Mind the Gap: Pay Gap Reporting Conference

Gillian Unsworth is the Deputy Director for Women’s Equality in the Office for Equality and Opportunity. Her role is to support the Minister for Women and Equalities in designing and delivering policy interventions to break down barriers that particularly affect women’s ability to thrive in all areas of their lives.

Having worked closely with employers and business leaders since the introduction of Gender Pay Gap reporting, Gillian has a wealth of experience of what works (and what doesn’t!) to improve equality in the workplace.
Gillian’s current work areas include the forthcoming introduction of mandatory action plans under the Employment Rights Act 2025. She and the team have recently launched the guidance and systems to enable over 10,000 employers to report the actions they are taking to close their gender pay and support women who are experiencing challenging menopausal symptoms in the workplace.

Charles Cotton is the senior adviser for performance and reward to the CIPD. He directs its reward research agenda and recently produced a survey on UK reward management. He is also responsible for the CIPD’s public policy work in the area of reward and has given evidence to select committees on banking pay executive remuneration and politicians’ expenses as well responding to various consultations, such as on pensions, retirement and corporate governance.

Charles frequently appears in the media commentating on reward and is often invited to present at events. You can follow Charles through Twitter (http://twitter.com/CharlesMCotton).

An award-winning occupational psychologist and CIPD-qualified entrepreneur, Jenny has advised governments on pay gap legislation and works with organisations to support compliance, pay transparency and meaningful progress towards gender pay equity. Founder of Bridgit Pay technology, Jenny is on a mission to create greater equity in pay.

Sandra works together with business leaders and government policy makers to influence action on race in the UK.

Prior to working at Business in the Community Sandra worked for DWP and the Cabinet Office. Between 2012 and 2016, Sandra chaired the DWP Ethnic Minority Employment Stakeholder Group, advising the Government on employment barriers facing individuals from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

In 2012 Sandra was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to Black and Minority Ethnic People. In 2019 Sandra was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours list for Services to Equality and Diversity. In 2020, Sandra published the Race at Work Black Voices and the Race at Work Charter report.

More than 24,000 responses to the Race at Work 2015, 2018 and 2021 surveys provided the evidence to establish the Race at Work Charter which has been recently expanded and now has more than 800 employer signatories. Sandra sits on the Royal Society Diversity Committee, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Strategic Advisory Board and the Cabinet Office Race Board.

Sandra is a big advocate of mentorship, sponsorship and allyship.

Angela joined Business Disability Forum (BDF) in 2013. She has worked in BDF’s advice and consultancy teams, and she is now Director of Policy and Research. She is an adviser to and research partner on several academic research projects related to work, health, and disability. She delivers BDF’s responses to public policy consultations and designs BDF’s research projects. She chairs BDF’s policy and research groups, including the Disabled Employee Network Leaders Forum, Work and Health Policy Forum, and the Disability Data Monitoring Working Group.

She regularly contributes to Human Resources (HR), occupational health, and workforce inclusion publications, and she also enjoys writing for disability ‘lifestyle’ magazines. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4 and BBC’s Access All podcast, speaking on topics including women’s work and care ethics, the disability employment gap, and disabled employee’s rights. She also regularly gives evidence at various Parliamentary Select Committee inquiries.

Prior to joining BDF, Angela worked in diversity and equalities management in the education and public sectors. She has been a HR specialist in disability and workplace adjustments, disability-related employee casework, equalities data management, and employee relations. She has also worked in dementia care services and occupational therapy in mental health and physical rehabilitation services (NHS).

A passionate advocate for impactful, culture change, Joy Hume is the Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Waltham Forest. Working on the Council’s EDI Programme since 2021, Joy has contributed to and led on some of the Council’s most critical interventions, supporting it’s ambition to become an Employer of Choice.