Equality and Diversity

The TSG is committed to promoting equality and diversity; not only in the way that solicitors are trained, but also in the sense of promoting access to the profession and identifying and lobbying agianst barriers to qualification.

Equality and diversity aims and themes run through a lot of the policy information in this section of the website.  For example, equality and diversity concerns are evident in the TSG response to the Training Framework Review.  We are also concerned that invcreasing levels of student debt bar entry to the profession, and are therefore discriminatory.  Non EEA students need support should they wish to qualify in this country, and paralegals are an often overlooked element of the profession that can suffer.

At the 2005 Conference, we held a debate on the current routes to qualification and whether they were encouraging equality and diversity.  A lot of trainees felt that either they had been discriminated against (most either on the grounds of race or sex) or that there were bars to qualification (mainly the cost of it all).  The TSG is committed to tackling these issues and attempting to address them.

The TSG has a committed Equality and Diversity sub-committee, which was formed to deal with the issues that the TSG members were facing.  The largest tool that the TSG has to help combat any discriminatory or anti-diversity practices is the TSG Helpline, the annual review of which tends to spark sensationalist headlines in the legal press.  For example, headlines concerning sexual harassment and bullying of trainees were rife following the 2005 review.

The TSG has its own EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY - which can be accessed here.

The remainder of this section deals with certain issues facing the membership that could fall within this heading.  these are not intended to be exhaustive, and we would encourage anyone facing issues or with concerns with equality and diversity in their own life or work to contact the freephone TSG Helpline on a confidential basis - 08000 856 131.