NSPCC attacked for helping gay kids

A charity claiming to protect the interests of children has launched a bizarre attack on Childline and the NSPCC.

Despite advertising Childline on their website, the National Society for Children and Family Contact claim the well-respected charity is abandoning the religious views of its founders.

In a poorly-drafted statement to PinkNews.co.uk, the chairman of NSCFC, Mike Ellis, used language that would not be out of place in a Christian revivalist meeting to refer to the vulnerable children who contact Childline.

All spelling mistakes are those of Mr Ellis:
“Yet again it would appear that the NSPCC have faltered in its founders principles in relation to the traditional family and how best to sustain it, for here we see yet again that in opposition to its founders religious beliefs it wholeheartedly embraces that which befell Sodom and Gomorrah as if the norm.

“When in reality it should be upholding the principles which brought it to bear and as such challenging those who appose it.”

NSCFC claims to be working to ensure “that welfare organisations and the courts serve the best interests of the child.”

However, a quick examination of its website exposes it as obsessed with the rights of fathers, and opposition to the family court system. It emphasises the belief that children are better raised by both parents, yet there is no reference on their website to the fundamentalist Christian views of its chairman.

NSCFC has been granted meetings with Conservative party frontbench spokesman on children, Tim Loughton, in what will be seen as an embarassment to David Cameron’s party.

The Tories have recently attempted to rid themselves of their homophobic image.

A press statement about the key aims of NSCFC makes no reference to Sodom and Gomorrah:

“Above all the NSCFC promote the concept that generally the children love both of their parents and that they, as much as (if not more than) anyone suffer when parents go to war.

“Notwithstanding any dispute between the parents, a loving parent will use their best endeavours to encourage a meaningful and on going relationship between the child and both parents this to include the extended family.”

A NSPCC spokesperson said: “The NSPCC wants to see a society where all children are loved, valued and able to fulfil their potential. Our Royal Charter of 1895 requires that we ‘undertake and carry out publicity and educational work of all descriptions for making known the objects of the Society’.

“We also support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which says that children should be protected from all forms of discrimination.”

The NSPCC was founded in 1884, and was responsible for getting Parliament to pass the first legislation to protect children. It spends £60m a year on services for children and young people.
Childline became part of the NSPCC in February 2006. The charity supported the equalisation of consent. It has consistently opposed the idea that both parents have an automatic right to access to children, regardless of the wishes of the child, which may explain today’s statement from the NSCFC.

First published in PinkNews.co.uk

Mayor attacks 'racist' equality chief

Ken Livingstone yesterday launched a savage attack on the UK's racial equality chief, saying he was so right-wing that "soon he'll be joining the BNP".

The London mayor said the criticism by Trevor Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), of multiculturalism was "pandering to the right".

"I don't know where Trevor Phillips is going," Mr Livingtone told BBC London radio. "I mean, I remember when we had the first mayoral election and he was running to be mayor – he denounced me as being a racist because I said to him 'would you like to be my deputy'?

"He'd had a brief sort of black power fling – and ever since then he's gone so far over to the other side that I expect soon he'll be joining the BNP."

The cause of Mr Livingstone's outburst was a comment by Mr Phillips earlier this week that the Notting Hill carnival, was not a "triumph of multiculturalism" but a celebration of one community's culture.

"Although it's a fabulous party, carnival can hardly be said to represent the everyday culture of most of London's communities," he told the Royal Geographical Society.

He said it was actually avoided by many of London's other minority communities, who gave their spare time to their own celebrations, such as Chinese New Year.

Mr Phillips' comments came amid a new debate about the benefits of multiculturalism, which encourages different communities to live separately, as opposed to integration, where immigrants are encouraged to adopt their host country's language and customs.

Communities secretary Ruth Kelly last week raised questions about whether multiculturalism was working in Britain, or whether it was simply creating a collection of isolated groups of people who did not understand or trust each other.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Phillips said: "There are those who argue, of course that separateness doesn't really matter as long as we are equal. I disagree, for several reasons.

