Gender diversity policy

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Gender Diversity Policy

Policy State­ment

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (“Park Author­ity”) has Iden­ti­fied Increas­ing Inter­ac­tions with the trans­gender com­munity through its recruit­ment and con­tract­or arrange­ments. The Park Author­ity aspires to be the Best Small Pub­lic Sec­tor Organ­isa­tion in Scot­land, and to be an inclus­ive and diverse organ­isa­tion. To this end, this policy forms part of our wider com­mit­ment to ensur­ing all employ­ees are respec­ted and val­ued and ful­fils one of our actions of our LGBT Charter accred­it­a­tion action plan.

This policy sets out the Park Authority’s com­mit­ment and approach to ensur­ing that trans­gender employ­ees, and oth­ers fall­ing with­in the scope of this policy frame­work are treated with dig­nity and respect and are not dis­ad­vant­aged in the work­place. Please refer to the sec­tions on scope and ter­min­o­logy for inform­a­tion on what is meant by trans­gender employ­ees in the con­text of this policy.

The Park Author­ity believes that diversity and inclu­sion bring bene­fits to the busi­ness and that people work bet­ter when they can be them­selves and feel that they belong. We are com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing trans­gender col­leagues through­out recruit­ment and employ­ment, includ­ing sup­port­ing them through any trans­ition­ing pro­cess, by ensur­ing that they have a work­ing envir­on­ment that is free from dis­crim­in­a­tion, har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or oth­er unac­cept­able behaviours.

Scope

The policy cov­ers all employ­ees, con­tract­ors, tem­por­ary work­ers, volun­teers, and job applic­ants and applies to all stages of the employ­ment rela­tion­ship. The lan­guage of this policy is writ­ten from the per­spect­ive of an employed staff rela­tion­ship with the organ­isa­tion. How­ever, all people covered by this scope are equi­val­ently covered by these policy terms.

Inter­pret­a­tion and applic­a­tion of the Equal­ity Act 2010 and Gender Recog­ni­tion Act 2004

Gender reas­sign­ment is one of the nine pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics covered by the Equal­ity Act 2010 (the ​“Act”). The Act pro­tects a per­son from dis­crim­in­a­tion, har­ass­ment and vic­tim­isa­tion if they are ​“pro­pos­ing to under­go, are under­go­ing, or have under­gone a pro­cess (or part of a pro­cess) of gender reas­sign­ment”. There is no require­ment for the per­son to be under med­ic­al super­vi­sion to be pro­tec­ted. The Act also pro­tects any­one who is per­ceived to have the char­ac­ter­ist­ic of gender reas­sign­ment or is asso­ci­ated with

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someone who has the pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic of gender reas­sign­ment, such as an individual’s part­ner or a friend. Pro­tec­tion under the Act also extends to non-bin­ary or gender flu­id individuals.

Gender Reas­sign­ment is also covered in the Gender Recog­ni­tion Act 2004. The Park Author­ity fol­lows the guid­ance of the Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity Duty when look­ing at the defin­i­tion of Gender Reas­sign­ment and imple­ment­ing the pro­vi­sions and spir­it of the Act.

An employ­ee who treats a col­league less favour­ably because of gender reas­sign­ment, for example by refus­ing to work with them or mak­ing com­ments that could be con­sidered har­ass­ment, may be held per­son­ally liable for discrimination.

Ter­min­o­logy and application

Trans­gender is com­monly accep­ted as an umbrella term describ­ing people whose gender iden­tity dif­fers from the sex that they were assigned at birth. We use the term trans­gender in a non-exclus­ive man­ner and intend this policy to apply to all indi­vidu­als who have a gender iden­tity that does not match the gender they were assigned at birth or are oth­er­wise gender non-con­form­ing includ­ing those who are non-bin­ary and non-gender.

