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Hospitality sector needs guidance to hire inclusively

Trade body UK Hospitality is calling for ‘robust’ guidance to help the on-trade sector ensure their businesses are more inclusive for disabled people.

Kate Nicholls UK Hospitality
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, is the industry’s disability and access ambassador

UK Hospitality has responded to a consultation, part of the National Disability Strategy, which examines how the government and employers can make workplaces more inclusive for those with disabilities and increase transparency.

The consultation requested views on how businesses with more than 250 employees might be encouraged to ‘collect and report statistics about disability to make their workforces more inclusive’.

UK Hospitality said that mandatory disability monitoring and reporting in the industry could result in the implementation of ‘inappropriate practices’.

The trade body’s chief executive Kate Nicholls cited the example of data collection “performed in a way that fails to capture the nuance and complexity of the workforce’s demographics and the business’ inclusivity”.

She added: “This could lead to misrepresentation of how inclusive businesses are, which would be to the detriment of consumers, employees and competition within the sector.”

Nicholls, who also serves as a disability and access ambassador for the industry, is calling on more businesses to implement practices that allow disabled people to “flourish in the sector” through their skills and personal qualities.

“This, and promoting the work of organisations excelling in this area, can nurture well-informed public discussion about inclusivity,” she continued.

“In order to recruit inclusively, with confidence, and to engage with monitoring, hospitality businesses are going to need clear, robust guidance. We’re keen to work closely with government to achieve this.”

Last year, The Spirits Business explored how the hospitality sector can make their venues more accessible.

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