"First because separateness in and of itself tends to encourage inequality of treatment…Second because living separately means that different groups of people have their life experiences defined by their ethnicity rather than their ambitions."

However, yesterday Mr Livingstone insisted that Mr Phillips' criticism of multiculturalism was submitting to the racist tendencies of the far right.

"I think exactly what Trevor is doing is trying to move the race agenda away from a celebration of multiculturalism and pandering to the right, and I have to say it’s absolutely disgraceful," he said.

A spokeswoman for the CRE said: "The CRE's and Trevor's views on multiculturalism have been well documented and are well supported. Obviously, the mayor is entitled to his opinions."

First published on Politics.co.uk

Lawyers 'guilty of homophobia'

A macho culture of strip clubs and heavy boozing is driving gay lawyers out of big City law firms, a new study reveals.

The 'constant trips to Spearmint Rhino, rugby matches and drinking sessions' cause misery for those afraid to come out, the Law Society said. They also risk forcing women out of the profession and could leave firms facing multi-millionpound lawsuits from unhappy staff.

Law Society president Fiona Woolf said the findings showed employers needed to take action to 'ensure a climate of acceptance and inclusivity'.

The warning about 'the sense of heterosexual machismo in the larger and particularly corporate firms' comes in the society's first study into the career experiences of gay and lesbian lawyers. Many gay lawyers were reluctant to 'come out' at work in case it harmed their careers, researchers found.

Others felt the strip club visits, rugby and drinking held 'undertones of homophobia'.

The society called on firms to set up systems to collect data on the experiences of gay staff. It also wants same-sex partnerships recognised for employee benefits and promised to set up its own confidential helpline for gay lawyers.

Gay rights group Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill added: 'Many City environments are very macho, investment banks especially – as offputting for women as they are for gay men.'

The macho culture in the City has already embroiled banks and other firms in costly legal fights.
One of six women in an £800million case against investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein claims she was told to end a celebration dinner so male colleagues could go to a strip club.

First published in Metro

Headhunters rush to sign up older candidates for City jobs

Recruitment agencies in the City and elsewhere are scrambling to get the CVs of older workers onto their books before age discrimination becomes illegal later this year. Leading financial-sector headhunters are among thousands of recruitment firms nationwide that have signed up to a new code of conduct requiring them to place older workers across a greater range of jobs.

The code has been adopted by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the professional body that regulates recruitment agencies, and is intended to bring the £24bn-a-year industry up to date with Britain's changing employment laws. It will also oblige agencies to put forward more disabled workers and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The move comes amid evidence that companies are failing to keep up with legal reforms. The cost to business of fighting discrimination, harassment and unfair dismissal lawsuits has risen by 70 per cent in the past three years. Companies in Britain are now spending £210m a year on employment tribunal claims.

Government measures against age discrimination - which come into force this autumn - could herald a new wave of litigation and may lead to a big shake-up in the Square Mile, where banks and brokerages have tended to recruit younger workers.

'Employers in the City and elsewhere will now have to recruit fairly,' said Janet Lakhani, the chief executive of the think-tank C2E, which has advised the government on workplace equality issues and helped draw up the REC code of conduct.

'If you're an older worker or from a minority and you have all the right qualifications, recruitment agencies now have an obligation to put your name forward for a job,' Lakhani said. 'Employers were previously specifying age, sex and other details in their job adverts. This is no longer an option.'

First published in The Observer

Result! Top club backs gay rights

It is a sport where men are men, players who go down injured are derided as 'poofs', stars may feel forced to deny that they are homosexual and there is no 'out' gay player in any British dressing room.

Yet Manchester City have decided to challenge football's taboo by becoming a champion of equal rights, hiring gays to work at its stadium and training ground and attracting new supporters from the city's thriving gay and lesbian community.

The Premiership side have become the first club to join a distinguished list of employers which are officially recognised as 'gay-friendly' by Stonewall, the gay rights campaign group, joining the likes of the BBC, Nike, the Royal Navy and Sainsbury's.

