Item 24
COUNCIL
14 May 2014
Classification – Public
Purpose – For decision
EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY COMMITTEE ANNUAL REVIEW OF 2013 AND PRIORITIES FOR 2014
The Issues
This paper reports on progress against the Equality and Diversity priorities since July 2013 and sets priorities for activities in 2014/15. The proposed priorities are subject to (a) budgets and resources being available and (b) other parts of the organisation being able to play their part. This means that some activities will fall to Commercial Affairs and Corporate Solutions as well as Corporate Affairs, and will need to be balanced with other priorities they are working on.
Decision
The Council is asked to note the progress made in the last 10 months and to agree the following priorities for 2014/15:
· greater diversity in the volunteer community
· equality and diversity training for the volunteer community and staff
· refinement and promotion of the Diversity and Inclusion Charter and the Procurement Protocol
· equal pay
· mentoring
· networking
· flexible working
· targets to address under-representation
· programme of events to share good practice and celebrate diversity
· embedding the dignity at work programme in the Law Society
· diversity profiling of the workforce to inform the development of positive action initiatives
· workshops and training to improve equality and diversity in the Law Society
· a scheme of harassment advisers
Statement of Territorial Application
This paper applies to England and Wales.
Policy Position
The paper falls within existing policy.
Financial and Resourcing implications
Activities for the year to end October 2014 have been budgeted for. Activities beyond then will be included in the next budget and will be subject to approval by Council.
Communications
Communications opportunities are included as appropriate in the paper.
Equality and Diversity implications
This work supports the promotion of a more diverse legal profession.
Consultation
This paper has been prepared in consultation with staff in Corporate Affairs, Commercial Affairs and Corporate Solutions. It has been approved by the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Director: Mark Stobbs, Director of Legal Policy
Author: Julie Ashdown, Head of Corporate Responsibility, E&D
Date of report: 23 April 2014
Introduction
1. At their meeting on 11 July 2013 Council approved the equality and diversity priorities for 2014. The Career Barriers Action Plan (CBAP) is the main programme for the Law Society's external equality and diversity work and was approved by Council on 17 January 2013. Progress against the plan is reviewed by the Equality and Diversity Committee twice a year.
2. Equality and Diversity work is spread across the Law Society. Internal work is led by the Diversity and Inclusion Manager in Corporate Solutions. The promotion of equality and diversity in the profession is led by the Corporate Responsibility, Equality and Diversity Team in Corporate Affairs, working alongside colleagues in Commercial Affairs, who lead on divisions and career support. Equality and Diversity is one of the areas where members rate our advice, support, products and services highly.
PROGRESS SINCE JULY 2013
Diversity Champion
3. The Chief Executive, Des Hudson, was appointed as Diversity Champion for the Law Society in October 2013 and attended the Equality and Diversity Committee meeting on 22 January 2014. He will continue to attend the Committee meetings on a regular basis to secure ongoing engagement and collaborative working.
Volunteer community
4. Following changes to the number of non-geographic Council seats, there are now 3 seats each for candidates from the Women Lawyers Division and the Ethnic Minority Lawyers Division. There continue to be 3 seats for the Junior Lawyers Division, one for the Lawyers with Disabilities Division and one for the Black Solicitors Network. The process of election and nomination for Council seats in 2013 saw equal numbers of women and men joining the Council. Initiatives to improve diversity in Council elections included 'green pages' in the Gazette, and more proactive use of the website and social media. A similar approach was adopted for committee recruitment, for example, ensuring that the Law Society's communities (sections, divisions) were aware of relevant opportunities, and using targeted specialist media where appropriate (for example with recruitment to the Family Law Committee).
