Agenda item

Purpose of the item: To present a draft action plan to radically improve equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) for Surrey residents and Surrey County Council staff, and a draft refreshed EDI policy statement.

Witnesses:

Jackie Foglietta, Director of HR&OD

Zully Grant Duff, Cabinet Member for Corporate Support

Nicola Kilvington, Director of Insight, Analytics and Intelligence

Katie Stewart, Executive Director of Environment, Transport and Infrastructure

Adam Whittaker, Strategic Lead – Policy and Strategy

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Executive Director of Environment, Transport and Infrastructure explained that the new draft action plan on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) covered both the Council’s workforce and Surrey residents. The draft action plan aimed to be radical in its approach. Staff feedback on EDI had been collected in autumn 2019 and it indicated both some key areas of good practice across the organisation and some areas where the EDI agenda was not prioritised or where staff did not feel sufficiently supported. While the Council was not necessarily organisationally biased, it still had much to do in order to be seen as an organisation that took EDI seriously. The Covid-19 pandemic had also affected communities differently and evidenced the need for support for certain communities. Recently, the government had announced that they would be reviewing the national EDI agenda, and the Council wished to reflect this national agenda, while taking into account the views of the Select Committee.

2.    Noting that a speech made recently by the Minister for Women and Equalities had implied that the EDI agenda should look beyond the legally protected characteristics, a Member asked for witnesses’ comments on the minister’s views. The Executive Director replied that, while it was too early to know the full implications of the minister’s speech, the Council did share the desire to make a significant improvement in EDI and the minister’s evidence-based approach was encouraging. The Council recognised that inequality went beyond the protected characteristics but that there was still a need to focus on protected characteristics. The Council’s Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) were designed to capture protected characteristics as well as other inequalities. However, there was currently no sign that central government would make changes to the Council’s legal duties.

3.    A Member enquired what support Members might need in order to be equipped to provide collective leadership and champion EDI. Moreover, how would the whole of the Surrey community be engaged in EDI? The Executive Director responded that Members were key to the EDI plan and were seen as crucial representatives within the community. Locality profiles had been developed, which could help Members to understand the makeup of their division. Members could facilitate in reaching communities, and promote and celebrate diversity, by promoting LGBT+ history month or black history month, for example. The Director of Insight, Analytics and Intelligence agreed to send locality profiles to Members and added that the Community Impact Assessment (CIA) measured engagement with residents with protected characteristics, as well as other groups such as carers. The Select Committee requested that the Director of Insight, Analytics and Intelligence provide a briefing note on the CIA. Furthermore, there were communities transformation programmes such as Your Fund Surrey, and these encouraged engagement between residents and partners. The Surrey minority ethnic forum fostered engagement with the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community. The Director of Insight, Analytics and Intelligence attended a monthly forum attended by over 100 voluntary organisations, showing partnership working and gathering of information across the system.

4.    A Member emphasised the importance on concentrating on digital exclusion, particularly amongst older residents. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support concurred that digital inclusion was important in tackling health inequalities and it was at the forefront of her agenda. One example of action the Council was taking was to maintain access to computers in libraries as much as possible throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

5.    Members remarked that refreshed EDI training for Members should concentrate on what Members can do in practical terms, with case studies and examples of best practice.

6.    A Member asked how the Council could ensure it monitored its improvement. The Executive Director replied that there was an annex in the report setting out how the implementation of actions would be measured. Quantitative measures were important in measuring the implementation, and the Council was ambitious with its aims for this and hoped to be held to account. Members should also inform officers whether the Council was doing well in meeting its aims. The Council should be taking accessibility, inclusion and the EIA into account for service design and transformation from the start. Other ways in which success could be measured was by measuring how representative the Council’s workforce was across all levels, and by measuring staff satisfaction.

7.    A Member questioned whether ensuring the workforce was representative was helpful – since the Council’s workforce was a small proportion of the overall population of Surrey, this may not be particularly helpful. Instead, it could be more helpful to encourage a universal attitude shift towards equality and inclusion, rather than pushing specific ratios within the workforce. The Executive Director stated that, while the cultural aspect was indeed important, ensuring staff had equal opportunities by enabling staff progression within certain protected characteristics was important. Currently, management within the Council was not proportionally diverse. The Director of HR&OD said that it was key for BAME staff in more junior positions to be able to see successful BAME people in senior management positions. Also, the Council had a low proportion of disabled staff, which it was keen to change. A workforce that reflected the Surrey population was essential for enabling the Council to represent the Surrey population accurately.

