Wellcome’s anti-racist principles, guidance and toolkit

Wellcome will no longer tolerate racism, and will piece of work to ensure our deportment and decisions do not sustain racial inequity.

Despite widespread intention among colleagues to gainsay racism, progress is not fast plenty. Our information, our

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategy

, and the Black Lives Thing movement have led to Wellcome’southward Executive Leadership Team committing publicly to taking an

anti-racist

approach.

Anti-racism is the active piece of work to oppose racism and to produce racial equity – so that racial identity is no longer a factor in determining how anyone fares in life. Being anti-racist ways supporting an anti-racist policy through your actions. An anti-racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity betwixt racial groups.

This guide is primarily for people with leadership responsibilities at Wellcome, including the Executive Leadership Team, Senior Leadership Team, Board of Governors, and funding committee chairs. While everyone at Wellcome is responsible for anti-racism in their everyday work, those in power are answerable for meeting our

anti-racism commitments

and for post-obit these
five anti-racist principles.

Prioritise anti-racism
Investigate racial inequity
Involve people of color
Counteract racism
Brand measurable progress

If anti-racism work is unfamiliar and you aren’t certain of the best way to change things, use these principles and the accompanying toolkit
[PDF 315KB]

to find out more, to act, and to larn from the things you attempt.

If you would like to admission this resource in an culling format, delight contact Wellcome’south Civilization, Disinterestedness, Diversity & Inclusion team at

inclusion@wellcome.org

or +44(0)20 7611 8888.

Anti-racism is not virtually replacing 1 form of inequity or unfairness with another.
Your actions in support of anti-racism at Wellcome will contribute to edifice a fairer gild for everyone. Our focus on anti-racism comes from recognising where we currently accept the most work to do.

Civilization change happens in different ways, from the accumulation of incremental improvements to large-calibration, transformative initiatives. Whatever action you lot have, human action boldly and put in fourth dimension and resources to speed up progress towards racial disinterestedness.

Wellcome’s office

To take anti-racist action, we need to understand how racism has shaped all of united states of america – particularly by unduly elevating the positions and perspectives of White people over those of people of colour. Nosotros know from our data that

we accept persistent racial inequity at Wellcome

– people in racially minoritised groups face a number of additional barriers compared to White people.

Race is not a scientific category. Fake beliefs in some genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category have been used throughout history to justify racism, and all the same be today. It is the authorisation of schemes that racially categorise people, and the deportment these fake distinctions have been used to support, that has fabricated race and racism all too existent in their impact on people’s lives.

As a global organisation based in Europe with mostly White European staff, Wellcome has to sympathise our role, intentional or not, in producing and maintaining racial inequity.

As the

Executive Leadership Squad
and

Wellcome Collection

best-selling in 2020, Wellcome has perpetuated racism as a funder, every bit an employer, and equally a museum and library. Our founder, Henry Wellcome, owed much of his wealth and many items in his collection to colonialism, and our museum and library have enshrined racist systems of cognition. Our organisation

has also played a role in sustaining barriers to inclusive research, including by producing and sustaining racial inequity.

Now nosotros must apply our influence and ability to remove those barriers, and to begin dismantling racist structures in our piece of work and in lodge.

Principle 1: Prioritise

Prioritise anti-racism work past dedicating fourth dimension and resource to it

Prioritising anti-racism at Wellcome will improve the experiences of people of color as well every bit creating collective progress towards a fair social club. It will brand our work improve and enable us to achieve Wellcome’due south vision.

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing anybody. Only health challenges affect some groups more than others, and racism – rather than race – is the master reason for wellness disparities between racial groups.

At the aforementioned time, far-reaching discoveries and equitable solutions for wellness challenges require the greatest diversity of people and ideas across science and inquiry. We can accomplish this only if inquiry includes a broader range of perspectives – in particular, those of people near afflicted by the challenges we desire to solve.

