Our mission is to help people in our Sussex communities live well and we want to do everything we can to overcome any barriers or inequalities that might be getting in the way of this for our clients, employees and stakeholders.
For 50 years we’ve championed the rights of our clients and supported equal opportunities among our employees. We are proud of our achievements and the positive feedback we receive from external audits.
The principles of equality, equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) are at the heart of Southdown’s reason for being. We believe that having a diverse workforce with lived experience that is representative of our clients and our broader Sussex communities will help us:
- Remain relevant to our clients
- Make better decisions
- Be more creative
- Be an employer and service provider of choice
This means making EDI part of our DNA and creating a truly inclusive culture where individuals feel a sense of belonging rather than a requirement to ‘fit in’. “This is Us” is our framework for delivering this ambition.
Our commitments to you
We pride ourselves on creating a culture that challenges prejudice and values diversity. We are committed to ensuring that all our employees and clients feel welcome and are not discriminated against or treated unfairly. We believe that direct or indirect discrimination is wrong and ensure that our policies and practices provide equal treatment for everyone. Adherence to our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy is a condition of employment, and a copy of the policy is given to all job applicants and employees.
In addition:
- We will comply with equality law and implement good practice in all aspects of employment.
- We will demonstrate clear leadership and good governance on EDI.
- We will work proactively and in partnership to advance EDI for our clients, staff and stakeholders.
- We will ensure our policy, strategy and legal context on EDI is consistently understood.
Our EDI priorities
- Improve our EDI evidence base and extend our insight.
- Broaden our EDI focus to include neurodiversity.
- Build leadership capability and diversity of leadership.
- Create a safe and just culture where ‘voice’ is encouraged and diversity of thought is welcomed – people should feel a sense of belonging in Southdown.
- Communication and engagement.
- Deliver inclusive services.
What you can expect when you apply for a job at Southdown
Our recruitment and selection procedures are designed to avoid any unfair discrimination towards candidates when considering applications for employment.
All our managers are trained in anti-discriminatory recruitment practice. The diversity of our staff team is monitored to ensure we continue to reflect the diversity of the local communities that we work in. We are accredited by several national bodies for best practice in recruitment.
To help us monitor our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy and the effectiveness of our recruitment practices, we ask all applicants to complete a monitoring form as part of their application.
Information provided is treated as confidential and will be viewed and monitored by our Human Resources team only. The monitoring form does not form part of the selection process and will not be seen by the selection panel. If you would prefer not to share these details, please select ‘prefer not to say’ for each heading.
We monitor the salaries of our workforce to ensure that there is no bias regarding gender and that salaries are fair and comparable to similar organisations. See below for our Gender Pay Gap Reports.
