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The Big Four professional service organisations, Deloitte UK, EY, KPMG UK and PwC UK have signed up to disability inclusion campaign The Valuable 500.
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The campaign is seeking 500 global business leaders and brands to commit to putting disability on their board agendas in 2019.
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This marks the first ever collaboration on disability inclusion in business between all four leading accountancy organisations.
London, 13th September: Deloitte UK, KPMG UK and PwC UK have today announced that they have signed up to The Valuable 500 – the global initiative striving to place disability inclusion on the business agenda. EY has already pledged to The Valuable 500 at a global level.
This collaborative move from the leading professional services organisations places the sector at the forefront of creating better inclusivity in business. This move follows the large number of banks that recently committed to The Valuable 500 including Barclays, HSBC, Bank of England, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, signifying a huge step forward for the financial sector as a whole.
The Valuable 500, launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in Davos earlier this year, is seeking 500 global business leaders to place disability on their board agendas, and will hold each accountable for disability inclusion in their businesses by ensuring it is discussed at leadership level and action is taken.
To date businesses employing well over two million employees globally have signed up to put disability inclusion on their board agendas.
The Big Four all have a history of taking action to improve inclusion in the workplace, with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC working with Auticon, to make the most of the cognitive strengths of autistic individuals through targeted hiring. KPMG is also working alongside the Department for Work and Pensions as a Disability Confidence Leader.
Deloitte recognises that disability has a wider impact than just its own workforce and is proud to be supporting Scope as one of its One Million Futures charity partners, including its #workwithme pledge.
EY was recently named on Fortune’s ‘Change the World’ list for its work to recruit neurodiverse candidates. EY also collaborated with #valuable in 2018 to publish research which highlighted the scale of disability exclusion in business.
Similarly, with a focus on digital upskilling and inclusion, PwC are working with a wide range of assistive technology providers and have a team dedicated to ensuring their technology is accessible and to raising awareness of the specific tools available.
The announcement comes just one week before KPMG is set to host a disability focused event in association with its Board Leadership Centre, building on its work from 2018 with disability organisation Purple. The event, ‘Leading from the front – disability and the role of the board’ will bring together business leaders and influencers to help build further confidence on disability inclusive leadership.
Deloitte has committed to increase their focus on neurodiversity. Working with colleagues in their neurodiversity network they are looking at how to better support employees with a neurodiverse (ND) condition, and the vast untapped skills of people on the ND spectrum. One of their first steps is their collaboration with Auticon, to make the most of the cognitive strengths of autistic individuals through targeted hiring.
Founded by social entrepreneur and campaigner Caroline Casey, the launch of The Valuable 500 at Davos marked the first time disability inclusion was discussed on the main stage with the support of global business leaders – who included former Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Bloomberg Chairman Peter Grauer, and global CEO at Accenture Julie Sweet. Since its launch, businesses such as Sainsburys, Microsoft, EY, Accenture, Fujitsu, Unilever, and Bloomberg have all joined he movement.
Its mission is to unlock the value of people living with disabilities across the world. Along with their friends, families and communities, the one billion disabled people worldwide also hold a disposable annual income of $8 trillion a year, equating to an opportunity that business cannot afford to ignore.
Deloitte, KPMG and PwC will join EY, which was announced as a member earlier this year alongside other global businesses including Boeing and Zurich, in the effort to tackle the poor global employment rate for disabled people, which is currently stands at half of non- disabled people, a gap which has been on the rise since 2010.
To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below.
Media contacts.
Sophie Currah, Seven Hills.
- Email: [email protected]
Richard Poston, Director of Communications, the Valuable 500.
- Email: [email protected]
Notes to Editors.
Applying for Membership of The Valuable 500.
To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please use the contact form below.
Membership of The Valuable 500 includes:
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Unlimited access to our executive disability performance resource hub
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Membership to a community of like-minded business peer leaders, committed to raising their game on disability
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The platform and opportunity to raise your profile as an early adopter helping to shape this vital emerging economic and societal agenda.
By becoming a member of The Valuable 500, you agree to:
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COMMIT: Table disability on your board agenda from 2019.
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ACT: Make ONE firm commitment to action in 2019.
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AMPLIFY: Share your commitment to The Valuable 500 internally and externally.
About #valuable.
Launched by Binc, #valuable is a campaign working to ensure businesses globally recognise the value of the one billion people around the world living with a disability. We believe that building a global society that recognises the value of the 1 billion people living with a disability starts with business. We’re on a mission to make sure businesses across the world recognise the value of the one billion people living with a disability.
Binc was founded by social entrepreneur and activist Caroline Casey in 2015, with a mission to ignite a historic global movement for a new age of business inclusion. Binc is capitalising on Caroline Casey’s 18-year track record of success engaging over 450 organisations and working with 500,000 business leaders. Binc fundamentally believes that inclusive business creates inclusive societies and is initiating a new approach to business that genuinely includes the 1 billion people living in the world with a disability. Binc is the founding team behind valuable, an ambitious global campaign to put inclusivity on top of the business agenda around the world in 2019. Binc is using a tried and tested formula that has worked in the past for gender, race and LGBT to leverage the exponential rise of The Diversity and Inclusion Agenda.
Our definition of disability.
#valuable uses the definition provided by the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with disabilities, which defines a person living with a disability as ‘those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.’
About KPMG in the UK.
KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, operates from 22 offices across the UK with approximately 16,300 partners and staff. The UK firm recorded a revenue of £2.338 billion in the year ended 30 September 2018. KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax, and Advisory services. It operates in 154 countries and has 200,000 professionals working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such.
About EY.
EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.
EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.
About PwC.
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with more than 250,000 people and in the UK we have more than 21,000 people across 24 offices. We are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com.
PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please visit www.pwc.com/structure for further details.
© 2019 PwC. All rights reserved.
About Deloitte.
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP. The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press. For more information, please visit www.deloitte.co.uk/about.
Deloitte LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC303675 and its registered office at 1 New Street Square, London EC4A 3HQ, United Kingdom.
Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom affiliate of Deloitte NSE LLP, a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”). DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL and Deloitte NSE LLP do not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms.
© 2019 Deloitte LLP. All rights reserved.
Disability and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The need to advance disability inclusion around the globe is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Disability or ‘persons with disabilities’ are specifically referenced 11 times in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a further six references to ‘persons in vulnerable situations’. Principally with reference to: promoting inclusive economic growth that allows disabled people to fully access the job market and guaranteeing equal and accessible education through the creation of inclusive environments.