It is also inten­ded that this policy be inter­preted to include inter­sex indi­vidu­als. Inter­sex is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of innate bod­ily vari­ations of sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics. Inter­sex people are born with phys­ic­al sex char­ac­ter­ist­ics (such as sexu­al ana­tomy, repro­duct­ive organs, hor­mon­al pat­terns and/​or chro­mo­somal pat­terns) that do not fit typ­ic­al defin­i­tions for male or female bodies.

We recog­nise that job applic­ants and employ­ees are not required to tell us their gender iden­tity or gender his­tory. The gender in which an indi­vidu­al chooses to present will always be acknow­ledged and respec­ted. This includes indi­vidu­als who identi­fy as non- bin­ary or non-gender.

Man­agers and col­leagues should respect how an indi­vidu­al chooses to describe themselves.

Defin­i­tions and ter­min­o­logy are con­stantly evolving and the Park Author­ity com­mits to review­ing this policy reg­u­larly. Please refer to the sources at the end of this policy for guid­ance such as on appro­pri­ate ter­min­o­logy. See also Appendix 1 for a gloss­ary con­tain­ing more details on defin­i­tions and oth­er key terms. We will endeav­our to review and update this gloss­ary reg­u­larly and with­in a reas­on­able time­frame of becom­ing aware of a change being required.

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Roles and Responsibilities

Every­one at the Park Author­ity should assist and sup­port us in our com­mit­ment to provide a work­ing envir­on­ment of dig­nity and respect, free from bul­ly­ing, har­ass­ment, and any oth­er form of unlaw­ful dis­crim­in­a­tion. With spe­cif­ic regard to the cur­rent policy, and to the pro­cess of an employ­ee trans­ition­ing at work, the fol­low­ing respons­ib­il­it­ies are identified:

Man­agers are respons­ible for:

• Read­ing, under­stand­ing and apply­ing the policy • Tak­ing reas­on­able steps to ensure that this policy is fol­lowed and that the Park Authority’s approach to sup­port­ing trans­gender col­leagues is imple­men­ted • Main­tain­ing con­fid­en­ti­al­ity at all times — unless expli­cit instruc­tion is giv­en by the indi­vidu­al to dis­close inform­a­tion • Where such con­sent is giv­en, com­mu­nic­at­ing appro­pri­ately with col­leagues regard­ing an individual’s gender iden­tity • Ensur­ing that col­leagues who require time off work for reas­ons relat­ing to their gender iden­tity or trans­ition­ing are sup­por­ted and man­aged in a way con­sist­ent with the Park Authority’s sick­ness and absence policy, includ­ing in respect of appro­pri­ate author­ised time off and pay • Lead­ing and cham­pi­on­ing inclu­sion and sup­port­ing an inclus­ive work­place cul­ture as part of the Park Authority’s wider focus on diversity and inclu­sion and tak­ing action to address any instances of har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or dis­crim­in­a­tion. This may include the use of our Dig­nity at Work policy, this policy or anoth­er rel­ev­ant policy • Sup­port­ing in any way that is neces­sary and appro­pri­ate by, for example, dis­cuss­ing reas­on­able adjust­ments that might assist in alle­vi­at­ing stress and anxi­ety • Giv­ing sup­port and/​or guid­ance to col­leagues whenev­er neces­sary or appro­pri­ate • Seek­ing sup­port and/​or guid­ance from the HR team whenev­er neces­sary or appro­pri­ate • Report­ing any breach of this policy and/​or any instances of har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or dis­crim­in­a­tion to the HR team and tak­ing action when neces­sary or appropriate

All Employ­ees are respons­ible for:

• Read­ing, under­stand­ing and apply­ing the policy • Treat­ing every­one with respect and dig­nity not har­ass­ing, vic­tim­ising, or dis­crim­in­at­ing against col­leagues, volun­teers, vis­it­ors, or stu­dents on the grounds of any pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic, includ­ing gender reas­sign­ment, sex (includ­ing per­ceived sex) or because of an individual’s reli­gion or belief

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• Seek­ing guid­ance and/​or sup­port from man­agers and HR when neces­sary or appro­pri­ate • Report­ing any breach of this policy and/​or instances of har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or dis­crim­in­a­tion to your line man­ager or to the HR team where line man­age­ment action has for any reas­on not been seen to be effective.