City have just paid a four-figure sum to join Stonewall's Diversity Champions scheme. Firms on the list follow policies designed to recruit and retain gay members of staff, such as banning offensive language in the workplace and to persuade some of Britain's estimated 3.6 million gays and lesbians to spend their 'pink pounds' with them.

Read the full story from The Observer

DH accepts criticism over race record

The Department of Health has admitted it needs to improve its record on race following scathing criticisms from the Commission for Racial Equality.

Following yesterday’s CRE claims, that the DH had not conducted a race equality impact assessment on any of its policies, the department said it was devising a plan to ensure such assessments are carried out.

A spokesperson said: “The Department takes the CRE's concerns very seriously and acknowledges that we have more to do.”

The DH was given 21 working days to respond satisfactorily to the CRE’s criticisms, detailed in a letter on 11 August, or face a formal investigation by the commission, which could prompt recommendations enforceable by law.

It was unable to confirm whether it had conducted any impact assessments, as required by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

Kelly launches 'un-PC' debate on integration

British communities must work together to root out extremism, a cabinet minister said today, as the government unveiled a new body to help promote social cohesion.

Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly, speaking at the launch of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, said it was time for a "new and honest debate" about what was causing segregation.
Kelly said it was important to assess whether the promotion of a multicultural society had actually helped contribute towards the seclusion of some communities.

"I believe ... we have moved from a period of uniform consensus on the value of multiculturalism to one where we can encourage that debate by questioning whether it is encouraging separateness," she told a conference in south London.

"In our attempts to avoid imposing a single British identity and culture, have we ended up with some communities living in isolation of each other with no common bonds between them?"

"I think we face the clear possibility that we're experiencing diversity, no longer as a country, but as a set of local communities."

She said diversity was a huge asset and immigration had helped boost the economy, but warned it meant global tensions were now being reflected on Britain's streets.

Read Ruth Kelly's speech in full

Women managers show their flexibility

New research has shown that women over fifty make the best managers when it comes to running a mobile workforce.

The research, commissioned by BT, questioned 3,000 people's attitudes to flexible working. It found that men are fifty per cent more likely to have a problem with people working flexibly, either over hours or location, than their female counterparts.

"The more advanced technology gets, the more it forces us to appreciate human skills," said BT Futurologist Ian Pearson.

"People will have a very different part to play and they will be able to add the human element to the business, getting close to the customer on an emotional level, creating a different platform to do business."

Surprisingly the older the manager the more open they are to flexible working. Managers aged 18-29 are the most suspicious age group when it comes to flexible working (38 per cent), compared to 30-50 year olds (30 per cent) and the over 50s (25 per cent).

Of the skills employees valued most trust was a clear winner with 39 per cent of respondents highlighting it as the most important attribute they valued. Second was the ability to communicate effectively while third place was organisational skills, valued by just 1`4 per cent of staff.

"When it comes to making a success of flexible working, this survey throws the spotlight firmly on the importance of softer people management skills," said Caroline Waters, director for people & policy at BT.

"The emphasis put on trust and strength of relationship between employers and employees points to the fact that women, and in particular women over 50, are the ideal management role model in this increasingly flexible business world."

Employers wait 18 months for disability guide

The government has been criticised for leaving employers in the dark over managing staff with learning difficulties, after a guidance report was buried for 18 months.

The government-commissioned report, which makes 42 recommendations on improving employment prospects for people with learning difficulties, was due to be published last year. But no reference had been made to it on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Department of Health websites more than a year after the guidelines were issued.

The government’s Welfare Reform Bill, which outlined its policy on supporting disabled people back into work, also made no reference to the report when it was published last month. The guidelines were eventually published on the Valuing People Support Team’s website earlier this month.

David Congdon, head of policy and work for disability charity Mencap and a working group member, told Personnel Today’s sister publication Community Care that there was no reason why the guidelines should not have been released 18 months ago. He said the group had received no feedback from either government department, and claimed the report was just “gathering dust”.

The report said a “worrying” number of employers, especially local authorities and those in the voluntary sector, were defying National Minimum Wage (NMW) rules by under-paying staff with learning disabilities. It also warned that organisations faced the threat of costly employment tribunals if they failed to apply the NMW.