5. Monitoring of recruitment to Law Society committees in 2013 revealed some interesting patterns, though it should be noted that only around 75 per cent of equality and diversity monitoring forms are completed at application stage. For Law Society committees, applicants were almost exactly evenly split by gender (49 men to 47 women, 51% to 49%) and this proportion was almost exactly the same at appointment stage (9 men to 8 women, 53 % to 47%). 15.6% of applicants were aged 35 or under and 17.6% of those appointed fell into this group. A report will be made to Management Board at the end of the year on the equality impact of changes to committee recruitment implemented over the past 18 months, in order to inform the Board's further consideration of whether the policy of anonymising committee recruitment application forms at short-listing stage should be continued.
6. Having spent much of the first half of 2013 playing 'catch-up' with members of the volunteer community on the completion of mandatory e-learning on diversity and inclusion issues, the Governance team now enforce the relevant Bye-Law (for Council members) and General Regulation (for Committee members) provisions with new members as soon as their appointment is confirmed. This approach is proving more successful and less onerous. All but 7 Council and Committee members have completed the mandatory e-learning on equality and diversity, and all Chairs have completed courses on unconscious bias and disability.
7. All Committee and Board Chairs will work with staff on the Dignity at Work workshops that are being delivered across the organisation. Further training for Council members will be scoped out to complement the e-learning courses that they currently undertake.
Diversity and Inclusion Charter
8. The Diversity and Inclusion Charter is a flagship initiative of the Law Society and a major area of engagement with the membership. As a result of the targeted recruitment campaign in the second half of 2013, there are now 431 signatories to the Charter, representing over a third of all solicitors in private practice. In January 2014 Treasury Solicitors became signatories, meaning that more than 15,000 government lawyers are now covered by the Charter. 43 in-house legal practices are signatories to the Procurement Protocol, including most recently Vodafone, and the London Boroughs of Kensington & Chelsea, Islington and Waltham Forest.
9. As well as seeking advice on a one to one basis, many firms participate in the annual report. In 2013 239 signatories did so, compared with 177 firms in 2012 and 159 in 2011. This included 65 small firms and 75 of the Top 100 firms. Of those who were assessing their performance for the second year running, 67% achieved higher scores overall.
10. Schneider~Ross were commissioned to carry out a survey into the effectiveness of the Charter, speaking to both signatories and non-signatories They established that the Charter is seen as an important and valued Law Society service. However, there were concerns that while the Charter did not stretch the Top 100 members, it was too onerous for small firms.
11. The Schneider~Ross report was discussed at the Equality and Diversity Committee meeting on 31 October 2013. The Committee agreed that the Charter was an important initiative, but that it needed to be better tailored to suit the different types and sizes of firms who signed up. A Working Group has been set up to look at ways to improve the Charter for large firms and proposals are being worked up. A consultation about how to streamline the Charter for small firms is also under way. Adaptations for in-house and ABS signatories will draw on the outcome of the other work. The aim is for proposed changes to be put to the Committee and to Membership Board before the annual reporting is due to begin in the autumn.
12. Consultation on the next version of Lexcel is under way. Quantitative and qualitative research has been completed and feedback has been received from 304 accredited and 304 non-accredited practices. In-depth roundtable discussions are scheduled for April with small firms, mid-size firms and large firms. CRED will participate in these discussions.
13. The consultation is seeking feedback and improvements to Lexcel version 5, as well as considering new provisions for version 6 to ensure that the next version continues to reflect excellence in practice and risk management. Equality and diversity will be included as a specific area in the roundtable discussions in April, and the output from the Schneider~Ross report will be used to formulate questions for these sessions.
Engaging with members
14. The regular programme of Firms Diversity Forums have continued across England and Wales, bringing together Diversity Managers and practitioners to learn about key issues and network together. Speakers pick up themes identified in the Charter annual report and in the Career Barriers Action Plan. The autumn 2013 round included forums in Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, London (for the South East), Manchester, Ipswich, Bristol, Cardiff and Newcastle. Issues covered were age discrimination and equal pay. The spring round is looking at working with vulnerable clients, and the regulation of principle 9 with the SRA. Nearly 400 people came to these forums, with numbers at each event averaging 50.