HR team is respons­ible for:

• Ensur­ing that man­agers and employ­ees are aware of their respons­ib­il­it­ies under the policy, pro­mot­ing the policy’s use with train­ing and guid­ance and ensur­ing that appro­pri­ate action is taken when the policy is not fol­lowed • Provid­ing guid­ance and sup­port for man­agers and employ­ees when sought, includ­ing on the use of inclus­ive lan­guage and ter­min­o­logy • Main­tain­ing con­fid­en­ti­al­ity, includ­ing secur­ing paper doc­u­ments and files • Under­tak­ing any rel­ev­ant admin­is­trat­ive pro­ced­ures relat­ing to trans­ition­ing and name/​gender change • Organ­ising appro­pri­ate train­ing as a gen­er­al part of the equal­ity and diversity train­ing pro­gramme • Arran­ging for this policy to be reviewed reg­u­larly and updated when required

Beha­viour and Respect at Work

Every­one should be aware of the Park Authority’s Dig­nity at Work Policy, which cov­ers bul­ly­ing and har­ass­ment, and the pro­ced­ures in place for hand­ling com­plaints of dis­respect­ful beha­viour, bul­ly­ing, har­ass­ment, and victimisation.

Examples of this type of beha­viour in the con­text of this policy include but are not lim­ited to:

• verbal abuse such as name-call­ing, threats, derog­at­ory remarks, or belittling com­ments about trans­gender people, an individual’s gender iden­tity and/​or their appear­ance, and/​or an individual’s beliefs • ask­ing if someone has a Gender Recog­ni­tion Cer­ti­fic­ate • ​“out­ing people” by dis­clos­ing someone’s pre­vi­ous gender iden­tity without their con­sent • jokes, innu­endo or ​‘banter’ about someone’s gender iden­tity, trans­gender people gen­er­ally or an individual’s beliefs • cir­cu­lat­ing or dis­play­ing (e.g. by email, via social media, hard copy), offens­ive or abus­ive mater­i­al relat­ing to someone’s gender iden­tity, about trans­gender people gen­er­ally or about an individual’s beliefs • refus­ing to use and individual’s chosen pro­noun and/​or name

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• threat­en­ing beha­viour or phys­ic­al abuse • intrus­ive and unwel­come ques­tion­ing about someone’s gender iden­tity or trans­ition • exclud­ing a trans­gender col­league from con­ver­sa­tions or from social events, and pro­fes­sion­al set­tings (e.g. meet­ings) • refus­ing to work with someone because of their gender iden­tity • express­ing beliefs (e.g. reli­gious, gender ideo­logy or gender crit­ic­al beliefs) in a fash­ion that may be reas­on­ably per­ceived by oth­ers as being offens­ive and dis­respect­ful. Fur­ther com­ment on express­ing beliefs law­fully is below.

Man­aging poten­tial conflict

The Act recog­nises nine pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics, and these have all equal status. As an employ­er com­mit­ted to diversity and inclu­sion, the Park Author­ity recog­nises that there is no hier­archy of pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics. No one char­ac­ter­ist­ic is more worthy of pro­tec­tion than others.

We under­stand that employ­ees may hold reli­gious and/​or philo­soph­ic­al beliefs which are not held by oth­ers, and con­flicts of opin­ion between dif­fer­ent view points can there­fore arise, e.g. between gender crit­ic­al beliefs on the one hand, and gender ideo­logy on the oth­er (see gloss­ary). All employ­ees must respect the Park Author­ity as a work­place for all, irre­spect­ive of beliefs, and as such no staff will be sub­ject to har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or dis­crim­in­a­tion by the Park Author­ity or its employ­ees related to their belief. We com­mit to tak­ing action to address any instances of har­ass­ment, vic­tim­isa­tion, or dis­crim­in­a­tion and this may include the use of our Dig­nity at Work policy, this policy or anoth­er rel­ev­ant policy.

