As the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations, we develop relationships with people from a wide range of backgrounds. Engaging positively with the richness of this diversity is central to what we do and in line with our core values.

We are committed to equality and inclusion, and the positive action required to achieve them. We believe that our Equal Opportunity Policy ensures that there is no unjustified discrimination in the recruitment, retention, training and development of staff on the basis of gender including transgender, marital status (which includes civil partnerships), sexual orientation, religion and belief, political opinion, ethnicity/race, work pattern, age, disability or HIV/AIDS status, socio-economic background, spent convictions, trade union activity or membership, on the basis of having or not having dependants, or any other irrelevant grounds.  Also, we believe that our Equal Opportunity Policy benefits employees; potential hires, partners, clients and customers, and helps achieve dignity at work, as well as contributing to providing the best possible services to all stakeholders.

We do not have separate policies to cover different areas of equality.  Our policy has a primary but not exclusive focus on seven equality grounds: age; disability; gender and transgender; race and ethnicity; religion, belief and culture; sexual orientation and work-life balance.

As well, we have identified five organisational core values: valuing people, integrity, mutuality, creativity and professionalism.  These govern our organisational culture, the decisions we make and how we behave internally in our dealings with clients, customers and suppliers.  They underpin how we implement equality of opportunity and how we value diversity.

We promote our Equal Opportunity Policy through our Diversity Strategy and through a commitment to mainstreaming equality and diversity principles and practices and monitoring our progress.

For details of our corporate approach to equal opportunity and diversity, please see our corporate website: www.britishcouncil.org/home-diversity.