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. It 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. The London-headquartered company 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 is 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 UK entities of Deloitte , dell and dell have joined EY in signing up to The Valuable 500 charter , which seeks to promote disability inclusion in the workplace . Companies totaling more than two million workers have signed up to the initiative so far , including Barclays , dell , RBS , Lloyds Bank and the Bank of England . KPMG , dell and Deloitte have also partnered with Auticon , which focuses on the hiring of autistic people .