We note how­ever that while an individual’s beliefs may be pro­tec­ted under the Act, the ways in which such beliefs mani­fest them­selves might not be pro­tec­ted, par­tic­u­larly where this impacts on the rights, freedoms and/​or repu­ta­tion of others.

All employ­ees and man­agers are required to be pro­fes­sion­al and respect­ful of oth­ers whilst at work and con­sider how things said and done may affect oth­ers and reflect on the Park Authority.

Sup­port­ing trans­gender and non-bin­ary employees

The Park Author­ity will sup­port trans­gender and non-bin­ary staff through the fol­low­ing processes:

Recruit­ment

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The Park Author­ity wishes to attract applic­ants from as diverse a tal­ent pool as pos­sible and our recruit­ment pro­cess will be designed to be inclus­ive across all the equal­ity char­ac­ter­ist­ics. This policy sets out addi­tion­al con­sid­er­a­tions for all mem­bers of the recruit­ment panel.

Recruit­ment pan­el mem­bers should not ask ques­tions about an applicant’s gender or gender his­tory. If an indi­vidu­al chooses to men­tion this dur­ing an inter­view, they should be informed that the organ­isa­tion sup­ports trans­gender employ­ees, assured that the dis­clos­ure will have no bear­ing on the out­come of the inter­view, and will not be revealed out­side the interview.

Where proof of iden­tity doc­u­ment­a­tion reveals a non-pre­ferred name and thereby an applicant’s gender his­tory, this inform­a­tion will be kept strictly con­fid­en­tial and stored securely in the locked down HR folder with the per­mis­sion of the indi­vidu­al and in accord­ance with the Gen­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion Reg­u­la­tions (GDPR). The Park Author­ity will always ensure that an applic­ant is made aware of the full range of per­miss­ible iden­ti­fic­a­tion doc­u­ments and that the pro­cess of check­ing is handled sens­it­ively and with respect for pri­vacy of the individual.

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Mon­it­or­ing

In line with our policy on equal oppor­tun­it­ies in employ­ment, we will gath­er and ana­lyse inform­a­tion relat­ing to the diversity of the work­force and applic­ants for employ­ment and pro­mo­tion. Equal­ity mon­it­or­ing enables us to identi­fy under-rep­res­ent­a­tion and where there may be bar­ri­ers to inclu­sion. This helps inform our pri­or­it­ies for action and provides a baseline for meas­ur­ing pro­gress. Gender iden­tity is included among oth­er per­son­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics in our equal­ity monitoring.

The dis­clos­ure of per­son­al inform­a­tion by employees/​job applic­ants is vol­un­tary and employ­ees may with­draw their con­sent to its pro­cessing at any time. Any inform­a­tion dis­closed will be treated in con­fid­ence, stored securely and used only to provide stat­ist­ics for mon­it­or­ing pur­poses in accord­ance with our data pro­tec­tion policy. When com­mu­nic­at­ing mon­it­or­ing data, we will ensure that it is anonymised, and we will dis­close per­cent­ages (%) when num­bers equal less than 10% of our work­force, to avoid Identi­fy­ing Individuals

Names and pronouns

The Park Author­ity will take all neces­sary steps to ensure that a request for a name to be changed is respec­ted, and fur­ther evid­ence such as a Gender Recog­ni­tion Cer­ti­fic­ate will not be required. The Park Author­ity will ensure that email address, and any partner/​colleague facing inform­a­tion will be changed as soon as pos­sible after a request is made.

Con­fid­en­ti­al­ity

Where inform­a­tion is dis­closed on gender his­tory or status, this will be treated as strictly con­fid­en­tial. This includes any inform­a­tion provided to the line man­ager or HR team.

There may be some situ­ations in which a third party needs to know of changes made to the way your gender is recor­ded. For example, the Civil Ser­vice Pen­sion Scheme will need to be updated if you obtain a GRC. We will make you aware of any such situ­ations that emerge and will dis­cuss with you how you would like to proceed.

