Supporting Trans Awareness Week

To mark Transgender Awareness Week, Community Integrated Care is proud to share our commitment to fostering an inclusive, supportive, and welcoming workplace for all colleagues. As one of the UK’s largest social care charities, we believe that everyone deserves to feel safe, respected, and able to be their true selves at work.

Our Gender Identities Policy and Transition Support Action Plan, shaped collaboratively with members of our LGBTQIA+ Network, set out how we support transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse colleagues across our organisation.

Why our gender identities policy matters

Creating an environment where every colleague is valued is essential to delivering great care. Our Gender Identities Policy is designed to:

Promote Inclusion: Ensuring that colleagues of all gender identities feel welcomed, respected, and free from discrimination.
Provide Clear Guidance: Offering a structured framework to support colleagues who are transitioning or who identify as non-binary.
Enhance Awareness: Building understanding across our charity through education, dialogue, and best practice.

Our Transition Support Action Plan

To further strengthen our approach, we provide a confidential and flexible Transition Support Action Plan. This resource offers personalised support for colleagues who are transitioning, including:

Confidentiality: Ensuring all personal information and gender history is handled sensitively and securely.
Tailored Support: Helping individuals navigate changes such as names, pronouns and workplace arrangements.
Health and Absence Guidance: Supporting colleagues through medical appointments or absences relating to transition.
Comprehensive Planning: Covering everything from workplace adjustments to updated records and documentation.

Training and best practice

In partnership with Onvero (formerly the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion), we have delivered specialised training to our Regional People Teams. This ensures our leaders and People professionals have strong knowledge of:

Gender identity and expression
The lived experiences of transgender and non-binary people
Best practice for supporting colleagues through transition
How to foster an inclusive, discrimination-free environment

A crucial part of this work has been the insight and contributions of our LGBTQIA+ Network. Their perspectives have helped ensure our policy and support plans are meaningful, relevant and grounded in real experience. We extend our sincere thanks to everyone involved.

Head of Employee Relations, Sarah Mahoney, said: “As we mark Transgender Awareness Week, it’s important to highlight the commitments we’ve made through our Gender Identities Policy and Transition Support Action Plan. We are dedicated to nurturing a supportive and inclusive environment where colleagues feel they belong and can be their authentic selves. My thanks go to our LGBTQIA+ Network members, whose voices helped to shape this policy. Their input has been truly invaluable.”

You can read our full Gender Identities Policy and download the Transition Support Action Plan template below:

If you’d like to learn more about our LGBTQIA+ Network, please contact ColleagueInclusionNetworks@c-i-c.co.uk.