Race Equality Scheme - How we will meet the specific duties

Employment

The Council has put in place arrangements to collect and monitor information about the ethnic background of staff and of applicants for employment, training and promotion.

The Council employs over 150 full time staff and therefore has additional duties to monitor aspects of employment. We have therefore also set up arrangements to collect and monitor information about the ethnic background of staff who receive training; benefit or suffer detriment as a result of performance assessment procedures; are involved in grievance procedures; are the subject of disciplinary procedures and leave our employment.

We will use this information to meet our strategic aims of working towards building a workforce that reflects the diversity of our local community and ensuring that our workforce has equality of treatment in employment practices.

The Council has always collected information about the ethnicity of applicants for posts but we have amended our employment application form to collect information about promotional opportunities for internal candidates.

The Council undertakes an audit on a random sample of recruitment files twice a year. This helps us to identify any potentially discriminatory practices.

An equalities monitoring system has been developed to enable reporting on a range of equality issues. These reports will be produced quarterly and used to monitor our progress towards a workforce that reflects the diversity of our local community and to identify areas for improvement. The new equality monitoring system will eventually replace the audit practice.

Information is collected centrally regarding disciplinary, capability and grievance cases across all Directorates. From this information we monitor the action taken against individuals to ensure no group is disadvantaged by or discriminated against in internal processes. The Exit Interview form collects information about staff who leave our employment and links will be made to ethnicity to ensure the required information is available.

Information on ethnicity is collected for all staff who request attendance on training. Staff complete nomination forms for all types of training whether that is qualification courses, in-house training provision or off-site courses/seminars or conferences. The nomination forms ask for applicants to give details of ethnic background using the same categories as those on the North East Lincolnshire Council employment application form. Decisions about supporting or not supporting these requests is the responsibility of the Directorate. Directorates are required to monitor successful requests for attendance on training and to provide statistical ethnicity data on a quarterly basis to Human Resources on the relationship between requests for training and those that are supported. This process aims to highlight any potentially discriminatory practices and the statistical data is used to inform and improve our working practices.

We will publish the results of our monitoring and what we intend to do as a result in our Best Value Performance Plan.

Key Actions 2002/3

Schools

Meeting the duty will help schools to:

• Meet their pupil's needs, encourage them to achieve their full potential and raise educational standards;

• Take specific action to tackle any differences between racial groups in their attainment levels and progress, in the use of disciplinary measures against them (such as exclusion), in admissions, or in assessment;

• Create a positive, inclusive atmosphere, based on respect for people's differences, and show a commitment to challenging and preventing racism and discrimination;

• Prepare pupils to be full citizens in today's multi-ethnic society;

• Make their own workforce more representative of the communities they serve;

• Improve staff morale and performance;

• Avoid losing able staff; and

• Make full use of the skills and knowledge of people from different racial groups (for example, in the classroom or as members of governing bodies).

The Council, through the Learning and Child Care Directorate, will support schools to meet the general duty and specific duties by providing advice, guidance and training. The "Framework for preparing a Racial Equality Policy for Schools" document, provided by the Commission for Racial Equality has been sent to all schools within the authority.

It is a school's duty to assess and monitor the impact of its Equalities Policy. Support to do this will be offered through guidance and the training programme.

Continuing support will be offered to schools in the form of half termly co-ordinator meetings to update schools on the requirements of the Act and to address any issues raised.

A training programme will be offered to all schools both to raise awareness about the general duties for schools, and to address what schools must do to comply with the specific duties. Similarly the governor training programme will include sessions on the requirements of the Act.

Incidents of racial harassment in schools will be collected by the Safer Communities Partnership and these will be monitored termly. Where trends are identified in particular schools these will be addressed through direct contact with that school. This monitoring will also feed into the overall monitoring arrangements of the Council.

As part of the inspection process Ofsted now has to examine, and report on, whether schools are meeting the general and specific duties of the Act. It is usual for an officer of the Council to attend the Registered Inspector's feedback to governors at the end of an inspection. What the school does well and any areas identified for development are shared with colleagues within the Learning and Child Care Directorate and appropriate support is offered to the school. Any concerns regarding a school's ability to discharge the duties of the Act will trigger individual support from the Advisory Service.

Curricular opportunities to promote racial equality will be covered under a school's Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship syllabus, and through the provision of positive role models.

Although schools are not bound by the employment duties there is a requirement on schools to supply appropriate employment data to the local authority. The Council's Human Resources Directorate will collect this data and will include it in its quarterly reports.

 Key Actions 2002/3