About us
About Croydon Council
Croydon is London’s largest and youngest borough, known for its diversity, vibrant community, and fantastic opportunities. With close proximity to central London and the South East, Croydon offers a dynamic place to live, work, and enjoy. As home to one of the largest commercial districts in the UK, it’s a major hub for shoppers, professionals, and visitors alike. Excellent transport links, including the iconic trams, make exploring the borough and beyond easy. Croydon’s rich cultural scene, recognised as the birthplace of various music genres, adds to its unique appeal.
With a workforce of about 6121 staff, including schools, Croydon Council is one of the largest employers in the borough. The council also makes a significant contribution to the local economy.
Key Croydon facts:
A growing economic hub
Croydon is undergoing an exciting transformation and is well on its way to becoming a modern European city. Located 11 miles south of Central London, Croydon benefits from outstanding transport connections, with London Victoria, London Bridge and the City all within 16 minutes by rail.
Massive investment including the development by Westfield, which will be one of Europe’s largest retail and leisure destinations, with more than 23,000 new jobs created and 10,760 new homes started over the next 5 years.
A unique cultural offer
Croydon has energy and edge, celebrated street art, beautiful parks and open spaces. A £30 million refurbishment of Fairfield Halls will see it transformed into a world class performance venue, creating a spectacular arts and culture scene for South London as part of a new vibrant cultural and educational quarter at College Green.
Croydon has a growing number of cultural events each year from large scale outdoor performances to festivals and live music.
Culture, equalities and inclusion
Here at Croydon, our vision of the culture of the council is to “ create a collaborative, inclusive and creative environment which allows talent to flourish”.
We nurture and develop our culture through:
- our core set of values – the foundation of our council
- running eight staff network groups, offering members support and giving staff a voice when it comes to making the big decisions at Croydon
- a group of engaged and passionate Culture Ambassadors
Our Values
We are committed to excellence in all we do. Our values reflect the attitude and approach we take to working together to deliver services to our borough.
- One team – Crossing boundaries to work together towards shared goals with colleagues, partners and communities
- Proud to serve – Striving to always do our best for the community, getting the most from limited resources and using taxpayers’ money wisely
- Honest and open – Working hard to build trust by treating everyone with honesty and integrity
- Taking responsibility – Encouraging and supporting each other to take responsibility and show what we can do, learning together and recognising all of our contributions
- Valuing diversity – We make the most of the many perspectives that make Croydon distinctive.
Staff Network Groups
Our eight staff networks are an integral part of Croydon Council’s cultural landscape. They provide their members with personal and career support, run awareness-raising events and help shape the big decisions which affect everyone at Croydon. All our staff networks are sponsored by a member of our leadership team to ensure they’re represented at the highest level.
Race Equality staff network
Disability staff network
LGBT+allies staff network
Mental health and wellbeing staff network
Women’s staff network
Working carers’ staff network
Croydon young staff network
Christian faith staff network
Making an impact
From policy change and guidance to adjustments to building facilities and staff equipment, our staff network groups have a real impact and effect positive change throughout the organisation. The staff network groups’ annual report highlights several of the areas where staff networks are making a significant impact, and below are a couple of recent examples.
The work of the disability staff network, working together with our ICT partners and facilities management helped ensure accessibility was at the top of the agenda for starters and employees who have a disability and led to the introduction of Radar Key in accessible toilets, better room signage, lift lighting, door entry systems and pillar strips.
The Women’s Network alongside the Mental Health and Wellbeing Network and Human Resources launched Menopause Guidance to support women in the workforce in 2017 (one of the first local authorities to provide this guidance). This was recognised by the council winning the REBA (Reward and Employee Benefits Association) award for Innovation in 2019 (https://reba.global/content/reba-award-winner-croydon-council-innovation). Croydon are an accredited menopause and menstrual friendly employer.