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The United Kingdom is committed to ensuring that every girl in the world receives 12 years of quality education by 2030. Educating girls is central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals; it curbs infant mortality, eradicates illiteracy, reduces population pressures, and boosts economic growth.
The UK is proud to champion girls’ education through our global campaign to ‘Leave No Girl behind’. The UK is demonstrating international leadership to build political commitment and boost global investment in quality girls’ education.
Through the UK-funded Girls’ Education Challenge – the world’s largest fund dedicated to girls’ education – we are supporting up to 1.5 million marginalised girls in 17 countries.
However, around 131 million girls worldwide remain out of school, and gender inequality in education persists.
We must work together to create an enabling environment, by tackling the barriers that are stopping girls from accessing quality education, including: poverty; gender-based violence; harmful social norms and attitudes; and practices such as child, early and forced marriage, and female genital mutilation. Many girls become mothers before they can finish school. We call on all states to ensure that all women and girls have access to the sexual and reproductive health services they need, and to scale up the provision of comprehensive sexuality education.
For children in countries affected by crisis or conflict, education is lifesaving. We call upon States to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, to prioritise the continuation of education during conflict.
Conflict-related sexual violence stops many girls from accessing education. This November, the UK will proudly host an International Conference, Time for Justice: Putting Survivors First, to galvanise further action to prevent sexual violence in conflict.
The UK will continue to champion gender equality, and stand with the most marginalised women and girls to ensure that no girl is left behind.
Eintracht Frankfurt v. Arsenal FC
Advice for fans travelling to Germany for FC Arsenal match with Eintracht Frankfurt on 19 September 2019.
You should also read our travel advice for Germany
The address for the Commerzbank Arena is Mörfelder Landstrasse 362, 60528 Frankfurt. It is located approximately 5km from the city centre and is well connected via public transport.
Arsenal fans are advised to avoid using the S-Bahn lines S7, S8 and S9.
alternatively you can take a tram (Lines 20 & 21) from Frankfurt main station and the closest station is Stadion Straßenbahn
parking is available for visiting fans. Cars and coaches can be parked in P9; however, it is necessary to register in advance by emailing arsenaltravel@arsenal.co.uk
British Consulate-General Düsseldorf
Willi-Becker-Allee 10
40227 Düsseldorf
Germany
Consular opening hours: Monday to Friday: 9 to 12 pm (closed Wednesdays)
Websites for
Published 13 September 2019
Growing up, I was really lucky to have parents who wholeheartedly believed in the principles of giving us ‘roots’ (= the knowledge we were loved, looked after and safe), and ‘wings’ (so we could fly, explore and be ourselves and, heck, even make a few mistakes along the way!).
I’ve always tried to adopt these principles with every team I’ve led. Giving the grounding necessary so colleagues feel safe to experiment and learn without fearing the predictable-unpredictableness of the workplace. And in return, this sense of learning, autonomy and purpose has resulted in people delivering way beyond expectations, and with a real sense of loyalty.
So, imagine everyone in your organisation feeling like this; like they belonged there, that they could be themselves, dream big, make their own decisions, gain lots of new skills…and were happy? That’s an organisational culture I’m passionate about. I don’t mean somewhere with ping pong tables and bean bags – I’m not saying they’re bad, just that they won’t fix your culture.
This is what we’re committed to achieving at BPDTS.
In February, after a busy year of significant growth (BPDTS more than doubled in size, very quickly), Loveday and the Executive Team knew the focus needed to shift towards the health of the organisation and I was really pleased to be asked to carry out an initial piece of work to baseline where we were and identify actions to make things even better. We all agreed the following principles were crucial if we were going to be successful:
This had to represent the employee voice (not mine!). It’s really important to me colleagues do not feel ‘done to’ and it’s through our people we need to set the vision for the future. This needed to be driven bottom-up.
We needed to commit to being transformational. This wasn’t about tinkering around the edges and if we were not feeling uncomfortable, then we were not being transformational enough.
We needed to make sure the entire organisational design, every policy and all our processes and practices supported the culture we wanted. This was not just for operations – but HR, Finance, Governance and all our corporate service functions too.
An understanding from everyone that culture sits across everything. It’s not a project on the side for just a few to care about; an optional extra, a tick in a box or something to pay lip service to – this was going to run through the DNA of the organisation or not at all.
We needed to be ready to listen to the feedback. It may be tough to hear but if we were really going to improve, we needed to rip the plaster off and see how bad the wounds might be.
