The Pre-Decision Scrutiny Questions and officer responses were noted.

DECISION

1.    To agree the council’s commitments to the anti-racist pledge and note that the actions will be reviewed and updated through on-going appraisal of progress (Appendix 2 to the report).

2.    To agree the actions set out in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities Commission Action Plan and note that the actions will be reviewed and updated through on-going appraisal of progress (Appendix 2 to the report).

3.    To agree to create a £1m reserve to provide the funding needed to deliver the programme set out in the action plan. This will be in addition to the use of £595,000 from existing budgets, bringing the total for delivering the attached action plan to £1,582,691.

4.    To agree to delegate authority to the Corporate Director – Resources to approve funding requests for individual projects from the newly created reserve, following consultation with the Director Strategy, Improvement and Transformation.

Action by:

CHIEF EXECUTIVE (W. TUCKLEY)

(Director strategy, improvement and transformation (S. Godman)

(Head of Corporate Strategy and Policy (A. Hoque)

Reasons for Decision

This report sets out an ambitious action plan to address the findings and

recommendations of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities

Commission. It follows conversations with our partners and builds on our

commitment to tackle inequalities faced by our Black, Asian and Minority

Ethnic residents. It includes investment of £1,582,691 to deliver the action

plan.

Alternative Options

Cabinet could choose not to agree the action plan, but this is not

recommended. The actions address specific areas of need and inequalities

faced by our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic residents, and are supported

by a robust evidence base.

Councillor Asma Begum, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Children, Youth Services, Education and Equalities introduced the report that presented the cabinet’s initial action plan in response to the 23 recommendations made in the Tower Hamlets Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities Commission.

Councillor Begum noted that the report presented a marker for future transformative work and for relentlessly challenging race inequality. Accordingly, the ambitious action plan would be supported by funding of £1.5million.

Councillor Candida Ronald, Cabinet Member for Resources and the Voluntary Sector explained how the Council would be transforming its organisational culture in response to the Commission’s recommendations. The council will invest funding to ensure race inequality is discussed and addressed at all levels of the organisation and with partners

Councillor Rachel Blake, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing explained how the Council would be addressing some of the 9 health-related recommendations from the Commission’s report including the role of the Council’s partners and the Health and Wellbeing Board

Councillor Motin Uz-Zaman, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Work, Economic Growth and Faith highlighted work planned and already underway to deliver the employment recommendations. The Council will invest funding to increase employment rates amongst Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic residents and to increase in number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in senior roles in organisations in Tower Hamlets.

Pam Bhamra, one of the Commissioners, provided her initial thoughts on the proposed action plan. She felt the proposals reflected that the council and its partners would be leading the way on race equality and felt the commitment of funding demonstrated that voices of the Commission and contributors had been heard.

Kevin Bartle, Corporate Director of Resources, highlighted paragraph 6.1 of the covering report which clarified that spending: “will be authorised by the S151 Officer following value for money assessments of the individual non-recurrent project funding requests, which will include consideration of the use of existing resources (including internal staffing resource) within the partnership and the availability of alternative funding sources”. Accordingly, Mr Bartle recommended that the Cabinet agree an additional resolution to delegate authority to allocate funding from the reserve to the Corporate Director Resources, following consultation with the Director Strategy, Improvement and Transformation. The Mayor welcomed this additional recommendation.

The Mayor welcomed the report and noted the pre-decision scrutiny questions and officer responses.  The Mayor then proposed the amended recommendations to Cabinet and they were agreed without dissent. It was:

RESOLVED

1.    To agree the council’s commitments to the anti-racist pledge and note that the actions will be reviewed and updated through on-going appraisal of progress (Appendix 2 to the report).

2.    To agree the actions set out in the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities Commission Action Plan and note that the actions will be reviewed and updated through on-going appraisal of progress (Appendix 2 to the report).

3.    To agree to create a £1m reserve to provide the funding needed to deliver the programme set out in the action plan. This will be in addition to the use of £595,000 from existing budgets, bringing the total for delivering the attached action plan to £1,582,691.

4.    To agree to delegate authority to the Corporate Director – Resources to approve funding requests for individual projects from the newly created reserve, following consultation with the Director Strategy, Improvement and Transformation.