| Jane Kennedy MP (Chair) |
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) |
| Fiona Mactaggart MP |
Home Office (HO) |
| Nigel Griffiths |
Department for Trade & Industry (DTI) |
| Leslie Manasseh |
Trades Union Congress (TUC) |
| Trevor Phillips |
Commission for Racial Equality (CRE)) |
| Brenda Stern |
CRE |
| Neil Bentley |
CBI |
| Nahid Majid |
Chair, Ethnic Minority Stakeholder Group |
| Michael Hewson |
DWP |
| Cay Stratton |
DWP/National Employment Panel (NEP) |
| Afsana Shukur |
DWP |
| Jonathan Portes |
DWP |
| Shelagh Prosser |
ODPM |
| Lucy Williams |
DWP |
| Janice Munday |
DTI |
| Matthew West |
HO |
| Mark Carroll |
HO |
| Inderjit Dehal |
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) |
| Tony Orhnial |
HMT |
| Rita Patel |
Jobcentre Plus Specialist Employment Adviser |
| Marina Duckmanton |
Jobcentre Plus Specialist Employment Adviser |
Apologies were received from Derek Twigg MP, DfES andYvette Cooper MP, ODPM.
The Chair welcomed all to the Task Force meeting, particularly Rita Patel and Marina Duckmanton, two Specialist Employment Advisers (SEAs) from Jobcentre Plus.
The Task Force agreed the minutes of the last Task Force meeting, and noted that all but one of the actions from the last meeting had been cleared. The outstanding action on key statistical indicators remains with officials.
NON agenda item: thematic meetings
Jane Kennedy made a proposal that from now on each meeting is thematic. Each Task Force member would be responsible in turn for making a presentation to the meeting providing an opportunity to update the group on their strategies including both their development to date and any impact made so far.
A short discussion followed where it was suggested that each Task Force
member should provide an update as a background note for each meeting to
maintain momentum. Another comment was that the updates would provide
people with an opportunity to ask for help.
Action 1: Task Force Secretariat
to take forward.
DfES requested that they use the next meeting to present newly published
data. Jane Kennedy said the meeting agenda would not be exclusive for each
department, and that other departments could have a slot at the meetings.
Action 2: Task Force Secretariat to finalise schedule of thematic
meetings with OGDs and stakeholders.
The Chair commented that this was the first meeting since the launch event in November last year. She said that the event had been a great success and a big impact. A debrief of the event was circulated as a background paper for the meeting.
Jane Kennedy then asked the group if they had any comments on any of the Task Force government department and stakeholder proposals.
The main focus of the discussion was Procurement. More clarity was
requested on this area. There was a wide range of comments made, from
looking at diversity, to the lack of impetus for private sector organisations
to look at equality as there is no competitive edge. It was also commented that local
authorities have been working well on procurement.
Action 3: Task Force Secretariat to
arrange meeting with CRE, TUC and DWP to discuss procurement.
Jane Kennedy closed the discussion, and added that she could see the value of having regular updates at meetings.
The Chair introduced Janice Munday, a lead official from DTI, presented a paper on Strategy Unit recommendation 22 (i) as they had requested a steer on the following:
Naming and Shaming;
The following discussion highlighted several points:
Neil Bentley was concerned that naming and shaming would cause tension and go against working in partnership. He felt that cultural change could only be achieved by working in partnership, so therefore naming and shaming would be counter productive and would not improve race equality.
Jonathan Portes highlighted the implications of the Freedom of Information Act, suggesting that effectively anyone could set up a website to name and shame companies. Neil Bentley proposed that in light of this comment the Government should perhaps consider developing a naming and shaming website to set a precedent.
Trevor Phillips suggested that the purpose was to establish what the patterns of offences are, rather than persecuting individual companies. Potential candidates should know if a company has a bad reputation.
Fiona Mactaggart suggested that DTI should write to the organisations
responsible and ask them upfront how they are addressing the problem.
Janice Munday agreed this could be a way forward and confirmed she would
propose writing to the said organisations.
