30 January 2020

CNWL has been rated the most LGBT+ friendly healthcare organisation to work for by gay rights organisation Stonewall.  The Top 100 index, published today (30 January) places the Trust at number 16 and the highest ranking healthcare provider, climbing from 28 in 2019.

This is the fifth year the Trust has appeared in the charity’s annual Top 100 Employers List and the second year in a row the organisation has topped the healthcare entries.  

Claire Murdoch, CNWL Chief Executive, said “This is brilliant news! I’m incredibly proud of our diverse workforce. The work of our LGBT+ Staff Network and our teams and services across our organisation is helping to create a culture where staff feel supported to be themselves at work and open with colleagues and patients. At CNWL we are serious about inclusion, and we firmly believe that when staff feel valued it makes for happier staff and that's better for patients."

As part of the submission, employees from across the UK were asked to complete a confidential survey rating their employer’s performance in LGB related matters. A total of 503 private, public and third sector organisations entered the Index this year, many of these being international private sector organisations with far greater resource than the public sector. 

Organisations were required to not only explain what they do to improve their workplace for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff, but also to demonstrate how that has had a real and lasting impact on their organisation. 

The Trust’s employee engagement activities include strong and robust policies to tackle workplace discrimination, an advice, information and support service for LGBT staff, internal communication channels to raise employees’ awareness of issues affecting LGBT people, as well as training to equip staff to foster an inclusive working environment and reinforce the message that CNWL does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We are particularly proud of our sexual health services, and other services who are always finding innovative ways of engaging the LGBT+ community, and our corporate services who continue to review our systems and policies, seeking out opportunities to be more inclusive.

The full Top 100 is published today, 30 January 2020. To see the full list, visit the Stonewall website.