At Forestry England we know that we are stronger as a business when our workforce is diverse and inclusive.
Everyone who works for our organisation is unique. We want to ensure that every single member of staff feels truly valued and included so that they feel able to share their diverse and unique perspectives and reach their full potential.
Embedding diversity and inclusion
Our Diversity and Inclusion strategy guides what we do, making sure we fulfill our requirements under the Public Sector Duty Act and the Equality Act 2010. More information can be found at Equality and diversity at the Forestry Commission (www.gov.uk).
Training
We have Inclusion Ambassadors that are trained to tackle both conscious and unconscious discrimination and promote inclusion using regular ‘conversation starters’ to increase knowledge and understanding.
All staff have the opportunity to take part in the ‘Equally Yours’ training which aims to help staff discuss issues of diversity and inclusion openly and better understand their colleagues, visitors, and communities. Our professional manager programme has Equally Yours and inclusive leadership as core elements.
We continually work with our visitors, volunteers, staff and external partners to ensure that we deliver the very best service to as wide a community as possible. Our journey is ongoing, but we’re proud of how far we have come.
Staff networks
Forestry England has four staff networks:
- Rainbow Canopy (plus LGBTQ+ supporters) staff network.
- Disability, Neurodiversity and Carers staff network.
- Women’s staff network.
- REACH (Race Equality and Cultural Heritage) staff network.
These networks provide mutual support to their members and allies, to help inform staff about issues affecting them, and to advise the organisation on how to improve the quality of working life for all staff.
They contribute with blogs and news stories, organising events and lunch and learn sessions.
The networks mark awareness days promoting diversity and inclusion such as PRIDE, LGBTQ+ History Month, Black History Month, Race Equality Week, South Asian Heritage Month, Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Disability Pride Month, World Menopause Day and many other dates.
Award winning
We were delighted to win the Includability D&I Star Award, recognising outstanding efforts in diversity and inclusion awareness and support in the workplace for 2023.
