Our Commitments

Social Investment Scotland (SIS) is a Disability Confident Employer, progressing to Level 2 of the Disability Confident Scheme.

Disability Confident is creating a movement of change, encouraging employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain and develop disabled people. It was developed by employers and disabled people’s representatives to make it rigorous but easily accessible, particularly for smaller businesses.

Being Disability Confident is a unique opportunity to lead the way in our community, and SIS's progression to Level 2 highlights the collective effort and commitment we are taking to make lasting change to our business, embedding a disability-inclusive culture.

Social Investment Scotland (SIS) is committed to a culture of inclusion and to advancing access to capital for women entrepreneurs. SIS will:

• Nominate a member of the senior leadership team to be responsible for supporting equality in all our organisation’s interactions with women entrepreneurs;
• Adopt internal practices that aim to improve female entrepreneurs’ access to the tools, resources and finance they need to grow their businesses, and review these practices annually;
• Provide to an industry body designated by BEIS a commonly agreed set of data about our organisation’s investing or lending activities and about its own staff and leadership team, together with a case study of our organisation’s work with a woman entrepreneur, on the understanding that they will collate this data and provide it to BEIS on an aggregated and anonymised basis for publication in an annual report.

SIS will make this commitment public.

The activities we are undertaking to advancing access to capital for women entrepreneurs include:

• Working collaboratively with key partners to raise the profile of SIS’s Investing in Women commitment including Women’s Enterprise Scotland and Changing the Chemistry CIC.
• Showcasing successful women entrepreneurs across our external facing materials and at events.
• Ensuring female perspectives are represented across internal Investment Committees.
• Engaging diversity-smart recruitment practices to build diverse perspectives across the SIS team, including a focus on attracting and retaining women at all levels.

Find more about the Investing in Women Code here.

The Diversity Forum are a collective on a mission to drive inclusive social investment in the UK, through the convening of sector-wide groups, commissioning research, and knowledge sharing. 

By working transparently and collaboratively on shared goals and aims, organisations can be held accountable and access support from fellow signatories and the Diversity Forum.

As part of the social investment sector, the Diversity Forum's ambition is to address inequalities and disadvantage in the UK, and promoting diversity and inclusion in its broadest sense should be an important part of this.

Find more about the Diversity Forum here.

SIS is now an accredited Living Hours Employer. This accreditation builds on Social Investment Scotland's (SIS) existing Living Wage Employer commitment, which sees everyone working at SIS receive a minimum hourly pay of the real Living Wage, currently £13.45 in the UK or £14.80 in London. The Living Hours commitment will see everyone working at SIS guaranteed at least 4 weeks’ notice of shifts, with guaranteed payment if shifts are cancelled within this period; the right to a contract that accurately reflects hours worked; and a guaranteed minimum of 16 hours of work a week to all who want it.

Katherine Chapman, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “SIS joins a growing list of hundreds of businesses, including abrdn, Aviva and SSE, committing to Living Hours. They, like SIS, recognise that jobs with decent pay and secure hours are good for workers, good for business and good for society, ensuring work that works for everyone.”

SIS is now an accredited Living Pension Employer. This accreditation builds on Social Investment Scotland's (SIS) existing Living Wage Employer commitment, which sees everyone working at SIS receive a minimum hourly pay of the real Living Wage, currently £13.45 in the UK or £14.80 in London.

As an early adopter of Living Pension, our commitment will raise the standard of pension savings so their employees to live with dignity in retirement. Living Pension provides stability and security for our workers now and in the future, encouraging employers like SIS to do more to help their workers build a pension pot that provides a decent standard of living in retirement.

For organisations wanting to demonstrate their commitment as a responsible employer, Living Wage accreditation is the best place to start. By paying the real Living Wage, employers are voluntarily taking a stand to ensure their employees can earn a wage which is enough to live on. That basic fairness is at the heart of what the Living Wage campaign is trying to achieve and why great businesses and organisations choose to go further than the government minimum. As well as it being the right thing to do, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the business benefits of becoming a Living Wage Employer.

SIS is both an accredited Living Wage Employer and a Scottish Living wage employer. 

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) Progress Report  

 December 2025  

At Social Investment Scotland (SIS), we value and celebrate diversity of people and ideas. 

Our mission is to connect capital with communities to make a real, measurable and sustainable impact on people’s lives.  

Our vision is an Impact Economy where social entrepreneurs, businesses, consumers, investors and government work together to deliver meaningful outcomes. 

Through our 10-year strategy Building an Impact Economy (2020–2030), we work to minimise harm and maximise positive impacts for people and planet, while contributing solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Equity of access is central to this vision, and DEI remains a core part of our work. 

This report summarises progress made in 2025 and sets out clear priorities for 2026 to advance diversity, equity and inclusion across SIS and the wider social economy. 

We are committed to breaking down systemic barriers to finance and creating opportunities for inclusion across Scotland’s social economy. Through Financial Inclusion for Scotland and other initiatives, we aim to ensure fair access to capital for underserved communities, supporting diversity and equity as central to social progress. 

