OPINION

It’s safe to say the last 12 months have not been easy for people. With so much in our lives being outside of our control, often our work has proven to be a saving grace. While many people have battled through redundancy and furlough schemes since last March, for many..

Whilst unemployment is at an all-time high, new businesses are also facing challenges from the impact of the pandemic. Opportunities through paid internship schemes have allowed for certainty in many graduates going forward, and hearing these success stories are motivating young people across the UK. Searching for your first job..

Back in 2016, after another all-white set of acting nominations, the #OscarsSoWhite protest movement gained major global attention.  Five years on, how much has changed, asks Leila Latif in a BBC Culture article. It started, as so many things do nowadays, with a hashtag. In 2015, lawyer-turned-activist April Reign took..

When we launched our first TV shows in 2013 like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black, we aspired to tell stories that weren’t available elsewhere. Not only in terms of the variety we offered,  but also the people and cultures we brought to the screen. As we expanded into films..

Equality is something that I have been passionate about for some time. Before Community I worked in a residential unit for people with mental health illnesses and I volunteered as a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. I helped people physically and mentally which was a very rewarding job and increased my awareness..

Thinking back, when growing up in London in the 1950s, I knew nothing  about gay and lesbian people, and even less about LGBT history. When  I was a kid, there were two gay men who lived next door; one worked at  Decca, the then record company. I would sing in..

Otis Boykin, Lincoln Hawkins, Garrett Morgan, Shirley Jackson, Lewis Latimer, Marie Van Britten…just to name a few people who have had an impact on our world – but does everyone know who these people are? These are all people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community who have..

When I was asked if I would become Cabinet Office Race Champion by the previous Permanent Secretary Sir John Manzoni in October 2019, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. I was honoured to be asked, and being the first person from an ethnic minority to fill the role was even..

Unconscious bias is everywhere. It’s an integral part of being a human being. It’s the reason why we feel comfortable with people we assume are similar to us and why organisations often hire or promote the same sort of people, leading to a mini-me culture. Even the most freethinking, open-minded..

In September 2016 nine people from Black Lives Matter UK chained themselves together on the runway at London City airport to protest against racial injustice. Seven of them were arrested after passengers complained about inconvenience, and the nation failed to see what the fuss was all about. It’s hard to..

It was about 15 years ago that I made the transition from middle management recruitment in local government into executive level positions. I remember meeting a Corporate Director, who happened to be female and from a BAME background and almost being starstruck about her list of achievements back then. The..

In the United Kingdom, the institution of policing is praised around the world for its service style of policing. Yet evolving changes in the language and style of policing in the UK are shifting that style towards more ‘enforcement’ than ‘service’ for Black people. Under the current conditions, it is..

I waited a little anxiously on the stage as the chair of the conference stood at the podium welcoming everyone. I was next up and going through my talk in my head I was only partially concentrating on her remarks. And then she got my attention: “We need to move..

 There are many misconceptions about introversion that have shaped the way many people view introverts and how they treat them in the workplace. This conversation highlighted this. Because I was being social, it was assumed I couldn’t be introverted. The misconceptions include, all introverts are shy; introverts are aloof; socially..

The events of last week, when George Floyd, a black man from Minneapolis, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck while restraining him, were very disturbing. As we all know, this was not isolated but a continuation of micro and macro aggressions against people of colour, not..

What is equal pay and why does it matter? For 50 years women have had the legal right to be paid the same as a man for doing similar work. And yet we still don’t have equal pay in this country. This hard-won legal right hasn’t translated into a moral..

Devastated by the crippling pain of racist injustice. It was difficult to coin these words because it feels personal. It hurts knowing that despite decades of protesting and speaking out we still have to face issues of systematic racism and white supremacy. It's hard to look at what is happening..

Whenever I tell people about my employment, I receive the same response, shock and dismay. Followed by questions about safety and racism. Then I arrive to my place of work, in my case it was four prisons in different regions over a 13-year period. I approach the staff entrance with..

For centuries a stereotype has existed around the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) industries. This is perhaps the main reason why the number of women in the industry is still at such a low level. Tragically, despite the stereotype now being incredibly out dated, its presence still lingers. Manual..

Arts organisations have impressively reflective, strategic leadership with significant intellectual fire-power and are often heavily involved in community cohesion. Simultaneously, they grapple with the ‘pay-to-play’ model of governance, and often have only limited control over their board appointments. How can they deliver effective and diverse leadership in this environment of..