Creating safe and supportive spaces at the DWP

Sam talks about the supportive, inclusive environment he has experienced as a member of the LGBT+ community working for the DWP.

I grew up in Devon as one of eight children – we moved around a lot when we were kids and at 17, I went to West Africa and fell in love with Gambia. I moved there when I was 18 and stayed for a couple of years before coming back to the UK and doing some charity work. Then I kind of fell into working for the DWP.

A friend of mine told me I’d be great in the DWP and I just saw a job advertised, applied and I got it. My first job was as a work coach and, like a lot of people in the department, I worked in a lot of different roles, such as outreach network chair and work-coach team leader. Now I work as a people safety manager, where our role is to keep customer interactions safe.

Another important part of my work at DWP was my former involvement with the LGBT+ Network. I am gay myself and have always felt supported at the department. Last year, my manager asked if I would support her with DWP-Pride at the Peel Park office in Blackpool, because I am always getting involved in different things.

There was already a picnic event happening, but I thought I could spice things up in the office. I put pictures around the office of different people from LGBT+ history with information that I’d researched about them. The pictures were posted in places where everyone would definitely see them, so it brought everyone into the conversation. It got people talking, which is really important. Phyll Opoku, who is known as Lady Phyll, is the founder of UK Black Pride and she is really well known in the DWP, so she was one of the figures who really sparked interest.

This year, I will be taking a bit of a step back as I have done a lot of work over the past few years, especially as the former LGBT+ Network chair, plus I have just moved down south to Brighton and Hove with my partner. So this year, I am looking forward to being a participant and enjoying the events from that perspective.

When I was the network chair, we did a lot of work to help create a safe environment for LGBT+ staff and customers. And we put on events, such as quiz nights, and had different network leads to support different members of our community. For example, there is a women’s lead, a bisexual lead and a race lead, to make sure everyone is represented by experts and we could make sure department policies were more inclusive. I know the network continues to do amazing things. 

As well as weekly and monthly newsletters, we help influence policy. Intersectionality is important too. The DWP really invests in its networks – as well as the LGBT+ Network, there are networks for disability, race, gender and different faith groups. People can get involved in more than one network as there is a lot of crossover and the networks work together collaboratively.

Allyship is also important and it’s something we need to talk about more. I’m a massive fan of allies and within the LGBT+ community, I don’t think we talk about allies enough. With any great movement of people, anything successful has always been achieved with the support of allies. Sometimes allies don’t even realise they are allies, but they are so supportive of our community. Even if they do little things, such as repost positive statements in social media, it all helps. All networks need to encourage allies to come along and get involved. 

On a personal level, I have always found the DWP to be a supportive environment for me as a gay person. I can be me at the DWP. Like any organisation, there is always room for improvement, it is an ongoing process. I always say that we’re not where we need to be but, thank goodness, we’re not where we used to be. I have had really fantastic managers and so much flexibility and support. It’s one of the best organisations I’ve ever worked for – I love being a civil servant and I love working at the DWP.