UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Equal Opportunities Committee
Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 18th May 2005
Present: Professor R G Dyson (Chair), Ms J Abson, Ms C Braddock, Rev M Bratton, Dr J Burns, Ms K Dodd, Dr K Flint, Dr C Jones, Mr S Malhotra, Dr A Parker, Dr P Lowe, Ms M Melville, Ms G Raison, Mr D Richards, Mr D Wright
Apologies: Mr D Beaton, Dr P Byrd, Dr H Dennis, Mrs G Frigerio, Dr E Hines, Prof J Hutton
In Attendance: Ms L Aspinall, Ms J Coleman, Ms K Scott, Ms W Coy
37/04-05 Terms of reference
REPORTED:
(a) That the revised Terms of Reference were submitted to the Senate and the Council for consideration.
(b) That additional comments were made by the Senate and a decision taken that the Terms of Reference for the Equal Opportunities Committee be reviewed in light of the overall consideration of the University’s governance structure.
38/04-05 Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting held on 31st January 2005 be approved.
39/04-05 Harassment and Bullying Policy
REPORTED:
(a) That the policy was currently being consulted with Trade Unions and following satisfactory consultation would be forwarded to the Senate and the Council for approval.
(b) That in order to ensure consistency, the student policy would not be reviewed until the staff policy had been finalised.
40/04-05 Disability Policy-Staff
REPORTED:
(a) That the Disability Policy (staff) was launched with a briefing to departments on 11th March 2005.
(b) That a Working at Warwick Lunch on Disability was held as part of Equality Week and was well received.
(c) That information on the policy and a number of frequently asked questions were available on under the Disability section of the Equal Opportunities website.
41/04-05 Mental Health
REPORTED:
(a) That a submission had been made for finance to be made available to support a Mental Health Adviser.
(b) That there was a recognition that further support was required in this area and the request had been received positively by the Registrar.
(c) That no formal decision had been reached but it appeared likely that the funding would not be available for the next academic year.
RESOLVED:
(a) That the Equal Opportunities Committee expressed concern that the funding may not be available for the next academic year.
(b) That a working group be established by the Disability Co-ordinator, with staff and student representation, to examine the requirements of staff and students with Mental Health issues.
(c) That the findings and recommendations of this working group be presented to the Equal Opportunities Committee for consideration.
42/04-05 Warwick Sport
REPORTED:
That Paper EOC (15-04/05) and Paper EOC (16/04-05) were referred to the Warwick Sports Board and the Board of Graduate Studies.
43/04-05 Child Protection Policy
REPORTED:
(a) That the Director of Student and Ancillary Services would provide an update on the review of the Child Protection Policy at the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
(b) That discussions were taking place about the CRB process and it would be appropriate to review the Child Protection Policy once the revised process had been agreed.
44/04-05 Disability Unit
REPORTED:
(a) That the Environment Committee’s Working Group on cycling initiatives had been asked to review the transport arrangements across campus with particular focus on meeting the needs of staff and students with disabilities.
(b) That the Students with Disabilities Officer from the Student’s Union had raised concerns regarding the lack of University vehicles with disabled access.
RESOLVED:
That it be communicated to the appropriate Senior Officer that the Equal Opportunities Committee supported the need to investigate opportunities of purchasing vehicles with disabled access where possible.
45/04-05 Admission Statistics for Postgraduate Students
CONSIDERED:
A paper outlining Admission Statistics for Postgraduate students (2003/2004) (Paper EOC 18/04-05).
RESOLVED:
(a) That the inaugural report on Post Graduate admissions be welcomed by the Equal Opportunities Committee.
(b) That information on offers for Post Graduate students be presented to the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee and be included in all further annual reports.
46/04-05 Equal Opportunities Policy
CONSIDERED:
A revised Equal Opportunities Policy to be renamed as the University’s Equality and Diversity Policy (Paper EOC 19/04-05)
RESOLVED:
(a) That the policy be approved subject to any comments forwarded to Leonie Aspinall (Personnel Adviser) by the 1st June 2005.