Uni­forms and dress codes

As per the Park Authority’s dress code, you are free to wear the clothes in which you feel com­fort­able work­ing, unless required to wear spe­cif­ic items of cloth­ing for your roles, or with due regard to health and safety. Where you are required to wear branded clothes, you may choose the type and fit of branded cloth­ing you wear, if a choice exists.

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Use of chan­ging facil­it­ies and toilets

Across our head office we have exclus­ively toi­lets that are entirely private, lock­able rooms which are inten­ded to be used by one indi­vidu­al at a time. These can be used by any employee.

Along­side these are private chan­ging spaces which include a shower and toi­let. These are also enclosed lock­able rooms for use by one indi­vidu­al at a time and can be used by any employee.

Our facil­it­ies have been designed to be sens­it­ive to the needs of all staff, and staff there­fore have a choice of which facil­it­ies to use, that best meet their per­son­al cir­cum­stances and com­fort requirements.

There are no single sex or mixed sex toi­let or chan­ging facil­it­ies. All facil­it­ies are in entirely sep­ar­ate and lock­able rooms.

Employ­ees who are trans­ition­ing at work

An employ­ee does not need to dis­close if they intend to trans­ition. How­ever, if an employ­ee decides to do so they should dis­cuss the decision with their line man­ager, anoth­er man­ager or HR with whom they feel com­fort­able dis­cuss­ing these mat­ters and agree a main point of con­tact to help man­age the trans­ition pro­cess. An ini­tial meet­ing will be held to agree an employ­ee-led action plan to sup­port them dur­ing their trans­ition at work.

A tem­plate action plan is set out in the Appendix to this policy, how­ever we acknow­ledge that every individual’s jour­ney is dif­fer­ent and the expect­a­tions and respons­ib­il­it­ies of each party will be unique to each transition.

The trans­ition pro­cess will be led by the employ­ee who is trans­ition­ing. The Park Author­ity is sup­port­ive of any decision to trans­ition and recog­nises this as a pro­cess of liv­ing authen­tic­ally and in con­gru­ence with gender.

Fur­ther inform­a­tion and guid­ance on the pro­cess ini­ti­ated once an employ­ee states an inten­tion to trans­ition at work are set out in Appendix 2.

Fur­ther sources of support

There are many organ­isa­tions that sup­port trans­gender people. All About Trans has put togeth­er a list of sup­port and com­munity organ­isa­tions in the UK that work with trans

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inform­a­tion and resource which may be help­ful: Groups in Scot­land — Gender Iden­tity Research & Edu­ca­tion Soci­ety – Tran­zwiki dir­ect­ory (gires​.org​.uk)

The Scot­tish trans Alli­ance has writ­ten use­ful guid­ance for ser­vice pro­viders and employ­ers on Includ­ing non-bin­ary people:

https://​www​.scot​tishtrans​.org/​w​p​-​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​u​p​l​o​a​d​s​/​2​0​1​6​/​1​1​/​N​o​n​-​b​i​n​a​r​y​-​g​u​i​d​a​n​c​e.pdf

V1 adop­ted Septem­ber 2023

V2 draft amend­ments pro­posed fol­low­ing Supreme Court rul­ing (15÷04÷25) regard­ing defin­i­tion of woman. Pending sign off at June SCF

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Appendix 1: glossary

This gloss­ary of terms is offered to assist staff in under­stand­ing the wide range of ter­min­o­logy that can be used with­in this policy area, in wider soci­ety, and so impact­ing on our work­place. The intent of this gloss­ary is not to require staff to inter­pret terms in line with the defin­i­tions set out here. Rather the gloss­ary is offered to help staff under­stand the organisation’s expect­a­tions of them as set out with­in this policy and inter­pret its pro­vi­sions. As a dynam­ic aspect of cur­rent social policy, terms in use with­in soci­ety at large in rela­tion to this policy area devel­op and change fre­quently. The HR team aims to review this policy with­in 18 months of issue and the terms in this gloss­ary will be reviewed again at that time.

