Associate Diversity Data

We made a commitment to track and report the diversity data of our Associate Programme. On this page, you will find the latest data on the ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity of our Associates.

Last updated: 8 August 2023

What Diversity Data We Collect About Associates

When applying for the Associate Programme, every candidate completes an online application form that includes a section on Diversity Tracking. Although the questions and options have changed over time, we have been consistent in collecting the following data:

Ethnicity
Religion
Gender
Sexual Orientation
Disability

Our Principles for Reporting Associate Diversity Data

We set out the following principles to guide the way we present our data:

Comparing to the Census 2021: Previously, we analysed our data in comparison to the architecture, planning, and construction sectors. Now, we compare Associate diversity data against the national and regional populations where they work to see how accurately our cohorts represent the communities that they serve. The data on this page uses the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) data available from the Census 2021.
Minimum sample sizes for regional data: The Associate Programme was launched in 2017. Our first eight cohorts were placed in roles across London, the South East, and the East of England. In 2022, we expanded to the North West, North East and Yorkshire & the Humber. The eleventh cohort, starting in Autumn 2023, will be our first cohort with Associates placed in all regions of England.

We do not publish data for regions where we have less than 10 Associates in order to protect against the disclosure of personal information. As such, we have yet to publish data from some regions including the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber and South East of England.

This approach means we end up with smaller data sets, which can make drawing reliable insights more challenging. Our data sets will become larger and more reliable as our programme grows.
Changes to questions and answers: The multiple-choice options to our questions have evolved as we updated our language to be more inclusive. For example, during the first five cohorts, we had a limited number of ethnicity options: Asian, Black, Mixed, White, Other, and Prefer not to say. We have since updated the options to match the Census ethnicity breakdown including 21 options.
Missing data: We have added new diversity tracking questions over the years to collect more data points. This means that we are missing data from some of the earlier cohorts. In the graphs below, you can see how many Associates have been included for each data set. It is also worth noting that some Associates may not wish to share sensitive demographic information, even anonymously. Where an Associate has chosen not to answer a question, we have included this information in the data set.
Reporting on gender and sex: Our method of collecting gender identity does not match the method used in the Census 2021. We give candidates the following options to select for their gender identity: Cis Man, Cis Woman, Trans Man, Trans Woman, Non-binary/Genderqueer, Not Listed- please specify, or Prefer not to say.

The Census question is What is your sex? with Female and Male as the only options. The Census 2021 introduced a new optional question on Gender where it asked respondents to select one of the following options: Gender identity the same as sex registered at birth, Gender identity different from sex registered at birth but no specific identity given, Trans woman, Trans man, Non-binary or, All other gender identities. Read more about the Gender Census Question here.

We have chosen to show gender and sex data using two different graphs. This enables us to compare Associates’ responses to our one question against the regional populations’ responses to the two questions in the Census 2021. For this, we grouped different data responses together from the Public Practice data and the Census data. We know this isn’t ideal and will review how we collect this information going forward to make clearer comparisons.