Diversity and Inclusion

Important in everything we do.

We are working towards playing a full role in decolonising development, reflecting on what this means and how we should be rethinking our practises to truly make an impact for children across the world.

We aim to create an inclusive work environment where staff can be themselves. It allows us to be innovative in our thinking and in the way we work to support and empower the most vulnerable to have a voice and build for the future.

We have a responsibility to defend children everywhere – as well as our staff, volunteers and the people we work with – against bias, discrimination and harassment.

We have been investing in improvements to our workplace culture for some years and, in 2020, we produced our first Diversity and Inclusion Strategy - Free to Be Me. It incorporates learning from the 2018 Shale review of our workplace culture, organisational reports from our BAME and LGBT+ Allies staff networks, and staff feedback.

Our D&I strategy looks to achieve a more equitable and inclusive workplace for everyone, and to support the work to empower communities and children.

Diversity and inclusion in our work with children

There are growing concerns regarding the large number of children who remain excluded and affected by poverty, from a lack of a quality basic education and from violence. Our focus is to support and empower children and communities most at risk from being pushed behind because of poverty, discrimination and inequality. We support children who remain excluded from active and meaningful participation. Our aims are to build:

diversity in programme planning and development
good practice on inclusion at SCUK and in the movement, for example anti-racism, sexual misconduct, LGBTQ+ inclusion, social mobility, disability, mental health and wellbeing.

Our diversity and inclusion policies

Disability, health & wellbeing

It is important that everyone has access to our information and resources and that we communicate in a way that works for you.

We have an inclusive approach to engaging with people and children and recognise that we are all different and have different needs.

If you, or someone you work with or support, has a disability, wellbeing or mental health concern, we can help you by making adjustments to remove or reduce barriers you might be facing.

Let us know if you need us to make any adjustments for you and how we can help.

Trans and non-binary policy statement

This policy statement sets out our approach to trans and non-binary inclusion.

We have an inclusive approach to engaging with everyone and recognise that we are all different. We treat everybody with dignity and respect.

We use the term trans for those whose gender is different from the gender they were thought to be at birth. We will respond to people and children using their preferred pronouns and recognise there is a wide variety of trans and non-gendered identities.

We recognise everyone has a preferred way of describing themselves and hope you will let us know how you would like us to refer to you when we communicate with you.

We will use your preferred pronouns and title and will not make assumptions about your gender identity when we talk to you over the phone or meet you in person. If we get it wrong, please tell us so we can put things right.

We published a global policy on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGIE) in 2019 - Save the Children's Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Policy Position.

Our policy recognises there are children of diverse sexual orientation, gender identity or expression (SOGIE) in every community and children come from diverse families. The policy also aims to support children who are given these labels by others when they refuse to conform to traditional and rigid gender behaviours.

We use personal pronouns in our email signatures

We all use pronouns based on our gender identity. It isn’t always possible to know someone’s gender identity from their appearance alone, so we shouldn't make assumptions about a person’s pronouns from their appearance, voice, or characteristics.

When someone is referred to with a pronoun, for example, he/she/they, that doesn’t align with their gender identity, it can make them feel alienated. Getting pronouns right is a way to respect a person’s gender identity.

It is good practice to normalise sharing of pronouns, rather than expecting people to assume them correctly (even if they do) and supports us in creating a more inclusive work environment.

What are pronouns?

Pronouns are the words we use in place of a noun. For example instead of ‘woman’, we use she/her/hers, for ‘man’ we use he/him/his. Gender neutral or gender inclusive pronouns, for example, they/them/theirs, refer to pronouns that do not associate the individual with either a female or male gender.