Equality & diversity

At Stephensons, we are committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion across all areas of our organisation, for our people, clients and the communities we support. We believe that diversity strengthens our firm, and by raising awareness on a range of issues and embedding inclusive practices, we aim to create a culture where everyone feels valued and able to thrive.

Our approach provides a clear and practical framework for driving meaningful change, embedding inclusive practices, and ensuring everyone is treated with fairness, dignity and respect. Through ongoing commitment and action, we aim to create lasting, positive outcomes and support inclusive growth.

Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

In recent years we have made meaningful progress in embedding equality, diversity and inclusion across the firm, guided by colleague feedback and our ED&I committee who meet quarterly, setting focused themes and priorities.

All colleagues receive training on our equality and diversity policies during induction and at regular intervals afterwards to ensure they appreciate the standards and behaviour we expect.

We regularly review and develop our policies and practices to ensure that we are capturing as many circumstances as possible to be able to support our workforce in all aspects of their lives. We have recently introduced an IVF Support Policy and Unreasonable Behaviour Policy as well as updated our family leave policies. These developments strengthen our commitment to fairness, dignity and inclusive working practices.

Raising awareness and supporting inclusion

Training and education are a central strand of our ED&I activity, with a strong emphasis on lived experience, communication and practical inclusion. We regularly organise lunch & learn sessions for our colleagues on a range of topics to raise awareness and support inclusion. For example we have in the past year held sessions on neurodiversity and Asperger’s awareness, unconscious bias training and cultural awareness sessions.

These initiatives help colleagues better understand different perspectives and create a more inclusive working environment as well as helping us to understand the different needs of our clients.

The firm also actively attends external training events and forums, engaging with specialist speakers to broaden our understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion topics.

Accessibility and inclusive tools

We have introduced practical tools to support accessibility and inclusive communication, including:

A name pronunciation tool to promote respectful communication
SignVideo (BSL interpretation service) to support deaf and hard-of-hearing clients
Improved visibility of accessibility information

These initiatives ensure both colleagues and clients can engage with us more easily, supports inclusive access and removes communication barriers.

We recognise that building an inclusive culture is an ongoing journey. Through ongoing action and accountability, we are committed to creating meaningful, lasting change across our firm and the communities we serve.

For more information please read our Equality & Diversity Policy.

View our 2025 diversity data