Y’all must prioritise anti-racism in the same way y’all prioritise other
mission-disquisitional
work over not-essential activeness. Anti-racism is not an add together-on to existing projects – information technology is a disquisitional function of the work, similar to budget and risk management.
Factor in anti-racism work when allocating
resources
and setting
timelines. The action, time and resource necessary will depend on your context.
Make time

for anti-racism work. This may require stopping other activity or taking more than fourth dimension compared to previous projects that didn’t factor in anti-racism.
- Example: the Corporate Affairs team led a project to improve Wellcome’s communications to ensure they are anti-racist and anti-ableist. When Wellcome talks about global health issues that touch anybody, the manner nosotros talk must not exclude anyone.

Key questions:
How much fourth dimension and resource have you and your team spent on anti-racism work in the final month? How have you prioritised anti-racism piece of work?

Principle ii: Investigate

Investigate where in that location is racial inequity in areas where y’all concord power

Racism at an individual level can range from overt detest crimes to less visible microaggressions – everyday interactions that communicate hostile, derogatory or negative insults. The same action can have dissimilar outcomes depending on the context and who is involved, and seemingly well-intentioned actions can unwittingly produce racial inequity.

At a structural level, racism involves ane group having the power to carry out systematic discrimination through institutional policies and practices, and past shaping the cultural beliefs and values that back up those racist policies and practices. Only outcomes, not intent, demonstrate whether actions and policies are racist.

Investigating racial inequity using external and internal data can help you understand where the issues are and target, monitor and evaluate your actions.

Y’all don’t always need to collect new data – employ the
information that’south out at that place
already. The toolkit has more than sources and resources. For example:
- - Blackness employees in the UK are more than likely than other ethnic groups to experience discrimination that contributes to them non achieving their career expectations.
  - In 2019/xx,
    Wellcome made no competitively assessed United kingdom awards to applicants reporting their ethnicity as Blackness or Black British.
  - Racism in scientific do tin can take many forms. For instance, many spirometers, used to diagnose and monitor respiratory illness, have a ‘race correction’ built into the software that controls for the false assumption that Black people have a lower lung capacity than White people.
  - Racism in global health
    
    is i of the reasons for health disparities betwixt people in racially minoritised groups, who make upwardly the global majority, compared to White people. For instance, caitiff distribution of Covid-xix vaccines unduly impacts people of colour globally, and it also stops the world from ending the pandemic.

Equally office of your standard monitoring and evaluation,
analyse past ethnic group
where relevant. Assemble
qualitative testify
to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of different ethnic groups.
If your dataset is large enough,
disaggregate data. Grouping people under the term BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) tin mask of import differences between groups, such as the effects of anti-Blackness.
If you plan to collect data about race, be mindful of the history of colonial nomenclature, the importance of confidentiality, and your reason for collecting data. Use existing

guidance

to do this work

sensitively and responsibly

.

Central questions:
What examples of racial inequity have you identified? How are you lot tailoring your actions as a result?

Principle iii: Involve

Meaningfully involve people of colour in decisions

It is every person’s responsibility to learn how to exist anti-racist; it is not the responsibility of people of colour to teach others. But meaningful interest of people of colour in determination making will ensure decisions are informed past insights into how racism operates, and this can help address the challenges different people face.

It can be emotionally difficult and draining for people of color to share lived experiences of racism, particularly in a workplace context. Underrepresentation of people of colour at Wellcome, peculiarly at senior levels, makes meaningful involvement even more challenging. So, we need to ensure our electric current ways of making decisions do non exclude people of colour.

