This Bus is a Safe Space - with Ian de Chastelain

This conversation focuses on the real steps Stagecoach East is taking to make its buses safe spaces, especially for women and girls.

Ian de Chastelain, Training Manager at Stagecoach East, shares with Katie Allen how a chance encounter with a flyer from Businesses Against Abuse led to a whole new direction for the organisation’s driver training and broader approach to community inclusion.

Topics include violence against women and girls, bystander intervention, psychological safety, and the practical realities of inclusion on public transport.

Ian explains how Stagecoach’s operational and cultural change was achieved not by top-down edict but through real employee involvement, collaborative development of training, and external partnerships, particularly with police and crisis services.

The discussion also highlights the challenges of embedding safeguarding and bystander intervention, why supporting employees is foundational to customer safety, and the ripple effect that a single, inclusive initiative can have across an entire industry.

The episode offers useful insight for anyone interested in workplace culture, DEI, leadership, and making tangible progress on issues of safety and inclusion.

THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS

A flyer in a coffee shop became the unlikely catalyst for Stagecoach East taking a stand on violence against women and girls, sparking a cross-team initiative that changed company-wide training and community partnerships.

The introduction of the "This Bus is a Safe Place" scheme proved that practical inclusion starts with giving frontline staff both training and authority, backed by supportive leadership,even when the answers create operational headaches.

The ripple effect of one company’s efforts led to national recognition and the rollout of bystander intervention andsafeguarding modules that are now shaping best practice across the UK bus industry.

Plus we mentioned the 5 D’s of bystander intervention (Delegate, Direct, Document, Distract, Delay) as developed by Right To Be and Green Dot.

REFLECTIVE QUESTION FOR LISTENERS

When did you last notice an opportunity to challenge "the way things are done" in your workplace or community, and what stopped you, or pushed you, to take action?

GUEST CONTACT DETAILS

Press  and media enquiries can be directed to Stephen Kiely of Stagecoach East. www.stagecoachbus.com 

A FEW FINAL WORDS…

If you value this conversation and want to help keep the Speaking of Inclusion podcast ad-free, consider treating Katie to a virtual coffee at coff.ee/speakingofinclusion. Your support helps keep these real, unfiltered conversations flowing.

Speaking of Inclusion is hosted by Katie Allen. Katie is a specialist inclusion consultant and confidence coach, offering a no BS approach to DEI and helping people become more confident in important human conversations.

www.KatieAllenConsulting.com

Theme music is courtesy of Kevin MacLeod:Attribution Code"Vicious" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/