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About us

Who we are

We are the Local Authority Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN), a network of local authority staff committed to promoting equality and equity between men and women across local government. We aim to uphold the sex-based rights enshrined in the Equality Act 2010, including the right to same-sex spaces. We also uphold the protected characteristics of pregnancy and maternity, and sexual orientation, within the Act.

We are independent of any political party. Our supporters come from a variety of political, philosophical, and religious beliefs and traditions. We are not a trade union, and we do not provide representation or advocacy. We aim to provide information, resources and support, with the purpose of enabling individuals and groups to undertake their own action and lobbying within their own local authority employer.

We came together as a result of increasing frustration at policies and practices implemented within our local authorities, where the concept of ‘gender identity’ is often presented as uncontested fact, and where gender (and ‘gender identity’) is prioritised over sex. In effect, this means that sex-based rights, protections and spaces have become subordinated to gender.

We are run by a core group of volunteers, drawn from local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales. As we grow, our governance and membership structures will also change and develop.

Our SEEN is inspired by other SEEN groups in different areas, including the original SEEN in the Civil Service, as well as those in the police and health services. We actively work with the other SEEN networks and we are represented on their co-ordinating body.

Membership is open to staff from local authorities (including borough councils, county councils, combined authorities, and town and parish councils) who share our aims and principles.

Alternatively, anyone can sign up to our mailing list.

Why we need Local Authority SEEN

Local authorities provide a range of services, many of which the general public is only partially aware – unless they rely on those services. In some services, the potential for direct or indirect discrimination is small, but in others, a lack of clarity on sex can have a potentially disastrous impact. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Children’s social work
  • Adult social care
  • Homeless hostels
  • Domestic Violence (DV) refuges
  • Local authority maintained schools
  • Youth and community groups
  • Sports and leisure facilities

Unfortunately, over the past few years, we have observed a lack of clarity on sex, sex-based rights and same-sex provision becoming more common in local authorities, as it has in many other institutions in the UK. Lobby groups attempting to override the importance of sex in favour of ‘gender identity’ – or to erase the category of sex entirely – have been extraordinarily successful.

This change causes confusion, and many local authorities have adopted policies which are not in accordance with the law or with scientific fact. These policies are often aligned with the contested beliefs around gender and have often been developed on advice from paid external lobbyists. A widely-promoted view that there should be ‘no debate’ about sex and gender issues has had a chilling effect on the internal culture of local authorities, in the workplace and in the council chamber.

Ultimately, we believe that this has been to the detriment of all, but especially for women, girls, and same-sex attracted people.

Local Authority SEEN logo

Our Aims & Principles

We aim to:

  • Promote sex equality and equity between women and men so that all can thrive at work
  • Highlight unlawful sex discrimination by and within local authorities
  • Uphold sex-based rights
  • Uphold the rights of same-sex attracted people
  • Tackle the harmful stereotypes about women and men
  • Support staff to set up networks within their organisations

Our 4 guiding principles:

  1. We are committed to supporting local authority staff to uphold the sex-based rights which support women and men’s rights and needs at work, including the protected characteristics of sex, pregnancy and maternity, and sexual orientation set out in the Equality Act 2010. We are committed to ensuring that these rights are balanced against other rights where lawful and necessary.
  2. We are committed to helping local authority staff feel confident to exercise their rights under the European Convention of Human Rights. This includes freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly and association. We uphold these rights when they are manifested lawfully and respectfully in accordance with the Seven Principles of Public Life.
  3. We are committed to the protected the philosophical belief (covered by the protected characteristic of religion and belief in the Equality Act 2010) that sex is biological, binary and immutable, that sex matters for both women and men in our everyday lives – including for our rights and needs in the workplace – and that sex must not be conflated with the concepts of gender or gender identity. Local government staff who hold this protected belief must not be marginalised, disadvantaged or discriminated against.
  4. We are committed to helping local authorities to meet their Public Sector Equality Duty, including to “foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not”, by encouraging a diversity of voices, and open and respectful dialogue and tolerance between those with differing beliefs and experiences.