Actively piece of work to involve people of color when seeking input for
whatsoever slice of work
or
procuring
services. This includes external directorate, consultants, freelancers, speakers, stakeholders to interview, external networks, and members of funding committees.
- For example, consider whether anything may preclude people of colour from wanting to be involved.
- Ensure your selection criteria practice not perpetuate disadvantages – if you ascertain experts as existence at professorial level, that disadvantages Black women, who face more barriers to becoming professors.
Respect

other pressures on people’s time – consider what people of colour volition gain from being involved.
- For example, if you are interested in input from staff through the
  
  Wellcome Race Equity Network
  , consider whether your work supports its current priorities.
Plan alee
before making decisions
and consider whether potential deportment could have a negative touch on whatsoever racially minoritised groups.
- Traditional methods such equally surveys and focus groups are useful, only meaningful involvement and co-creation may mean trialling new approaches that actively bring in different perspectives. This will increase the likelihood of reaching innovative and shared solutions.
If a person of color speaks upwardly about their feel of racism, including if they say your behaviour was racist, listen to and centre the
choices and needs of that person
when deciding how to address the behaviour.
Be humble. Listen with a
commitment to alter
based on what someone is sharing, rather than listening in order to support predetermined decisions or to say you lot got someone’s input.
Respect that some individuals may exist unwilling to share their personal experiences of racism and
find other ways
to involve people of colour in decisions.

Key questions:
How have you meaningfully and respectfully involved people of color in your decision making? What have you inverse as a consequence?

Principle iv: Counteract

Annul racism by taking positive action or other targeted approaches to redress racial inequity

When racial equity is achieved, everyone can be treated every bit. Until then, targeted approaches – including

positive action

– are required to undo the effects of racist policies that have caused racial inequities and unfairly disadvantage racially minoritised groups.

Our identities are complex and multifaceted, then addressing racism involves considering how it intersects with other forms of oppression. For example, Black women experience barriers linked to both their ethnicity and their gender, and disabled people of colour experience ableism as well every bit racism. Intersectionality offers a framework to explore differences inside and between groups, taking account of historical and political contexts while maintaining awareness of racial inequalities.

Wellcome’south focus on anti-racism is based on information that shows we need targeted action.

Use Wellcome’s

positive action guidance

to identify ways you lot tin can tackle racial inequity in your context.
Utilize an
intersectional approach
by factoring in how racism intersects with other forms of oppression.
Challenge whataboutery

, when someone responds to an accusation or difficult question by making a counter-accusation or raising a different issue. Do non be afraid to focus on specific groups when planning positive action.
Managers should be prepared to
take responsibleness
for addressing racist comments or behaviour, bullying or harassment, and other incidents where an individual from a racially minoritised group feels uncomfortable.
While it is not the responsibility of the private to address these racist issues, you should speak to them most
their preferences
for how such instances are dealt with and how they would like to be supported.
- The person responsible for addressing the racist behaviour would usually be the line director. If the line director is the one demonstrating racist behaviour, responsibility may pass to their manager.

Key questions:
What targeted, positive activity have you lot taken in line with Wellcome’s positive activity guidance? What other steps have you taken to redress racial inequity?

Principle v: Progress

Use your power to make measurable progress towards racial disinterestedness

Across moral and legal requirements to not be racist, maintaining racial inequity prevents united states of america from achieving our vision of supporting scientific discipline to solve the health challenges facing anybody, and then risks of racial inequity must be managed.

As a leader at Wellcome, y’all hold power even if you don’t feel powerful.

Recognise where
yous hold power
– this includes the power to make decisions, set deadlines, allocate work, delegate, recruit and promote people, disagree or say no without fear of personal repercussions, and access others in power through networks.
Use your power to ensure you lot, and those yous are
accountable
for, make measurable progress towards racial disinterestedness.
Set
stretching indicators of progress
towards racial equity each year. The key operation indicators (KPIs) should be tailored to your section or the surface area y’all are accountable for, and ambitious to ensure nosotros quickly counter the racial inequity at Wellcome. A combination of short-, medium- and long-term KPIs will permit for a comprehensive assessment of progress and tin can account for yearly fluctuations.
- For example, a KPI could be halving the deviation in funding success rates between White applicants and Black, Asian and minority ethnic applicants in a yr.
Publish your progress

at least once a year, including any anti-racism KPIs you take not met. At an organisational level, publicly report on Wellcome’s anti-racism progress in the Annual Report.

Key questions:
What are your indicators of progress towards racial disinterestedness? What proportion of them take yous successfully met?