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Home: What is it?

What is The Swindon Inclusion and Diversity Network?

The Swindon Inclusion and Diversity Network is a free, member only, network. It is aimed at business leaders, HR Directors, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Professionals, and anyone with the desire and power to effect change within their organisation.

Read more in our Vision and Mission.

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What happens?

At The Swindon Inclusion and Diversity Network, we believe that Inclusion and Diversity is about working together collaboratively. We encourage our members to share best practice and hold each other to account for meaningful action. There is plenty of knowledge to go around and who knows, for every tip you give out, you may well receive one back! The Swindon Inclusion and Diversity Network meets monthly for small-group virtual coffee discussion sessions specific to the interests of the members. We focus on peer-to-peer sharing and if you're keen to be involved and to contribute then please contact us at inclusiveswindon@gmail.com.

Photographs of Emma Feltham, Claire Farrow and Nicole Hardiman

Meet the Founders

Emma Feltham, Head of IT Delivery, National Trust

Emma has worked at National Trust since September 2012 in a variety of senior leadership roles in IT. She is responsible for the end-to-end IT portfolio for public-facing and revenue-generating IT services, delivering projects and programmes and supporting the associated live services. Emma chaired the Collaboration, Innovation, Technology Forum (CITF) Gender Balance and Diversity Committee from 2017-2021 and was a member of the group from 2015. She was shortlisted for the Women in IT Advocate of the Year Award in January 2018 and nominated for the Everywoman in Technology Leader Award  in October 2022. She founded the National Trust Women in Tech group in May 2023.
Emma says, “Diverse teams enable us to be much more effective, bringing different experiences and varied perspectives to everything we do”.

Claire Farrow, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead,  Reaction Engines

Claire’s work in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) began when working in technology and engineering recruitment where she supported clients with inclusive recruitment audits and training, as well as delivering inclusion conferences to facilitate the sharing of best practice. At Reaction Engines, Claire is responsible for leading the EDI strategy, whether that’s ensuring equity in policies and processes, developing training materials and creating safe spaces for sharing learning and experiences, monitoring data to identify trends and focus areas, or designing outreach programmes to maximise reach and diversify talent pools. As part of her role as workstream lead for ‘social’ in Reaction Engines’ ESG strategy, Claire is also responsible for community volunteering initiatives. In 2019, Claire was shortlisted for a We Are The City Rising Star Award.

Claire says, "a true ally should be visible and involved, taking an active approach in calling in non-inclusive behaviours, advocating for others, and giving a voice to those who may feel unheard".

Nicole Hardiman, Director of Engineering, Flagstone

Nicole has worked for Flagstone since October 2022. Her previous experience includes Technical Lead, IT Practice Manager, IT Engineering Manager and Data Engineering COE Lead at Nationwide, Service Management Lead at National Trust and Global 2nd Line Support Manager for Cloud Solutions within Intergraph. She has evolved a technical career spanning 20+ years to a management one focussed on people as individuals. Her background allows her to speak to the technical teams on their level with a good understanding of their issues. In 2018, Nicole was one of the co-creators of the Nationwide Ada Lovelace Day event, promoting women in IT and encouraging them to consider working in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM). She was awarded one of the coveted Nationwide Building Society quarterly awards for her efforts. Keen on coaching and mentoring, Nicole believes that anyone with a passion for what they want to do can succeed.
Nicole says, “Businesses need to recognise that their customer base is very diverse and to represent them effectively the workforce needs to be as well. Our differences make us stronger”.

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Home: External Resources

External Resources

Papers and Best Practice Guides:

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: A Year in Review 2021, whitepaper by Claire Farrow from Reaction Engines.

CITF Inclusion & Diversity Good Practice Guide (2020), with contributions from Emma Feltham from National Trust.

COVID-19 – This could be your opportunity to kick-start or test your inclusion strategy: What have we learnt during lockdown and how can we ensure that our workforce planning post-COVID is as inclusive as possible?, whitepaper by Claire Farrow from Reaction Engines.

External Organisations:

Learn British Sign Language at British Sign.

Employers' Initiative on Domestic Abuse (EIDA), a network of businesses with the mission to enable employers to take action on domestic abuse.

Health Watch Swindon, the independent champion for people who use health and social care services.

How Do You Do It, providers of flexible, face to face and virtual programmes and coaching that support the attraction, retention and progression of diverse talent.

Live Well Swindon Hub, offering information, signposting and support to help you make the most of your health and wellbeing.

Mind, the mental health charity.

National Autistic Society, the UK’s leading charity for autistic people and their families.


See Change Happen, an Inclusion and Belonging consultancy, that specialises in working to ensure that organisations are culturally aware and sensitive to the needs of individuals.

Swindon Carers, established to provide help and support to carers in Swindon.

Swindon Equality Coalition, a network of groups and people who are interested in making equality reality in Swindon. It has a role in challenging the Council and our partners about how they make decisions and deliver service from an equality perspective.

Swindon & Wiltshire Pride, our local Pride group.

Thames Water Health and Safety Hub, an online resource-sharing initiative between Thames Water and its partners, including many mental health resources.

Timewise, a flexible working consultancy, helping employers design innovative solutions that attract talented, loyal people and create fair workplaces.

Women of a Certain Stage, offering stress and resilience advice as well as specialising in normalising menopause at work to increase attraction and retention of female talent, support gender equality and improve attendance and productivity.

Diversity and Inclusion Videos:

All That We Share

I Have Mental Health

Inclusion Starts With I

Understanding Young Adult Carers aged 16- 25

Worlds Apart

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