via the EDI Board.

The Schedule of Meetings includes information on the date, start time and venue for EDI Governance and EDI Board Meetings only. Schedules for local EDI committees and EDI working groups will be provided by the chairs of those meetings only.

Schedules for EDI Board will include Action Plan submission and reporting dates for Schools and Professional Service Clusters.  

All Schools and Professional Service clusters are required to write an action plan that is in alignment with the EDI Core Plan (July 2024 - July 2030). Progress on the key priority areas (3) from this plan must be reported to the Equity Diversity and Inclusion Board. Local plans can include further (non - priority) actions that do not need to be reported, at the discretion of local EDI planning committees.

It is better to focus on fewer achievable actions than have a proliferation of actions that are unachievable, so the recommendation is that you have three areas of priority that you will be required to report on.

This guidance provides information on:

1. How to identify the areas of focus
2. How to prioritise activity
3. How to evaluate progress

Identifying: Information that should inform your plan

Action plans should be informed by:

1. Meeting the University’s Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
2. Alignment to the objectives and actions in the EDI Core Plan (July 2024/25 – July 2029/30)
3. An evidence base (local or institutional)

Public sector equality duty (PSED) 

The Equality Duty applies to all prioritised EDI activity and refers to the requirement for the University as a public authority to be compliant with legislation related to EDI such as, the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. The duty extends across the protected characteristics and is used to inform criteria for prioritising EDI activity at Loughborough University. In summary the duties are:  

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimization and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010. 
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 
• Remove or minimize disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics (or marginalised groups). 
• Take steps to meet the needs of people from protected groups where these are different from the needs of other people. 
• Encourage people from protected groups to participate in university activities/opportunities where their participation is disproportionately low. 

Prioritising: Criteria and rational for prioritising EDI actions and interventions 

• Prioritise activity that will support and is in alignment with the EDI Core Plan (and EDI objectives in other strategic core plans) E.g. A good practice model for achieving strategic alignment is to identify a plan with projects/area of activity that co relate to the 4 objectives in the EDI core Plan. Each project/ area of activity can then have a set of KPI’s and success measures, necessary to monitor and evaluate impact.
• There is an ethical and legal requirement to prioritise activity that will address institutional ‘hot spots’ i.e., local areas where there is a concentration of discriminatory practice or structural/attitudinal barriers which result in reports of harmful experience (based on data and feedback). i.e. eliminate ‘hotspots’ of potential discrimination where it is known to exist.      
• Activity which the University has already made a significant commitment to, including but not exclusive to, strategic objectives/actions in the EDI Core Plan ,Charter Marks (such as Athena Swan, Race Equality Charter, Stonewall, Disability Confidence, actions identified by the AccessAble) audit, targets set in the Access and Participation Action Plan and activity which aligns with established strategy, such as, LU Race Equity Strategy. 
• Activity that will systematically identify and eliminate structural barriers, processes and practices which are discriminatory, and which intersect protected characteristics and other marginalised groups (based on data and feedback). 
• Activity which contributes to creating a long term, sustainable anti-discriminatory culture through increased community engagement inclusion, belonging, development and awareness raising. 

NB: Ensure that the priority areas have actions that are achievable for the reporting period. If you have identified barriers to achieving a priority objective, defer the action to a later phase and include the reason for deferral in your Progress Report to EDI B.

Evidence base

Through the EDI Data Project work is underway to optimise the use of data to better understand the experience and intersectional impact of inequity across the whole university community. Over time the project will lead to improvements in how we access and contextualise that data and how we can make greater use of intersectional models for analysing data.

In the meantime, those developing action plans are encouraged to use a variety of methods for collecting data and consider what existing quantitative data is telling us about our processes, beyond staff and student surveys. For example, disciplinary and appeals data, recruitment and selection and promotion data. Equally important is qualitative data that informs peoples lived experience, such as case studies and personal narratives from interviews.

Monitoring and evaluating: Essential elements that must be included in your plan when you report on progress

The action plan must include:

• A description of the priority objectives
• An outline of the actions or interventions
• An indication of what success will look like so that progress can be evaluated e.g. through quantitative change metrics such as key performance indicators or targets or qualitative indicators of change
• Identification of the resources required and confirmation of the availability of resource
• Evaluation of progress against targets (using RAG RATING)
• Indication of whether an Equality Impact Assessment was required and if so, was completed

Monitoring and evaluation process

Evaluating the impact of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) action plans is essential to ensuring that interventions lead to meaningful and sustainable change aligned with the University’s “Creating better futures” strategy. Without rigorous evaluation, there is a risk that initiatives may fail to address the systemic barriers that contribute to inequality and discrimination. Evidence-based monitoring and evaluation enables the university to refine strategies, allocate resources effectively, and demonstrate accountability, ultimately fostering a more inclusive and equitable environment for both staff and students.

EDI action plans and interventions

This cycles through the following stages:

Identify

• Recognise areas of concern
• Establish or revise your theory of change

Plan

• Set a question
• Think about outcome measures
• Consider methods and create protocol

Measure

• Collect data
• Analyse data against KPIs
• Evaluate

Reflect

• Reflect on findings
• Discuss with stakeholders
• Integrate findings into next evaluation
• Communicate outcomes

Equality impact assessments

To ensure compliance with the Equality Duty the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) Guidance should be used before any substantial activity is undertaken, such as major policies, procedures or projects (including those contained in an EDI action plan). The purpose of Equality Impact Assessments is to ensure that new developments maximize opportunities to promote good practice in equality, diversity and inclusion and minimize any otherwise unforeseen adverse impacts. 

Monitoring resource

It is important to indicate the numbers of hours allocated and worked, to those with agreed EDI roles, as part of the monitoring and evaluation exercise to help to establish a sense of reasonable workload and for the impact of work to be properly assessed. 

RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating: Rating the existing position and progress against your targets

Use the RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating assessment below at every stage of presenting your plans progress to EDI Board i.e. at the outset when introducing your plan to the EDI Board and when reporting progress. This is important because the EDI Board will collate the progress of all action plans to EDI Governance Committee, who in turn will use the RAG ratings to give assurance to Council that:

1. Plans are making progress
2. Barriers to progress have been identified and considered by EDI Board

EDI board calendar of business 2024/25 - 25/26

This schedule is subject to amendment while School and Cluster EDI leads are being selected and /or Committees are being established.

EDI Board meeting agendas have 3 sections and attendees will usually be required  to attend only those sections that are relevant to them (usually no more than 2).

EDI Governance Committee - Calendar of business 2024/25 - 25/26

Training, development and support

All Associate Deans EDI and EDI Principals will be required to attend:

• Modular EDI Development Programme (dates to be confirmed)
• Monthly EDI Collective Meetings

The following is an outline of the induction training that will be provided for all EDI leads (dates to be confirmed):