Since publishing our DEI statement in 2022 and our first progress report in 2023, we have continued to embed DEI principles across our organisation and sector.  

Progress  

In 2025, we updated recruitment processes to reflect DEI principles, improved data collection for monitoring diversity, and maintained active staff engagement through training and dialogue. Externally, we supported sector-wide initiatives, funded research to inform inclusive practice, and created opportunities for underrepresented voices to influence decision-making. 

Potential  

Building on this progress, we see clear opportunities for 2026. Our priorities will focus on embedding inclusive recruitment practices, expanding accessible application processes, and improving data to monitor representation. We will strengthen collaboration through co-designed initiatives and shared learning, maintain transparency by publishing progress updates, and continue advocating for systemic changes that improve equity across the social economy. 

Questions, comments and feedback  

If you have any questions or would like to discuss any aspect of our DEI practice, please contact Lindsay Wake, SIS Head of Impact and Communications at - lindsay@socialinvestmentscotland.com 

Read the full Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Progress Report for December 2025 here.

At Social Investment Scotland (SIS), we value and celebrate diversity of people and ideas.  

Our mission is to connect capital with communities to make a real, measurable and sustainable impact on people’s lives. 

Our vision is for an Impact Economy where social entrepreneurs, businesses, consumers, investors and government are aligned and focused on delivering impactful actions and meaningful outcomes.

Through our 10-year strategy 2020 - 2030 ‘Building an Impact Economy’, we seek to minimise harm, maximise positive impacts for people and planet and contribute solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges. This vision encompasses equity of access for all and places DEI as a core element of our work. 

In November 2022, we published our DEI statement – detailing our approach to diversity, equality and inclusion including our partnership approach and data management practices. In November 2023, we released our first DEI progress report.

The 2024 DEI progress report highlights the key milestones we have achieved and outlines, aligned with the seven principles of the Social Investment Diversity Forum Manifesto 2.0 our focus and priorities for the next 12 months.

Progress 

DEI is regularly discussed by SIS colleagues, leadership team and the board. A cross-team working group leads these efforts by researching best practices, listening and learning, developing annual action plans and responding to emerging needs as they arise. Our goal is to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable and confident in bringing their full selves to the workplace and in their interactions with SIS.

We have made strides in both internal and external work streams with more actions planned for the coming year. For further details, please refer to the table below.  

Potential 

Potential areas for improvement remain and include creating more opportunities for peer support, discussion and sharing of good practices, raising awareness and eliminating unconscious bias, improving diversity, especially for boards and leadership teams by embracing all protected characteristics as well as socio-economic backgrounds and using participatory approaches as the norm.

Questions, comments and feedback

If you have any questions or would like to talk to us about any aspect of our DEI practice please contact Lindsay Wake, SIS Head of Impact at -

lindsay@socialinvestmentscotland.com

Read the full Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Progress Report for November 2024 here.

At Social Investment Scotland, we value and celebrate diversity of people and ideas.  

Our mission is to connect capital with communities, to make a real, measurable, and sustainable impact on people’s lives.

Our vision is for an Impact Economy, when social entrepreneurs, businesses, consumers, investors, and government are aligned and focused on delivering impactful actions and meaningful outcomes.

Through our 10-year strategy 2020 - 2030 ‘Building an Impact Economy’, we seek to minimise harm, maximise positive impacts for people and planet, and contribute solutions to some of society’s biggest challenges. This vision encompasses equity of access for all and places DEI as a core element of our work. 

We published our DEI statement in November 2022 and laid out our general approach to DEI including our approach to partnership working and how we collect, monitor and understand data.

In this progress report we summarise the key milestones reached in 2022/23 and our key priorities for the next 12 months in line with the seven principles of the Social Investment Diversity Forum Manifesto 2.0.

Progress 

DEI is regularly discussed by SIS colleagues, leadership team and board. Activities are led by a cross-team working group that research best practice, listen and learn, develop and deliver annual action plans, and respond to emerging needs on a more ad hoc basis. We continually strive to find new ways for people to feel comfortable and confident in bringing their full selves to the workplace, and their relationship and interactions with SIS.

We have made considerable progress in our DEI journey and our cross-team working group has doubled in numbers indicating an increased interest and confidence in DEI matters across teams. We have progressed internal and external work streams with further actions being considered during the coming year – for further details please see the full update linked below.

Potential 

Areas for improvement include creating more opportunities for peer support, discussion and sharing of good practice, raising awareness and minimising unconscious bias, improving diversity especially for boards and leadership teams embracing all protected characteristics as well as socio-economic backgrounds, and using participatory approaches as the norm.   

Questions, comments and feedback

If you have any questions or would like to talk to us about any aspect of our DEI practice please contact Lindsay Wake, SIS Head of Impact at -

lindsay@socialinvestmentscotland.com

Read the full Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Progress Report for November 2023 here.