Introduction
2020 has been such a challenging year for the city, the council and the BAME communities effected disproportionately by the pandemic. Please see video messages from Cllr Blake, Leader of the Council, and Tom Riordan, Chief Executive, reflecting on the challenges of the past year, actions taken and reiterating their commitment to continue this work in 2021.
Statement from Cllr Abigail Marshall Katung and Shaid Mahmood
2020 has been an incredibly challenging year which has deeply affected our BAME communities including here in Leeds. It is vital that we continue to ensure that there remains a relentless focus in the New Year to deliver on our commitment as a council to improve the experiences of our BAME workforce.
There is still a significant amount of work that we need to do to deliver on our important commitment however, through the work of the BAME Staff Network, our Corporate Leadership Team, and colleagues and teams across the council, we are seeing positive progress to deliver the key priorities in the BAME/CLT Action Plan. Indeed, a recent example of this progress is seen in the pool of decision makers who hear the council’s formal cases, which has been expanded to ensure a greater level of BAME representation – grown from 8% to 14% of decision makers.
Each of us have a key role to play in supporting each other to make a real difference to our BAME communities. This is a whole Team Leeds effort and working together including with allies, we can further build on the progress made this year.
The strong commitment to this key agenda also has support from elected members and the joint statement issued earlier this year signed by The Leader of the Council, Councillor Judith Blake is clear and unequivocal that we stand together against all forms of racism and inequality in our council and our city. This is a time for action and change.
As 2020 comes to an end and we look ahead to the New Year, the work we have progressed to create safe spaces and opportunities for our BAME staff to share their lived experiences, listening to and responding to the key issues they have shared and supporting each other will continue to be important in 2021.
We are really passionate about this agenda and will do everything we can to support the positive shift we all want to see in the organisation and city. We can’t do this alone but working together we can deliver on the key ambitions and priorities we have committed to on this agenda.
Councillor Abigail Marshall Katung, Lead Member for BAME & BAME Staff Network Member Champion
Shaid Mahmood, Chief Officer, Communities & BAME Staff Network Senior Officer Champion
BAME Network and CLT action plan update
Each Director has taken personal responsibility for action across their services, based on the lived experiences of BAME colleagues in their teams. These are now being worked through at a local level. This is backed by visible support from Members. Regular catch ups between CLT and the network are taking place where updates, issues and concerns are shared.
CLT and the network agreed a joint statement and activity plan which was launched as part of a really successful Show Racism the Red Card day event on 16th October.
- We are working with the network to monitor the impact of service reviews on the BAME community and have briefed 43 volunteers from across staff networks on Equality Impact Assessments.
- The BAME network has conducted a survey with all BAME staff in the council. Close to 900 persons responded, reflecting the rich diversity of our workforce. The BAME Network is leading this process and results are currently being analysed which we hope to share in the New Year.
- We have implemented checks to ensure Covid Risk Assessments are happening for BAME colleagues and this is being reported on and monitored regularly.
- We are creating more diverse and representative recruitment and selection panels and are piloting more inclusive recruitment with current open exercises.
- We are reviewing our Inclusion and diversity training and are engaging with the network on the content of this training.
- We have increased the number of BAME colleagues who take on the role of ‘decision makers’ in formal meetings and casework. 27 new officers were trained and the level of BAME representation in the pool has increased from 8% to 14%.
- We have reviewed the information that we produce relating to BAME workforce issues, in all aspects of employment, and started to share more. We will be developing this further in the new year.
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