This month is LGBT+ History Month – an opportunity to educate ourselves on the challenges faced by this community, celebrate their contributions to society, and ask what still needs to be done to make the world a fairer and more equal place for all.
LGBT+ History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history. It was first established in 1994 in the United States where its celebrated in October. In the UK however it takes place in February, originally to coincide with the 2003 reappeal of Section 28 – a controversial piece of legislation which had stated that a local authority “shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” or “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.
Thanks to the activism of the LGBT+ community, and other civil right groups, the law, and society more widely, have come a long way but despite this progress there is still work to be done.
At Transport for the North we take the promotion of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion seriously all year round. We know it is something our team and colleagues are passionate about, but its also an area where we can always strive to do better.
Our Diversity Policy sets out a number of fundamental principles to ensure as an organisation we:
This involves in-particular the need to:
Our policy aims to ensure equality and diversity in our hiring process and also through learning and development opportunities once people are employed by us.
We also place an important emphasis on the role of the individual – all team members have a responsibility to carry out their work in a way that ensures non-discriminatory behaviour, as well as a duty of care to their colleagues to challenge any examples of discrimination that they witness.
We are proud of our Diversity in Action group – made up of staff volunteers – which aims to champion the value of diversity, continually challenge our practices, and improve workplace culture.
“The Diversity in Action Group is a really important way to further Transport for the North’s mission of becoming a truly Diverse and Inclusive workplace,” said Sharon Russell,.
“I am proud to be part of this small team which is working collectively with the wider Transport for the North community through championing the value of individuals and celebrating the skills and new perspectives gained through working with people who have different life experiences to our own.”
The group was formed in 2020 and has so far developed a Diversity Action Plan which they are now overseeing the implementation of. The plan aims to:
As part of this plan, the group has led an analysis of our recruitment data to understand what it can show us about diversity at Transport for the North; researched what other companies are doing so we can follow best practice; and it is now leading the rollout of unconscious bias training across the company.
You can check out more of our Insights posts exploring Diversity and Inclusion at Transport for the North below:
What does Pride mean at Transport for the North?
Diversity in rail is key to its success
Driven to succeed – What inspires women from Transport for the North?