We ran workshops across all of our hubs to hear from as many of our colleagues as possible to draw out key challenges, what we can do as individuals to improve our own experiences at work and what actions we want to feed into the implementation going forward, as well as how people wanted to support delivery of that.
I was blown away by how generous people were with their time and just how open and honest everyone was about their experiences. People really cared about this stuff too!
The insight gained from over 200 people, shaped the outputs from the Discovery Work and we were able to develop a set of strategic outcomes, underpinned by our 10 cultural themes:
We support individual career progression and help people to imagine their own future and seek opportunities to fulfil it.
Our approach to recognition motivates all our people to do the right thing, in the right way.
We all focus on customer value in everything we do.
Our role designs inspire curiosity for all our people and help them to see the impact and value they are adding.
We focus on building a strong sense of community for everyone where people feel empowered to learn and share ideas.
Our career conversations harness a spirit of continuous improvement among all our people.
We do effective people planning to respond flexibly to the changing needs of our customers; focused on attracting and retaining the right people.
We encourage leadership behaviours; coaching all our people to deliver organisational outcomes.
We have a strong organisational identity where everyone understands our purpose and unique identity.
Our visible and adaptive governance process breaks down complexity in decision-making.
I’ve genuinely sensed a real shift across the organisation for the better. I often get asked how you ‘measure’ whether your culture is improving but really, it’s about how it feels.
And it feels better.
We’re blaming less, learning more, there’s a sharper focus on outcomes and behaviours and we’re coming together across the organisation more with a shared sense of purpose and direction.
We now know where we are, where we want to get to and (mostly) how we’re going to get there. We’ll share more in the future about how we’re managing that, the lessons we’ve learned along the way and how we’re measuring our success.
We’ve got a long way to go, in fact, culture transformation is never done. We know that lasting and meaningful change won’t happen overnight, however, we can recognise the positive path we’re on and the steps we’ve already taken.
I’m just really proud to be working with an organisation where the importance of roots and wings is so prevalent. It’s here where the magic happens.
If you would like more information or would like to share your own experiences with us (we’re always keen to learn), please get in touch and we’ll get back to you.
Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Andrei Iancu, the UK Intellectual Property Office Chief Executive Tim Moss and EPO President António Campinos
The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Chief Executive Tim Moss hosted Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Andrei Iancu and European Patent Office President António Campinos at a patent showcase event in London on 13 September.
Topics discussed included their visions for the future of the global patent system, the transformation taking place within IP offices, and the cooperation between them. They also shared thoughts on how these developments will benefit users of the global patent system.
The Heads of Offices met a selection of the UK’s top IP professionals, and groups representing the biggest users of the UK patent system.
President Campinos provided an update on the EPO’s recently published Strategic Plan 2023, its five strategic goals and how it will ultimately form a new framework for cooperation among all stakeholders in the IP system.
“A key objective of our work is to build a prosperous future for innovation and a strong patent network,” said the EPO President. “Our organisations need to be agile and adaptable to new conditions and the changing needs of our users. Businesses today often file multiple intellectual property rights in combination, and in different offices around the world. By aligning our tools, sharing results and promoting the creation of international standards we can help innovators secure the solid intellectual property rights which they need to rely on in a knowledge-based economy.”
Director Iancu spoke about the USPTO’s work on Artificial Intelligence and how they are approaching the issues it presents for them.
He said: “Today, AI is driving more powerful technologies than ever before. In recognition of these fast-paced developments, the United States is working with agencies such as the EPO and UK IPO, stakeholders, and innovators around the world to identify long-term, comprehensive strategies that promote and provide leadership for the technological advances of the future.”
Tim Moss spoke about the importance of the collective influence of big IP offices and how they drive reforms, ensure digitised and customer-led services and the wider importance of having a general understanding of IP.
He said: “We are seeing a global increase in patent applications. This reflects their importance to business, and the importance of innovation to the global economy. By working together with the EPO and the USPTO, we want to maximise our combined influence to reform the international IP system to ultimately provide world class digital services for all our customers.
“We believe that everyone should have an understanding of IP. Young people leaving education should know about the exciting career opportunities in IP. Researchers and universities should understand how to secure the greatest benefits from their research. All businesses need to be confident to make informed decisions about using their IP as asset.”
The patent showcase event followed a meeting earlier in the day between EPO President António Campinos and UK IPO Chief Executive Tim Moss in which they discussed matters related to bilateral co-operation. In his visit to the UK, the EPO President also met with representatives of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and the IP Federation Council, besides addressing a meeting of the UK Group of the Union of European Practitioners in IP (Union IP).