A regional publisher has affirmed its commitment to disability inclusion across the company.

Reach plc has announced today that it has joined The Valuable 500 companies, a group of large private sector corporations which pledge to help disabled employees with an increased focus on diversity and inclusion at board level.

As part of the initiative, Reach will also created a new employee network that will support and raise awareness of visible and invisible disabilities, sponsored by an executive committee member.

A data collection campaign will also be launched across the group to gather self-identification data about Reach employees, the outcome of which will inform future Inclusion work, while the company will establish partnerships with external organisations to recruit and support people with disabilities.

Dr Julie Humphreys, pictured, head of diversity and inclusion at Reach, said: “The Valuable 500 is leading the way for organisations to embrace disability and we are thrilled to be working with them to bring our disability agenda to the fore.

“Crucially, we have already begun to make these commitments a reality, with the official launch of our colleague Networks last week, including the ReachAbility network sponsored by our chief operating officer Alan Edmunds.

“We have also kicked off our data collection campaign which will not only inform our Inclusion strategy, but help us to robustly measure our progress as we continue to make Reach a place where everyone can thrive.”

The initiative will be led by chief executive Jim Mullen.

He said: “I’m proud to be making this commitment with The Valuable 500 – an important step in holding ourselves accountable as we lay the foundations for change.

“Our strategy at Reach comes to life when people feel empowered to make big ideas happen, so anything we can do to help all our colleagues realise their full potential will put us in an even stronger position going forward.”