We want our colleagues to feel they belong at Barnardo’s and can grow and thrive at the charity.
To make this happen we need to continue to attract, recruit and progress colleagues who represent the diverse communities of children, young people and families we serve across the UK.
Understanding, reporting, and acting on our pay gaps for colleagues with Protected Characteristics is a key part of how we will achieve this – alongside our wider commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
We’re proud that our 2023-24 Diversity Pay Gap Report includes:
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Our gender pay gap (which is a statutory requirement)
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Data on pay for colleagues who are Black and Minoritised Ethnic1
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Data on pay for disabled2 colleagues
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Data on pay for colleagues who identify as LGB+3
We’ve been working to improve our reporting every year, and this is the first time we are able to cover all four categories.
Gender pay gap
Our latest report is based on data from April 2023, which shows that with 84% of our colleagues being female, Barnardo’s overall median gender pay gap was 7.7% in favour of men; and our mean gender pay gap was 12.9% in favour of men. While the median gender pay gap increased by 2% compared with 2022-23, it remains below the national average of 14.3%.
Diversity pay gaps
Our wider diversity pay gap analysis shows that we have a -10.1% median Ethnicity pay gap in favour of Black and Minoritised Ethic colleagues; a -3.3% median Disability pay gap, in favour of colleagues with a disabilities, and for our first-year reporting a -1.5% median LGB+ pay gap in favour of colleagues who identified with LGB+.
Taking action
We know this is a journey and our ambition is to make progress every year. In the report we have outlined a range of specific actions including on recruitment, and learning and development. We are strongly focused on improving our data, systems and reporting.
This includes a communications campaign to encourage our colleagues to update or disclose their diversity data. This is alongside updating the categorisation options to make sure people can self-identify as they choose. As a result, we hope to see the ‘Prefer Not to Say’ category reduce, giving us more insight and improving our 2024-25 reporting.
In addition, we will ask colleagues whether they are former Care Leavers, in line with our commitment to supporting those who grew up in foster care or residential care. This data will help us better understand our people and help us make better decisions.
Over the last year, we have been building on our new pay framework, which is based on the principles of ‘fair, attractive and progressive’. We are looking carefully through the lens of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to make sure these principles are put into place effectively.
Footnotes
1 Ethnicity: We have used Black and Minoritised Ethnic as a collective term throughout. We acknowledge that colleagues may describe themselves in diverse ways, including as Black, Brown, as ‘people of colour’ and/or as members of Global Majority Communities. Our commitments support all Barnardo’s colleagues and service users who experience racism.
2 Disability is self-identified and is defined as any physical or mental health condition or impairment which has a substantial impact on carrying out day to day activities and has lasted 12 months or more or is likely to last 12 months or more.
3 LGB+ includes data categories bisexual, gay man, gay woman/lesbian, pansexual or ‘something else’. Due to constraints in trans data capture, we are unable at this point to report on this. We hope to address this for the next cycle of reporting.
Annual Report
The behind-the-scenes. Check out our latest Annual Report and Accounts to learn more about where our funding comes from and how we’re using it to drive change for children, young people and families.
Our impact
For children and young people, the world has changed a huge amount in the past few years. Find out how we’ve been supporting them throughout.
Our strategy
We’re focused on changing childhoods and changing lives. A huge amount of change is needed, but we know we can’t do everything, and we need to focus our efforts and energies where we can make the biggest difference.