Helping Build Inclusive Organisations - Diversity is not a Minority issue.

Only 20% of the working population is now white, male, able bodied and below the age of 45. (National Population Projections, Government Actuaries Department, 2004)

The six strands of equality legislation relating to Race, Gender, Disability, Religion and Belief, Sexual Orientation and Age require employers, service providers and others to take reasonable steps to prevent discrimination against people on prohibited grounds and provides for legal redress. The Disability, Gender and Race Equality Duties impose further obligations on Public Bodies to actively promote equality of opportunity, participation, and positive attitudes.

Current equality legislation has been strand specific, disjointed and cumbersome for business. The forthcoming Equality Bill will create a simpler, unified structure that will cover nine protected groups, to include Maternity and Paternity, Marriage and Civil Partnership, and Gender re-Assignment. It is this clarity and simplicity that the United Kingdom Council for Access and Equality (UKCAE) embraces: by creating an iterative and transparent framework that is designed to be flexible, to encompass all emerging areas of equality legislation, and thus help build inclusive organisations.

UKCAE is a cross-community body that is formulating through consultation a UKCAE Pathway that is proportionate and accountable. The UKCAE Pathway will provide awareness, understanding, knowledge and the necessary skills to enable any organisation, whether small or multi-national, to understand the requirements of equality legislation and assist them in adopting practices and implementing systems that will bring about equality at work.