Code of Conduct

Every person who volunteers with, works for, or comes into contact with us, should be treated with dignity and respect and feel that they are in a safe and supportive environment.

Disrespectful behaviour, bullying, and harassment can have an extremely negative impact on individuals and on the reputation and perception of BTO and its activities.

We have drawn up a code to outline the standards of behaviour expected and how to raise a concern if you experience or witness a breach of BTO standards. This code applies to BTO activities whether online or offline.

We have two overarching standards that we expect everyone to uphold:

1. Create a welcoming and safe environment where people can feel they belong 

  • Individuals act with respect and consideration for each other, and appreciate the multitude of backgrounds and the levels of experience that people have. 
  • Disrespectful behaviour may include but is not limited to: being rude, patronising, belittling, and raising your voice.
  • Continued disrespectful behaviour or serious incidents of disrespectful behaviour may amount to bullying.

2. Create a harassment-free experience for anyone engaging with us

  • Individuals treat each other with respect and consideration regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, disability, physical appearance, or religion.
  • Harassment may include but is not limited to: willfully refusing to use someone’s pronouns, making sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes. 

Raising a Concern

You can make a complaint under our Compliments, Comments and Complaints Policy or, if you know who to contact, get in touch with a member of staff.

Where we are aware, or are made aware of breaches, or potential breaches, of these standards, we will take steps to investigate the issue. Any person found in breach:

  • will be asked to stop any disrespectful or harassing behaviour (including, in person, or online) and be expected to comply immediately, and;
  • we may take appropriate steps to bring to an end our association with anyone violating these standards. 

Please reach out to our staff to raise any concerns you have about your experience of engaging with BTO or to share suggestions about how we can improve our approach. You can contact us at info [at] bto.org.

Other policies at BTO

The following documents set out more detailed standards of behaviour expected for specific activities and what recourse we will take in the event of a breach:

Related content