Contents
Welcome
1 Introduction
· 1.1 Scope
· 1.2 How we deliver this
· 1.3 Equality and Diversity Training
2 Embedding Equality into the Organisation
· 2.1 Equality objectives
· 2.2 National Context
3 Staff
· 3.1 Disability Confident Scheme (Disability Symbol – Two ticks)
· 3.2 Personal Details and Equality Monitoring Form
· 3.3 Access to Work Scheme (ATW) and Care first (EAP)
· 3.4 Reward and Recognition monitoring
· 3.5 Accessibility
· 3.6 Health and Wellbeing
4 Students
· 4.1 International Students
· 4.2 Support for Students with Disabilities and Specific Learning Needs
· 4.3 Students’ Union
5 Future plans and development for 2016/17
Staff data analysis
Age analysis
Disability analysis
Ethnicity analysis
Sex analysis
Student data analysis
Age analysis
Disability analysis
Ethnicity analysis
Sex analysis
Welcome
to the Royal Northern College of Music’s Annual Equality & Diversity Report for 2015-16.
Ensuring equality and celebrating diversity is core to the College and integral to everything we do for our students, staff, governors and the wider community. We have clear duties under the Equality Act 2010, but this report is about much more than policies and procedures. It highlights the significance of our relationships with each other and sets out what we have been doing in terms of equality and diversity.
At this early stage it is difficult to predict how quickly the UK’s exit of the European Union (EU) will progress or to have any certainty on its impact on the UK, EU and global economies. Whilst developments in discrimination law have been driven of late by the EU, the UK had discrimination laws in place, including equal pay legislation, before accession to the EU and it is difficult to imagine the platform of rights being pared back in today’s environment, where flexibility and equality are now central to how workforces are made up.
The report illustrates what we are doing to ensure that:
o there is no discrimination, harassment or victimisation within the organisation;
o there are no gaps in performance between different groups;
o we advance equality of opportunity for everybody; and,
o we actively work to foster relationships between different groups whether
or not they have any particular protection under the Equality Act
The report provides a summary of the broad range of activity that takes place at the College throughout the year. This illustrates how we are meeting our core values embedded in our strategic plan while meeting our responsibilities under the current legislation.
John Gallacher
Deputy Principal and Chair of Equality and Diversity Forum
Contents
1. Introduction
This report gives an overview of Equality and Diversity at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM). It sets out the equality-related data that we have gathered over the last year and provides us with an evidence-based approach to equality. There is a statutory requirement for the College to collect and publish equality information to demonstrate its compliance with equalities legislation. The report will be published on the College’s webpages.
Our workforce monitoring data forms part of the information that we collate, monitor and publish to help us ensure that equality considerations are embedded within our employment policies and practices, and that they meet our responsibilities under the duty.
Whilst this report responds to the College’s duties and obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and the Equality Duty, it also supports the core College equality and diversity strategy.
The College expects that all staff and students will contribute to and actively support the College in working towards the elimination of discrimination and harassment, promoting equality of opportunity in terms of access to the College's services, employment opportunities and support for students in their welfare and education. An inclusive environment provides an array of benefits, such as increased morale, an expansion of the range of skills and experiences available and an enhanced ability to attract and retain talented staff and students from all backgrounds. We are committed to treating all people with dignity and respect equally irrespective of the protected characteristics:
· age
· disability
· gender reassignment
· marriage and civil partnership
· pregnancy and maternity
· race
· religion or belief
· sex
· sexual orientation
1.1 Scope
It provides demographic data of the RNCM’s 846 students and 527 staff along with benchmarking data where available as at the 2014/15 Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) staff and student report. This report provides an overview of our equality and diversity employment monitoring data for 2014/15. During 2015/16 a sub group of the Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) was set up to review the data we monitor and made recommendations to members for future data capture analysis and reporting. The focus in this year’s report is on age, disability, gender and ethnicity and our monitoring and publishing of equality data will be considered further by the EDF during 2016/17.
