Interact Roleplay Policies

Interact Roleplay Ltd is committed to providing high quality drama-based performance management including, training, recruitment and assessment services. Interact fully take into account the health and safety of its delegates, its actors/trainers, the public and any other contractors.

Health & safety procedures, preparation & planning

During the planning and rehearsal of any training/role-play session, Interact Roleplay Ltd will seek to gain relevant information related to health and safety.

The necessary arrangements will then be planned for, by means of proper consultation with
our clients and the proposed venue.

The planning of the event can then take this information into account, so that any health
and safety issues have been addressed in advance. This may include:

• Location of venue, relevant travel arrangements, parking information
• Any lone-working considerations
• Information re fire exits, fire alarms, and evacuation
• Location of toilets
• Location of first aid
• Location of/access to emergency help, if required
• Information on the safe use of any equipment to be used during the event
• Psychological, emotional, or physical needs of delegates and role actors which may be relevant to the topic, the method of delivery and the location or nature of the venue
• Reporting Procedure for any incident, accident, hazard, or near miss.

Service provision

Interact Roleplay Ltd will ensure that it fully meets its health and safety duties, both to clients, delegates and its own actors / employees as described below:

• All actors/trainers to be given all relevant information regarding each event
• All actors/trainers to be made fully aware of Interact Roleplay Ltd’s Health & Safety Policy and will be expected to share their commitment to it
• All actors/trainers to be made aware of the relevant Health & Safety arrangements by the
client organisation
• All actors/trainers to be made aware of their general duties under Health & Safety legislation
to work safely, work within H&S procedures, to risk assess any activity or venue, and to report any hazard
• All actors/trainers to have planned or made themselves aware of any health and safety needs
of the delegate group before the start of an event
• As such, all actors/trainers to have familiarised themselves with H&S arrangements at each
venue, including location of toilets, fire alarms, fire exits, fire drill arrangements and  evacuation arrangements.

Evaluation/ongoing monitoring

Interact Roleplay Ltd will encourage our clients to address with us any health and safety issues within the evaluation and ongoing quality monitoring of training/development events.

including:

• Making note of any health and safety issues after each event
• Making note of how we, as a company, address such issues
• Making a plan regarding any change we need to make to ensure constantly improving health and safety for all concerned.

Investigation & complaints procedure

Abi Gemmell (Director) will carry out any investigation into any accidents/incidents or near-misses that have occurred at a training event where Interact have provided their services. Our clients will be fully informed of this and involved as appropriate.

Complaints

Any complaint or concern regarding health and safety from a delegate or client will be addressed immediately by either an Interact Company Director or appropriate Client Contact.

That Interact representative will report to the company on how the issue has been addressed or rectified from the point of view of the participant or client.

Abi Gemmell will also notify the client in writing of any complaint/concern expressed by a
participant or anyone else involved in the process.

Where the concern or complaint has not been fully addressed from the point of view of the
client, Abi Gemmell will involve the contract manager in deciding how the complaint or concern will best be addressed.

Any concerns or complaints will be fully analysed to ensure that relevant lessons are learned from what happened and the experience will be used to improve the future health and safety provision.

Premises

All premises organised by Interact Roleplay Ltd will have a full risk assessment carried out to ensure their safe use.
Risk assessments will also be carried out for any specific activity and if necessary, risk reduction measures will be put in place accordingly.

QUALITY ASSURANCE POLICY STATEMENT

Quality is an integral business principle of Interact Roleplay Ltd

Interact Roleplay Ltd are committed to providing
its clients, suppliers, employees and actors with the highest quality of service.

Interact Roleplay Ltdare committed to meeting all your specific requirements and delivering all our services, on time and within agreed budgets.

Our quality assurance is demonstrated through all our references and evaluation reviews from our clients.

Where potential quality lapses may arise, Interact Roleplay Ltd will provide suitable preventative and corrective measures.

Interact Roleplay Ltd will constantly strive to meet and surpass your Expectations through our professional, personal and committed approach to every project.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Interact Roleplay Limited is committed to minimising the impact of our business operations on the environment.

We seek to:

• Continuously improve our environmental performance and integrate recognised
environmental management best practice into our business operations
• Reduce our consumption of resources and improve the efficient use of those resources
• Measure and take action to reduce the carbon footprint of our business activities e.g. car share whenever possible
• Manage waste generated from our business operations according to the principles of
reduction, re-use and recycling
• Manage our business operations to prevent pollution
• Give due consideration to environmental issues and energy performance in all locations and use of buildings
• Ensure environmental, including climate change, criteria are taken into account in the procurement of goods and services
• Comply as a minimum with all relevant environmental legislation as well as other
environmental requirements to which the company subscribes.

