| Des Browne MP | Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) |
| Nigel Griffiths MP | Department for Trade & Industry (DTI) |
| Yvette Cooper | Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) |
| Fiona Mactaggart MP | Home Office (HO) |
| Leslie Manasseh | Trades Union Congress (TUC) |
| Stephen Twigg MP | Department for Education & Skills (DfES) |
| Trevor Phillips | Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) |
| Afsana Shukur | DWP |
| Jane McLuckie-Townsend | DWP |
| David Drew | DWP |
| Rachel O’Brien | DWP |
| Anthony Johnson | DWP |
| Viv Miller | DWP |
| Michael Hewson | DWP |
| Ivan Corea | DWP |
| Sarah Perry | DWP |
| Stephen Martin | DWP/National Employment Panel (NEP) |
| Ken Poulter | DTI |
| Janice Munday | DTI |
| David Purdey | DTI |
| Inderjit Dehal | DfES |
| Mark Carroll | HO |
| Matthew West | HO |
| Shelagh Prosser | ODPM |
| John Allison | HMT |
| Sonny Taank | CRE |
Neil Bentley Confederation of British Industry (CB) and Nicholas Holgate HMT
Des Browne welcomed Task Force members and officials to the meeting, particularly officials attending to take part in presentations.
The minutes of the last meeting were agreed. There were updates on the following outstanding actions:
Action Point 1
Background paper TF5/3/04 covers this action point, and sets out current activity between analysts across government to underpin the join ethnic minority strategy with the appropriate level of research. Officials will be holding cross-departmental meetings in April and May, and will feed back to the Task Force in June.
Action Point 4
This action, which refers to writing out to Government departments regarding their procurement activity, is cleared. A Working Group is to be established and officials will report back to the Task Force at a future meeting.
Action Point 7
Task Force Secretariat will take forward the suggestion that video links should be used for the October event.
Stephen Twigg MP and Inderjit Dehal gave a presentation (see slides attached as separate files) on DfES’s ethnic minority strategy.
Des Browne thanked them both for the presentation, and there was some discussion as follows:
Trevor Phillips invited DfES to give this presentation at CRE, and suggested that more should be done to investigate the point at which ethnic minority pupils experience a sudden drop in attainment levels. Although low levels of teacher expectation may explain the gap, this is unlikely to fully explain the achievement gap.
There was some discussion surrounding the implications of levels of critical mass of ethnic minority pupils and of mono-cultural schools.
Stephen Twigg pointed at that some schools in Tower Hamlets with very large Bangladeshi populations experience high levels of pupil achievement.
Fiona Mactaggart raised the question of the impact of bilingualism, and the fact that some evidence suggests that pupil bilingualism can result in accelerated cognitive abilities. DfES is investigating this issue, and data will be ready in 2006.
Des Browne asked how DfES would monitor outcomes. Inderjit noted that this will depend largely on the availability of year-on-year PLASC data.
It was agreed that the skills agenda not covered by DfES’s Aiming High strategy should be investigated by the Task Force at a future meeting. It was agreed that the Chair should write to Cathy Ashton MP regarding skills issues, with a view to inviting her to attend a Task Force meeting.
It was agreed that the DfES presentation slides should be published on the www.emetaskforce.gov.uk website.
David Drew and Anthony Johnson, of the Ethnic Minority Employment Division’s Analysis and Research Team, gave a presentation on criteria for evaluating the work of the Task Force (see slides attached as separate files).
The Chair thanked them for their work, and there was some discussion regarding the need to develop key performance indicators. It was agreed that officials should work up more detailed proposals for key delivery measures and outcome variables, and provide fully costed proposals for financial implications of the evaluation process, and bring these proposals to the Task Force meeting in April.
Des Browne noted that the Task Force website will be used to publish annual reviews, and that the evaluation process should therefore aim to be transparent. It was also noted that evaluation work is currently underway in other Government departments, and that this should be offset against the Task Force evaluation process. It was agreed that officials monitor current evaluation activity in other departments as part of the Task Force review.
Ken Poulter, DTI, gave a presentation on DTI’s strand of the ethnic minority strategy (see slides attached as a separate file).
The Chair thanked Nigel Griffiths MP and Ken Poulter for their work, and noted that DWP and DTI have developed a good working relationship on ethnic minority issues. It was agreed that the slides of the presentation should be published on the Task Force website.
There was some discussion regarding employer discrimination, particularly the use of non-financial incentives for small- and medium-sized employers to encourage equality of recruitment practice.
Jane McLuckie-Townsend noted that officials in DWP are currently developing and expanding the strategy on employer discrimination, and that the use of non-financial incentives would be examined as part of this.
Fiona Mactaggart suggested that officials should examine the ways in which companies respond to receiving awards such as the Investors in People standard, and investigate the possibility of adapting the award to include a race equality standard.
Des Browne asked how business support networks would be used by DTI to influence companies’ employment practices. Nigel Griffiths noted that the use of Business Links forms a key part of the employer engagement strategy.
It was agreed that this agenda item should be deferred until the next meeting, which should focus in the communications strategy and Task Force evaluation.
There were no items for any other business.The next meeting will be held on 27 April, at 15.00-17.00, Richmond House.
| No. | Action |
Responsible |
Deadline |
Status |
| AP 4 Feb | Officials to write to other government departments regarding current procurement activity. | EMED | 30th April | Letter with new DWP Minister for clearance. Bilaterals begun with Departments. |
| 1 | Task Force Chair to write to Cathy Ashton MP regarding the skills agenda, and invite her to speak at a future Task Force meeting. | EMED | April 27th | Ongoing |
| 2 | Post the slides from DfES and DTI presentations on the www.emetaskforce.gov.uk website. | EMED | 8th April 2004 | Cleared |
| 3 | Task Force meeting on 27 April to focus on evaluation process and communications strategy. | EMED | Immediate | Agenda Items 3 & 4 (April 27th) |
| 4 | Officials to provide fully costed proposals for financial implications of the evaluation process. | EMED | April 27th 2004 | Agenda Item 4 (April 27th) |
| 5 | Officials to work up more detailed proposals for key delivery measures and outcome variables for the Task Force review. | EMED | June 2004 | Ongoing |
| 6 | Officials to monitor evaluation currently taking place in other government departments as part of Task Force review. | EMED | June 2004 | Ongoing |
| 7 | Officials to provide fully costed proposals for a shared Task Force communications budget. | EMED | May 2004 – with costings indicated at Task Force meeting 27th April |
Agenda Item 3 (April 27th) |
| 8 | Officials to provide proposals for communications activity including schedules of visits; employer engagement events etc. for agreement at Task Force meeting 27th April. | EMED/ DWP Comms/ OGDs/ Private Office |
27th April | Agenda Item 3 (April 27th) |
| 9 | Officials to secure date for EME Task Force event focusing on annual report. | EMED/ Private Office/ OGDs |
Date to be agreed 27th April 2004 |
Ongoing |
| 10 | CRE to give presentation at future Task Force meeting. | EMED/ CRE |
Agree by 30th April | EMED in discussion with CRE |
| 11 | Ensure there is discussion of quarterly updates on Departments’ progress against SU recommendations at April TF meeting. | EMED | 27th April | Agenda Item 4 (April 27th) |