Action 4: DTI to write to
organisations reponsible.
The chair introduced Rita Patel from Birmingham and Marina Duckmanton from Leicester, briefly explaining how SEAs are being used in Jobcentre Plus to increase their capacity to tackle employer discrimination and improve their performance in placing people from ethnic minority communities into work.
Jane Kennedy thanked the SEAs for their presentation and remarked on how to ethnic minority communities.
Fiona Mactaggart reinforced a comment made earlier about the need for a
shared communications strategy, as the key to the success of the Task Force.
Action point 5: DWP secretariat to draw up / revisit the communications strategy.
Cay Stratton explained that the NEP had been working for the last two months on the PBR to increase self employment and business growth for ethnic minorities. This work is due to be completed by 10th March 2005.
Jane Kennedy thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.
Annex 1: Action points
Annex 2: Presentation by Birmingham SEA
Annex 3: Presentation by Leicester SEA
| Action |
Responsible |
Deadline |
Status |
| Task Force Secretariat to take forward proposal to that each Task Force representative provides a background note update at each meeting | Task Force Secretariat | By next meeting in June 05 | Outstanding |
| Task Force Secretariat to finalise schedule of thematic meetings with OGDs and stakeholders | Task Force Secretariat | By next meeting in June 05 | Outstanding |
| Task Force Secretariat to arrange meeting with CRE, TUC and DWP to discuss procurement. | Task Force Secretariat | By next meeting in June 05 | Outstanding |
| DTI to write to organisations whose cases have gone to tribunal | Janice Munday, DTI | Deadline not agreed | Outstanding |
| DWP Secretariat to draw up / revisit the communications strategy | Task Force Secretariat | By next meeting in June 05 | Outstanding |
As you may be aware the programme has been operational now for just under 12 months and the teams are now well embedded.
Marina and myself are here today to share the ground level delivery of thi programme in Birmingham and Leicester.
Each of the 7 cities have a delivery model based on Demand and supply. This Supply and Demand model provides us with an infrastructure to identify how the programme locally can link the opportunities in the Labour market to the talent pool in the local communities.
It is important to not only identify current opportunities but also future ones to enable communities to prepare to compete for both and to enable forward planning for future growth.
Birmingham has a population of just over a million people of which just over 30% are from BME communities - the largest of which is the Pakistani community - (census data). There are 11 wards, which suffer from high unemployment figures and have high concentrations of EM communities.
By 2020 Birmingham is tipped to be one the first Ethnic Majority cities. The employment gap in Birmingham stands at 23% between white and EM communities. There are also high inactivity figures for the priority EM communities we are working with.
The growth sectors in Birmingham are Construction, Health and Care, Business Financial and Professional, Hospitality and Leisure and Retail. The new Bullring development has been the start of major redevelopment and regeneration in Birmingham, which includes the extension of the Bullring area into the Eastside of Birmingham and a new Super Hospital.
There are some well-established partnerships with key stakeholders such as the local RDA, LSC, and Local Authorities who have included the SEA team in their combined work to tackle the local employment gap and skills shortages. This is a result of the excellent working relationships built by the local Jobcentre Plus district through collaborative working on projects such as the Bullring.
The supply and demand model helps to identify recruitment priorities in line with the demand - therefore making the programme demand led - the flip side is ensuring that the local communities are firstly aware of the opportunities and secondly are able to access and compete for them.
I would like to share a case study with you of how we have brought the two demand and supply together - NHS in West Midlands employs over 30K people in non clinical roles and if you apply a 10% turnover rate this is 3,500 job annually, in addition to this if you factor in growth this equals another 500 jobs a year. This is without the Super Hospital being built.
I am really proud that later today the SEA team in Birmingham will be attending an awards ceremony held by the Birmingham Employer Coalition.
We have successful nominations for an employer who has worked with us to recruit more people from BME communities, 2 candidates that have faced challenges on the road to employment and we as an SEA team who have started to make a difference.
