Inclusion isn’t a metric. It’s a feeling - and a pattern of experiences over time. When organisations want to understand whether their culture truly supports equity, trust, and belonging, policy audits and staff surveys can offer important insights. They won’t tell you what it feels like to raise a concern. They won’t show you how leadership decisions are experienced, and they won’t surface what goes unsaid when power is in the room. That’s why we’re currently supporting one trust to build a qualitative strand into their trust-wide Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) review — focused specifically on leadership and organisational culture. The approach is shaped by two central ideas: That voice is not the same as safety, and that ethical inquiry must be both rigorous and humane. Drawing on Robson & McCartan’s model of real-world research, the review uses open-ended, accessible questions to explore staff experiences across five themes: Do people feel psychologically safe to speak openly? How do leaders show up - in crisis, in conflict, in care? Whose voices shape decisions, and who gets left out? Are there fair, visible pathways into leadership? Do the organisation’s values show up in practice, especially when things get hard? Each session - whether a focus group, 1:1 interview, or anonymised submission - is framed through a trauma-informed lens. That means offering choice. Respecting silence. Avoiding extraction. Making sure people know they can walk away. For example, a staff member might be asked: "Do you feel safe to share ideas or concerns with your line manager or SLT?" Instead of a yes/no, they’re invited to reflect: "Can you think of a time when you did or didn’t feel safe? What made the difference?" The language throughout is plain, thoughtful, and non-clinical. It’s designed for staff at all levels - not just those with policy fluency or HR confidence. This is not about collecting complaints. It’s about mapping patterns. If one staff member feels unsafe, that’s important. If ten do - in different roles, at different sites - that’s culture. We often say at Chattan Harbour: “People don’t need to be told they belong. They need to feel it.” And that feeling, more than any policy, tells us whether inclusion is real.

Discover how Chattan Harbour Education Consultancy is developing The Harbour Pathway, a new school leadership programme grounded in the Headteachers’ Standards 2020 and designed for sustainable, reflective educational leadership.