Renewing our commitments to working for better equality, diversity and inclusion

Ambition Institute is one of 13 organisations to have signed a joint statement, demonstrating our commitment in furthering equality, diversity and inclusion in schools and trusts by taking action and holding ourselves to account. The statement is updated yearly, reviewing progress toward these commitments, as well as their impacts.

Hilary Spencer, CEO of Ambition Institute, said: “Ambition Institute is deeply committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, both in the education workforce and in our own organisation. This year, we have continued to focus on developing the evidence base and applying those findings to our work. We are making progress, but we know we have more to do. This year, we will build on that work across the whole spectrum of disadvantage.”

Since signing the statement, Ambition has:

• Developed quantitative research in partnership with NFER and Teach First , to identify where ethnic disparities are present within the teacher career pipeline
• Shared the research findings and recommendations across the across the wider education sector to stimulate debate and action
• Analysed the ethnicity and diversity of participants across Ambition’s programmes and those delivered by our partners
• Reviewed our programmes to ensure diverse and inclusive representation is incorporated throughout the design, delivery and marketing
• Analysed demographic and diversity data across our workforce to inform future recruitment
• Implemented a new staff recruitment platform across the organisation, designed to reduce unconscious selection bias
• Increased the diversity of our board of trustees through the recruitment of new trustees

Over the course of 2022–2023 we commit to:

• Working with other partner organisations in the education sector to share best practice and to increase the evidence base to help guide our work
• Ensuring we attract, retain and develop the widest talent pool of participants on our programmes by regularly reviewing and developing our content, curricula, facilitation and recruitment approach
• Developing our Initial Teacher Training offer which considers diversity and inclusion at the design stages of recruitment and application processes and within its programme design
• Engaging with the government’s SEND consultation and supporting work across the sector to improve the system for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities
• Continuing our work to ensure Ambition Institute is genuinely inclusive for our staff through continued support for our affinity groups, and through our new People Strategy

By renewing these commitments, we want the pupils, families, teachers, and leaders we serve to know that we continue to focus on improving equality, diversity and inclusion across Ambition and the wider education sector.

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