In this issue:
• E+D in the news
• Prevent Duty
• Safeguarding
• Mental Health • Featured Topic
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.
Equality and Diversity in the news
The top 500 tech firms in the UK were surveyed and the lack of diversity highlighted in the report is shocking. 1,882 senior executives and 1,696 Board members were surveyed. The results show the bias towards the “elite” education as 36.6% of board members and 31% of senior executives went to Private Schools, in comparison to only 7% of the general population. Additionally, only 1% of the general population graduated from Oxford or Cambridge whereas, 35% of board members did. As well as the Elite education discrimination, only 11% of Senior Leaders are Non-white and 74.5% of boards, and 70.5% of senior executive teams had no BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity) members at all.
The biggest diversity gap is gender, over the two surveyed groups an average of 14.6% were female. Two thirds of boards and two fifths of senior executive teams had no females at all.
The report concludes that inclusive environments must be built in tech companies to attract a diversity of applicants to the male-dominated tech industry.
https://www.alphr.com/business/1010188/new-report-reveals-massive-diversity-deficit-in-uk-tech-firms
The Prevent Duty
A neo-Nazi couple have been convicted of membership to a terrorist group. Adam Thomas and Claudia Patatas were members of the extreme right-wing organisation National Action, which was banned in 2016. The Jury at Birmingham crown court were told that the couple gave their son the middle name Adolf, which Thomas said was out of admiration for Hitler. The couple is said to be part of the organisations Midlands Chapter, of which 8 people have been convicted.
One of the convicted was a Lance Corporal who had access to young individuals that could have been radicalised and recruited, he was a dangerous individual and a key part of the National Action strategy. These arrests and convictions are so important as police now think they have dismantled the Midlands Chapter.
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An engineer from Sunderland has been convicted of terrorism offences after he repeatedly shared extremist posts on Facebook despite his account being suspended multiple times for the content he shared. When counter-terrorism police raided his home, they found a manual titled “Easy Explosives” and a downloaded instructional guide on how to make a suicide vest.
Online radicalisation is a serious issue, but it is one that members of the public are able to help with. Any terrorist-related material can be reported online via www.gov.uk/report-terrorism
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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
November is home to Anti-Bullying week (12th – 16th), the theme this year is “Choose Respect” with November 12th an odd socks day and November 15th the first Stop Speak Support Day – Anti Cyber Bullying Day. The goal of anti-bullying week is to raise awareness of bullying among children and teens as well as highlighting the ways to prevent bullying. The aims of this week are to support schools and other settings to help children and young people, school staff, parents and other professionals who work with children to understand:
- The definition of respect
- That bullying is a behaviour choice
- That we can respectfully disagree with each other i.e. we don’t have to be best friends or always agree with each other, but we do have to respect each other
- That we all need to choose to respect each other both face to face and online
For more information about bullying check out our blog: https://www.showcasetraining.co.uk/2018/11/14/anti-bullying-week/
https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week/anti-bullying-week-2018-choose-respect
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Reporters believed that the responses from Oxfam and Save the Children were so bad that a “cover-up” was underway. One reporter had been working on the Oxfam story for 8 months with multiple documents and allegations about sexual misconduct in the charities Haiti programme. When the reporter asked Oxfam about these allegations, they gave bland statements about the scandal rather than answering the questions about what had gone on.
Manveen Rana, senior broadcast reporter at the BBC who worked on the Save the Children story about allegations of sexual misconduct by senior executives at the charity, said the charity’s response had been to send letters threatening legal action rather than dealing with the issues at hand.
Health and Safety
Supporting someone with a mental health problem can be a daunting challenge, it can be difficult to see the people you care about feeling unwell. The tips below can help you support friends or family:
- Show support
- Don’t be afraid to ask how they are
- Let them know you are there to listen
- Be open minded
- Don’t be judgemental
- Listen to what they have to say with no prejudice
- Ask how you can help
- Everyone wants different kind of support
- Ask them and listen to what they need
- Don’t just talk about mental health
- Keep talking about things you usually talk about
- People don’t want to be defined by their mental health
- Remind them that their mental health doesn’t affect your relationship and that things can go on as normal
- Look after yourself
- Setting boundaries can help you support others
- If you take on too much you may become unwell yourself
- It’s harder to support someone else when you aren’t well
- Talk about your own feelings with someone you trust so that you get the support you need as well
If you are ever worried about friends or family, there are several agencies you can contact:
Remploy: https://www.remploy.co.uk/
Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/
Time to Change: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/mental-health-and-stigma/help-and-support
Featured Topic – Counter Terrorism and Boarder Security (CTBS) Bill
The latest adaptation of the Counter Terrorism Bill 2017-2019 has four major changes in terrorist offences. They are listed below with some detail:
- Expression of support for a proscribed (banned) organisation
- A person that shares the same or similar political ambitions as a proscribed group, can be through reckless comments made in public
- Saying that they disagree with violent actions is not a valid defence
- The CTBS Bill removes the requirement of intention
- Publication of images offence
- Criminalises the publication of an image that contains an item of clothing or an article in such a way that raises reasonable suspicion that the person is a member or supporter of a proscribed group
- Image could be still or moving, produced by any means
- Includes images taken in private and later uploaded or shared
- Obtaining or viewing material over the internet offence
- Information deemed “terrorist material”
- If the person views the material on three or more different occasions
- It does not matter the purpose for viewing or whether it is the same material or different
- Entering or remaining in a designated area
- Areas are designated by the Secretary of State
- A person that is found guilty must prove they had reasonable excuse for entering or remaining so as not to be fined or imprisonment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsKCTLv32xU&feature=youtu.be