We at Board Apprentice support and encourage the wider business community to employ and accommodate more disabled people. This is as much a commercial imperative as it is a social imperative. However, we cannot do it alone. This is why the ‘Leading from the front – disability and the role of boards’ review from Purple and KPMG (which we are also proud to have contributed to) is an important part of the open conversations we must continue to have at board level and beyond, if we are to effect meaningful change
The ‘Leading from the front: Disability and the role of the Board’ report was launched on 8th May 2018. Led by Mike Adams, CEO of Purple (and Non-Executive Director of FTSE-listed Caretech Plc), in conjunction with KPMG – this is the first in-depth review of its kind focusing on the relationship between UK boards and disability. It features contributions and case studies from, among others, The Rt Hon Sarah Newton MP, Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work; David Tyler, Chairman Sainsbury’s and Chairman, Hammerson; Channel 4; Virgin Media and Arsenal FC. Click here to see a video of Mike Adams talking about the report.
The report recommends that boards table disability as a formal agenda item at least once a year and calls for more board-level disability champions. Organisations are also being encouraged to sign up to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme to demonstrate their commitment to disabled talent, and to serving the needs of a diverse customer base.
Of course, we at Board Apprentice are pleased to have contributed to and be featured in the report – and we fully endorse the report’s recommendations. The time has never been more right for the positive discussion about the opportunity and impact of leading from the front for disability. The framing and positive nature of the discussion is substantially ahead of that contained in other similar reports. We congratulate Mike Adams and his team at Purple for ‘changing the conversation’ as regards disability and the headlining the value of the ‘purple pound’ at £249bn (annual spending power of disabled people and their families in the UK) in this excellent, action-focused report.
In addition, we at Board Apprentice are in the rather unique position as being the only practical solution that Boards themselves can implement as highlighted in three reviews. Firstly, we run the Future Boards Scheme in partnership with UK Government Investments and the 30% Club for senior executive women as part of the UK Government’s Hampton-Alexander Review on gender diversity in FTSE organisations. We then featured in Sir John Parker’s Review on ethnic minority diversity in the FTSE. Now we are pleased to complete a hat-trick by featuring in this review as a practical solution for disability and Boards (Leading from the front P31 Board Apprentice May 2018 ).
Find out more and read the full report here: https://home.kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2018/05/leading-from-the-front-disability-and-the-role-of-the-board.html