Machel Bogues is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Manager at the RTPI
As part of RTPI’s commitment to equity diversity and inclusion we have published an ambitious action plan, alongside the joint institutes, which sets out in greater detail how we will deliver on the commitments we made when signing the Memorandum of Understanding in April 2022.
We signed the MoU alongside the Chartered Institute of Building, Institute of Civil Engineers, Landscape Institute, Royal Institute of British Architects and Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The action plan sets out some ambitious targets and objectives and we cannot achieve them if we do not work together.
There is a popular Jamaican phrase “wi likkle but wi tallawah” which loosely means ‘we are small, but we are mighty or strong’. It’s an apt phrase for us as there is an estimated 2.2 million people working in the UK built environment across a myriad of professions in a range of organisations, both in terms of size and complexity. Improving EDI for any individual institute would be difficult, but together, with the weight of our collective membership we are strong enough to make a difference.
When we signed the MoU we made clear our commitment to working together to:
- To create a consistent approach and standard model that will allow meaningful comparison between and across respective memberships’ and help to formulate a clear picture of the built environment sector more widely.
- To develop a robust, evidence-based understanding of the disparity between the diversity of students that start on institute accredited courses and the talent that makes it into the workforce. To build on existing good practice from individual institutes to improve our collective understanding of retention rates and awarding gaps on accredited courses.
- To develop understanding and guidance for the sector, supporting organisations, individuals, and institutes to improve and maintain professional standards
The action plan sets out how we will work together to deliver against these commitments with objectives and timescales that represent a clear pathway for us to not only build a clear picture of the sector, and our respective professions, but also begin to develop and then deliver interventions that will improve the sector and CHANGE our profession.
If the MoU was our first collective step towards creating an inclusive sector, this action plan really sees us get into our stride and there are still more steps to take. There is another apt Jamaican phrase “one, one coco full basket” or one step at a time and I look forward to taking them with our friends at CIOB, ICE, the LI, The RIBA and RICS.
