We are committed to making sure people – whether they are staff or clients – are not excluded in any way, at any time
CARE
Improving – wheelchair user Sarah Harland says while employers’ disability provision has improved, there is still more to do.
We are committed to making sure people – whether they are staff or clients – are not excluded in any way, at any time
providing support to clients such as accessing their places of worship.
As an employer, Moonrise gives staff times and a place to pray during the working day if that’ s something that’ s important to them.
“ Within our business, we are truly multicultural and trying our best to ensure diversity and inclusion for all,” says Jessica.“ We support staff with what is important to them in terms of their beliefs.
“ If you are saying to staff,‘ I take your culture into consideration’ and‘ I value what you say’, you will get a positive response, respect and commitment from those staff.”
Moonrise also provides staff with training on diversity and inclusion, which is part of their mandatory training and is repeated every year.
“ This gives them the skills they need to help our clients access their cultural beliefs in the way that is important to them,” Jessica says.
“ It is important to us that our clients are satisfied with the service we provide and we value everyone we care for.”
Sarah Harland, who works in marketing and administration at Moonrise, is a wheelchair user.
She says that while the way disabled people are treated by their employers and wider society has improved over the past 30 years, there is still more to do.“ As with anything in life, there are always opportunities to improve,” she says.“ Moonrise is a very open-minded employer and it’ s very eye-opening, the amount we learn from staff about their religious beliefs or cultural backgrounds.
“ The diversity we have here is unbelievable. Moonrise is all about respecting people’ s differences, whether they are staff or service users, and working together in the best way that we can.”
From her personal perspective, Sarah says it’ s“ unfortunate” that many employers and people working in public service still don’ t do that.
She says:“ Jess and John have always supported me if I need it – but without making it a big deal.
“ Compared with previous experiences I’ ve had, with people looking at the wheels before the person, this is quite refreshing.”
Sarah admits she is curious about her colleagues’ different religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds – and Moonrise creates a space where talking about this is encouraged.
“ I think it makes it a more friendly, happy place to work,” Sarah says.“ We always say Moonrise is a family and I think accepting differences plays a big part in that and makes us special.
“ The diversity we naturally have in the team has had a very strong influence on how we work – that collaboration between people works a lot better for being diverse and having those differing ideas and viewpoints.
“ We just embrace people’ s differences and the different attitudes and views they bring.”
The voice of business in the Tees region | 47