Our society

Everyone deserves fairness, respect, safety, dignity, and to feel valued. We each have things that make our lives easier (advantages or privileges) and more difficult (disadvantages), but these are not shared equally between people. Even if everyone was treated the same, some people would still be disadvantaged or even excluded. This is why we work towards equity rather than equality.

Every person is different. We believe that differences within a group (diversity) is a source of strength. When different people come together, they make better choices because they are better informed.

How we respond to diversity affects how fair things are, and whether different knowledge, experiences and views are included. Some of the things that make us different from each other, like race, religious beliefs, sex, gender reassignment, sexuality, age, and disability, may be protected by laws but not in practice. Additional factors may also include, social class, wealth, being care experienced, and previous experiences of the criminal justice system, factors not protected by law.

We need to practise inclusion in order to achieve equity between all. This means identifying barriers that cause disadvantage, removing those barriers if possible, and taking different steps to welcome and value each person for who they are and depending on their needs.

The charity sector

As a charity, we recognise that charities are not diverse enough, especially the people who oversee them.

Charities have fewer employees from ethnic minority or lower-class backgrounds than public or private organisations. Race, class, wealth, gender, caring responsibilities, age, and disability are all sources of disadvantage when it comes to working in or being promoted within the charity sector.

Academic or professional experience can be valued more highly than lived experience. Even where lived experience is valued, people with lived experience are not included as equals.

Appropriate adults

Although not part of the legal definition of vulnerable people, race and ethnicity, and sex and gender, are a source of disadvantage for the people supported by appropriate adults.

This policy acknowledges the existence of institutionalised issues regarding misogyny, ableism, and racism within the criminal justice system. This is reflected both in the lived experience of vulnerable people in custody, and appropriate adults (AAs). Therefore, AAs create a fairer (more equitable) criminal justice system by providing support for people who are particularly vulnerable to unfairness (disadvantaged). This helps the criminal justice system to better serve the diverse needs of the population, including childhood, mental health, learning disabilities, brain injuries, and neurodiversity.

AAs aim to make the system more inclusive, enabling everyone to benefit from the same rights and safeguarding protocols in place.

Our organisation

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are central and critical to NAAN’s mission to help create a fairer criminal justice system by making the AA safeguard more effective. As we seek to help the AA and charity sectors improve, we must lead by example and be the change we want to see.

Our promises:

• Our priorities, choices, and actions will reflect this statement and contribute to equity, diversity and inclusion, in our organisation, the sectors we are part of, and society.
• We will look for places where power and advantages are not shared equally, and work to change that.
• We will learn about, name, and fix any unfair patterns we see in our team, our leaders, our members, and other groups we are part of.
• We will create spaces where we can talk about difficult things and challenge ideas and ways of working that aren't fair.
• We will listen to everyone and make choices together.
• We will learn new things and share what we learn.
• We will act individually and together with others to make things better.
• We will keep checking how our actions are working and see if we need to learn more or do more.