We’ve signed the national Sexual Safety Charter

Published: 15 April 2025

We’ve made a commitment to eliminating inappropriate, unwanted and harmful behaviour in our organisation.

Sexual safety is an important part of a safe and open culture. That’s why we created a Safety Culture Charter, with 10 core principles and actions to help protect the sexual safety of all our people.

We recognise that risk can never be reduced to zero and most things that don’t go as planned are due to unintentional acts and decisions made in good faith.

What we’re doing

We have a Violence Prevention and Reduction group that meet regularly to ensure that we deliver our commitments and actions under the charter. It ensures we have the right policies, support and training in place to protect our staff.

We make sure we have appropriate and clear policies, training and support in place, and take timely action against alleged perpetrators.

Sexual Safety Charter

What is sexual safety?

Sexual safety refers to the respect and maintenance of an individual’s physical (including sexual) and psychological boundaries.

We commit to the following principles and actions to achieve a zero-tolerance approach to any unwanted inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours towards our colleagues. We will:

• Actively work to eradicate sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.
• Promote a culture that fosters openness and transparency, and does not tolerate unwanted, harmful and/or inappropriate sexual behaviours.
• Take an intersectional approach to the sexual safety of our workforce, recognising certain groups will experience sexual harassment and abuse at a disproportionate rate.
• Provide appropriate support for those in our workforce who experience unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours.
• Clearly communicate standards of behaviour. This includes expected action for those who witness inappropriate, unwanted and/or harmful sexual behaviour.
• Ensure appropriate, specific, and clear policies are in place. They will include appropriate and timely action against alleged perpetrators.
• Ensure relevant, specific, and clear training is in place.
• Ensure reporting mechanisms are in place for those experiencing these behaviours.
• Take all reports seriously, with appropriate and timely action taken in all cases.
• Capture and share data on prevalence and staff experience transparently.

We will apply these commitments to everyone in our organisation equally.

Where to go if you need help

If you’re a victim of rape or sexual assault, the police and other organisations are there to help and you can report it to them.

See further advice on the government website

Find out more

Find out more about sexual safety in healthcare on the NHS website

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