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David Ruebain, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Culture, Equality and Inclusion) wrote to all staff earlier today, Tuesday 16 July. You can read the full text of his email below.

Dear Colleague, 

In this month’s update, I will focus on LGBTQ+ inclusion and the University’s Stonewall Workplace Equality Index ranking.

Named after the riots in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1969 which became a key moment in emerging struggles for LGBTQ+ liberation, Stonewall is the largest LGBTQ+ charity in Europe, providing help and support for people and organisations. The University has been a Stonewall Diversity Champion and also a Global Champion since 2018, giving us access to advice and guidance. We also assess our progress on LGBTQ+ equality and inclusion through Stonewall’s benchmarking tool, the Workplace Equality Index (WEI).

The index informs Stonewall’s Top 100 Employer ranking and one of the aims in our Inclusive Sussex strategy has been to become a Top 100 Employer by 2025. As announced yesterday, I am delighted that Sussex has achieved a Workplace Equality Index gold award and has been ranked 30th out of 246 organisations, making us a Stonewall Top 100 Employer 2024. The ranking recognises the commitments to advance the inclusion of LGBTQ+ staff in our LGBTQ+ Action Plan, but of course, the work continues.

The index provides us with feedback and a benchmark to compare progress with other employers. All recommendations made by Stonewall are advisory suggestions and reviewed by the LGBTQ+ Self-Assessment Team (SAT). Actions taken forward to address LGBTQ+ inclusion are driven by the needs and views of students and staff, and are ultimately signed off by the University Executive Team, always with full regard to our commitments to academic freedom and freedom of speech, and to advancing equality and inclusion for people with any protected characteristic.

Meanwhile, this past year has seen a review of our LGBTQ+ work and membership of Stonewall. We have consulted with stakeholders across our community, including trade unions, EDI Champions and staff networks, and we have given careful consideration to different perspectives about how best to advance the work, again having regard to our wider commitments. Some told us that affiliation with Stonewall is important, particularly to signal support for trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming staff and students, and because the WEI provides a strong external benchmark against which we can measure our efforts. Others, including those with gender-critical beliefs, expressed concerns, given Stonewall’s wider campaigning and policy positions. It is important to note that participation in the WEI does not require the University to adopt any specific positions, policies, wording or approaches.

Following these discussions, the University Executive Team has determined that the University will continue to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion. We will also continue to participate in the WEI, albeit at a reduced frequency of approximately every four years. Preparing a submission is resource intensive and this is to give time for implemented actions to take effect and also to broadly align with the frequency of submissions to other systemic change initiatives in which we participate. Our membership of the separate Stonewall Global Champions scheme will not be renewed since the additional benefits of this are not especially helpful and resources can better be used for internal projects to support LGBTQ+ equality.

Meanwhile, Stonewall is itself undertaking a review of the Workplace Equality Index, and the higher education sector agency Advance HE is separately developing a kitemark approach for the sector which may include LGBTQ+ inclusion, similar to Athena Swan on gender equality and the Race Equality Charter. The outcome of both of these developments will be considered in due course.

Achieving the Workplace Equality Index gold award and Top 100 Employers ranking is an important milestone and I want to thank all of the teams across the University, including the LGBTQ+ SAT, who have worked so diligently to support our work towards the index submission and LGBTQ+ Action Plan.

Brighton & Hove Pride, 2-4 August

Brighton & Hove Pride weekend is coming up soon, and once again the University is taking part in the Community Parade on Saturday 3 August with a walking party of Sussex staff, students and alumni. The University has been a partner of Brighton & Hove Pride since 2017 and we are proud to continue to support this event.

Finally, I do hope that you enjoy the summer and are able to take a break when you can.

With good wishes,

David Ruebain
Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Culture, Equality and Inclusion)

Recent and ongoing events:

• International Non-Binary People’s Day, 14 July
• South Asian Heritage Month, 18 July – 17 August

Coming up:

• Picnic hosted by the LGBTQ+ Staff Network and Trans & Non-Binary Staff Network, 17 July (celebrating Trans Pride and as part of the All-Staff Wellbeing Festival)
• Trans Pride Brighton & Hove, 20 July
• Brighton & Hove Pride, 3-5 August
• International Youth Day, 12 August

Further information about upcoming awareness days will be shared on the Staff Hub.

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