To meet our commitments we will:

• Regularly review our environmental policies and performance, and allocate resources for their effective direction and implementation
• Set and monitor key objectives and targets for managing our environmental performance at least annually
• Communicate the importance of environmental issues to our people through training and web information
• Work together with our teams, partners and suppliers to promote improved environmental performance
• Promote appropriate consideration of sustainability and environmental issues in the
services we provide to our clients.

This statement represents our general position on environmental issues, and the policies and practices we will apply in conducting our business.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND DIVERSITY POLICY

GENERAL

1.1 Interact Roleplay openly embraces diversity and will seek to promote the benefits of diversity in all of our business activities. We will seek to develop a business culture that reflects that belief. We will continue to widen the media in which we recruit to ensure as diverse an employee and candidate base as possible. We will strive to make sure that our clients meet their own diversity targets.

Interact Roleplay is committed to diversity and will promote diversity for all employees, workers and applicants and shall adhere to such a policy at all times. We will review on an on-going basis all aspects of recruitment to avoid unlawful or undesirable discrimination.  Interact Roleplay will treat everyone equally irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, political beliefs or membership or non-membership of a Trade Union or spent convictions, and places an obligation upon all staff to respect and act in accordance with the policy. Interact Roleplay is committed to providing training for its entire staff in equal opportunities practice.

Interact Roleplay shall not discriminate unlawfully when deciding which person is submitted for an assignment, or in any terms of employment or terms of engagement for temporary workers. Interact Roleplay will ensure that each candidate is assessed only in accordance with the candidate’s merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the relevant duties required by the particular client.

1.2 Interact Roleplay will not accept instructions from clients that indicate an intention to discriminate unlawfully.

1.3  DISCRIMINATION
Unlawful discrimination occurs in the following circumstances:

Direct discrimination

 Direct discrimination occurs where one individual treats or would treat another individual less favourably on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, political beliefs (“the protected categories”).

It is unlawful for a role play company to discriminate against a person on the grounds that they are members of a protected category. -

in the terms on which the role play company offers to provide any of its services;

by refusing or deliberately omitting to provide any of its services;

in the way it provides any of its services.

Direct discrimination would also occur if a role play company accepted and acted upon a job from an employer which states that certain persons are unacceptable because they are members of a protected category, unless one of the exceptions applies, for instance, the job demands a genuine requirement or, in the case of age, the discrimination can be lawfully justified.

 1.4 Indirect Discrimination

Indirect discrimination occurs where an agency or employer applies a provision, criterion or practice generally, but which is such that a proportion of persons in a protected category who can comply with it are considerably smaller than the proportion of persons who are not in that protected category.

Indirect discrimination would also occur if a director acted upon an indirectly discriminatory instruction from a client.

2.3 DISABLED PERSONS

2.3.1 Direct Discrimination

Direct discrimination against a person occurs where, if for a reason which relates to the disabled person's disability, an individual:

treats him less favourably than he treats, or would treat others to whom that reason does not or would not apply, and,

the employer cannot show that the treatment in question is justified.

Or

If on the ground of a disabled person’s disability, he treats the disabled person less favourably than he treats or would treat a person not having that particular disability, whose relevant circumstances, including his abilities, are the same as, or not materially different from, those of the disabled person. This type of direct discrimination can never be justified.

2.3.2 Duty to make reasonable adjustments and to provide auxiliary aids and services

This is a similar protection to indirect discrimination in the other protected categories.

Where a provision, criterion or practice applied by or on behalf of an employer,
or any physical feature of the employer’s premises, places a disabled person at a
substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled, it will be
the duty of an employer to take such steps as are reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, to remove the provision, criterion, practice or physical feature.

Agencies must take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if this would make it easier for the disabled person to use their services. For instance, an appropriate auxiliary aid or service can include the provision of information on audiotape or provision of a sign language interpreter.

Interact Roleplay will not discriminate against a disabled person on the grounds of disability -

1. in the arrangements i.e. arrangements for selection for determining to whom a job should be offered; or

2. in the terms on which employment or engagement of temporary workers is offered; or

3. by refusing to offer, or deliberately not offering the disabled person a job for reasons connected with their disability; or

4. in the opportunities afforded to the person for receiving any benefit, or by refusing to afford, or deliberately not affording him or her any such opportunity; or

5. by subjecting him or her to any other detriment (detriment will include refusal of training or transfer, demotion, reduction of wage, or harassment).

Interact Roleplay will accordingly make career opportunities available to all people with disabilities and every practical effort will be made to provide for the needs of staff, candidates and clients.

