The BSA has collected staff and trustee demographic data since 2017 and we have published this data publicly, on an annual basis, since 2020.
The data is fully anonymised, and is used to help us monitor our own progress against the goals set in our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion strategy.
As a relatively small charity of ~35 staff and ~10 trustees, extra care has been taken to ensure no individuals can be identified from our data, and so in some cases staff and trustees are reported on collectively.
The BSA aims to help make all aspects of science more relevant, representative, and connected to everyday life. This includes effectively reaching and engaging people and communities who are underrepresented in science and science engagement.
As part of the science community, the BSA believes that publishing our data is an important indication of our commitment to the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda. By demonstrating our openness and willingness to learn from best practice, we strengthen our position to encourage others in doing the same.
Our response rate is usually ~80% amongst staff and ~70% for trustees; although it varies each year. Therefore, we recognise that our data sets are not complete. However, despite the limitations and caveats of incomplete datasets, we believe that publishing our data remains helpful for our organisation's – and our sector's – goals on EDI.
As a relatively small charity, even with a high response rate to the survey, the absolute figures are small. Therefore, in some cases we have chosen to report on the responses from our staff and Council (the BSA’s board of trustees) collectively to avoid any individuals being identified from the data.
Given the small dataset, it’s also worth noting that one person leaving or joining the organisation can make a big difference to the data, therefore caution should be used when interpreting the results.
Our staff team is predominantly London-based, but an increasing number are located elsewhere in the UK. This – and the fact that we are a UK-wide charity – means we are aiming to be more representative of the UK population.
We acknowledge that some of the categories (e.g. ethnicity, gender identity) are amalgamations however, these are in line with current reporting in national datasets.
Alongside the Equality Act protected characteristics, we are interested in many other dimensions of diversity, especially those that are underrepresented in science and science engagement.
Overall, our staff team is younger than our Council. However, the age of the BSA staff team is now spread across the various age ranges more evenly than in 2020.
Our staff data shows that the BSA remains less gender diverse than the voluntary sector average (13% vs 33% of respondents identify as a man).
Although our office is based in London, the majority of our staff are based outside London and the ethnic make-up of our staff team is more comparable with the England and Wales population rather than the London population.
This is also true of Council, which has seen a decrease in the proportion of minority ethnic trustees over the last three years. This continues to be an area for further focus.
We updated our survey questions in 2023; implementing recommendations from EDIS Group’s DAISY guidance on how to improve measurement of socio-economic background, which is a complex area.
One of the new questions we asked was about the occupation of the main household earner when aged about 14 years old. The findings are similar for staff and Council, although the spread is slightly wider for staff. This is the reverse of our findings in 2023, where the spread of occupations was slightly wider for Council.
We also asked about our staff and Council’s eligibility for free schools meals when they were at school (if they attended school in the UK after 1980). Collectively, 15% of staff and Council respondents reported that they were eligible for free school meals. This is a significant reduction from 2023 (26%) but similar to 18% in 2022 and 13% in 2021.
Other characteristics
Long-term illness or disability: Collectively, 25% of staff and trustees responded ‘yes’ to the question ‘do you consider yourself to have a disability or long-term health condition?’. This has increased significantly over the last five years.
Neurodiversity: Collectively 15% of staff and trustees consider themselves to be neurodiverse. This is a slight reduction compared to last year.
Sexual orientation: Collectively, 70% of all staff and Council respondents consider their sexual orientation to be heterosexual. This is slight increase compared to last year. 20% of staff and Council respondents identify as LGBTQ+.
Caring responsibilities: Collectively, 55% of staff and trustees have some form of caring responsibility, which is comparable to last year’s data.
Religion or belief: Collectively, 73% of staff and Council respondents selected ‘no religion or belief / atheist’, similar to last year.
The BSA is committed to continuing to monitor the diversity of our staff team and Council on an annual basis as part of our EDI action plan. We use this data to help inform the decisions we make on important areas like our staff learning and development plan, our staff health and wellbeing activity, and the channels we use for recruitment. However, we also recognise the limitations of this dataset – it is an incomplete snapshot and a relatively small sample size – and so is not the only source of information we use to inform our plans.
If you’d like to know more about the BSA’s work on EDI, please get in touch or read more here.
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