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Black and Minority Ethnic Groups
Our Employment Practices
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| 1. |
Background to this report |
| 1.1 |
Like other public bodes,
Sunderland Social Services was given additional responsibilities by
the Race Relations [Amendment] Act of 2000. This Act put a range
of duties on us to promote equal opportunities, good race relations
and the elimination of discrimination in Sunderland,. It specifically
required us to monitor certain aspects of our employment practices and
to publish the results of that monitoring. This reports fulfils
that part of our duty by providing information about our employment
practices and an analysis of what that information means. |
| 1.2 |
To comply with the Act we have
been asked to publish the results of our monitoring across the nine areas
detailed in the table that accompanies this report. These
include monitoring applicants for jobs, promotion, discipline and
grievance, training and performance appraisal. All of them are
of key importance to employees and we need to be sure that our practices
do not disadvantage any particular groups in any way. |
| 1.3 |
In addition, The Act recognises
that those employers that properly monitor their employment practices
and study carefully the data that they get from this monitoring are
more likely to create an environment where a mix of people want to
work and where services therefore become more sensitive to the needs
of different ethnic groups. |
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| 2. |
Context |
| 2.1 |
Sunderland is a large city with a relatively
low Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) population. The 2001 census indicated
that approximately 2% of the total population of some 280,000 belong
to a minority ethnic group. This represents a near doubling of
the proportion of the population belonging to these groups since the
1991 census. |
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| 3. |
Overview of Social Services Workforce |
| 3.1 |
Sunderland Social Services employ some 3673
staff, 59 of whom are from a BME background. This amounts to
about 1.6% of the workforce and indicates that the workforce is a very
slightly under representative of the BME communities it serves. |
| 3.2 |
However this overall figure does mask some
important differences across the Directorate. Most of our BME
staff work in our central Performance and Development Division, many
specifically employed as Interpreters and Translators. The
remaining employees are split between Adults and Children's
Services. In each division they make up less than 0.5% of the
workforce. A Major issue for the Directorate, therefore, is to
examine means of attracting more suitable applicants from BME
communities for all jobs in Children's and Adult Services and for jobs
other than those for interpreters and translators in Performance
and Development. |
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| 4. |
Ethnicity of Current Staff
and Applicants for Jobs/Training |
| 4.1 |
Appendix
1 ( pdf 68kb)
below shows a breakdown of the results of our workforce monitoring in
respect of BME groups across the 9 required areas for the year ending
March 2004. |
| 4.2 |
Of the 5,172 applicants for
jobs during the year, 2.9% of applicants were from BME
backgrounds. There were 3,673 staff members employed by
Sunderland Social Services at the end of March 2004, 1.5% of those
were from BME backgrounds. |
| 4.3 |
During the year there were
9,559 applications for training. Of those, 1% were from staff
with BME backgrounds. Of the 7,975 staff who did actually
receive training during the year, 1% were from BME backgrounds. |
| 4.4 |
There were 907 applications for
promotion. 2.7% of those applications were from staff from BME
backgrounds. |
| 4.5 |
Sunderland Social Services
operates an appraisal scheme with each employee being appraised at
least once a year. However, appraisals are not generally the
forum for decisions about promotion or demotion or levels of
pay. Rather they focus on training and development needs, work
issues and aspirations. There are a small group of staff,
however, for whom appraisal can form part of the process for
determining accelerated progression. Of the 183 members
appraised who fell into this category, 1.7% [3 members of staff] were
from BME backgrounds. |
| 4.6 |
Of the 5 staff members involved
in grievance procedures, none were from a BME background. The
same was the case for the 9 staff who had disciplinary action taken
against them during the year. |
| 4.7 |
There were 417 staff who left
their jobs within Sunderland Social Services during the year, of those
1.7% or 7 staff members were from BME backgrounds. |
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| 5. |
Conclusions |
| 5.1 |
Sunderland Social Services
takes equality and diversity very seriously and is striving to improve
its performance in this respect both as a service provider and an
employer. As well as the monitoring activity described above, we
also have a number of other initiatives planned or in progress that
will further develop our approach to Race Equality. These
include: |
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A comprehensive Diversity Plan
drawing together relevant plans, objectives and actions, identifying
priorities and providing the basis for monitoring our overall
progress. |
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Piloting work/life balance
initiatives for the City Council to attract people whose traditions,
responsibilities and life patterns don't fit more traditional patterns
of working. |
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Reviewing our recruitment
polices and targeting community and ethnic groups as potential
employees as well as considering overseas recruitment. |
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Reviewing all Job Descriptions
and Person Specifications to eliminate restrictive requirements.
We will do this with advice from BME groups wherever possible. |
| 5.2 |
None of the results of our
monitoring of employment practices give significant cause for concern,
though we will need to look in more detail at the figures in respect
of training. However, the numbers involved are so small that
even a minor error in data collection would have a significant affect
on the results. |
| 5.3 |
There are, however some clear
messages in the data indicating the need for us to take steps to try
to ensure that our workforce is as representative as possible of the
communities it serves. |
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last updated 09/06/05
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