A DWP spokesman said the report was being considered as part of the government’s work on employment support for disabled people.

This story was first published in Personnel Today and Community Care

NHS 'breaching race laws'

NHS trusts must do more to promote racial equality, the Department of Health (DoH) has demanded in the wake of an investigation which finds most are breaking race laws.

The Health Commission research reveals that despite requirements under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, few NHS trusts are actively promoting racial equality at work and in their services. When the commission examined the websites of 570 trusts, it found that only seven – one per cent – had provided sufficient details about their racial equality policies.

Jamie Rentoul, the Health Commission's head of strategy was "disappointed" by the findings, which also showed in the way trusts assess progress.

DoH equality and human rights director Surinder Sharma demanded every NHS trust "give immediate attention to remedying this situation", adding: "The Department of Health takes these findings very seriously.

"All NHS organisations must ensure they are fully compliant with the Race Relations Act and publicly set out how they are meeting their responsibilities."

More information from the Commission of Racial Equality

Hate crime 'goes unreported'

Victims of hate crime – attacked for their race or sexual orientation – lack faith in the police, and fail to report abuse as a result, Victim Support has warned.

An analysis of interviews with 107 victims, funded by Co-operative Insurance (CIS), finds many scared of revenge attacks and court appearances. Although only one in five felt supported by police, this figure rose when victims were dealt with by specialist officers.

Victim Support's research executive, Peter Dunn, wants funding for better services, and greater compassion from the police and the CPS.

He said: "Hate crime symbolises all the worst aspects of prejudice. Our research shows it has a profoundly damaging effect on victims that is often not fully understood by the criminal justice system."

Peter Fahy, of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), insisted that detection rates and prosecutions had risen, adding: "Hate crime investigations are given high priority and the police service does not apologise for this."

One million over 50s are jobless through employers' ageist attitudes

More than one million 50- to 65-year-olds who want to work can't get a job because employers won't recruit older workers, according to a TUC report. The TUC also accuses businesses of failing to retain the older workers they already employ by investing in training or making minor adjustments for disabilities.

The report, Ready Willing and Able, claims that of the 2.6 million 50- to 65-year-olds who are currently unemployed or economically inactive, more than one-third want a job, with 250,000 actively looking and 750,000 saying they would like to work.

It also found that despite an average retirement age of 63, only 12% of non-working 50- to 65-year-olds fit the stereotype of 'early retired, affluent professionals' and only one-third retire early 'fully voluntarily'.

The TUC warned of a demographic time-bomb if employers do not do more to employ older workers.
It is estimated that over the next 10 years the number of people under 50 will fall by 2% while the number aged 50-69 will rise by 17%.

The TUC estimates that without an extra one million people in work by 2015, workers will face higher taxes, later retirement or old-age poverty.

The report warns that government plans to tackle the problem by raising the state pension age will simply push more older people on to benefits, unless employers stop discriminating against older workers and adopt 'age management' strategies to retain the over-50s.

More information from the TUC website

Research shows organisations not ready for age discrimination laws

The government has published research that illustrates the challenges faced by nine sectors of the economy relating to the recruitment, training and retention of older workers.

The Age Partnership Group's sector-specific research reports will be used to target employers ahead of the introduction of age discrimination legislation on 1 October this year.
The sectors investigated are:

• Business Services Construction
• Education
• Health and social care
• Hospitality Manufacturing
• Retail
• Transport and logistics
• Other community (eg media, sport, public services, the arts)

The research found that eight sectors use length of experience to fix starting salaries or as a criterion in selection for recruitment and retentionseven use age or length of service as the basis for redundancy decisionsfive provide age information about candidates to short-listing and interviewing stafffour set maximum or contractual retirement ages, and for two of these sectors the contractual retirement age is often below 65.

The reports also examine what employers are doing to remove compulsory retirement ages and adopt flexible approaches, and look at how the age legislation affects young people in the workforce.

