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Equal opportunities

A person working in a wheelchair

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion. Southampton City Council, which comprises all colleagues, Councillors and our partners, commits to the following six principles:

  1. Supporting all members of the council workforce (colleagues, partners, Councillors) to be able to challenge discriminatory behaviour or language, including micro-aggressions
  2. Understanding, identifying and promoting the rich, diverse cultural offer of the council and the city
  3. Reminding ourselves that we each have a joint and personal responsibility in upholding the principles of diversity, inclusion, and equity. Everyone is accountable
  4. Ensuring that we strive for real representation across the organisation. Challenging any practices or procedures that might be deemed biased or unfair so that each and every member of the council feels at home within their respective workspace
  5. Creating the best environment for complex and challenging conversations regarding both protected and non-protected characteristics, as defined under the Equalities Act 2010
  6. Allowing everyone the right to make mistakes and learn from one another to achieve true mutual respect and understanding. Reminding one another that we all have lessons to learn, as well as a duty to call one another into the best behaviours

Anyone can take part in the regular monthly training on Diversity and Inclusion, after which you can agree to uphold these six principles by signing our Diversity and Inclusion Pledge.

Disability confident employer

We are also proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and support fair recruitment practices. As part of this commitment we offer an interview to all disabled people who apply for a job at the council and meet the minimum criteria.

Interviews are offered to all job applicants from the armed forces community who meet the minimum requirements for the vacancy. This is one of the ways we honour the Armed Forces Covenant, having signed both the Community Covenant and the Corporate Covenant.

We have affinity forums for groups of employees from across the council for mutual support within diversity, to give added insight to the organisation and to aid in communication. Current groups are:

  • Beauty in Diversity and Ethnicity (BIDE)
  • LGBTQ+
  • Women in the Workforce
  • Disability

We also have a Menopause group. See more in Employee wellbeing.

Read about our superb Employee benefits.