Reflections on our first Equality Exchange Event for uniformed services

On 7 November 2024, the Equality and Human Rights Commission hosted an online event for senior leaders and equality, diversity and inclusion practitioners from across Britain’s armed forces and police and fire services.

This event formed part of our ongoing work to tackle race and sex-based discrimination, harassment and victimisation within uniformed services.

Over 80 representatives of national professional bodies, unions, employee networks and individual forces and services attended the event. It focused on tackling workplace sexual harassment, the new preventative duty for all employers that came into force last month, and practical steps that employers can take to prevent sexual harassment within their organisations.

Support available

The event began with a presentation from Clare Armstrong, a solicitor in our Litigation and Advisory Team. Clare outlined the new obligations introduced by the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, as well as the support available through the EHRC’s updated technical guidance and 8-step guide for preventing sexual harassment at work.

Attendees heard from Bron Biddle, Programme Lead for Reducing Misogyny and Improving Sexual Safety at the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives. Bron spoke about the challenges involved with delivering this work. She discussed what is working well within Ambulance Service and why, and what their focus is moving forward. Bron described how the work has resulted in improved awareness, trust and validation of experiences. It has empowered and enabled people within their professional community, and within a national ambulance infrastructure around sexual safety.

Key areas of progress so far include the launch of a dedicated webpage and learning resource library, establishing a student voice panel and collaborating with The Ambulance Staff Charity. They have also carried out a progress check-in with each Ambulance Service and delivered learning sessions at Board-level on collective oversight of sexual safety.

Deputy Chief Constable Mark Travis from South Wales Police then spoke about what their force is doing to deal with and prevent sexual harassment. DCC Travis outlined key outcomes from this work to date, including increased accessibility of Professional Standards Departments, increased confidence to challenge and report, and increased understanding of cultural risks.

Pilot event

Following the presentations, attendees took part in small, facilitated discussions on a fictional case study. This enabled them to explore factors that increase the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring, practical steps that employers can take to prevent sexual harassment, and how they can measure the impact of any activity. Attendees were able to share more about what steps their organisation is taking to prevent sexual harassment, particularly in light of the new preventative duty.

There was excellent engagement throughout the event, with participants commenting that they found it informative and useful.

This event was a pilot and the first of a series aimed at bringing together representatives from across uniformed services.

Find out more about the Equality Exchange event and our work with uniformed services in our business plan for 2024-25.