EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. Our work involves developing relationships with people from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. Working effectively with diversity and promoting equality of opportunity is therefore an essential part of our work.
Our approach
Equality of opportunity is about treating people fairly and without bias, and creating conditions in the workplace and wider society that encourage and value diversity and promote dignity. It is also about trying to redress past imbalances and ensuring that dealings with clients, customers and suppliers are conducted in a constructive way which does not give rise to unjustified discrimination.
Diversity is concerned with creating an inclusive environment and practices which benefit the organisation and those who work in and with it, taking account of the fact that people differ from one another in many different ways. Understanding, valuing and effectively managing these differences can result in greater participation than can be leveraged for success at individual, team and organisational level.
Inclusion is an important diversity outcome. We nurture an organisational culture where people working and engaging with us feel respected and comfortable being themselves, free from unjustified discrimination.
When we talk about equality, diversity and inclusion at the British Council, we focus on 7 main areas: age, disability, ethnicity/race, gender, religion/belief, sexual orientation, and work-life balance.
You can read the British Council’s equality, diversity and inclusion statements to find out how we build equal opportunities and diversity into our programmes and projects and who you can contact for more information.