The Standard
Six core competencies, then the Ten.
Step one is the six core competencies every good venue needs, based on Best Bar None. Step two is ten things on top that show a venue understands and is willing, across every strand of diversity, with LGBTQIA+ inclusion and neurodiversity at the heart of it. We check the evidence, then test it without warning. Pass both and you are Glittered.
What you actually do
Qualify on the six core competencies: hold Best Bar None, or put the six in place with our templates and help. Then do ten things: sign a one-page pledge, train one manager online, train the team online for 45 minutes, brief the door, sign one private toilet and train staff to act on behaviour not identity, write your own list of small courtesies for people whose disability is not visible, publish a few lines about noise, light, step-free access, the accessible toilet, assistance dogs and alcohol-free options, put the poster up, make sure every member of staff can act on Ask for Angela and on a non-inclusive incident, and ask guests one question by QR code.
Upload the evidence and we check it. Then we visit as guests without warning. Pass both and the badge is earned. It is reviewed every year; if it slips you get sixty days to fix it, and if it slips twice the badge comes down.
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. If you hold Best Bar None you already have 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.
Core competency 1: Vulnerability policy
Written down and known by staff.
Core competency 2: Harassment and sexual safety
Zero tolerance, written and trained.
Core competency 3: Equality and diversity policy
Covering guests and staff.
Core competency 4: Dated training records
Who was trained in what and when.
Core competency 5: A named lead
One person accountable and known to the team.
Core competency 6: Incident and refusal log
With a way for guests and staff to report.
This is where every Glittered venue needs to be. It is very achievable and you will not do it alone. A free 15 minute call, a template for every competency and good practice guides shared on your call. If you hold Best Bar None you already have all six.
Ask for Angela is not one of the six because it is point nine of the Ten. A sign guests can see is not one of the six because the Glitter badge is what we give you.
Step two: the Ten. All ten are required.
Disability runs through all of them: most disabled people are not wheelchair users, and many LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent guests are disabled too. Each one shows what you do, what you send us, and what our Ambassadors look for on the night. Five of them come with a staff card, and the training teaches all five as judgement calls with real examples, because the Standard does not remove your discretion; it trains your people to use it fairly.
Point 1: Sign the pledge
One page added to the equality policy Best Bar None already requires: 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 to raise a non-inclusive incident; one senior person accountable; non-inclusive incidents given a category in your incident log. Re-signed every year.
Point 2: Train an Inclusion Lead
One manager does our three-hour online course and joins a two-hour online area session each quarter.
Point 3: Train the team
Every customer-facing person does our 45-minute online module, assigned by the Lead, within three months of starting and yearly after. Unlimited seats. This is the equality and diversity training Best Bar None already asks you to evidence.
Point 4: Brief the door
Your admission rules are yours: groups, capacity, intoxication, dress, banned lists. They apply to everyone equally, and 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, staff ask who a guest would prefer to search them and take the answer at face value, a private search is always available, nothing worn on the body is removed or commented on, and mobility aids, prosthetics and medical equipment are never treated as weapons. Reasons go in the refusal log.
Point 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.
Point 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 or digital 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.
Point 7: Tell people before they arrive
A few lines on your website or socials: how loud and how bright it usually is, where the quieter spot is, what happens at the door, 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. Plus a free Euan's Guide listing.
Point 8: Signpost
Our poster with the support lines and how to report, where guests will see it, including inside the private facility.
Point 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 if they want to. And a response to a non-inclusive incident your staff can describe: the person targeted first, the person responsible dealt with under your own rules, the incident logged with its category, reported to police with the consent of the person targeted where it is a crime. Both are in the training.
Point 10: Ask the belonging question
"I feel like I belong here." Anonymous, by QR card on tables and at the bar. Your score, and the gap between groups, on your dashboard.
Your evidence first. Then a visit as guests.
Your evidence
You upload the evidence for the six and the Ten and we check every item at a desk. Estates can gather it through the area manager assessment they already do. Once the evidence passes, you are ready for a visit.
A visit as guests
Two trained volunteer Ambassadors on a random night, twenty minutes, checking only what the Ten says we check. Pass both and the badge is earned. After that every Glittered venue stays in the pool every year; a third of venues in a visiting area are visited each year; every complaint triggers a visit.
Ask for Angela, safely
In one venue in three an Ambassador asks for Angela. The moment staff start to respond, the Ambassador ends it with an agreed phrase: "Thank you, I am fine, I thought I saw someone I know." No taxi, no police, nobody removed. You learn it was a test from the report within 48 hours.
Can you train for the test? Yes, and please do. Everything we check is a behaviour we want. What you cannot rehearse is when we come, or what your guests say in the belonging question every week of the year.
One level. Ten out of ten. Help all the way.
To be Glittered
The six core competencies plus all ten, the evidence checked and an unannounced visit passed. One level. Ten out of ten.
If something slips
Most visits pass. If one finds something wanting on the door, the toilet, the needs-led rule or Ask for Angela, you get the report within 48 hours, sixty days to put it right, our help to do it and one re-visit, all included. Nobody pays to fail.
If it cannot be put right
A second fail within twelve months means the badge comes down, because a badge that cannot be lost is a sticker. Delisted venues come off the map and can reapply after six months, with our help to get there.
Toilets and facilities
The Glitter Standard does not tell a venue how to designate its toilets. That is the venue's lawful decision under the Equality Act 2010 and the EHRC Code of Practice for services. What The Glitter Standard requires is a written, lawful policy staff can explain; wherever physically possible a self-contained, lockable facility anyone can use; and that no guest is ever challenged, questioned about their body, asked for documents or humiliated at a toilet door. Concerns go to a manager, in private, with dignity.
Wording dated 9 September 2026, written against the EHRC Code as laid before Parliament on 21 May 2026. It asks nothing about designation, which is what keeps it inside the law whatever the Code says. Reviewed on every change in the law; the date of the last review is shown here.
The needs-led rule
No accredited venue may ever require proof of a diagnosis, disability, condition or identity before making an adjustment or extending a courtesy. Sunflower lanyards and Access Cards are recognised and welcomed, never required. Hundreds of thousands of people are waiting years for an assessment; a venue should not make them wait too.
What we recognise so you never train twice
- Best Bar None: all six core competencies, in full.
- Ask for Angela training (WAVE or equivalent): the harassment response element.
- Attitude is Everything Access Charter and Euan's Guide: the disability information element.
- Hidden Disabilities Sunflower membership: the Sunflower element.
- Equal Measures or Be Inclusive Hospitality training: the race and faith element of the team module.
Start with a conversation.
A free 15 minute call, no commitment. Tell us who you are and where you are and we will tell you what the route looks like. Or start with the readiness check.
Email hello@theglitterstandard.co.uk, or use the form and we will reply within two working days. One inbox for accreditation, partnerships, press and the Glitterbomb tour.