• Acquired gender: Used in the Gender Recog­ni­tion Act 2004 to describe a person’s gender after trans­ition­ing. As this is a leg­al term, many people now prefer to use the term ​“affirmed” gender. • Agender: Refers to a per­son who does not identi­fy with any gender. • Assigned gender: The gender assigned to someone at birth, based on their phys­ic­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics. • Assigned sex: Male or female sex iden­tity assigned at birth, based on their phys­ic­al char­ac­ter­ist­ics. • Bi-gender: A non-bin­ary gender iden­tity mean­ing a mix of both genders: woman and man • Cis­gender (or Cis): Describes someone whose gender iden­tity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth. Cis is the Lat­in pre­fix mean­ing ​‘on this side of’ in com­par­is­on to trans which means ​‘on the oth­er side of’. • Cis­norm­at­ive: An assump­tion that gender is a bin­ary concept and that all, or almost all, indi­vidu­als are cis­gender. • Cross dress­er: Someone who chooses to wear clothes not con­ven­tion­ally asso­ci­ated with their assigned gender. ​“Cross dress­er” is now used in pref­er­ence to the term ​“trans­vest­ite”, which is con­sidered to be out­dated and can cause offence. Cross dress­ers are often com­fort­able with their assigned gender and there­fore may not intend to trans­ition. • Dead nam­ing: Refer­ring to a per­son who iden­ti­fies as trans­gender or non-bin­ary by their birth name and not their chosen name. • Gender or Gender Iden­tity: Describes a person’s per­son­al sense of self — For example, they may identi­fy as female, male, as hav­ing no gender, as non-binary

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• or as gender flu­id. A person’s gender iden­tity may not cor­res­pond with the sex that they were assigned at birth. • Gender Incon­gru­ence: the mis­match between the sex assigned at birth, and the gender iden­tity. • Gender Crit­ic­al: — this is the belief that sex is bio­lo­gic­al, immut­able, and can­not be changed; the belief that sex is dis­tinct from gender iden­tity; some with gender crit­ic­al beliefs doubt the idea of gender iden­tity • Gender Ideo­logy: — used to mean both (1) the atti­tudes regard­ing appro­pri­ate roles, rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies of women and men in soci­ety and belief that the dif­fer­ences between men and women are the fruit of soci­et­al and cul­tur­al con­struc­tion, and (2) the belief that sex and gender are two sep­ar­ate con­cepts which do not always align • Gender dys­phor­ia: A recog­nised med­ic­al con­di­tion where the indi­vidu­al exper­i­ences severe dis­com­fort and anxiety/​emotional unease because their gender iden­tity does not align with their bio­lo­gic­al sex. • Gender expres­sion: How an indi­vidu­al presents their gender iden­tity to oth­ers, for example through their appear­ance and beha­viour. • Gender Flu­id: Describes a per­son who exper­i­ences their gender as fluc­tu­at­ing over time across a range of mas­cu­line and fem­in­ine iden­tit­ies • Gender reas­sign­ment (or trans­ition­ing): The pro­cess of trans­ition­ing from one gender to anoth­er; where an indi­vidu­al takes steps to alter the out­ward expres­sion of their gender so that it bet­ter aligns with their gender iden­tity. For example, a per­son who was assigned female at birth decides to take steps to live the rest of their life as a man. For some, but not all, this may include med­ic­al treat­ment. For many trans­gender people, the terms ​“gender con­firm­a­tion” or ​“gender affirm­a­tion” are pre­ferred to ​“gender reas­sign­ment”. The Equal­ity Act 2010 refers to the pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic of gender reas­sign­ment which, when draf­ted, only covered trans bin­ary indi­vidu­als. Pro­tec­tion now extends to non- bin­ary, non-gender and inter­sex indi­vidu­als also. • Gender Recog­ni­tion Cer­ti­fic­ate (GRC): A GRC allows a per­son to change the sex recor­ded on their birth cer­ti­fic­ate and can be applied for under the Gender Recog­ni­tion Act 2004. You do not need a GRC to change your gender mark­ers at work or to leg­ally change your gender on oth­er doc­u­ments, such as your pass­port. While people who obtain a GRC may choose to inform their employ­er, they are not obliged to do so. Nobody should be asked to pro­duce a GRC.

