Nacro ranked as top employer for gay people » Communities » 24dash.com

Nacro, the crime reduction charity, has become the first voluntary sector organisation ever to top Stonewall's list of the best 100 employers for gay staff.

The Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (WEI) 2008 rates companies and charities on a range of criteria relating to recruitment and employment policies and practices.

The criteria used by Stonewall to rate gay-friendly employers include:

The monitoring of sexual orientation of staff,
Regular consultation with lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) staff networks,
Compulsory diversity training covering sexuality for all staff,
Specific support to LGB staff,
Whether there are openly gay staff on the senior management team.

Last year Nacro was the top rated charity and ranked fifth overall, with IBM in first place.

Commenting on the announcement, Paul Cavadino, Chief Executive of Nacro, said: "We are delighted that Stonewall has rated Nacro the best employer in Britain for gay and lesbian staff.

"This shows that with commitment and determination a charity with few spare financial resources can provide a quality of support for its gay staff which equals that of the largest employers in the country."

He explained: "This has only been possible because of the commitment of both gay and straight staff across the whole organisation to Nacro's fully inclusive approach for gay employees and service users.

"Over the last five years we have repeatedly emphasised our commitment to gay rights to our staff, introduced monitoring of employees' sexual orientation, developed compulsory training covering gay issues and given financial and moral support to our lesbian and gay staff network. These have been key elements in creating an environment where gay people can be themselves without encountering prejudice or discrimination."

Phil Robinson, Chair of Pride in Nacro (Nacro's LGBT staff network) and a housing support worker in Manchester, added: "Nacro is continually striving to ensure that LGBT staff and service users are treated with equality and dignity.

"For Stonewall to recognise Nacro as the best employer is a great achievement that everyone in Pride in Nacro is extremely proud of.

"We will keep up the good work that we have achieved so far and will continue to support our LGBT staff and service users, ensuring they feel they can be 'open' about themselves with pride and without fear of prejudice of any kind.

"We are also looking forward to working alongside Stonewall in 2008 to achieve equality for LGBT people."