In April 2022, METRO commissioned JEDI Consultancy to support us in examining and addressing the charity’s issues around race. As a result of this work, JEDI produced the Race Audit Report, which METRO published in March 2023. Read more about our Race Audit Report and our initial response.
The report highlighted significant racial disparities within our organisation. These included issues related to pay, progression, workload, and a culture that normalised racism and lacked accountability.
Since our last public update in September 2023, we have continued our journey toward fostering a truly equitable and inclusive work environment. We recognise that the path to meaningful change requires ongoing commitment, transparency, and accountability.
Leadership
Since our last update, our leadership has undergone a significant transformation:
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In June 2024, we appointed Habee Folami to our new Culture role. Habee has extensive experience in anti-racism work, and provides strategic and operational direction across all aspects of people management (Human Resources), organisational culture, and the charity’s approach to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Driving this change is essential in ensuring racial equity remains a top priority.
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In September 2024, we appointed Tony Wong as our new CEO. Tony has a strong background in tackling inequalities and developing practical solutions that deliver racial justice.
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In January 2025, we appointed Alessandro Ceccarelli as our new Director of Services. Alessandro comes with essential service design and contract management experience, alongside a strong background in LGBTQ rights activism, with specialist expertise in HIV care and support.
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In May 2025, at our Annual General Meeting (AGM), our membership formally elected six new trustees to our Board. This brings our Board to 11 members, who not only bring their own lived experience but also a wealth of expertise across public health, strategy, finance, governance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Through each of these appointments, we have carefully considered the skills, experience value each appointee can bring to our continued journey to delivering racial justice.
Progress
2024
Coaching and support initiatives: We commissioned Red Earth CoLabs to provide coaching for our senior leadership team and established affinity groups to support ongoing learning and reflection. These sessions ran throughout 2024 and provided space for our senior leaders to explore issues around race, reflecting on personal experiences of racism; examining real-life scenarios and exploring growth opportunities, both individually and collectively. This work included people taking accountability for past actions and arising harms, and provided us with a framework and the language to hold difficult conversations.
While incredibly valuable, these sessions were also challenging. Participation required leaders to confront difficult realities and the parts we all play in the race construct, both within METRO and beyond.
Additionally, for participants whose experience had been largely positive, it was challenging to hear that their experience was not necessarily a shared one. The coaching also highlighted the variations in our leaders’ racial literacy and baseline knowledge and understanding around racial justice. In hindsight, we concluded that it would have been more effective for the senior leadership team to have undergone specific awareness training ahead of the coaching, to then be able to engage with the coaching sessions more coherently. This is learning that will shape future work.
2025
People & Culture Strategy (2025–2028): In May 2025, we launched a comprehensive internal strategy that embeds equity and inclusion at the heart of our recruitment, development, and wellbeing practices.
While it was important to ensure that the findings from the Race Audit Report informed the strategy, it was also important to acknowledge that a significant amount of time had passed since the report was published. We therefore ran a Staff Engagement Survey in late 2024 and into early 2025, providing the team an opportunity to share where they were now. This was important for both long-serving staff, but equally for new staff who had joined since the Race Audit Report was published.
The Staff Engagement Survey revealed that while we had taken steps forward as an organisation, (i.e. increased trust in the leadership team), our people shared that we still have areas of improvement such as increased confidence in how METRO handles any instances of bullying, harassment or discrimination. The findings of the survey reinforced that our journey to racial equity must remain consistent and intentional and form an integral part of our cultural transformation journey.
Enhancing our approach
As we deliver and continually develop our People and Culture Strategy, we are focusing on the following key enhancements:
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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): We will hold staff focus groups to develop and refine KPIs that directly address pay, progression, workload disparities, and other issues identified in the audit and Staff Engagement Survey. These groups will ensure that our metrics are meaningful and responsive to the needs of our staff, and will ensure we can measure and report our progress moving forward.
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Accountability framework: We are establishing an accountability group that includes both executive team members and board representatives. This group will oversee the implementation of these KPIs and ensure that leadership is held accountable for progress in anti-racism efforts. This will build trust and transparency, ensuring that staff have confidence in leadership to keep them safe and address harm appropriately if it occurs.
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Addressing the normalisation of racism: We aim to implement regular anti-racism training and reflective practices to shift our organisational culture. Additionally, we are enhancing our reporting mechanisms to ensure that all staff feel safe and supported in raising concerns.
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Policy review: As part of our commitment outlined in 2023, we have begun a comprehensive review of all our policies and procedures. Each policy is being assessed through an equity lens, ensuring they actively contribute to an anti-racist working environment and that the language, processes and outcomes reflect this intent.
Looking forward
We are committed to creating a work environment where every individual can thrive. This includes maintaining open lines of communication, regularly updating our progress with our external stakeholders, partners, and service users, ensuring that our strategy evolves based on feedback and lessons learned. While the past two years have led us through a significant journey of reflection and learning, we recognise the need to continually review our understanding, update our approaches, and ensure that we commit to continuous learning as we continue this journey.
We also want to acknowledge that for many colleagues, particularly our Black and racially minoritised staff, this journey has not just been professional, but deeply personal. The toll of being unheard, overlooked, or subject to systemic harm cannot be underestimated. As we build new processes and norms, we remain committed to restorative practice, emotional support, and institutional repair.
From 2026, we will publish annual disaggregated staff experience and outcomes data, including by race, to measure and share our progress transparently.
We thank our staff, volunteers, community members, and partners for their continued dedication and support. Together, we will build a METRO where diversity is celebrated, and everyone feels safe, valued, and empowered. We recognise that we can only achieve this through continued dialogue. We also hope that our work inspires others to review their practices and act so that collectively, we can create a just and fair society for all people of all races.