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Race Equality Advisory Forum

Local Government action plan

Current issues in local government

The group welcomes the coming into force of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 with its duty on the public sector to promote race equality. The new legislation builds on the Race Relations Act 1976 and creates a legal framework for the more effective and consistent embedding of race equality into all local authority activities.

At the same time, local authorities continue to work within other existing equality legislation, including the Sex and Disability Discrimination Acts which make it unlawful to discriminate directly or indirectly on the grounds of sex or disability.

Local authorities also work in the context of European legislation, and the incorporation into domestic law of the Human Rights Act 1998 provides the right to enjoy any other convention rights and freedoms without discrimination.

The Scotland Act allows the Scottish Parliament to impose specific duties on Scottish public bodies. The Scottish Executive has expressed a commitment to promoting mainstreaming of equality across the public sector. There is also an overall focus currently on themes such as modernising local government and social inclusion, all of which are consistent with the promotion of equality.

Other legislation is also relevant to specific services, such as, for example, the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, recognising the need to take account of the requirements of people from minority ethnic communities, and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, with an obligation to take account of the diversity of children's needs.

Under the Local Government Act 1988 contractors commissioned by local authorities must take reasonable steps to comply with the Race Relations Act 1976.

The last few years have also seen the development of the Best Value agenda, with a joint Task Force on Best Value in Scotland set up after the 1997 UK general election and an emphasis on the provision of high quality services which meet the needs of service users. This has included the development of public performance reporting, for which local authorities are required to develop appropriate frameworks. The promotion of equality has been identified as an aspect of Best Value and COSLA has produced guidance on the mainstreaming of race equality into Best Value.

A recent report (2000) presenting the findings of the Renewing Local Democracy Working Group, chaired by Richard Kerley, focused on the issue of "democratic renewal" and stressed, among a range of recommendations, the need to increase participation in local democracy by groups which are currently under-represented, including minority ethnic communities.

There has been an increasing focus in local government on community planning, through which councils, statutory partners and voluntary and private sector organisations agree a vision for the local area and the actions required by local partners to deliver this. There are opportunities here for the promotion of race equality.

Finite resources are always an issue in addressing all of the above. However, the working group believe that if race equality is built into policy development and service delivery from the outset, there will be greater efficiency and effectiveness alongside greater responsiveness to the needs of communities.

Key Issues

In addition to the cross-cutting barriers identified elsewhere in this report, there are a number of specific barriers for minority ethnic communities in relation to local authorities, both in participation in and engagement with local authorities and in the use of services. At the same time local authorities in general do not yet fully identify and address the specific requirements of minority ethnic communities and cannot at present be considered to be fully inclusive.

In terms of the overall planning of provision to the community, local authorities often do not take sufficient account of the issues affecting minority ethnic groups. There is a lack of integration of race equality into the planning process and a lack of consideration of these issues at the stage of policy formulation. This may be due, in part, to a lack of awareness and understanding of these issues and inappropriate attitudes amongst some staff, but is also often due to a lack of overall expressed commitment to race equality, the low priority given to these issues and inadequate consultation and engagement with minority ethnic people (both in specific consultation and as part of the mainstream consultative process). A failure to initiate or support effective partnership and multi-agency working can also play a part. All of this can lead to the development of inappropriate planning with serious consequences for the quality, suitability and accessibility of the services provided.

There is also a lack of research and monitoring, with little current data available in relation to actual service use by people from minority ethnic communities and little monitoring undertaken. This reduces the accountability of local authorities and reduces the opportunity for the evaluation of initiatives.

Local authorities also have a significant role to play as employers and should be looking to address race equality issues in their recruitment, selection, retention and progression of staff. These issues should also be taken into account in the provision of training and opportunities to staff once in post and the support which is available to minority ethnic employees to raise grievances.

In terms of the commissioning of services by local authorities, there are two key issues. First, those organisations which are contracted to provide services on behalf of a local authority do not always have mechanisms in place to ensure that they promote race equality, and in the past local authorities have had only limited powers to insist on such mechanisms. However, the new general duty under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 should ensure that race equality issues are taken into account in the commissioning of services. Secondly, minority ethnic businesses often experience constraints when it comes to competing for local authority contracts.

Finally, in relation to the representative role of local authorities, people from minority ethnic communities are under-represented at a political level. This is a matter for political parties to consider addressing, for example through positive action approaches to the recruitment and selection of candidates for local elections.

All of these issues constrain the opportunities for minority ethnic communities to have access to services which meet their needs, while also preventing the same communities from participating fully in local democracy.

