Our EDI Commitments
At Macmillan Cancer Support, we do whatever it takes to help everyone with cancer live their life as fully as they can. We believe that every single person with a cancer diagnosis, whoever and wherever they are, deserves the very best treatment and care. This may sound obvious, basic even. But the truth is that right now we are so far away from this being reality. The challenges and barriers that exist for many people in every part of our society are just as present in cancer treatment and care and even within Macmillan itself.
This week we took an important step in calling out and dealing with those barriers by launching our new equity, diversity and inclusion strategy to our colleagues. Like many organisations we set out commitments to tackle inequality in the wake of the tragic murder of George Floyd last May. This was a critical declaration of the role we want to play in becoming a more inclusive organisation and creating a fairer society. But over the last 12 months we’ve done a lot of thinking about how we ensure we aren’t just making pledges but turning our ambition into a strategy that puts equity, diversity and inclusion at the heart of the entire organisation and that everyone can be held accountable for it.
Our strategy sets out how we intend to address this over the next four years, by shifting support and engaging people from diverse communities whilst continuing to evolve our internal culture to bring about the long term change that people with cancer need.
It all starts with our organisational culture and leadership. Because ultimately everything we want to do for people living with cancer starts with who we are and how we behave. We want to be representative at all levels of our organisation and ensure everyone who works with or supports us, feels they belong. But it’s not easy. There’s no denying that Macmillan, like the wider charity sector, has a problem with the diversity of its workforce, especially at a leadership level. I am proud to be Macmillan’s first female CEO and working alongside other female leaders in the sector. But we’ve now got to create the same change for people who don’t see themselves reflected in leadership roles. That’s why we are investing in targeted leadership training, overhauling our recruitment practices to root out ingrained bias, and setting targets to recruit more people from underrepresented groups in our organisation. Whilst we have a way to go on this both as an organisation and a sector, I want to see people from a diverse range of backgrounds nurtured and flourishing into the future leaders our sector so badly needs.
The next priority is how we present ourselves to the outside world. Every representation of who we are — whether that’s our brand, our fundraising products and activities, our adverts, our information — must be representative of the communities we are here to serve. We have one of the most loved brands in the UK but we can strengthen that even more if everyone can see themselves in us. So, we are reviewing every element of our communications to ensure that we are not just representing effectively but actively challenging the stereotypes and tropes that we unknowingly might perpetuate.
Finally, we need to make sure people with cancer from all backgrounds feel cancer services are accessible and inclusive. This is the final and most critical pillar in delivering our ambition. Our priority here is to invest further in supporting people living with cancer from seldom heard communities because we know they have a worse cancer experience. We will do this in four ways: through our own direct services such as our helpline, with our partners including the NHS, by investing in a more targeted way, and by advocating for better and equitable outcomes for everyone living with cancer. There is so much in here that could make a real difference. I am particularly excited by the possibility of Macmillan investing in organisations that are already serving these communities, combining our resources with their expertise and influence to bring about wider change for everyone. This is all about deepening our understanding of what holds us back from reaching all the people that need us.
I’m genuinely hopeful for the ambition set out in this strategy and how committed both my leadership team and the board of trustees are to this agenda. We’ve created new governance to oversee this and hold us to account, which I chair, and includes representatives from our board, from across the organisation and our employee network groups. This is already starting to create change, particularly in the representation of our brand and our conversations with colleagues. Our new Perspective Panels, which give a platform to real voices in our organisation from a range of backgrounds to talk about their lived experience, has started to shift cultural confidence within the organisation, enabling people to bring their whole selves to work. An important reminder that so often the answers lie in your brilliant people if you are brave enough to share the challenge and ask for support.
Still, we have a long way to go and to get there we need to be ready to face the inevitable difficulties that will come using our core values of heart, strength and ambition. But I believe wholeheartedly that we can and must do this if we are ever able to say, with absolute confidence, that we help everyone with cancer live their lives as fully as they can. Because ultimately that’s what we exist for.
