To review the progress of the BAME Commission action plan

The Committee reviewed and noted the progress of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Inequalities Commission action plan, and considered the impact of the actions in addressing race inequality within the Council’s workforce.  The main points raised because of questioning summarised as follows:

The Committee:

v  Noted that LBTH has been developing an ambitious programme of activities which will have a real impact on outcomes for residents and provided a step change for addressing longer term challenges and highlighted by the Commission and agreed by Cabinet in October 2021 with a committed to fund over £1.5 million to deliver on the actions that  represented one of the biggest investments and intervention by any local authority to address race inequality.

v  Noted that LBTH is the first borough in London to commit to such a comprehensive programme and the longer-term aspiration is that the changes will be mainstreamed into the core roles within those services for BAME groups (including asylum seekers, refugees and those granted Indefinite Leave to Remain) living and/or working in the Borough. However, before any changes are made the individual service will need to be looked at to see how effectively it is working based on the available data,

v  Welcomed the work being done to (i) promote, retain and progress BAME women, who are under-represented in leadership roles, (ii) build a more diverse and inclusive workforce in which contributions from all staff members are valued (e.g., developing a training and support). 

v  Noted that there are other organisations that are also with the support of the Council are looking at developing more female empowering projects as well as leadership projects as well.

v  Noted that savings will be reprofiled and other cuts that are going to full Council that may need to be reviewed to consider whether or not it is going to affect the workforce.

v  Commented that with regard to the work force profile over the last couple of years staff (i) earning over 60K who are BAME, is down to few percentage points, (ii) earning over 60K who are female, is down four percentage points and (iii) earning over 60K who are living with a disability is down to a few percentage points.

v  Noted LBTH are going to undertakea detailed analysis of the pay gap to understand exactly what is going on. However, since 2019 there have been big changes in the workforce e.g., LBTH has lost 300 staff from 2019 to 2021 and insourcing of Street Services means that it is not yet clear. Once that has been clarified LBTH would be able to go back and benchmark with other organisations in terms of how they have set that figure.

v  Noted that when undertaking any reorganization d restructures an Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) provides a way of systematically taking equal opportunities into consideration when  LBTH undertakes any significant changes to policy or services that could have disproportionate impact on particular groups.

v  Agreed that it is important to ensure BAME staff are involved and engaged in the design and delivery of any service.

v  Agreed that investing in diversity including ethnic diversity will improve the quality of their customer service, build long term relationships with customers, and improve ethnic staff performance.

v  Agreed that diversity must remain a core priority for senior leaders and that they should have responsibility for delivering measurable diversity outcomes.

v  Agreed that there needs be a safe space within the Council for staff to ensure that there can be meaningful discussions around race so that that idea of making sure that that LBTH staff are at the heart of any decision making.

v  Noted that the Council are collaborating with local employers across various sectors together in terms of enabling more local people to get into employment and working with local universities around summer schemes and looking at internship programs.

In conclusion, the Chair thanked everyone for the for the presentation and stated that (i) it had been an especially useful discussion that helped Members get a sense of the direction of travel; and (ii) he looked forward to keeping a close eye on the on the BAME action plan and to receive a progress at a future meeting.