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• Inter­sex: A phys­ic­al con­di­tion where the ana­tomy or physiology (chro­mo­some pat­terns, gon­ads or gen­italia) of an indi­vidu­al dif­fers from what typ­ic­ally con­sti­tutes male or female. In some inter­sex con­di­tions, the appear­ance at birth is atyp­ic­al being neither male nor female. • LGBT+: A com­monly used acronym refer­ring to the les­bi­an, gay, bisexu­al, trans­gender com­munity. The ​“plus” denotes inclu­sion of oth­er iden­tit­ies such as non-bin­ary, non-gender, inter­sex or asexu­al. The acronym is often expan­ded to LGB­TQI with ​“Q” stand­ing for Queer (or ques­tion­ing) and ​“I” for inter­sex. • Mis­gen­der­ing: When someone (par­tic­u­larly a trans­gender per­son) is referred to using a word, espe­cially a pro­noun or form of address, that does not reflect their gender iden­tity. • Non-bin­ary: An umbrella term for people who do not identi­fy solely and exclus­ively as either male or female. Non-bin­ary indi­vidu­als may identi­fy as neither male nor female, both male and female, or a com­bin­a­tion of male and female. Non-bin­ary indi­vidu­als may also have more spe­cif­ic iden­tit­ies, such as: Ο Neut­rois: A non-bin­ary gender iden­tity mean­ing neut­ral gender; Ο Pan­gender: A non-bin­ary gender iden­tity cov­er­ing all genders; Ο Poly-gender: A non-bin­ary gender iden­tity mean­ing hav­ing more than one iden­tity; • Pro­nouns: Terms people use to refer to oth­ers — often gendered ​“he/​him”, ​“she/​her” some­times neutral/​unisex ​“they/​them”. (This is not an exhaust­ive list.) • Sex or bio­lo­gic­al sex: Under the Equal­ity Act 2010, sex is giv­en it’s bio­lo­gic­al mean­ing refer­ring to the sex assigned at birth, this mean­ing sex is either a bio­lo­gic­al female of any age or bio­lo­gic­al man of any age. • Third gender: A non-bin­ary gender iden­tity mean­ing a gender that is neither man nor woman; • Trans man (female to male): Used to describe a per­son who was assigned as female at birth but iden­ti­fies as male and is trans­ition­ing, or has transitioned, from female to male. • Trans woman (male to female): Used to describe a per­son who was assigned as male at birth but iden­ti­fies as female and is trans­ition­ing, or has transitioned, from male to female.

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• Trans­gender (or trans): An umbrella term describ­ing the diverse range of people whose gender iden­tity or gender expres­sion dif­fers from the gender they were assigned at birth. • Trans­ition­ing: A term some­times used to refer to the pro­cess an indi­vidu­al goes through to dis­cov­er and/​or affirm their gender iden­tity. It can include the steps taken by indi­vidu­als to live in and express the gender with which they identi­fy, which is dif­fer­ent from the sex they were assigned at birth. These steps can be social, psy­cho­lo­gic­al, leg­al and may some­times involve med­ic­al pro­ced­ures. Each person’s exper­i­ence of trans­ition­ing is unique to them. Trans­ition is not about the indi­vidu­al ​“becom­ing” as it is about them ​“gender affirm­ing”. • Trans­sexu­al: Under the Equal­ity Act 2010, a trans­sexu­al per­son is someone who has the pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic of gender reas­sign­ment (see above). A trans­sexu­al per­son does not have to be under med­ic­al super­vi­sion to be pro­tec­ted under the Act. • Trans­pho­bia: A fear of or a dis­like of trans­gender people. It is based on pre­ju­dice and mis­un­der­stand­ing and can involve verbal abuse, phys­ic­al viol­ence and oth­er forms of harassment.

