The Glitter Standard · document
The Ten
What a venue does, shows and is tested on. Two pages.
Step one: the six core competencies
Based on Best Bar None, our chosen partner and what every good venue needs. They line up with most other venue safety schemes around the country too. A venue holding Best Bar None has all six. If you do not, it is very achievable and we will help: a free 15 minute call, a template for each and good practice guides.
- Vulnerability policy, written down and known by staff.
- Harassment and sexual safety, zero tolerance, written and trained.
- Equality and diversity policy, covering guests and staff.
- Dated training records, who was trained in what and when.
- A named lead, one person accountable and known to the team.
- Incident and refusal log, with a way for guests and staff to report.
Step two: the Ten
What a venue does on top of the six to be Glittered. Ten things that show you understand, and are willing, across every strand the law recognises, with LGBTQIA+ inclusion and neurodiversity at the heart of it. Do all ten and you have earned it.
| # | Do this | Show us | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sign the pledge. One page added to the equality policy you already hold for Best Bar None: the nine protected characteristics named, LGBTQIA+ and neurodiversity first; a promise that within reasonable expectations you will give a guest what they need without asking them to explain themselves; the same welcome promised to your own staff, with a route for them to raise a non-inclusive incident; one senior person accountable; non-inclusive incidents given a category in your incident log. Re-signed every year, with anything a test raised acted on. | The signed pledge (our template) | 30 minutes |
| 2 | Train an Inclusion Lead. One manager does our three-hour online course and joins a two-hour online area session each quarter. | Their certificate | 3 hours, then 2 a quarter |
| 3 | Train the team. Every customer-facing person does our 45-minute online module, assigned by your Lead, within three months of starting and yearly after. Unlimited seats. It covers your own emergency procedures too: how a disabled, deaf or neurodivergent guest gets out if you evacuate, move people inside or lock down. This is the equality and diversity training Best Bar None already asks you to evidence. | The training record | 45 minutes each |
| 4 | Brief the door. Your admission rules are yours: groups, capacity, intoxication, dress, banned lists. They apply to everyone equally. The same rule is applied to the next person in the queue. Nobody is refused or removed because of who they are. ID is a check of reasonable likeness and age, nothing else. Signs of autism or a disability are not signs of intoxication: staff take the time, discreetly, away from the queue. Where you search guests, and searching is becoming more common under the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, staff ask who a guest would prefer to search them, a private search is always available, and nothing worn on the body is removed or commented on. Reasons go in the refusal log. | The door and search cards (our templates) | 30 minutes |
| 5 | Toilets with dignity. You keep every right to manage your toilets for safety, including checks for drug use and anything else your licence requires. Wherever physically possible, one private lockable facility anyone can use (the accessible toilet counts). Staff act on behaviour, never on who someone is: nobody is questioned about their body or their gender at a toilet door, and a concern goes to a manager and is handled in private. | A photo of the sign; the staff card in use | 30 minutes |
| 6 | Needs-led. Most disabled people do not use a wheelchair and most disabilities are not visible. Write your own short list of small courtesies you will always offer without asking for a diagnosis or documents (a quieter table if one is free, tap water, ear defenders if you hold them, a large-print menu, a moment outside with re-entry at the manager's say-so). The list is yours. Safety and capacity rules still apply to everyone. | A photo of the list | 15 minutes |
| 7 | Tell people before they arrive, in a way they can read. A few lines on your website or socials: how loud and how bright, where the quieter spot is, what happens at the door (queue, search, ID), whether there is step-free access and an accessible toilet, that assistance dogs are welcome, that alcohol-free options are always available and nobody is pressed to drink, and that you recognise the Sunflower lanyard. The page itself has to work: real text rather than words in an image, enough contrast, a description on every image. Plus a free Euan's Guide listing. | A screenshot and the listing link | 1 hour |
| 8 | Signpost. Our poster with the helplines and how to report, where guests will see it, including inside the private facility. | Photos | 10 minutes |
| 9 | Ask for Angela, and respond to non-inclusive incidents. Every member of staff can act on Ask for Angela: a guest who asks for Angela is taken somewhere safe, asked what they need and helped to leave discreetly. And a non-inclusive incident response your staff can describe: the person targeted first, the person responsible dealt with under your own rules, logged with its category, reported to police with consent. Both are in the training. | Ask for Angela materials displayed; the procedure (our template) | 30 minutes |
| 10 | Ask the belonging question. "I feel like I belong here." Anonymous, by QR card on tables and at the bar. | It shows on your dashboard | 30 minutes to set up |
How we check
Evidence. You upload it with the ten-point self-assessment. We check every item at a desk. Where a Best Bar None assessor or an estate area manager has already checked it, we check their report against what you uploaded.
The test. Two trained volunteer Ambassadors visit as guests on a random night: they watch the door, wear a Sunflower, order a soft drink, ask where they can go privately, make a small request, find the poster and the QR card, ask who is responsible and what you would do, and in one venue in three ask for Angela, to a protocol that ends the test the moment your staff respond. Twenty minutes. Nothing else is checked. Pass the evidence check and the visit and the badge is earned.
The price. £95 a year for any single venue, whatever its size, everything included and everyone trained. Estates from £25 a venue. Unions £495, capped. Full list at theglitterstandard.co.uk.
The pool. Every Glittered venue is in it every year and never knows when. A third of venues in a testing area and one in ten elsewhere are tested each year; every report triggers a test; the belonging question never stops.
If it slips. A fail on the door, the toilet, the needs-led rule or Ask for Angela opens a 60-day improvement window with one re-test included. A second within twelve months and the badge comes down, in public.
Not in Best Bar None? Put the six core competencies in place with our templates and a free 15 minute call, then do the Ten. We will point you at Best Bar None when you are ready.
theglitterstandard.co.uk · hello@theglitterstandard.co.uk · Trained. Tested. Earned.