Our commitment to support gender equality

At Gloucestershire County Council, we are committed to promoting positive action to close the gender pay gap. We are committed to equal opportunities and equal treatment for all employees. To ensure equal pay, the council uses Job Evaluation (JE) to determine the rates of pay for all posts.

The council uses two well recognised JE schemes and both schemes have been designed to ensure there is no gender bias in any of the job-related factors that they measure.

We are therefore confident that the rates of pay we set for jobs within the council are fully consistent with equal pay requirements.

We continue to encourage women to work at all levels in the council and offer a diverse and inclusive work environment. We offer a range of opportunities to work flexibly and actively promote these to all employees. These include the following flexible working practices and family friendly policies:

Significant improvements in our technology offering have widened the scope of possibilities for efficient agile working and the council will continue to develop strategies to support different ways of working. The decrease in both the mean and median gender pay gap is a reinforcement of our commitment that as a large, local employer we are providing the framework in which women can progress up the career ladder.

In 2024 the Women’s Network was introduced following an internal request. The new employee network has established a full committee, chair and senior sponsor and will be working on their key priorities in their first annual general meeting this autumn. The network is focused on issues in the workplace that impact women however membership to the network is open to all staff.

In addition to the council wide employee network Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service (GFRS) have Women in the Fire Service Group which mirrors the national Women in the Fire Service. GFRS have the second highest number of operational female staff across the 44 Fire and Rescue Services nationally.

GFRS have commissioned Positive Action training to be delivered across the Service throughout 2024 to support, Wholetime and On Call colleagues demonstrating our commitment to attracting underrepresented groups (including women). GFRS have also held targeted Have a Go Days on stations attracting females specifically to join as an operational firefighter. 

GFRS provide enhanced maternity pay provision to operational female staff members in line with national changes . Employees are entitled to 26 weeks at full pay (inclusive of all allowances and continuous professional development payment) followed by 13 weeks statutory maternity pay as of July 2024. Alongside this GFRS reviewed the Maternity Risk Assessment and Procedure to ensure that female colleagues are supported at the point whereby they choose to notify the Service of their pregnancy.

The Council became White Ribbon Accredited in July 2023. In doing so we have joined a community of hundreds of organisations across England and Wales who are committed to, and working towards, ending violence against women. In 2024 the Council increase resource to support the programme of work through a corporate policy officer focused on progressing the wider agenda.