Equal pay settlements for female council workers pass £1bn

Equal pay settlements for female workers at local councils have passed the £1bn mark, with thousands more expected next year.Legal claims have been brought against local councils on behalf of people in female-dominated roles, such as cleaners or carers, who for years have been denied the conditions and benefits given to employees in traditionally male-dominated jobs.The trade union GMB said it had secured settlements for thousands of workers at six local councils totalling £1.1bn.The union said that almost 30,000 claims had been settled so far, all out of court, for an average amount of about £30,000

‘They can open doors’: the community-based project helping people into work in Teesside

“We’ve had quite a few people on the estate get jobs,” says Bryan Stokell, who found work as a full-time security guard thanks to Stockton-on-Tees’s JobsPlus project. The 47-year-old father has since become a “community champion”, encouraging his neighbours to enrol.“It got to the point where even my little boy was coming home and saying, ‘my friend’s mam and dad are looking for work’,” he grins. “They [the project] have a lot of contacts, they can open doors into places.”Stokell has had health problems, and was struggling to find a suitable role before his caseworker, Khialah Wilson, helped him with his CV and job applications

‘It restored my hope’: how community action is confronting racism in Belfast

As a black woman in Northern Ireland, Maureen Hamblin knows that racism comes in many forms. “It’s not just the smashing in of shop windows,” she says. “It can be quiet, it can be silent.”Bystanders who hear racist remarks and remain mute, as if oblivious, amplify the hurt and leave victims feeling alone and isolated, a recurring experience that left Hamblin drained. “There was a time when I’d lost a lot of faith in white people, in white men

‘The NHS would collapse within hours’: BME staff say Britain fails to appreciate their roles

“I am fed up of being called names. I know I am Black. I was born Black. And I love being Black. So tell me something I don’t know

Foreign medics shunning NHS because of anti-migrant rhetoric, says top doctor

Foreign doctors and nurses are increasingly shunning the NHS because anti-migrant rhetoric and rising racism have created “a hostile environment”, the leader of Britain’s medics has warned.The health service is being put at risk because overseas health professionals increasingly see the UK as an “unwelcoming, racist” country, in part because of the government’s tough approach to immigration, Jeanette Dickson said.Record numbers of foreign-born doctors are quitting the NHS and the post-Brexit surge in those coming to work in it has stalled. At the same time, the number of nurses and midwives joining the NHS has fallen sharply over the past year.Dickson is the chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, which represents the professional interests of the UK and Ireland’s 220,000 doctors, including GPs, surgeons, anaesthetists and A&E specialists

Inside the US’s psychedelic church boom, where taking drugs is legal

The Church of Gaia in Spokane, Washington, has all the makings of a traditional place of worship: regular gatherings, communal songs and member donations – except they also serve ayahuasca, a psychedelic substance that can induce nausea and, at times, projectile vomiting.“This is a purely spiritual practice,” said Connor Mize, the ceremonial leader of the Church of Gaia. “It’s not a thing you do just for fun.”Psychedelics are classified as schedule 1 substances and banned throughout most of the US. But a small number of churches have won the right to use them as sacraments: since the 2000s, four organizations have secured legal protections for psychedelic use after protracted battles with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)