Equality and diversity is so much more than just “treating everyone the same” …
Equality and diversity enhances everyday life and simple changes to normal activities can ensure all individuals are included and given equal opportunities to achieve. Our newsletter offers updates on E&D, Safeguarding, Prevent Duty, Mental Health Awareness, and Health and Safety, as either found in the news or highlighted as our topic of the month.
In this issue:
- Equality and Diversity in the News
- Prevent Duty
- Safeguarding and Mental Health Awareness
- Health and Safety
Equality and Diversity in the News
The Financial Times published an interesting article this week narrating the perceived issue of male dominance in Hollywood. Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women and Hollywood states:
“The lack of opportunities for women to rise up to the top has created a business run by men, and those men are protected by other men, and they are enabled by people throughout the business…”
Food for thought!
Read more about it here: https://www.ft.com/content/1b665952-af3f-11e7-aab9-abaa44b1e130
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The Guardian has reported on a directive telling Britain’s biggest companies to appoint at least one board director from an ethnic minority background within the next 4 years, as part measures outlined in a government-backed review into the lack of diversity within corporate Britain.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/oct/12/ftse-100-firms-deadline-ethnic-minority-directors
The Prevent Duty
Schools and colleges in the UK are to be given additional training to help spot signs of radicalisation. A new counter-extremism commission has been set up by Government with the aim to “identify and challenge tolerance of extremism, tackle extremist ideology and promote British values, learning the lessons from the struggle against racism in the 20th century.”
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Facebook has admitted recently that the online industry “could do more” to counter online radicalisation and extremism. Despite employing thousands of staff to review online content, the artificial intelligence technology used is not in any way fool-proof. Facebook have said it’s upping its efforts to use AI to flag up extremist content and share the data with rival firms to raise awareness.
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At a recent UN summit, Theresa May met with Google, Facebook, and Microsoft executives to urge them to increase efforts to remove extremist content “within 2 hours” of being published. Mrs May met with the companies alongside Emmanuel Macron (France) and Paul Gentiloni (Italian), who share the vision. The Prime Minister urges companies to “develop technology to spot material early and prevent it being shared in the first place.”
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Remember those all-important contact numbers:
Anti-Terrorism Hotline: 0800 789 321
Crime Stoppers: 0800 555 111
And above all, be vigilant! If in doubt report anything suspicious to 101 or 999.
Safeguarding and Mental Health Awareness
This week celebrated World Mental Health Day (10th October), allowing the opportunity to speak openly about Mental Health awareness. This year was particularly focused on Mental Health in the workplace, and the aim of the day was to look at what more could be done to make mental health care a “reality for people worldwide”.
www.mentalhealth.org.uk published a fantastic guide on how to support Mental Health at work, aiming for readers to:
- Have an idea of how to manage your own mental health at work
- Have an idea of how to reach out to a colleague in distress
- Have an idea how you can work with others to make your workplace more mentally healthy for everyone.
The guide introduces:
- What mental health problems are
- How to recognise problems
- What the law says, including reasonable adjustments and discrimination
- How to look after yourself and colleagues
- The responsibilities of employers
Amongst many more topics.
Why not take a look?
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/how-support-mental-health-work
Health and Safety
A Sheffield café has been fined for health and safety breaches, following failures to comply with improvement measures issued regarding the safety of gas burners and electrical wiring. The owner has been fined £300 for each offence and has been ordered to pay £1200 in legal costs following a hearing at Sheffield Magistrate’s Court.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/sheffield-cafe-owner-fined-for-health-and-safety-breaches-1-8783166
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Wrexham Council have also been fined a whopping £150,000 for a Health and Safety breach, failing to ensure workers using machinery were not affected by “hand-arm vibration syndrome”.
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And finally, a bit of light-hearted news:
“A would-be mermaid is looking for a new place to swim after being told she can no longer use her tail at her local public baths due to health and safety fears.” Read all about it on Sky News:
That’s all for this month – see you in November!
Team GlobeUs
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