We have also recently just completed a video with the coalition, which features employers selling the business case for diversity to other employers which again will be a powerful tool to help us change mindsets and move employers on.
Leicester City has a population of almost 300,000 and is the largest city in the East Midlands. It is a major commercial and manufacturing centre known for its diversity of trade rather than its reliance on one particular industry.
For many centuries people of different races and cultures have gathered in Leicester creating a rich and unique heritage. This diversity continues today and is regarded as one of its strengths.
But it is also a city of many communities with its own needs and aspirations. In 2002, overall Leicester is rated 35 of the 354 districts in the index of deprivation and 13 of 28 wards fall in 10% of the worst deprived wards nationally and a further 13 are in the worst 50% nationally.
A high proportion of 27% of the cities population are from ethnic minority communities, which is higher than the average in the UK.
The communities most strongly represented are the South Asian whose families arrived in Leicester from East Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. Following that was Black African and Caribbean and Eastern European communities.
Muslim communities are growing in Leicester with the largest established groups g from South Asia and East Africa. Most recently Refugees and EU migrants have settled with city figures at 1400 Refugees speaking 47 languages and also 12,000 - 15,000 Somalis. There are also enclave communities that do not engage with our service and have high unemployment where refugees locate to.
Overall unemployment is low at 4.5% and its economy has changed from manufacturing to service sector. 84% of the businesses have less than 10 employees. There are still large gaps in the employment rates of ethnic groups.
As SEAs we have seen in the community first hand the deprivation and poor educational attainment faced by many groups.
Minority groups are twice as likely as the overall population to be unemployed and in some cases in the wards, two generations have faced unemployment. A number of women lack confidence and find the transition into work difficult.
Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities have low employment rates andsome communities have low attainment rates at GCSE level.
Refugees and EU migrants have changed the face of some of the wards and unemployment is incredibly high. The arrival of Refugees and EU migrants has brought new minority communities with immediate English language needs. The quality of ESOL provision does not always match need.
Our team of SEAs have had some success in the hard to reach communities. With our knowledge of employment issues, languages and sensitivity to cultural practices we have engaged with over 50 community groups through innovative ways and are working with employers to develop ways to ensure their recruitment practices reach a diverse range of potential employees.
In many cases we have brokered community interest and employment and training needs. We have attracted 600 vacancies and promoted these to the communities. Many communities and employers have welcomed this grass roots approach.
Leicester has a number of new builds and we are working with partners to link workforce development to ensure they provide opportunities for minority communities.
New communities may have brought new challenges but have also brought to take jobs into the community. We supported a large employer with 180 jobs in their recruitment by revising their application form. This resulted in 30 jobs for ethnic minorities.
We have held jobs fairs in the community for another employer with 80 jobs in a local community church. This resulted in 20 jobs mainly for ethnic communities.
We supported the NHS in take up of their pre-employment course in communities and secured over 13 minorities into employment. Over 400 people attended a community jobsfair, which we promoted in non-traditional ways.
New communities bring new opportunities. The Somali Community businesses have risen from 5 to over 30 in the last 5 years. We are working with the Leicester Asian Business Association (LABA), Somalian (LESBA) and African Caribbean Association (LACBA) to support this. Retailers are also keen to reflect the communities they service and change their recruitment strategies.
Companies have shown a sense of corporate social responsibility. To celebrate Eid and Diwali the SEAs organised a Cultural Tour in partnership with Business in the Community. Here 15 employers visited a mosque, a temple and some local businesses. We also had a local generation overview of developments in the ward.
The Sea team have also worked with colleges to work towards sector-led ESOL which will skill people for the growth sectors in which they will work i.e. construction, retail etc.
Faith communities have a made an important contribution to areas such as community development, education and social inclusion by engaging with Faith based groups, mosques, temples to promote our services to the community groups.
We have also researched a comprehensive list of providers and community groups who will support the community in learning and up-skilling.
Marketing our programme in non-traditional ways by using butchers, local post offices, newsagents and community centre to engage with different communities.
We feel we have made a good impact whilst also understanding the challenges ahead.