EEDA - East of England Development Agency

EEDA's values:

EEDA has a set of underpinning values. These are:

• we are enterprising and ambitious for the region and ourselves
• we contribute to the region through informed decisions and effective delivery
• we behave with integrity and are a supportive, responsible organization
• we embrace diversity and work with others in a collaborative way
• we encourage innovation and are a catalyst for Europe’s ideas region.

Developing EEDA:

EEDA has a continuing programme of transformation and an integrated approach that allows staff to develop their skills and abilities, both individually and collectively. This enables EEDA to deliver the regional economic strategy alongside its partners.

Key operating policies:

EEDA has a solid framework of policies and protocols that form part of the ethical framework. These documents, taken in conjunction with the regional economic strategy and corporate plan, provide a robust approach to business and ensure that EEDA conducts its business according to ethical principles. EEDA’s ethical framework is a set of rules and procedures that set out the standards of behaviour that EEDA expects of its board members and staff. It also deals with the way in which the board and employees should relate to one another.

Equality and diversity:

EEDA is committed to embedding equality and diversity in all of our functions and aim to become an exemplar organisation, leading by example. In the last year we have embarked on an extensive staff training programme to undertake equality impact assessments. These are now incorporated at a very early stage of our project planning process.

During the year, EEDA undertook a comprehensive self-assessment of procurement and HR policies as part of the Committed2Equality scheme. In April 2008, EEDA received the gold standard C2E award — the first regional development agency to do so.

EEDA's disability equality scheme was published in December 2006, in which we have adopted the social model of disability. We want to ensure our own employment practices reflect our equality and diversity values and aim to go beyond our legal obligations. To this end, we continuously review all our human resources policies and procedures.

Gender, ethnicity and age profiling for EEDA employees as at 31 March 2008