8.    A Member asked whether there was scope for a Member reference group on EDI. Moreover, how were staff engaged in EDI? The Director of HR&OD responded that there were various routes for Member involvement. For example, there were seven Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that had been set up by staff for certain affinity groups within the workforce, such as a women’s network and LGBT+ network. Each of these groups had a Cabinet Member and Executive Director as sponsors and had recently put in place cross-network meetings with trade unions. These groups were key to staff engagement and helped to highlight areas of concern. The Executive Director echoed the importance of these groups and added that, as well as supporting colleagues, these groups helped shape the corporate EDI policy agenda. The Select Committee supported the notion of establishing a Member group to advise on EDI and inviting Members to informally attend ERG meetings where appropriate.

9.    A Member enquired what new opportunities for EDI training there were and whether any of the training was mandatory. The Director of HR&OD replied that unconscious bias training for all staff had been introduced in 2020 and was mandatory for all staff. Training for staff about reverse mentoring, anti-racism training and bystander training were being explored. At the Select Committee’s draft report meeting, Members suggested implementing mandatory EDI training for all Members, and with the Select Committee’s support officers would look at implementing this.

10.  A Member asked whether the Council was looking to the training offered at other local authorities for examples of best practice. The Executive Director said that the Council was looking at good practice and wanted to take inspiration from this where appropriate, but Surrey County Council was ambitious to be the best local authority in terms of EDI training. The Strategic Lead – Policy and Strategy added that a number of local authorities had been mentioned in the report and officers would meet tomorrow (22 January 2021) with the Greater London Authority to discuss an advisory panel that had been set up with the Mayor of London. The Local Government Authority excellency framework had guided the EDI action plan, as had best practice from companies in other industries, such as Sky and Bloomberg. On a more practical level, the Council was starting to have conversations with voluntary sector colleagues and Surrey Police, coming together as a system to develop shared priorities for EDI.

11.  A Member suggested that EDI training should be conducted jointly for staff and Members, which would help build bonds. Also, she requested assurance that the Council would look to acquire an accreditation in EDI. The Executive Director expressed appreciation for Members’ ambition in this field and took the Member’s comments on board, while stating that caution was needed when approaching accreditation as some accreditations varied in terms of value, and acknowledging the different challenges faced by Members and staff due to their different roles.

12.  A Member requested that the mention in the report of ‘minimising bias’ be changed to ‘eradicating bias’; to minimise bias was not ambitious enough. The Executive Director agreed to make this change.

Recommendations:

1. ED&I training for Members should take place after May 2021 and be made part of induction process for all Members; similar consideration to be given to such training for officers;
2. To help achieve the goal of a successful reassessment within the Local Government Association (LGA) Equality Framework in the first quarter of 2022, a survey of staff, residents and Members be carried out and results shared with this Select Committee;
3. Relevant key performance indicators be developed (enhanced in line with the action plan if already in place) and reported to this Select Committee as part of its existing regular performance monitoring report;
4. An update report be presented to this Select Committee as outlined under ‘next steps’ of the report;
5. On page 51, Appendix B of the report, under ‘How we’ll meet our commitment’ – our commitment should be to ‘eradicate bias’, instead of merely minimising it;
6. To explore and remove any barriers to take part in the LGA Equality Framework as soon as possible;
7. There appear to be some anomalies in terms of the approach between officers and what the Minister for Women and Equalities is saying in her speech and these should be articulated and reconciled wherever possible;

8.    All Members to be included in a Member level group to encourage collective leadership on ED&I. All Members to train on ED&I alongside officers and invited to participate in engagement activities.

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    Director of Insight, Analytics and Intelligence to provide locality profiles to Members of the Select Committee;

2. To receive a briefing paper by email about the Community Impact Assessment, including monitoring and review arrangements for the proposed action plan;

3.    Executive Director of Environment, Transport and Infrastructure to look at the possibility of inviting Members to informally attend ERG groups.