Advice line: Are you up-to-date?

The CSP is keen to ensure that all members are able to participate fully in its business and that barriers to participation are identified and action is taken to remove or mitigate them.

 

For this to happen it is important that the CSP has information about the personal characteristics of its membership so that we can monitor levels of participation. This can range from involvement as a steward or safety rep to membership of CSP council and standing committees, to attendance at the annual representative conference (ARC) and Physiotherapy UK. 

 

Only by having this information can we identify under-represented groups and take action to make sure that all CSP members have a voice.

 

For many years the CSP has collected information about members’ age, gender, disability and ethnic origin. At last year’s ARC a motion was passed calling on the CSP to monitor members’ sexual orientation and gender identity. 

 

From next month the CSP is adding questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to membership application forms and the online member profile form. An option ‘prefer not to say’ is available to members who choose not to provide this information.

 

The CSP wishes to assure members that we are aware of the sensitive nature of this information and will only use the data in aggregated form to produce reports about the proportion of members self-identifying within these categories. No individual members will be identified from these reports. 

 

The information will be invaluable in helping the CSP equality and diversity group to take action to make sure that all members are truly able to participate in the full range of its work. So do please go online next month and check that all sections of your CSP membership profile information are up-to-date.