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Appendix 2: Trans­ition­ing Action Plan

This example action plan provides an out­line of the key con­sid­er­a­tions to ensure that an employee’s trans­ition at work goes as smoothly as pos­sible. Depend­ing on cir­cum­stances, one or more steps may not be required. Equally, one or more addi­tion­al steps may need to be considered.

The action plan should be shaped and led by the employ­ee as much as pos­sible and be suf­fi­ciently flu­id to take account of chan­ging cir­cum­stances and pref­er­ences. There should be agree­ment on the con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of the plan and who will have access to it.

Where oth­er people in the organ­isa­tion will be respons­ible for tak­ing action iden­ti­fied in the plan, it is cru­cial that the need for con­fid­en­ti­al­ity and data pro­tec­tion are understood.

The action plan will be reviewed reg­u­larly by the man­ager and employ­ee and amended as necessary.

Absence and return to work fol­low­ing transition

Actions to be agreed

1. Is any time off being reques­ted? How will this be recor­ded (annu­al leave / agreed time off etc)

2. Agree a likely date when the employ­ee will present for work fol­low­ing their transition.

3. Agree a pro­posed timeline for what needs to be done lead­ing up to when the employ­ee first presents at work and who needs to take action.

Who will do this and by when?

[Insert name and dead­line here.]

Any asso­ci­ated points

• The aim should be to make the employee’s first day at work as stress free as pos­sible. • It is import­ant that the employ­ee and their main con­tact estab­lish an open dia­logue and mutu­al trust.

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• A dis­cus­sion about a change of duties or job role should only be neces­sary if at the employee’s request.

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Com­mu­nic­a­tion

Actions to be agreed

1. Dis­cuss and agree with the employ­ee the meth­od and con­tent of any neces­sary com­mu­nic­a­tion. Adapt the approach as neces­sary for:

Ο col­leagues and/​or dir­ect reports;

Ο oth­er employ­ees; and

Ο rel­ev­ant third parties.

1. If plan­ning to get inform­a­tion and/​or sup­port from an extern­al organ­isa­tion, ensure that arrange­ments are made in good time.

Who will do this and by when?

[Insert name and dead­line here.]

Issues to consider

1. Does any­one need to know about the employee’s trans­ition? If so, who and why should be con­sidered as well as the prac­tic­al­it­ies of con­vey­ing the information.

2. Is any train­ing required to help raise aware­ness and under­stand­ing of gender iden­tity and transitioning?

3. How can the employee’s imme­di­ate work col­leagues and/​or dir­ect reports sup­port the employee?

4. How will quer­ies and ques­tions be handled (eg use of single-sex toi­lets and facilities)?

Any asso­ci­ated points

• Trans­ition­ing is a private mat­ter and so the wishes of the employ­ee are para­mount. • Decid­ing on who is told, how they are told and what they are told must be led by the employ­ee, with sup­port from their main point of contact/​manager.

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Chan­ging employ­ee records

Actions to be agreed

Any­thing that holds the employee’s name, image, title or inform­a­tion that could reveal their pre­vi­ous iden­tity needs to be amended by the time that the indi­vidu­al presents in their affirmed gender.

Who will do this and by when?

[Insert name and dead­line here.]

Issues to consider

What records need to be amended to show the employee’s name change?

Any asso­ci­ated points

• It is import­ant to ensure that the employ­ee is addressed by their chosen name and that the cor­rect pro­noun and title are used. • Con­sid­er­a­tion should be giv­en to includ­ing the option of a gender-neut­ral title, for example Mx, on data sys­tems and per­son­nel records. This would accom­mod­ate any trans­ition­ing employ­ee who would prefer not to use a gender-spe­cif­ic title.