Wherever possible Interact Roleplay will make reasonable adjustments to hallways, passages and doors in order to provide and improve means of access for disabled employees and workers. However, this may not always be feasible, due to circumstances creating such difficulties as to render such adjustments as being beyond what is reasonable in all the circumstances.

3. AGE DISCRIMINATION

Interact Roleplay will not discriminate directly or indirectly, harass or victimise any person on the grounds of their age. We will actively recruit all ages and encourage clients not to include any age criteria in job specifications and every attempt will be made to persuade clients to cover the age spectrum.

Interact Roleplay is committed to recruiting and retaining employees whose skills, experience, and attitude are suitable for the requirements of the various positions regardless of age.

No age requirements will be stated in any job advertisements on behalf of the company.

Interact Roleplay will request age as part of its recruitment process but such information will not be used as selection, training or promotion criteria or in any detrimental way and is only for compilation of personal data, which the company holds on all employees and workers and as part of its equal opportunities monitoring process.

4.   SELF EMPLOYED WORKERS

This Diversity Policy also covers the treatment of those employees and workers who work on a self employed basis. Interact Roleplay recognises that it is an essential part of this policy that self employed employees are treated on the same terms, with no detriment, as full time employees in matters such as rates of pay, incident leave and cancellation policies.  Interact Roleplay also recognises that self employed employees must be treated the same as full time employees in relation to training situations.

5.   HARASSMENT POLICY

5.1 Interact Roleplay is committed to providing a work environment free from unlawful harassment on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, political beliefs or any other basis protected by legislation is unlawful and will not be tolerated by Interact Roleplay.

5.2 This policy prohibits unlawful harassment by any employee or worker of Interact Roleplay.

5.3 Examples of prohibited harassment are: -

5.3.1 Verbal or written conduct containing derogatory jokes or comments,
5.3.2 Slurs or unwanted sexual advances
5.3.3 Visual conduct such as derogatory or sexually orientated posters,
5.3.4 Photographs, cartoons, drawings or gestures which some may find offensive,
5.3.5 Physical conduct such as assault, unwanted touching, or any interference because of sex, race or any other protected category basis,
Threats and demands to submit to sexual requests as a condition of continued employment or to avoid some other loss, and offers of employment benefits in return for sexual favours
5.3.7 Retaliation for having reported or threatened to report harassment.

5.4 If you believe that you have been unlawfully harassed, you should make an immediate report to our managing director followed by a written complaint as soon as possible after the incident. Your complaint should include:

Details of the incident

Name(s) of the individual(s) involved
Name(s) of any witness(es)

5.5 Interact Roleplay will undertake a thorough investigation of the allegations. If it is concluded that unlawful harassment has occurred, remedial action will be taken.

5.6 Any employee(s) who Interact Roleplay finds to be responsible for unlawful harassment will be subject to the disciplinary procedure and any sanction may include termination. (A person who discriminates or harasses may be personally liable for payment of compensation to the person offended, in addition to any compensation payable by Interact Roleplay. There is no statutory cap on the amount of compensation which may be awarded in discrimination cases. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1994, harassment became a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison term of up to 6 months. Under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the penalties for aggravated harassment are an unlimited fine and/or 5 years imprisonment.]

6. GENDER REASSIGNMENT POLICY

6.1 Interact Roleplay recognises that any employee or worker may wish to change their gender during the course of their employment with the Company.

6.2 Interact Roleplay will support any employee or worker through the reassignment provided that full medical counselling has been undertaken and Interact Roleplay has access to any relevant medical reports.

6.3 Interact Roleplay will make every effort to try to protect an employee or worker who has undergone, is undergoing or intends to undergo gender reassignment, from discrimination or harassment within the workplace.

6.4 All employees and workers will be expected to comply with Interact Roleplay’s policy on harassment in the workplace. Any breach of such a policy will lead to the appropriate disciplinary sanction.

6.5 Where an employee is engaged in work where the gender change imposes genuine problems, Interact Roleplay will make every effort to reassign the employee or worker to an alternative role in the Company, if so desired by the employee.

6.6 Any employee or worker suffering discrimination on the grounds of gender reassignment should make recourse to the Company’s grievance procedure.

7. COMPLAINTS AND MONITORING PROCEDURES

Interact Roleplay has in place procedures for monitoring compliance with this policy and for dealing with complaints of discrimination. These are available from Alan Bryant and will be made available immediately upon request.
Any discrimination complaint will be investigated fully.

Alan Bryant & Abigail Gemmell,
Company Directors

Interact Roleplay Limited, 1st Jan 2011

www.interactroleplay.co.uk