Practices who sign up to the Charter are required to participate in the Law Society's Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report. The report shows how well practices are meeting their Charter commitments and where more work still needs to be done.
Practices complete an online, easy to use self-assessment exercise to record their workforce diversity profile, and complete a self assessment against the equality and diversity standards. These results are then published in aggregate and used to identify trends, successes and areas for improvement for the year ahead.
Summary of the current Diversity and Inclusion Annual Report (December 2012)
The Diversity Charter Annual Report 2012 was compiled from the submissions of 177 eligible law firms who have been signatories for three years. The reporting method is based on self assessment against a set of equality and diversity standards.
Signatory practices were asked to rate themselves at one of three levels (red, amber or green) against each of the eight business areas within the standards:
- Leadership and vision
- Employment and staff development
- Provision of legal services
- Engagement with staff, clients and community
- Policy making and practice development
- Monitoring and review
- Procurement and supplier diversity
- Sharing good practice
Summary of analysis
By February 2012, 177 signatories had signed up to the charter. The number of individual solicitors profiled in the 2012 reporting cohort represents more than a third of all solicitors working in private practice.
Many practices are taking steps to develop equality and diversity. Some are leading at best practice level. However, some practices still need to work to ensure the foundations for equality and diversity are firmly in place. Overall, while there are examples of success, more work remains to be done before practices across the cohort can reap the benefits equality and diversity offers.
Overall the results of the 2012 self-assessment show that the Charter is helping to improve diversity and inclusion performance. Of the firms who have completed the self-assessment for the second time, more than 70 per cent have shown an improvement in several business areas of the Charter standards. However, attracting and developing a diverse workforce remains a challenge, particularly at the partnership level.
Our recommended six priority areas to focus improvement on in the year ahead are:
- Put the right training in place to ensure everyone in the practice has the skills and knowledge they need to promote diversity and inclusion.
- Use key performance indicators and monitoring to track the outcomes and impact of equality and diversity actions.
- Ensure flexible working is operating effectively at all levels of the practice.
- Deliver on equal pay.
- Improve accessibility both in the physical and online environments.
- Work towards completing the procurement protocol model questionnaire in full.
Conclusion
Since its launch in 2009, the Charter has steadily grown. Already more than a third of all solicitors in private practice work in a firm that has joined the Charter movement.
The Charter works for all kinds of legal practices. Its signatories include many of the largest law firms, an increasing number of medium and small firms, and in-house departments in the private and public sector.
Charter signatories are at the vanguard of change, working collaboratively to drive up standards in an inclusive and transparent manner. Demonstrable expertise and insight has been generated from sharing good practice. The Law Society will continue to work closely with the profession in the coming year to maximise the opportunity the Charter presents to support excellence in the profession.