We are a proud LGBT+ inclusive employer that has featured in Stonewall’s Top 100 employers 5 times. We constantly strive to improve our working practices to ensure inclusivity to all, and to promote positive action surrounding the LGBT+ community.
Some of the internal actions that we have taken over the last few years, and continue to take, include:
- Produced guidance on Supporting Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Diverse staff.
- We train our staff on trans inclusion.
- We encourage our staff to declare their pronouns in their email signatures, and many, including many of our most senior staff, do. We also encourage recruiting managers to share their pronouns on job advertisements.
- Many of our staff choose to wear rainbow lanyards to show their support for the LGBT+ community.
- Our Grievance Policy mentions that outing other people without their permission, and/or misgendering or deadnaming them deliberately or repeatedly, can be a disciplinary offence.
- We use inclusive language wherever we can and have committed to this principle for all our policies and training.
- We have an LGBT+ staff network, which marks occasions throughout the year, such as Trans Day of Visibility, Lesbian Visibility Day, Ace Awareness Week, Bi-Visibility Day, etc. We fly the rainbow (progress) flag from our main buildings each LGBT+ History Month.
- Our LGBT+ staff network informs the majority of our LGBT+ equality work.
- We financially support Suffolk Pride every year.
- We have signed up to the Suffolk Pride Pledge.
We hold ourselves accountable for making positive change and recognise we have a responsibility to embed equality into everything we do. We undertake activities and report progress to demonstrate how Suffolk County Council is addressing the barriers to inclusivity, tackling inequality and promoting inclusion.