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17 February 2021 ~ How can we put equalities at the heart of Government? – Women and Equalities Committee Consultation – Closing Date

The Women and Equalities Committee is opening a new inquiry which will examine how the Government Equalities Office (GEO) is delivering on its responsibilities.

The GEO’s responsibilities include:

  • Improving equality and reducing discrimination and disadvantage for all in the UK
  • Taking the lead on the Equality Act 2010 and being the lead department on gender, and LGBT issues in Government including the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 and the Civil Partnership Act 2004
  • Supporting and implementing international equality measures in the UK, including the UK’s international commitments

The inquiry

The inquiry will focus on:

  • The structure and function of the GEO and its location in the Cabinet Office: how effectively does this enable it to support cross-departmental work on equalities, including the collection and analysis of equalities data?
  • The GEO’s role in supporting compliance with international obligations including the UN Conventions and Sustainable Development Goals
  • The role of Minister for Women and Equalities: what does it mean for this to be a dual departmental role? How robustly does it champion equalities across Government?
  • The GEO’s role in highlighting the numerous equalities issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic

The inquiry will also consider the new approaches and initiatives which Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss announced in her speech on fighting for fairness at the Centre for Policy Studies on Dec 16 2020. This includes the implications of the GEO taking on sponsorship of the Social Mobility Commission.

More at https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/news/138432/how-can-we-put-equalities-at-the-heart-of-government/

The role of the GEO: embedding equalities across Government

Inquiry

The Committee will examine how the Government Equalities Office (GEO) is delivering on its responsibilities, which are:

  • improving equality and reducing discrimination and disadvantage for all in the UK;
  • taking the lead on the Equality Act 2010 and being the lead department on gender, and LGB&T issues in government including the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013, and Civil Partnership Act 2004;
  • supporting and implementing international equality measures in the UK, including the UK’s international commitments. The inquiry will consider the organisational structure and functioning of the GEO and assess the effectiveness of the role of the Minister for Women and Equalities.

The inquiry will explore cross-cutting Government equalities strategies and consider recommendations for change to embed equalities across Government.

This inquiry is currently accepting evidence

The committee wants to hear your views. We welcome submissions from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence. You can submit evidence until Wednesday 17 February 2021.

See https://committees.parliament.uk/work/947/the-role-of-the-geo-embedding-equalities-across-government/

Terms of Reference and Submitting Information

Full details at https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/368/the-role-of-the-geo-embedding-equalities-across-government

January 28, 2021

Sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector – Report published- International Development Committee

This Committee agreed early in this Parliament to draw up a comprehensive re-examination of progress taken to tackle sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector.

Our focus is the aid recipients who become victims and survivors of abuse at the hands of individuals working in the sector. This inquiry will consider the support needed by victims and survivors to secure justice and rebuild their lives when they have experienced abuse, what can be done to change the culture in the aid sector to prevent it from occurring in the first place, and how the new Foreign Affairs and Development Office (FCDO) should take this work forward.

In its report, Progress on tackling the sexual exploitation and abuse of aid beneficiaries, the International Development Committee (IDC) finds that sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) is still happening in the sector.

This is supported by a unique survey by the IDC where 73% of respondents believe there remains a problem with SEA being perpetrated by aid workers. This is likely to have been made significantly worse with the coronavirus pandemic, with reductions in aid and food supplies making female beneficiaries more vulnerable to exploitation. Further, perpetrators are continuing to move from organisation to organisation with impunity.

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/428/sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-in-the-aid-sector-next-steps/


Seventh Report – Progress on tackling the sexual exploitation and abuse of aid beneficiaries

https://committees.parliament.uk/work/428/sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-in-the-aid-sector-next-steps/publications/

 

January 21, 2021

Working mums: Paying the price – TUC Report

The TUC is calling for a temporary legal right to access the furlough scheme for parents and those with caring responsibilities who have had these significantly disrupted due to coronavirus restrictions, and people who cannot work because they are required to shield.

The main purpose of the furlough scheme is to support jobs where there is no demand due to Covid-19 restrictions. However, because we don’t have a parental leave system that is fit for purpose, the government made furlough scheme available in April 2020 to parents who cannot work due to Covid-19 restrictions on schools and childcare.

It would be preferable if we had a proper system of paid parental leave and better flexible work rights but in the meantime the furlough scheme is a financial lifeline that temporarily resolves a situation that is making life impossible for parents.