15. Tailored forums for City firms were held in July (mentoring and sponsorship), September (leadership development for women), November (BME recruitment), January (target-setting and quotas), and May (BME progression). These attract between 40 and 60 participants.
16. In December women lawyers in Yorkshire met in Leeds to discuss ‘Women lawyers harnessing diversity to enhance client service’. The event was attended by a diverse mix of around 50 women at a variety of career stages from law firms of all sizes, in addition to in-house lawyers, who were keen to share knowledge and best practice.
17. A Yorkshire Ethnic Minority reference group was created after the dinner for Asian practitioners hosted by the then Deputy Vice-President in Bradford in April 2013. This group held their first meeting in February 2014 and are planning an event on compliance for June.
18. The Law Society worked with the Bar Council and CILEx to organise 3 joint BME/Judicial Appointment Commission outreach events in 2013. These provide BME lawyers with general information and advice on the selection procedure for judicial appointments. The October event in London heard a keynote address from Shailesh Vara, Minister for Justice. The 2014 events will be open to all under-represented groups.
19. The three organisations also run joint Minority Lawyers Seminars. The first, in July 2013 attracted more than 40 people to learn about using social media for career progression. A second seminar on networking skills will take place in May 2014.
20. In September 2013 CRED started sending out a monthly e-newsletter on equality and diversity to inform members about good practice and forthcoming events. The newsletter is sent to 825 recipients, including all Charter signatories, Protocol Partners, and other stakeholders.
21. In January 2014 two guides to the business case for diversity were published along with an online bank of good practice case studies. One guide is for large firms and the other for small ones. The case studies have been drawn from previous Diversity and Inclusion Charter Reports and from Excellence Awards applications.
22. The SRA requires regulated practices to collect, report and publish data on the diversity of their workforce every year. In response to demand, the Law Society worked with Riliance to develop a free online tool to help firms. By the time the SRA closed the data collection on 31 January, 2,678 firms had registered for the tool and 105,000 surveys had been downloaded.
23. The Risk and Compliance Section ran a series of regional events aimed at small firms and sole practitioners to assist COLPS and COFAs in their role. These events featured sessions on compliance with principle 9 of the SRA handbook which covers equality and diversity. A further 6 sessions are planned for 2014 and will be supported by CRED staff.
24. CRED continues to provide webinars on equality and diversity issues. Since July 2013 these have been:
· Managing gender and diversity targets (49 viewings)
· Unlocking high performance work life balance (337 viewings)
· Equal pay (21 viewings)
· Age discrimination (31 viewings)
· Disability Case Law (32 viewings)
Working with Divisions
25. Divisions are the Law Society's practice type or demographic based communities. Membership is automatic and free, and benefits include tailored news from the Society and valued external partners, best practice advice, business support, access to training and networking opportunities and enhanced links to premium and subscription based Society resources. Divisions relevant to equality and diversity activities are the Women Lawyers Division (WLD), Ethnic Minority Lawyers Division (EMLD), Lawyers with Disabilities Division (LDD) and Junior Lawyers Division (JLD).
26. CRED and Commercial Affairs staff are now working much more closely together, with quarterly coordination meetings. This has generated a more joined up and aligned service for members. CRED contribute to the regular newsletters which go out from the WLD (57,383 recipients), EMLD (29,765 recipients), LDD (450 recipients) and JLD (65,000 recipients). Events are also coordinated better with joint working whenever possible. CRED supported the EMLD in organising 2 events on leadership and on self-awareness. A leadership programme has also been developed for WLD with good attendance at the first two workshops.
27. Commercial Affairs have started a series of guidance to help practitioners plan for the future. These are free and available to download from the website. Publications issued so far have been for mature students and career changers, and disabled students. A book on planning and managing the different career stages of a solicitor, 'Career Planning for Solicitors' was published in October. The Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) continues to provide a wealth of practical advice and support to members.
Networking and celebrating