The role of an equality rep

As an equality rep, you are elected to organise around equity, diversity and belonging issues in the workplace, support and advise CSP stewards on managing cases with equality implications, and to coordinate the shared responsibility to tackle discrimination and promote equality at work.  

The Trade Union Congress defines organising as: 

• Building a union that draws its strength not just from the number of members that it has, but also from the number of reps and activists 

• Campaigning on the values and issues that members and potential members care abou,t and involving them in campaign activity 

• Reflecting the diversity of the workers the union supports and represents in the profile of its members, reps and activists

As a CSP equality rep, you have an important role to play in advancing the CSP’s objectives and aims in relation to equity, diversity and belonging.  

As an equality rep, it is key that you communicate with your members, your CSP stewards and safety reps, and the CSP as an organisation.  

You will need to regularly consult with and engage members to find out what the equity, diversity and belonging issues are in your workplace, using multiple methods of communication where possible to ensure you can reach a wide range of members. You will also need to find ways to communicate what you are working on and what you have achieved to members, so they are aware of what your workplace wins are and how these have improved the workplace.  

As an equality rep you can expect to receive lots of useful information from the CSP on a range of equalities issues and equity, diversity and belonging campaigns that the CSP is running. You will need to keep your members informed of what's happening in your workplace in relation to equity, diversity and belonging, and share developments from the CSP or the wider world where there will be equality impacts in the workplace.  

Reviewing and making suggestions to improve policies, processes and procedures in your workplace is an important role of an equality rep. This significant part of the role ensures that all CSP members can have a better experience of employment and work somewhere which is equitable and inclusive.  

You will be working in partnership with any other CSP reps in your workplace to identify policies, processes, and practices with equalities implications, and consult with members to determine where improvements could be made to mitigate these.  

In practice, this means reviewing policies, processes and procedures which are directly related to equality, such as the flexible working process, sickness absence policy, reasonable adjustments procedure, and phased return policy (which could be part of the sickness absence policy). You could also be completing an Equality Impact Assessment where you believe policies and practices which could have unfair or disproportionate impacts for different groups of staff (such as the on-call policy, lone working policy, and recruitment and selection procedures).  

Although you will not be representing members in formal cases like stewards, you may well be supporting stewards with their casework where this has equality implications.  

Stewards may contact equality reps for advice on cases where there are equality considerations, such as in cases which relate to flexible working, reasonable adjustments, sickness absence, discrimination, harassment, and unfair treatment at work, among others.  

You may also be working with stewards to identify trends in casework, i.e. whether certain groups of staff are overrepresented in disciplinary and performance management cases, or if certain policies or procedures are disproportionately impacting staff with particular protected characteristics. You would then work closely with your CSP stewards to create an action plan on how some of these issues can be addressed to create a fairer, more inclusive, and equitable working environment for CSP members.  

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has a comprehensive resource linked below, which can help you understand the Equality Act and the Employment statutory code of practice. 

• The Equality and Human Rights Commission: understanding the Equality Act.  

Depending on the demographics of your workplace, you might work in partnership with your employer to improve the work experience of internationally educated physiotherapists who are CSP members.  

It is important to remember that it is the responsibility of the employer to support, train and create a positive and inclusive environment for internationally educated physiotherapists. As an equality rep, you would advocate for CSP members who are internationally educated, though how this would look in practice will vary depending on your working environment and existing support structures/preceptorship opportunities for physiotherapists.  

You could be working to negotiate better systems of support and/or induction for internationally educated physiotherapists or organising around commitments the employer has made that they are not acting upon. You could be working with stewards to find out which workplace issues disproportionately affect internationally educated physiotherapists and influence positive change, so these members have a more equitable experience of work. It is also important to encourage Internationally Educated Physiotherapists to join the CSP for the supportive professional and trade union environment.  

• Information and support for internationally educated physios  

Where the CSP is recognised as a trade union for collective bargaining (everywhere in the NHS), the CSP rep team will have a significant role in negotiating with management. Ideally, the CSP should have negotiating rights for pay, terms and conditions and local policies and procedures.  

As a CSP equality rep, you may be involved in negotiating and collective bargaining in relation to Equity, Diversity and Belonging issues in the workplace. You may at times attend Staff Side/Joint Negotiating Council/Partnership Forum and be involved in negotiations at a number of different levels: 

As a CSP equality rep, you only represent current, paid-up members of the society. You will need to know which of your physiotherapy and physiotherapy assistant colleagues are and aren't CSP members. As for those colleagues who aren't yet members: it's your job to persuade them to join! As an equality rep, you should be helping to recruit members and encourage members to become more involved in the CSP, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds.  

The strength of the CSP, both as a professional body and trade union, is in its membership: the more members we have, the stronger we are. Maximising membership brings increased professional influence, a stronger bargaining position when negotiating terms and conditions, and increased income to ensure the CSP can continue to deliver first-class member services.  

• How to recruit members

As an equality rep, you play an important role in the workings of the CSP and can act as a champion for the CSP's activities and interests. Along with the other CSP reps in your workplace, you may be asked from time to time to drum up member support for a campaign, a rally in support of public services, or to find a member for a photo shoot or to act as a case study for a piece of CSP research. Your help is always appreciated in this, as it is through real-life involvement of members that the CSP can heighten the impact of its message. 

Encouraging members to take an active interest in CSP affairs is not always easy but your energy and enthusiasm will rub off on others. As an equality rep you may also encourage your members to: