| Des Browne MP (Chair) |
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) |
| Fiona Mactaggart MP |
Home Office (HO) |
| Trevor Phillips |
(Commission for Racial Equality - CRE) |
| Leslie Manasseh |
Trades Union Congress (TUC) |
| Ken Poulter |
(Department of Trade and Industry - DTI) |
| Inderjit Dehal |
Department for Education and Skills - (DfES) |
| Sharon Beishon |
(Office of Deputy Prime Minister - ODPM) |
| Robert Mason |
(ODPM) |
| Mark Carroll |
(HO) |
| Matthew West |
(HO) |
| Faz Hakim |
(CRE) |
| Afsana Shukur |
DWP |
| Ian Albert |
DWP |
| Jane McLuckie-Townsend |
DWP |
| Stephen Martin |
(DWP/NEP) |
| Ian Roberts |
(DWP) |
| Dr Marie Lall |
Institute of Education (Item 3 only) |
| Professor David Gillborn |
Institute of Education (Item 3 only) |
Yvette Cooper MP (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – ODPM), Nigel Griffiths MP (Department for Trade and Industry – DTI), Stephen Twigg MP (Department for Education and Skills – DfES) and Neil Bentley (Confederation for British Industry – CBI)
Des Browne welcomed Task Force members and officials to the meeting. DB specially welcomed Marie Lall and David Gillborn from Institute of Education who were to give a presentation.
The minutes were agreed as a correct record of the Task Force meeting on 24 March.
November Action Point 2:
Outstanding – Des Browne asked for a progress update on cross-Whitehall analyst discussions to be given at March Task Force meeting.
December Action Points 1 & 3:
Cleared - A copy of the ‘Full Employment’ document was circulated. Officials have been working on producing a pack of further information to set the ethnic minority employment problem into a wider conminutestext, including brief analysis of differences in benefit types broken down by ethnicity and gender. As a result, Task Force Papers TF 4/2/04 (Employment & Inactivity) and TF 5/2/04 (Ethnicity of Benefit Claimants) have been issued as background papers. Further key trends and performance indicators will be issued in the future.
December Action Point 2:
Cleared - National Employment Panel’s Fair Cities project to be discussed at this meeting.
December Action Point 4
Outstanding - CRE will give a presentation going into various discrimination issues in more detail at a future Task Force meeting, possibly following the launch event in April.
Dr Marie Lall and Professor David Gillborn provided a presentation on the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit’s New Deal for Communities Evaluation programme. They covered particularly the reports on Raising Educational Achievement and Black and Minority Ethnic Inclusion.
The key messages were:
Ian Roberts (DWP) presented the discussion paper on procurement and reported on progress, evidence and potential areas for action to achieve the Strategy Unit recommendation.
He highlighted the size of the civil procurement budget and its potential for influencing employers and tackling discrimination. He also argued that much of the SU recommendation had been met in terms of guidance issued or being issued. However, there was still only a little evidence of use in central and local government.
We may now be clearer on what to do but we haven’t met the second part of the SU recommendation that is to explicitly encourage public authorities to use the scope for promoting race equality in this way. Ian set out the actions Ministers could take, including championing this way of using procurement and building a similar momentum for promoting social issues as the government developed for environmental issues.
Following the presentation, there was a wide-ranging discussion. Comments included the following points:
CRE reported back on well-attended follow up seminars on their procurement guidance and the review of the balance of CRE roles between promotional work and critical challenge.
Fiona Mactaggart (HO) noted that this was an opportunity to ensure that procurement was put at the heart of the Gershon proposals.
Trevor Phillips (CRE) argued that this debate was not just about social justice but common, decent competition. He also mentioned the Australian experience where companies who don’t publish statistics on their equal opportunity policies are named.
Ken Poulter (DTI) covered the work that the Civil Service College are doing on public procurement courses and the role that Departments may have in helping companies to improve their practices.
Nicholas Holgate (HMT) proposed that Des Browne should write to Ministers and ask a number of positive questions including whether CRE guidance was on staff desks and asking for examples of where the guidance had made a difference.
Des Browne (DWP) committed DWP to actively consider and take forward the programme of action set out in the paper.
Robert Mason (ODPM) explained how this could help small business, especially ethnic minority businesses.
The Task Force agreed the following actions:
The papers were noted. It was agreed to set more agenda time aside to discuss the next round of quarterly updates at the April Task Force meeting.
The paper was agreed. Des Browne said that he would now be away at the time of the April 27th event on an unavoidable Ministerial visit. He encouraged Task Force members to participate actively in the launch.
Task Force noted the importance of putting over the message of what we’ve achieved, what goals have been set, what progress has been made and identifying success stories . The Task Force also discussed the possible linkages with the IPPR Task Force launch and the Fair Cities initiative launch.
Trevor Phillips (CRE) raised the issue of the importance of the additional message that the successful achievement of SU recommendations, through the Task Force, gave an opportunity to people to contribute to the wider community where they might otherwise be excluded.
It was agreed that Secretariat would check with Task Force members to confirm their availability to attend.
It was also agreed to investigate video links for the launch as Trevor Phillips may be attending another important meeting on the same day outside London.
The Fair Cities project is an important part of the strategy on equal opportunities in the workplace, and falls under recommendation 21 of the SU report. The aim of the project is to increase employment opportunities for Black and Asian ethnic minorities in the UK through employer action.
Stephen Martin (NEP) updated the Task Force with current research and successful case studies including the North London Stansted partnership. He also identified key lessons and the importance of a strong commitment from employers and partners to specific outcomes.
Finally, he set out the future plans which include:
There was no other business.
The next meeting is planned for 24th March from 14.00 - 16.00 in Richmond House, Whitehall.DTI and DfES will be giving presentations on their strands of the strategy at this meeting.
| No. | Action |
Responsible |
Deadline |
Status |
| 1 | Progress update on cross-Whitehall analyst discussions to be given at March Task Force meeting. | EME Secretariat | March 24th | Paper TF 5/3/04 issued |
| 2 | CRE to give presentation discrimination issues (including measurement of discrimination) | CRE & EME Secretariat | April 27th | Secretariat have written to CRE to check availability |
| 3 | Des Browne to write to Sir Peter Gershon to ensure that Task Force procurement objectives are included as part of his Review | EME Secretariat | March 24th | Draft letter to be provided to Task Force Chair by 19th March. Officials engaging with Review team. |
| 4 | Officials to take forward the actions set out in paragraphs 25 and 28 of TF 3/1/04 with the aim to agree a full programme of work at the May Task Force meeting | All Lead Task Force Departments | May 25th | Information to be requested from Departments shortly. Working Group to be established. |
| 5 | Full discussion of quarterly updates at the April Task Force meeting. | EME Secretariat | April 27th | Secretariat have commissioned next series of updates |
| 6 | Secretariat would check with Task Force members to confirm their availability. | EME Secretariat | February 27th | Cleared |
| 7 | Secretariat to investigate video links for the launch. | EME Secretariat | March 24th | Cleared - launch postponed |