Principled advice for responsible organisations

Clear, evidence-based guidance on DEI compliance, so you can meet your regulatory and legislative requirements without jargon, ideology or wasted effort.

Get in touch See our services

Why Principle Advisory exists

I’m Sophie Black, and I lead Principle Advisory. For the last ten years I’ve led culture, diversity, wellbeing and social impact inside a wide variety of complex organisations — most recently as Head of Diversity, Inclusion, Wellbeing & Corporate Social Responsibility at Diligenta, a 7,000-person FCA-regulated business, and before that leading global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) for AMS and DEI for recruitment at Santander UK. Along the way I’ve worked to position D&I as a key risk mitigation function within businesses, shifting the focus from activity to compliance. I’ve built diversity dashboards, pay gap reporting and risk registers from scratch, and led Athena SWAN and Race Equality work across different higher education institutions. Wherever I’ve worked, my focus has remained the same: fix the processes, not the people, and back your actions up with evidence rather than opinion.

Principle Advisory exists to provide you with guidance on compliance-related activity for your business, supporting you in meeting regulatory or legislative requirements in a resource-stretched and time-poor organisation.

We’ll leave the cultural elements of inclusion to you. No one knows what works in your business better than you do! We’ll guide you through what you need to be compliant, whether you’re navigating your responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty, you’re a regulated firm, or you just want to ensure your policies and processes meet modern expectations. We can reduce your risk exposure and provide you with the data-driven insights to make informed decisions.

We’re called Principle Advisory because we don’t believe integrity should be relegated to a page in a Code of Conduct. We believe integrity is a core value that responsible businesses utilise when they have to choose between what is right, and what is easy.

Meet the founders

Sophie

Hi, I’m Sophie, I’ve taken a bit of a circuitous path here, from a degree in Zoology to working in Education law and now having worked in Diversity & Inclusion for ten years – I’m enjoying this weird and wonderful ride! Having worked in various organisations over the years, from Higher Education Institutions to financial services, I’ve encountered Diversity & Inclusion activity in many, many forms, and I understand that the nuances that are specific to your business are the nuances that influence how you approach this work.

However, some things stay the same! I wanted to set up Principle Advisory to focus my energies on the areas of D&I that I love, and as a passionate people person I’m firmly focused on helping businesses identify and remove blockers to inclusion for people from all backgrounds.

I’m a single mum of three based in Lancaster, so I’m pretty passionate about everything flex-working related. When I’m not working, I can probably be found walking our dogs, gardening or dancing.

You can see my career history and musings on my LinkedIn page.

Paul

Hi, I’m Paul. I’m a software developer with several years’ experience building products across the education and green technology sectors. Most of my education work has been with apprenticeship providers, and on the green technology side I’ve worked on a project gathering and reporting pollutant and carbon inventories for an international government client.

I care about technology that actually helps people do their jobs, not technology for its own sake. At Principle Advisory, that means building the systems behind our data and reporting work so it’s accurate, secure and genuinely useful – freeing up time for the plain-English guidance that matters most to our clients.

Outside of work, you’ll usually find me out cycling, playing in a band, or at the pub for a quiz.

Values-driven, and fuelled by three principles

Plain English

No corporate jargon. No unnecessary complexity. Clear, accessible guidance that you can act on immediately.

Integrity

DEI should be about fixing processes, not people. We identify your areas of priority; you choose how to address them. We support responsible, ethical decision-making with guidance but no judgement.

Data-driven

We don’t recommend actions because “other organisations do it”. We avoid the fluff. We focus on evidence, insight and meaningful impact that strengthens governance and reduces risk.

Our services

Three services, each available as an Essentials or Comprehensive package, so you can choose the depth that fits your organisation.

1. Diversity Data Review

Understand your workforce. Strengthen your compliance. Reduce your risk.

Many organisations know they need to understand their employee demographics, but don’t know where to start, or simply don’t have the time or internal resource. You may be aware of your obligations under Pay Gap Regulations, but lack the capacity to gather, analyse and report your data in a compliant, meaningful way. That’s where we can help, with our Diversity Data Toolkit.

We provide clear, practical guidance on the safe, lawful and effective collection of diversity data across all your available channels. We ensure your approach aligns with UK GDPR, your privacy statements are fit for purpose, and your reporting is defensible.

Essentials Package

Review of your business scale, scope and strategy
Guidance on safe, lawful diversity data collection
Privacy statement review and GDPR alignment
Support with calculating pay gaps
Guidance on what to include in your pay gap report
Advice on communicating insights to your organisation

Comprehensive Package

Everything in Essentials, plus:

Full pay gap analysis completed for you
Use of our secure pay gap portal to share anonymised data
We ask the right questions, analyse your data, and produce your branded pay gap report
Delivered in time for Board or regulatory deadlines
Fully compliant with all reporting regulations

Outcome: A defensible, compliant data foundation that supports informed, principled decision-making.

2. Policy Review

Clear, accessible, compliant policies that protect your organisation and your people.

Policies often evolve over time, becoming inconsistent, outdated or difficult to navigate. You need policies that “talk” to each other, are easy to understand, and protect both your organisation and your employees from unacceptable behaviours.

We review, streamline and rewrite your policies in plain English, ensuring full alignment with current employment legislation.

Essentials Package

Review of up to 5 relevant policies, chosen from:

Diversity & Inclusion
Responsible Business
Dignity at Work
Anti-Harassment / Anti-Bullying
Reasonable Adjustments
Recruitment & Selection
Flexible Working
Family Leave
D&I Data Handling
Code of Conduct
Modern Slavery & Human Rights
Remote/Hybrid Working
Disciplinary
Grievance

Each policy is reviewed for:

Legal compliance
Language clarity, tone of voice and consistency
Accessibility

Comprehensive Package

Everything in Essentials, plus:

Review of up to 10 policies (from the list)
All policies delivered in your own templates
Fully accessible, plain-English rewrites
Review of your governance frameworks for alignment, consistency and risk mitigation

Outcome: Clear, compliant policies that support fair, consistent practice and reduce organisational risk.

3. Complete Compliance Package

Full-scale compliance support across your data, policies and processes.

Some organisations need more than guidance. They need practical, hands-on support to meet their compliance obligations. This package combines your data, policy and process requirements into a single, comprehensive review.

Essentials Package

Essentials Diversity Data Review
Essentials Policy Review
A complete compliance check across your core DEI data and policy foundations

Comprehensive Package

Everything in Essentials, plus:

Review and reconfiguration of up to 10 policies
Simplified, accessible policy rewrites
Comprehensive data deep-dive
Full guidance on end-to-end data capture methodology
Pay gap analysis
Development of Board-ready pay gap reports

Outcome: A fully aligned, compliant DEI governance framework that reduces risk and strengthens organisational integrity.

Optional extras

Add-ons available with any package. Price on request.

Plain-English single policy rewrites
Board or trustee briefings
Pay gap narrative development
Annual Report writing

Let’s talk about your organisation

Tell us where you are and what you need to comply with, and we’ll suggest the right starting point.

Prefer to email directly? Write to us at sophie@principleadvisory.co.uk.