Agenda item

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submits a report on Tackling Racism, Race Inequality and Disadvantage.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submitted a report on Tackling Racism, Race Inequality and Disadvantage.

Councillor Hunter, Assistant City Mayor for Tackling Racism and Disadvantage introduced the report which arose following the response to the Black Lives Matter protests when it was agreed to establish governance arrangements and a programme of work in the form of an action plan around tackling racism, race inequality and disadvantage in Leicester with a particular focus on Black British, Caribbean, African and dual heritage communities.

The Chair welcomed and introduced David Shire, Race Equality Officer to the commission and invited him to give a brief outline of his background and the work he had undertaken in race equalities prior to taking on this role.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance gave an overview of the report which provided the first update and covered progress on establishing the governance structures for this work, the development of the programme of work and a summary of some of the key actions to date.

It was noted that:

• A corporate internal steering group was now in place with senior representatives from all service areas and staff representatives too. The group met monthly and focused on themes each time, this week for example the theme focus was on museums and their work on exhibitions.
• An external steering group of community representatives had been established which will meet 3 to 4 times per year to maintain overview of progress.
• Appropriate resources would be recruited to support this work and drive key projects and activities. The new Race Equality Officer had been in post for a month and was building relations in the community. An area of focus would be how the council gathered and measured what it was doing with clear outcomes so there was a lot of work to be done around structure and resources.
• An action plan had been developed to bring together themes, headline some of the work within those themes and show effort of colleagues.
• This work related to work across all departments and service areas and it was proposed in due course to bring further updates to OSC and other scrutiny commissions.
• Generally good progress was being made and the work was gaining momentum although more needed to be done around communication and improving communication with staff and wider communities.

The Chair welcomed use of an external reference group and the involvement with the DMU Stephen Lawrence Research Centre. The Chair also commented that external reviews of what the council were doing could be important to this piece of work too.

Members welcomed the initiatives being taken and during discussion made the following comments:

• Regarding public health and health inequalities it was suggested that the “data” explanation around tackling inequalities experienced by black people required some further explanation as there was more reasons for looking at services for black people than this suggested.
• Once this work was more established consideration should be given to new contracts with external partners ensuring their staff met the same standards set out in report for the council workforce.
• In relation to the people being engaged with and the external steering group it would be helpful to have the police on board and include senior police officers in those meetings.
• Regarding “themes” it was suggested there was a need to look at the disproportionate number of young people getting involved in crimes too.
• There was a need to continue to educate people of all ages as there were still people within communities with prejudice, it was also felt to be important to focus on younger children too, not just secondary school age.
• Ward councillors should be engaged in this work as they could highlight local issues.
• Noted that the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny task group were looking at inequalities in health service; collecting data was important but so too was trialling initiatives, providing meaningful job experiences and opportunities of experience that were not always there for people.
• Regarding development and roll out of a training programme on unconscious bias and anti-racism, there was concern that these were two separate things that should not be rolled together. The training should also be aimed at everyone and not just addressing middle managers.
• In terms of history and culture as well as raising awareness of Windrush Day consideration should be given to the Carnival which had issues and seemed to be over policed.
• In relation to the list of external reference group representatives it was noticed this did not include many young people, and more could be done to gain their buy in to the initiatives and to engage with schools, head teachers and young people about their experiences, as younger people’s experiences of racism/discrimination were likely to be different to older generations particularly around knife crime.

Responding to the various points made the Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance commented that:

Stakeholder involvement would be broader and would be part of the Race Equality Officer role to take that further.

Working with ward councillors was a good point and further consideration to engaging with them would be done.

Involvement of young people was a key aspect and the Race Equality Officer would be exploring that with colleagues and Leicester College. In terms of education, officers would also be asked to explore what was being done in primary schools.

In terms of the Youth Justice System involvement officers agreed to provide more information and details later.

The Race Equality Officer set out how this piece of work would be approached, and it was noted that approximately 60% would be about getting communities involved not just the external reference group. There would also be work to engage young people who might only be interested in one theme and begin by meeting people and using snowball effect to get them involved in other themes.

The Chair asked that a detailed update report be brought to the Spring 2022 meeting of OSC.

Councillor Hunter, Assistant City Mayor for Tackling Racism and Disadvantage thanked Members for their comments which would be taken on board.

AGREED:

                That an update report be brought to the Spring 2022 meeting of      OSC.