We are a Community.
We connect people so that we can share experiences, support each other, and work together to resolve issues.
Some of us stammer, some don’t. We welcome allies who have experience of stammering at work, at home or simply want to understand more.
Our membership is open to everyone in the UK Civil Service.
What we do
Champion and Support
We champion the needs of people who stammer and those who feel their dysfluent voice isn’t being heard, to ensure all parts of the Civil Service are an inclusive place to work.
Create a Community
We engage people across the Civil Service to build a community who share knowledge and experiences, highs and lows, and work together to resolve issues.
Supporting inclusive cultures
We are the Civil Service’s critical friend on designing services and ways of working underpinned by inclusive communication. This includes internal and external customer facing services.
What our members say
I live in this weird parallel universe where saying good morning can sometimes be harder than giving a 20 minute talk to an audience of 100
― Andrew, National Archives
Every interaction with another human being revolved around how can I minimise or hide my stammer?
― Mo, Dept for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Many of my colleagues have no idea how much time I take up keeping my fluency and hiding my stammer. Sometimes I just keep quiet in meetings because I’m just too tired to talk
― Sarah, Dept of Transport
When I started working, my mission was to hide my stammer at all costs. The shame, embarrassment and humiliation of being ‘non-fluent’, therefore not ‘normal’ was a huge burden on my shoulders
― Angela, DWP
Our network in numbers
18
Departments & government agencies represented across the UK
30%
Have a stammer you can’t hear
60%
Haven’t told HR about their stammer
Impact of stammering
45%
have stayed in a job longer than they would have liked because they felt their stammer would limit their chances of employment elsewhere
―British Stammering Association survey 2019
59%
said that having a stammer has affected their career choice
―British Stammering Association survey 2019
89%
felt frustrated by the way other people have reacted to their stammer (78% awkward, 65% anxious, 59% depressed)
―British Stammering Association survey 2019
5 things you can do to support
- Tell people about the STAMMA Civil Service
- Challenge any references to ‘good communication skills’ you see in job adverts or performance reviews – what are they really looking for?
- Invite us to your team meeting to talk about what makes good communication skill and great communications cultures
- Become a member by contacting us here
- Add a link to our website from your email signature https://ukcssn.com/
About Us
We are the Civil Service Stammering Network
We are making the Civil Service a brilliant place to speak up
Blog
Our leadership
Chair: Claire-Louise Partridge
Social Media:
Sarah Baskerville
Communications:
Paul Barrett
Ambassador network:
Amanda Bradbury
International ambassador:
James McGuire
STAMMA Civil Service 