Who We Are

We have charitable aims and objectives that determine how we work across the city and who we work with. We work in collaboration with community groups to understand the local issues that may influence how they currently view trees and green spaces in their neighbourhoods and we tailor our activities and work with all of this information in mind. We recognise that arboriculture, as an industry, is not accessible to all and that taking part in community projects is a privilege not afforded to everybody. We therefore do our best to communicate in Plain English, to have open discussions about issues facing Birmingham’s many communities and to remunerate involvement where appropriate.

We gain funding from a mixture of sources including private donations, public funding bodies, sales and consultancy. We have policies in place that ensure that we know where our money is coming from and have refused to accept donations in the past that we believe are from organisations whose activities do not align with the aims of the charity.

We have paid members of staff who carry out the day-to-day activities of Birmingham TreePeople as well as a board of unpaid trustees who act as critical friends. Trustees are responsible for ensuring the charity is financially sustainable and operating legally toward the agreed aims. At Birmingham TreePeople the trustees are also very active in supporting the staff team with practical skills and knowledge.

We’re focussing our funded engagement work on wards with low canopy cover and high population density to make the benefits of trees and green spaces more equitable. We care about tree establishment, not just tree planting and we support better management of the existing tree stock as the number one driver for greater canopy cover.

Forthcoming

Birmingham TreePeople promotes equal opportunities for our staff, our services and our volunteers. We live in a world where everyone is different and everyone is unique, we place a high level of respect on these differences.

We closely adhere to the Equality Act 2010 which makes it unlawful to discriminate against others, not only in the workplace but the wider areas of society.

Birmingham TreePeople does not discriminate directly or indirectly on grounds of age, gender, marital status, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion, HIV status, unrelated criminal convictions or membership (or non-membership) of a trade union. We oppose all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination.

Responsibility

The responsibility of promoting equality throughout our organisation lies with the Trustees and practised and promoted by all employees, volunteers and third party service providers.

Recruitment

All job posts will run on the principle of equality and chosen applicants will be trained to promote our Policy principles. Areas covered are the recruitment, appointment selection, support and ongoing training of all staff and volunteers.

Commitment Towards Equality

Birmingham TreePeople displays a clear and concise commitment to:

• Promotion of equality for all our staff and volunteers
• Expectation of our third party service providers to respect and abide by our equality policy
• Treating all adults and children with respect and dignity
• Setting a good example by conducting ourselves appropriately
• Encouraging positive, respectful and safe behaviour among staff and volunteers
• Taking the appropriate action if necessary, should an incident arise
• Fulfilling our obligation under the policy codes

Liability

Employers can be held liable in law for acts of discrimination committed by their employees. Individual employees can be held personally liable for acts of discrimination that they commit, authorise, contribute to or condone.

It is not sufficient to just conform to the letter of this policy; all employees must ensure that there is not discrimination in any of their decisions, behaviour or actions. All employees and volunteers have a responsibility to guard against any form of discrimination and to avoid any behaviour that goes against the spirit of this policy.

Any behaviour that goes against either the letter or the spirit of this policy, could constitute serious misconduct and will be liable to disciplinary action, up to and including summary dismissal in the most serious cases.

The following are some examples of such actions; this is not meant to be an exhaustive list:

• Discrimination, in the course of their employment, against job applicants, employees, or customers, in any aspect of pre-employment, employment or service delivery, on any grounds laid out in this policy
• Inducing, or attempting to induce, employees or managers to practice unlawful discrimination
• Indulging in verbal or physical, sexual, racist or any unlawful harassment of a nature which is known, or should be known, to be offensive to the victim
• Victimising individuals who have made allegations or complaints of unlawful discrimination, or provided information about such discrimination or harassment

Complaints & Problem Resolution

Should a volunteer or employee feel they have suffered a form of discrimination, victimisation, abuse or harassment they should raise a complaint with the Trustees.