The Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF) has today (21 December 2022) published an update on the wide range of actions that its members are undertaking, both collectively and individually, to achieve a more diverse and inclusive judiciary.
This update reflects the work the JDF has done to strengthen the evaluation and impact of partners’ diversity and inclusion initiatives in 2021/2022, and includes the publication of:
- Priorities and actions for 2023, including an update on progress against the 2022 action plan and the implementation of a Theory of Change methodology to evaluate the impact of JDF partners’ initiatives.
- A covering statement explaining the strengthened approach to evaluation adopted by the JDF and suggestions for future work.
The Forum has identified four outcomes around which to align its work to achieve a more diverse and inclusive judiciary:
- Ensure an inclusive and supportive culture in the judiciary and the wider legal professions.
- Address barriers to successful applications and identify and eliminate any actual barriers in appointments processes as operated (including in relation to professional groupings).
- Eliminate structural barriers in access by different professional groups to the judiciary.
- Address barriers to senior legal and senior judicial positions for women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and people with disabilities (and other groups as agreed).
The JDF’s priorities and actions for 2023 have been aligned to these outcomes, providing clear aims for its programme of targeted and collaborative action. The action plan sets out the activities that JDF partners will undertake in the next year to deliver against these outcomes and how the impact of each initiative will be measured and evaluated.
The JDF will continue to report annually on progress against the priorities and actions set out in the action plan and will continue to publish annual combined statistics, which bring together in-depth data on the diversity of the judiciary, judicial appointments, and the legal professions, allowing for enhanced analysis and insight into how to improve judicial diversity.