"We were delighted that four of our children who suffer from anxiety participated and were supported throughout. In fact, they felt so secure it wasn't obvious they had anxiety. A wonderful experience was had by all!"
Employer Statement
The Outdoors People are committed to being an equal opportunities employer and believe that diversity makes us stronger as a company, as educators, as an industry, and as a society.
The Outdoors People actively encourage the participation of all people in adventure education. Our goal is to be better than the law demands and, as both a provider of outstanding adventure experiences and an employer, we will never knowingly discriminate directly or indirectly on the grounds of age, physical or developmental disability, health, gender reassignment or gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, the menopause, sexual orientation, mental health, or any other personal or group identity that may be the cause of discrimination.
We work hard to include people who may have found they struggled to get fully involved in adventure activities elsewhere and our outstanding school camps are designed to allow everyone to take part. The nature of our venues means that we are unusually suited, as both employers and providers, to accommodating physical and developmental differences that might normally be limiting factors within the adventure education sector.
Where possible, we will also help with the costs of private mental health care, physical therapy, addiction therapy, or other therapies in instances where the NHS is overstretched. This is regardless of whether the injury was received “on the job,” or a condition is affecting your work with us, and is in addition to our obligations as an employer to provide a safe working environment.
We recognise that our industry’s move to employing mostly freelance instructors comes with both benefits and downsides for our team. Wherever possible, we will extend the same financial, emotional, and practical benefits for our freelancers, as we provide to full time staff.
The Outdoors People are actively involved in campaigning for the rights of marginalised groups and deliver industry recognised awareness and inclusion training. We strive to be industry leaders in this area but are aware that there's always room to do better. If you feel there is anything we could do to improve, then please let us know.
- Craig Geddes, Director, The Outdoors People
“Off-the-clock” behaviour
The Outdoors People expressly support the rights of team members, suppliers, and other parties to publicly expresses their political, personal or religious opinions. Those opinions must not put forward as the views of The Outdoors People and must not reflect on their suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults. Examples of opinions that would not be included under this policy might include endorsement of violence, discriminatory statements or behaviour, advocacy for discrimination, or support for groups or individuals who advocate for any of the above.
The Outdoors People work with diverse young people and deliver recognised diversity and inclusion training. It is a reasonable operational requirement that our team members should not be publicly undermining that work, making statements that indicate they do not support the work they are being paid to undertake, or making statements that indicate that they might not treat all our pupils equally and with dignity.
Cancelling Work With Us
We encourage you to take good care of your physical and mental health and will not in any way penalise you for needing to do so. Please provide us with as much advance notice as possible if you feel you may have to cancel any job with us. We have very tight staffing margins and our provision can be badly affected by cancellations.
Unfortunately, cancellation without good reason or repeated short notice cancellation may result in us having to allocate less work to you.
The Outdoors People explicitly support individuals affected by mental health issues and consider such challenges to be equal to physical illness and injury.
The Outdoors People are very happy to have a diverse staff team and are aware that this means that people may also need to cancel work to support a dependant or family member.
Staff Hardship Fund
Freelance work leaves people working in our industry with very little job security. This can lead to people working when they should be taking care of themselves and cause or exacerbate mental health issues.
If you cancel work with us on the grounds of the physical or mental health of you or a dependant, we will attempt to pay you one third of the base income you would have expected to receive for that contract.
Because we are a small company and this is not a normal feature of freelance work, this is a fixed pot of money each year. Once the fund is exhausted, we will not be able to make any further payments.
The size of the fund is fixed at no more than 1% of the company’s turnover from the previous financial year.
Support with Ongoing Health Problems
The Outdoors People are committed to supporting their staff to the best of our ability. If you or a dependent have an ongoing physical or mental health issue or demands on your time then please talk to us to see if we can help.
Due to the nature of our venues and the predictable nature of our work, we are uniquely equipped to support people within the setting of adventure education.
Where possible, we will also help with the costs of private mental health care, physical therapy, addiction therapy, or other therapies in instances where the NHS is overstretched. This is regardless of whether the injury was received “on the job,” or a condition is affecting your work with us, and is in addition to our obligations as an employer to provide a safe working environment.