(b) That the Personnel Office be requested to provide staff retention statistics to the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
(c) That the Academic Office be requested to provide student retention statistics to the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
RECOMMENDED:
That the revised Equality and Diversity policy be forwarded to the Senate and the Council for approval.
47/04-05 Equal Opportunities Monitoring Duties
CONSIDERED:
A paper outlining the areas of monitoring that the University is compliant with and those areas that require future consideration (Paper EOC 20/04-05).
RESOLVED:
That those areas of monitoring needing further development or that are not currently being addressed, be incorporated into the Equal Opportunities Action plan.
48/04-05 Warwick Children’s Services
CONSIDERED:
A discussion paper, forwarded by the Campus Life proposing an expanded range of offerings for childcare on campus, (Paper EOC 21/04-05).
RESOLVED:
(a) That the proposal be welcomed by the Equal Opportunities Committee.
(b) That detailed consideration be given to the implementation, particularly taking into account the needs of staff and students living outside the local area.
(c) That the resolutions made by the Campus Life Committee be endorsed by the Equal Opportunities Committee.
49/04-05 Equal Opportunities Network
CONSIDERED:
A paper outlining a proposal for the future of the Equal Opportunities Network(Paper EOC 22/04-05).
RESOLVED:
That the proposals outlined be approved and implemented at the start of the Academic year 2005/2006 with an annual review.
50/04-05 Equality Challenge Unit/Commission for Racial Equality Project
RECEIVED:
An oral report from Leonie Aspinall (Personnel Adviser) detailing the progress with the ECU/CRE Project.
REPORTED :
(a) That there had been good progress made with the ECU/CRE Project to implement the Race Relations Amendment Act.
(b) That the completion of the initial project plan was nearing completion with the next six months to be spent disseminating learning experiences across the sector.
(c) That the key focus was Equality Impact Assessment whereby the University would be required to assess all policies, practices and procedures in order to determine whether there was any differential or adverse impact on any particular group.
(d) That communication on Equality Impact Assessment would be sent to departments over the summer with the aim of having assessed all formal policies by October 2006.
51/04-05 Job Evaluation
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Job Evaluation and Reward Manager on the progress of the Job Evaluation project.
REPORTED:
(a) That during the last few months 250 jobs had been analysed as part of the initial pilot.
(b) That the next phase of “Job Matching” would be commencing shortly.
(c) That feedback on the job matching would be available at the beginning of the next calendar year with implementation in Summer 2006.
52/04-05 Childcare Vouchers
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Assistant Director of Personnel Services (Policy and Projects) on the launch of childcare vouchers at the University of Warwick.
REPORTED:
That a working group had been set up to look at the introduction of Employer Assisted Childcare, a provider had been selected and that subject to approval by Finance and General Purposes Committee on the 19th May the scheme would be introduced in August 2005.
53/04-05 Equality Week
REPORTED:
That the University Equality Week for Staff helped to promote Equal Opportunities at the University and received positive feedback from a number of staff.
54/04-05 Springboard Programme
RECEIVED:
An oral report from the Assistant Director of Personnel Services (Policy and Projects) on the launch of a new personal development programme for female staff.
REPORTED:
(a) That a personal development programme for female staff had been launched in March 2005 with 30 attendees.
(b) That due to considerable interest, the University was considering running further sessions.
(c) That the feedback to date had been extremely positive.
55/04-05 Recognition of Professor Dyson’s contribution to equal opportunities
REPORTED:
That this would be Professor Dyson’s last attendance at the Equal Opportunities Committee as his period as PVC was coming to an end in the summer.
RESOLVED:
That it be noted that the Equal Opportunities Committee welcomed Professor Dyson’s support and contribution over the last six years.
56/04-05 Date of Next meeting
REPORTED:
That the date of the next meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee would be notified shortly.
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