Natural England

Natural England is committed to “Contributing towards achieving a strong, healthy and just society. We aim to do so by promoting personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion, and creating equal opportunity for people in existing and future communities”

We will strive to deliver this ‘guiding principle’ by living our values and adopting the behaviours and good practice set out in our Diversity and Equality and other related policies which detail how we:

• Work with, and relate to, each other.
• Recruit, motivate, manage performance, develop and promote a diverse workforce.
• Deliver responsive, effective and efficient services to the different communities we serve.
• Find new ways in which we can promote social inclusion, and help the different communities we serve to enjoy equal access to all that local and distant open space and countryside offers.
• Build a healthy, safe and accessible work environment through policies that promote respect and dignity at work, seek to address individual needs, and ensure freedom from bullying, harassment and discrimination.
• Operate flexible working policies which address individual’s work/life balance needs whilst meeting business and operational requirements.
• Apply our procurement policies to increase supplier diversity, and ensure that our suppliers respond to the diverse needs of our staff and customers and offer value for money.

Natural England develops and adopts Diversity and Equality policies and procedures which comply with the law and any duties required of public sector organisations. Steps are taken to ensure they are practiced in ways which foster an inclusive work and service environment where each person feels respected, valued and understood whatever their diversity. Any individual who perceives that they have a grievance concerning the way they have been treated can raise their issues freely, confidentially, and without fear of reprisal. They will be confident that those issues will be discussed fully and dealt with effectively, through the appropriate procedures.

This requires each board member, director, manager and employee to put effort into recognising, and appreciating, both what is similar and what is different between the people we each work with and serve. Our business goals require that diversity includes not only historically disadvantaged groups, such as women, Black and Minority Ethnic, disabled, older and younger, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and minority faiths’ and beliefs’ people; but also other aspects of diversity such as thinking, learning and working styles, education, social status, employment status, profession, etc.

To ensure the success of our Diversity and Equality policies we shall:

• Align them with our business aims and objectives.
• Involve our Board, Executive and Managers so they can give the lead and, through their behaviour, set a clear example in their application.
• Provide the education and support needed to enable each member of staff to be fully aware and knowledgeable of them and practice the behaviours they require.
• Ask our employees, their unions and the different communities we serve to help us develop and implement Diversity Action Plans, within our business and operating framework, which focus attention on their critical priorities.
• Measure the progress we make with the targets we set for our Diversity Action Plans, including carrying out research and gathering statistical data on their impact on different communities, so that we can recognize and publicise successes and address shortfalls.
• Require those who provide services on our behalf, e.g. contractors, partners, and our suppliers to adopt effective Diversity and Equality policies and practices.

Natural England will invest in the long-term effort that is essential to become a successful, diverse organisation. We shall know we are succeeding when we routinely embrace the diversity of our staff and that of the communities we serve in finding the best solutions to enable the countryside to be accessed and enjoyed by all.

• Disability Equality Scheme & Action Plan 2008–2010 [318 kB]
• Gender Equality Scheme [330 kB]