| 1 |
Background |
| 1.1 |
Like other public bodies, 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 eliminate 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 mean.
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| 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 employees 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 belonging to these groups since the 1991 census. |
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| 3. |
The Data |
| 3.1 |
This is the second year that we have published this information. The results of last year’s monitoring are available for comparison
here : 2003-2004
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| 3.2 |
It should be noted, however, that as a result of our experience last year we have significantly improved and refined the way we have collected our data. This makes it important that we treat comparisons with last year with a degree of caution. Comparisons in future years should be more reliable |
| 3.3 |
Having said that, there are encouraging indications that we have made progress in some key areas. These are described in more detail below |
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| 4. |
Overview of Social Services Workforce |
| 4.1 |
We employ some 3752 staff, 141 of whom are known to be from a BME background. This amounts to some 3.8% of the workforce. Last year we reported that about 1.6% of the workforce were from a BME background. For the first time this exceeds the proportion of BME residents in the local population in Sunderland [2%] |
| 4.2 |
In addition, there are still some 5% of the workforce whose ethnic background remains unknown to us. There are various reasons for this. Where these reasons are within our control e.g. through better recording of data we are taking steps to make improvements. Our target would be to know the ethnic background of all our staff if possible. However we are unable to compel staff to reveal this information to us so there may always be a small proportion of staff whose background is unknown to us. |
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| 5. |
Current Staff Profile and Directorate Performance |
| 5.1 |
Appendix
1 ( pdf
61kb) shows a breakdown of all the results of our workforce monitoring in respect of BME Groups across the 9 required areas for the year ending March 2005. |
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5.2
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Of the 3539 applicants for jobs during the year, 5% were from BME backgrounds. This represents a significant increase from the 2.9% recorded for 2003/4. |
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5.3
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There were 3752 staff members employed by Social Services at the end of March 2005, 3.8% from a BME background compared to 1.6% last year |
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5.4
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During the year there were 6258 applications for training. Of those, 1% were from BME staff. 1% of the 5700 staff who received training during the year were from BME groups |
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5.5
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We received 30 applications for promotion during the year. 2 of these [6.6%] came from BME employees |
| 5.6 |
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 37 members appraised who fell into this category, none were from a BME background. |
| 5.7 |
Of the 4 staff members involved in grievance procedures, none were from a BME background. |
| 5.8 |
There were 371 staff who left their jobs within Sunderland Social Services during the year, of those 2.3% (9) staff members were from BME backgrounds. |
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| 6 |
Conclusions |
| 6.1 |
As we indicated in last year’s monitoring report, Sunderland Social Services takes equality and diversity very seriously in both its activities as an employer and as a provider/commissioner of services. As well as the monitoring activities described above, we have also taken a number of other steps to further improve our performance in respect of Race Equality. These include:
A series of Impact Assessments across all of our services aimed at identifying and removing barriers to the Directorate’s services and employment opportunities.
· These assessments will result in all services having clearly prioritised and published plans for improving their equalities practices.
· We are in the process of publishing our first comprehensive Diversity Plan detailing all our activities and plans in this area.
· We are running a series of awareness raising activities about our services for BME and other harder to reach groups
· We are conducting informal research into the views, needs and aspirations of local BME groups
· Making job opportunity information more readily available to potential BME applicants
· Building our relationships with local BME representative Groups
· Further developing ‘Language Point’ our in-house Interpretation and Translation Service |
| 6.2 |
The results of our monitoring this year give us some grounds for optimism that we are making improvements in our race equality practices and performance. Our main concern last year was the low level of BME representation in our workforce and our apparent difficulty in attracting BME applications for jobs. This year’s results are encouraging in both respects though we will need to wait to see if this is a trend rather than a ‘one-off’ occurrence. |
| 6.3 |
The numbers of people involved, though increasing, are still very small meaning that comparatively small changes or data errors can have a significant affect on results |
| 6.4 |
We will need to pay some attention to the results of monitoring of training. This is an area where further development of our recording systems is still needed so that we can be sure that all staff have fair access to this important resource. |
| 6.5 |
As noted above, we also have some action to take to minimise the number of employees whose ethnicity remains unknown. |
| 6.6 |
Overall, however, the figures do not indicate any significant causes for concern. Indeed, there are indications that we are making good progress and that our challenge will be to sustain this over the coming years. |
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| 7 |
Further Information |
| 7.1 |
For further information about our workforce monitoring or any other equality/diversity issues in Social Services please contact:
Policy and Development Manager
Social Services
50 Fawcett Street
Sunderland
SR1 1RF
Tel: 0191 5661626
Email: policy&devunit@ssd.sunderland.gov.uk |
