Proposed diversity body should not be the priority
17th September 2007
The Learning and Skills Council has called for an association for diversity and equality practitioners to be set up.
Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) believes that existing professional and academic accreditation bodies should improve their training across the board rather than create a new professional body of diversity advocates.
Creating efficient organisations which treat people fairly and deliver accessible products and services should be fundamental to every business professional, not a marginal extra.
It should be impossible to employ a manager who needs a diversity advocate to teach them how to play their part in treating people fairly.
Commenting on the calls for a new professional diversity body, EFD's chief executive Susan Scott-Parker said:
"While it is tempting to transfer responsibility for treating people fairly to internal lobbyists with diversity in their job titles, surely the immediate priority is for all those responsible for business related professional training to disability and diversity proof their own programmes.
"They should simply refuse to graduate anyone who still needs a diversity advocate to tell them how to do their job.
"Disabled people and business leaders want more efficient businesses run by people who have the necessary skills and know how, not a new ‘quasi profession' devoted to what is perceived to be an optional activity.
"The proposed association for diversity professionals would in effect set out to compensate for a system which fails to properly educate key business professionals in the first place."
Ends
Notes to editors
Media enquiries, please contact:
Liz Nightingale, Communications Manager
Employers' Forum on Disability
Email: liz.nightingale@efd.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7403 3020
About Employers' Forum on Disability
Employers' Forum on Disability is the employers' organisation focused on disability as it affects employers and service providers. With over 400 members, EFD represents organisations that employ around 20 per cent of the UK workforce.Since its establishment in 1991, EFD has worked closely with government and other stakeholders, sharing best practice to make it easier to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.