Actions

Within this overall context, there are a range of areas in which particular action may be required to address and eradicate institutional racism and to promote race equality. There is clearly a need for the Scottish Executive and local authorities to acknowledge that institutional racism is an issue, and for the Scottish Executive in partnership with COSLA to take a lead in the promotion of race equality. Individual authorities must also take action.

a) The Scottish Executive to:

1 adopt this plan with specific responsibility for its implementation given to a designated Departmental Minister and a named senior official with a specific remit for race equality, thereby demonstrating the Executive's determination to fulfil its commitment to promote race equality;

2 embed equality, including race equality, into the Best Value Framework;

3 require local authorities in developing and carrying out their community planning functions to build equality (including race equality) into their policies, programmes and processes, including specifically into their community consultation and participation strategies;

4 in partnership with COSLA, local authorities and communities, develop a database of good practice and guidance on the promotion of race equality by local authorities; topics covered to include consultation, partnership working, employment and training, planning, policy development and delivery and commissioning of services.

It is suggested that:

b) In policy/planning/review each local authority should:

1 identify race equality as a core value of the council, include this in their strategic objectives and report annually on their success in meeting this objective;

2 secure a commitment from elected members and staff to this core value of race equality;

3 give responsibility for mainstreaming and resource assessment of equality issues to a senior official and ensure that this official has the opportunity to network with representatives of other authorities;

4 make race proofing of policies and services a requirement, to be carried out in part through the use of equality indicators;

5 take account of race equality in policy and planning, budget allocations, decision making, implementation and evaluation;

6 ensure that race equality is part of the Best Value process;

7 develop equality policies and ensure that these are "live" documents;

8 develop race equality strategies/timetabled action plans, with an expectation that all parts of the authority will address the issues and report back;

9 build in issues affecting minority ethnic communities to all cross-sectoral developments (such as community planning and social inclusion work) and, as part of this, engage with the minority ethnic voluntary sector as a key strategic partner;

10 develop means of enabling minority ethnic organisations to work in partnership with the authority;

11 take a leadership role in the establishment and development of multi-agency partnerships to develop and implement anti-racist strategies and promote race equality;

12 develop appropriate mechanisms for communication and consultation with minority ethnic communities using a range of methods;

13 include relevant minority ethnic organisations in policy formulation;

14 where appropriate ensure that general monitoring data is disaggregated by ethnicity and use the data to guide new policy developments;

15 monitor the impact and outcomes of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, for example by measuring client satisfaction;

16 report on the above actions as part of the Public Performance Reporting Framework.

c) As an employer each local authority should:

1 carry out an employee audit;

2 adopt and publicise an up-to-date equal opportunities policy;

3 adopt and publicise a harassment policy for employees and ensure that there is a visible, ransparent and accessible grievance procedure;

4 take action in response to complaints;

5 develop good race equality practice as a major employer, in relation to recruitment, selection, training and promotion;

6 develop policies, procedures and conditions of employment for a fair working environment;

7 provide opportunities for minority ethnic staff using, for example, mentoring, shadowing, networking and other means, as required;

8 monitor and review employment practices in relation to race equality;

9 provide race equality training and awareness raising for staff at all levels, using appropriate experts to deliver the training.

d) In service provision each local authority should:

1 provide barrier-free services which are racially and culturally appropriate, taking account of language, location, means of provision and information;

2 make available interpreting services and ensure that staff are aware of and signpost interpreting services to service users;

3 in consultation with minority ethnic communities, develop a communication strategy to include the provision of appropriate information in a range of languages;

4 adopt and publicise an equal opportunities policy with a focus on race equality and ensure that there is a visible and accessible complaints procedure;

5 adopt and publicise a harassment policy for service users;

6 involve minority ethnic groups in local service advisory groups and increase consultation and responsiveness to needs;

7 examine the performance and responses of individual services in relation to race equality, carry out external monitoring and provide data and progress reports;

8 use the data collected for future service planning.

e) In commissioning services each local authority should:

1 develop positive action approaches to enable greater participation by minority ethnic-owned businesses in the tendering process, including through capacity-building work;

2 as part of such positive action approaches, carry out an analysis of tender lists and identify under-represented groups, before developing positive strategies to address any such under-representation.

It is to be hoped that the general and specific duties to promote race equality under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, together with future legislation including the proposed Local Government Bill, will mean that local authorities can, should and will:

3 include race equality within procurement strategies;

4 develop clear race equality standards for contractors and contracted services;

5 ensure that organisations from which services are commissioned have an equal opportunities policy and that their practices accord with the delivery of race equality.

f) As a funding organisation each local authority should:

1 take account of the requirements of minority ethnic groups in the provision of funding support and the consideration of voluntary sector issues;

2 provide ring-fenced funding to ensure that the needs of minority ethnic communities are met;

3 support the provision of translation and interpreting services;

4 support local capacity building work with minority ethnic organisations;

5 audit and publicise the achievements of funding which has been provided.

g) In the democratic process each local authority should:

1 develop race equality training for elected members;

2 remove barriers in the voting process;

3 engage and empower people from minority ethnic communities to participate in local democracy.

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