The temporary right would apply in situations in which workers can show that:

  • Existing childcare or other caring arrangements have been substantially altered because of coronavirus related restrictions, for example, school or nursery closures. While workers in this situation can request furlough, at present they have no right to any form of paid leave other than existing holiday entitlements; Or,
  • They are required to ‘shield’ because they are clinically extremely vulnerable, and cannot work from home, or they live with someone in this situation. Shielding workers can currently access sick pay, but at just £95.85 a week the level is too low to make this a realistic option for many workers.
  • In all cases, before the right to furlough is exercised, employees must have a conversation with their employer about possible alternative forms of work during this period, for example working from home, temporarily reducing workload or changing work times.

Discussions on alternative forms of working should be had with both dads and mums to ensure stereotypical assumptions on who provides care are not inadvertently reinforced. Likewise, furlough should be offered equally on a flexible basis to mums and dads so that they can both share care. Newly self employed parents should have immediate access to the self employment income support scheme (SEISS).

Read more at https://www.tuc.org.uk/workingparents

January 21, 2021

Hidden bias in job adverts deters 50% of female applicants – Study findings

Gender biased language in job adverts deters as many as one in two female applicants from applying for roles, according to a study from Openreach.

The researchers created a new, consciously unbiased, job description for an entry level engineering role, with the language of the new advert carefully crafted to appeal to men and women equally, whilst actively combating some of the challenges women face in the pre-application phase of job hunting.

When looking at the gender-inclusive advert as part of the study, women’s interest in the role increased by more than 200%, with 60% reporting that this was down to the way it was written.

A third of women (31%) felt the original advert was more suited to a man than a woman, compared with just 13% of women for the new advert, in the survey of 2,000 UK women.

Latent bias is deeply ingrained in the UK workplace, according to the study. A quarter of women (24%) still feel certain careers are better suited to men than women, with 80% discounting engineering automatically.

However, more than half (56%) were interested in the engineering job role once it had been rewritten and the word “engineer” had been taken out.

Three quarters of women felt they needed to fit the skills profile of a job specification by 70% or more, and half (51%) by 80% or more, before applying for any job.

Over half (55%) of women are considering a new career as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the research found.

The study found that businesses can be more inclusive by improving the language used in job adverts by removing latent gendered phraseology and construction in the language used and including key skillset descriptors.

Part of a longer report at https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/hidden-bias-in-job-adverts-deters-50-of-female-applicants-140758137.html

January 21, 2021

Employers should offer furlough to working parents affected by school closures – TUC

The TUC is calling on employers to offer furlough to all parents affected by school closures.

  • Last minute decision by ministers to close schools means many working mums and dads are now without childcare
  • TUC asks employers to ‘do the right thing’ and offer furlough to parents
  • And union body calls on government to introduce 10 days’ paid parental leave

Last week the government announced that some schools would not reopen to all children as planned this week, followed by a u-turn on closing schools in London. The TUC says that this series of chaotic statements and last minute approach has left working parents in real difficulties.

The job retention scheme allows bosses to furlough parents who can’t work due to a lack of childcare. Furlough is available from a minimum of seven days – which would allow mums and dads to share childcare over the coming weeks – and can also be given on a part-time basis.

But the TUC is concerned that not all bosses are aware that caring responsibilities are an acceptable reason to furlough, so many mums and dads will have no choice but to take unpaid time off work to care for their children – or even be forced to leave their jobs altogether.

Employers can help their staff get through this crisis and give them a financial lifeline by offering them furlough, says the union body.

And self-employed working parents will also need help, says the TUC. They should have automatic access to the self-employed income support scheme (SEISS) alongside broader improvements to the scheme. Otherwise – already struggling after months of disruption to childcare – they could find themselves falling into serious financial difficulty and debt.

Impact on working mums 

When schools closed in March, working mums picked up the lions share of caring responsibilities. TUC polling published in September found 1 in 6 (16%) mums – mostly those in low-paid jobs – had been given no choice but to reduce their working hours due to school and nursery closures.

The TUC is concerned mums will be disproportionately affected by school closures once again. And single parents – 9 out 10 of whom are women – will also be affected as they are less likely to have someone to share the burden of care with.

Government must do more 

Ensuring that employers offer access to the job retention scheme to working parents will help the immediate crisis, but the government must do more to fix the flaws in the parental leave system. The TUC is calling on the government to introduce:

  • A day one right to 10 days’ paid parental leave. Currently parents have no statutory right to paid leave to look after their children.
  • A day one right to flexible work. Flexible working can take lots of different forms, including having predictable or set hours, working from home, job-sharing, compressed hours and term-time working.

Part of a longer press release at https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/bosses-should-offer-furlough-working-parents-affected-school-closures-says-tuc

See also:

 

January 12, 2021