PROMINENT international law firm, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, secured the gold status on Stonewall’s Top Global Employers List for the year 2023.
The Employers List is a compilation of contributions to Stonewall’s Global Workplace Equality Index that showcases the best employers in the world for LGBTQ+ workers.
Helen Ouseley, Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing, said: “We are immensely proud of this recognition of our commitment to LGBTQ+ inclusion. The award reflects the efforts of Freshfields colleagues everywhere to create an inclusive work environment where all can belong, engage, and excel. As a global firm, we have the platform and opportunity to collaborate with our clients, suppliers, and other companies that we work with around the world to make a substantial positive impact for LGBTQ+ inclusion.”
By using this index, businesses may use it as a measuring tool to promote LGBTQ+ inclusiveness in the workplace and tackle the difficult task of sustaining inclusive values globally.
Freshfields’ Responsible Business strategy includes “access to justice and access to opportunity,” and the LGBTQ+ community is one of six focus groups within the company’s extensive pro bono commitments.
A REPORT from the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) reveals that hospitals are failing to meet the needs of patients with learning disabilities, leading to distress, confusion, and increased risks.
The current system lacks effective care provision, often leaving patients in the care of staff without the necessary training or expertise in working with individuals with learning disabilities.
Additionally, some hospital staff struggle to assess the mental capacity of these patients, as required by the Mental Capacity Act (2005).
The HSSIB estimates that over 900,000 adults in the UK have learning disabilities.
To address these issues, the HSSIB has made four recommendations. These include;
These changes aim to reduce safety risks, improve the quality of care, and promote equality in healthcare for the vulnerable patients.
THE Welsh government is working to redefine the legal definition of women to encompass trans women, as revealed in a leaked draft of the Gender Quotas Bill.
This bill aims to establish gender balance in Senedd, proposing equal quotas for men and women as political candidates for the Welsh government.
It also addresses the inclusion of trans women within the female candidate quota.
According to The Telegraph, the draft bill defines a trans woman as someone undergoing or having undergone a process to reassign their sex to female, preventing constituency returning officers from challenging a candidate’s identity.
While the news has evoked mixed reactions, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has consistently expressed his belief that “trans women are women”.
Last year he told the Senedd: “My starting point is the same as Penny Mordaunt’s – the UK minister responsible at the time – who said that the UK government’s starting point was that transgender women are women. That’s my starting point in this debate.
“It is a difficult area where people feel very strongly on different sides of an argument, and an argument that divides people who agree on most other things.”
He went on to add: “In such a potentially divisive issue, the responsibility of elected representatives is not to stand on the certainties of their own convictions, but instead to work hard to look for opportunities for dialogue, to find ways of promoting understanding rather than conflict, and to demonstrate respect rather than to look for exclusion.
“To me, inclusivity is absolutely what we should be aiming for here.”
* The Senedd, officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and Senedd Cymru in Welsh
Brief News – US
US DEPARTMENT Of Labour (DOL) official Alaysia Hackett emphasised the need for employers to provide diversity officers with adequate financial resources and access to top executives to fulfill their commitments to workplace equity.
Hackett, the DOL’s first chief diversity and equity officer, warned that companies failing to support equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) officers, risk a continuous cycle of diverse talent turnover and persistent workplace inequities.
“For them to stay in these roles, you have to commit to funding because one person cannot do everything for your organisation,” she said. “The reason why there’s a revolving door with chief diversity officers is because there’s a lot of stress that associated with the job and a lot of responsibility that everyone believe that this one person can handle.”
Speaking at a Society for Human Resource Management conference in Savannah, Georgia, Hackett encouraged a re-evaluation of the role EDI practitioners play within organisations, highlighting the importance of sufficient funding and resources.
Hackett suggested that EDI officers should report to corporate leadership rather than just HR departments to ensure EDI efforts are integrated into broader business strategy and operations.
According to her, this change can help dismantle discriminatory systems and affect policies and guidelines throughout the organisation, reinforcing the importance of EDI in all areas.
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