The fourth meeting of the Equalities Council for 2024, held in December, reviewed the work of the EDI Networks over the last year and looked ahead to 2025.
Both the PDA BAME and NAWP Networks held elections this year and nominated a new President, Vice President, and Honorary Secretary. The PDA BAME Network’s President, Lola Dabiri said, “As newly elected President of the PDA BAME Network, I recently attended my first PDA Equalities Council meeting. It featured inspiring conversations, great minds and company, and worthy plans, all geared to supporting, uplifting, and enabling pharmacists to have safe, progressive, and fulfilling careers in whatever sector of pharmacy practice they choose. I left feeling energised. The PDA EDI Networks are a great place to be and I’m grateful to be here.”
Highlights from the PDA BAME Network this year include the publication of various resources, including factsheets on Islamophobia, tokenism, and Sickle Cell Disease. They also hosted a panel event for Black History Month and a series of safe spaces to support members following the violence over the summer which was motivated by racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.
The PDA NAWP Network’s President, Lourette Latif Philips said, “It was an honour to be invited to represent NAWP at the Equalities Council meeting. It was great to meet other PDA EDI Network leaders and share our impressive achievements from the past year and look ahead to future work. I look forward to continuing NAWP’s work and collaborating with other networks to reach our shared goal of achieving inclusivity and fairness.”
The PDA NAWP Network hosted a series of career-focused sessions as well as an International Women’s Day event on women and inclusion in pharmacy. They also attended and presented at the 18th European Women Pharmacists Meeting, and raised money for Wear It Pink. A key new resource they produced this year was the Spotlight on Periods.
The PDA Ability Network launched the Standing Up for Sitting Down campaign, which calls for employers to meet their legal duties to provide appropriate reasonable adjustments to allow disabled pharmacists to carry out their work safely. An increasing number of members have been getting involved in this, and some spoke about it at The Pharmacy Show. This campaign appears to be unique to the pharmacy sector and has gained coverage in the trade press too.
The PDA LGBT+ Network attended Manchester Pride for the third year in a row and also hosted various online networking events. Articles written by members have focused on overlapping identities, for example, being LGBT+ and being diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and being LGBT+ and South Asian.
PDA Employment Solicitor, Barinder Kataria, attended as a guest speaker and provided a legal update around equalities. He outlined the proposed upcoming changes in the Employment Rights Bill in relation to the networks’ interests. This included increased family-friendly rights and protections against sexual harassment, the strengthening of gender pay gap reporting, improvements to enforcing employment rights, such as sick pay, and modernising trade union legislation.
In terms of PDA casework, Barinder drew attention to a rise in Employment Tribunal cases being brought by members who are neurodivergent. He also highlighted the high profile racial harassment case in Boots.
Barinder said, “I enjoyed attending the meeting to provide a brief update on Employment Law developments and giving details about some of the important cases that the Employment Team have taken on. I was also impressed by how much the Equalities Council already knew about the Employment Rights Bill and how this may assist them in the work that they do.”
In 2025, the PDA NAWP Network will celebrate 120 years, and the Ability, BAME, and LGBT+ Networks will mark their 5-year anniversaries. Members should look out for details in the new year on how they can get involved.
The networks encourage members to get in touch if they have ideas for future work by emailing [email protected].
Get involved
Membership of each network is FREE for PDA student and trainee members or £10 per year for full PDA members.
Learn more
- Resources
- PDA BAME Network explores reclaiming narratives in pharmacy
- PDA BAME Network Newsletter – October 2024
- NAWP host inspiring career-focused events
- PDA NAWP Network’s International Women’s Day event: Women and Inclusion in Pharmacy
- Intersection Update – November 2024
- It’s Time to Address Discrimination: Standing up for Sitting Down
- Pharmacists with a disability: Standing Up for Sitting Down campaign
- Being LGBT+ and diagnosed with ASD
- My South Asian coming out experience
- Factsheet: Employment Rights Bill overview
- Boots ordered to pay £58,000 following racial harassment case
- PDA Equalities Council celebrates the year’s successes
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