James Purnell, minister for pension reform, said: "As announced in the Pensions White Paper, we are working with employers to remove compulsory retirement ages and adopt flexible approaches.

"We recognise that we have an ageing population, with many older people who want the choice to continue working rather than retire. We are working closely across the sectors to ensure that businesses have all the information they need to make the necessary adjustments."

More information from Age Positive

Young people more likely to feel effects of age discrimination than older colleagues

With age discrimination legislation on the horizon, companies are working hard to make sure their policies and regulations don't breach the new law, with many focusing on the older end of their workforce.

However, new research by insurer Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) found one in seven young workers feel their progression has been hindered because of their age, compared to one in 10 people over 45.
The study also shows that more males feel discriminated against than females due to their age. People in the North of England feel they are the greatest victims of age discrimination and those in the Midlands believe they are least affected.

Mike Bird, underwriting manager at R&SA, said, "Many people think that age discrimination only happens to older people, but our research shows that a high number of young people feel their progression has been hindered by their age. We expect there could be a dramatic increase in cases brought against employers for discrimination to mirror the trends in the US and Ireland when the Age Discrimination Act was introduced."

The introduction of anti-age discrimination legislation in the US resulted in a 40% increase in claims with ageism cases increasing at a quicker rate than any other form of discrimination claim. In Ireland, age is now the basis of 19% of all employment cases.

This story first appeared in Personnel Today

International law firm acts to push women into senior roles in male-dominated profession

Reed Smith, a top-25 international law firm, has launched a new programme to help its female staff make their way up through the traditionally male-dominated profession.

The firm has created a series of workshops to expand opportunities for women at work in an industry that is notoriously "male, pale and stale".

Legal services minister Bridget Prentice recently wrote to the top 100 UK law firms asking them to publish diversity statistics, but only 34 replied. Out of those, 32 had already published the data.
Just 3% of partners in the UK's top 100 law firms come from ethnic minorities, according to The Lawyer magazine's 2006 Diversity League Table.

Reed Smith's programme focuses on providing trainees and associates with the information they need to examine their career development targets and develop the tools and skills they need to reach their goals.

The workshops, which were designed by not-for-profit research group, Catalyst also allow women to learn from their female peers and from female partners who have successfully risen through the ranks and hold leadership positions.

Brande Stellings, senior director of the Law Practice at Catalyst said women face multiple barriers to advancement in law firms.

"These barriers include lack of client development opportunities, lack of mentoring opportunities, commitment to personal or family responsibilities, exclusion from informal networks and lack of role models," she said.

"Men have developed informal networks to address many of these barriers. One of the main goals of the workshops is to share information with female lawyers that will better enable them to achieve success, while emphasising the need to create and use informal networks of their own."

This story first appeared in Personnel Today

Contractors to be quizzed on diversity practices

Companies bidding for government contracts will have to prove their commitment to a diverse workforce under new proposals to tackle unemployment among ethnic minorities. The plans, put forward by a committee including seven government ministers, are being piloted in three sectors with a view to rolling them out across the country at a later date.

The aim is to tackle the high levels of unemployment among ethnic minorities, which official figures show is 15 per cent lower than among the general UK population.

Firms bidding for public service contracts would have to show how many people from black and ethnic minorities they employed, and this would be compared with the local population as part of the tendering process.

The idea provoked immediate alarm among business leaders, despite claims by government officials that they were subject to consultation with industry and unions.

"The way to address high unemployment in some ethnic communities is not race quotas but by equipping workers with the skills businesses need," warned Sally Low, director of policy at the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC).

She added: "Firms will not welcome more bureaucracy to wade through in the process of tendering for public contracts where it is already very difficult, particularly for smaller businesses, to break through and get government work.

"These proposals could lead to a situation where firms able to offer a competitive service are dissuaded from pitching for government work."

Iqbal Wahhab, the chairman of the ethnic minority advisory group and a member of the cross-governmental committee that came up with the idea, defended the proposals, insisting they did not mean the introduction of ethnic quotas in tendering.

But he warned that the rate at which unemployment was rising among ethnic minorities meant it would take 100 years to reach the national average.