► a graphic summary can be found on pages 16 to 23.
1.2 How we deliver this
The Equality and Diversity Forum (EDF) comprises of staff from across the College, it also has student representation and is chaired by the Deputy Principal. It’s the College’s principle vehicle for consultation on equality and diversity matters with responsibility for developing equality and diversity-related policies, procedures and guidance. It ensures the College meets legislative requirements and fosters a tolerant, inclusive working and learning environment. The action plan formed by the Forum is included within this report and is informed and developed as a result of an analysis of the statistics and trends identified throughout the report. The EDF meets once each term and the minutes are published on the staff intranet.
1.3 Equality and Diversity Training
During 2015/16 a series of training events have been facilitated and/or provided by the Human Resources department as part of our ongoing commitment to Equality and Diversity.
Staff Induction
A comprehensive review of the College’s induction process was carried out during 2015/16 and the result was the launch of a new mandatory induction programme which ensured that equality and diversity was included as an integral part of this initial training for all new staff. This ensures that all employees of the College have a good understanding of all equality and diversity matters andare ableto act appropriately if they encounter an instance of bullying, harassment, victimisation or discrimination.
Recruitment and Selection
The Job Evaluation and Grading Review policy was introduced during 2015/16. This policy sets out the arrangements for job evaluation and grading of new and occupied posts for all professional services staff at RNCM. Job evaluation is undertaken using the Higher Education Role Analysis (HERA) scheme, and is coordinated by the Human Resources (HR) team.
Teaching and Research positions are generally subject to the Teaching and Research Staff Grading Review promotion procedure. Some roles with a high leadership and management content however, may be more appropriately evaluated through HERA.
Further training which included preparing job descriptions, person specifications, drafting adverts to initial shortlisting, the actual interview itself and the selection of the preferred candidate was rolled out to those involved in the selection process. Wherever possible feedback is provided to applicants throughout the process. The Recruitment and Selection policy has been revised to provide guidance to managers on determining starting salaries to ensure consistency and equity across groups of employees employed in similar jobs. The Human Resources team provides a briefing session to recruitment and selection panels to ensure that managers apply fair and transparent practice in selecting and appointing new staff.
Panels (comprising of 3 Role Analysts) are arranged, as required to consider grading reviews of new and existing jobs. The role of the panel is to review the evidence and confirm the grade. All panel members are fully trained in the application of the HERA scheme and the College’s scoring rationale. In 2015/16 the College increased its pool of trained Role Analysts from five to nine, following the delivery of training to an additional four members of staff.
In the summer of 2015/16 a half day refresher training session with an emphasis on equality considerations throughout the recruitment and selection processes was delivered to all members of the HR team. The following areas were covered;
· The law: recruitment and selection – what the Equality Act 2010 says.
· Equality issues in the recruitment and selection process.
· Job descriptions and person specifications.
· Selection methods – questioning techniques, listening skills and interviewing skills.
· Decision-making and record keeping
· Job offer and references.
· Probation and induction.
This refresher training helps HR staff to continue to promote best practice when providing advice and guidance to line managers across the College during recruitment campaigns.
Mental Health Awareness
The College continues to run the Mental Health Awareness course, facilitated by Mind, a Manchester charity. Twelve members of tutorial and professional services staff attended the half day mental health awareness course during the summer. The feedback obtained from delegates was positive. However, the majority felt that they would also benefit from more practical guidance. Human Resources will be working with the Health and Safety Advisor to develop a mental health policy and accompanying notes of guidance for staff during the 2016/17 academic year.
Equality Analysis
Policies will continue to be reviewed with the inclusion of an equality analysis for each one. This helps to address any potential inequality or discriminatory practice prior to the implementation of a policy or practice. The College have produced guidance notes for key staff writing policies and procedures. This ensures that it is further embedded into the review of policies and procedures.
2. Embedding Equality in the organisation
2.1 Equality Objectives
The Royal Northern College of Music comprises an international and diverse community of staff and students and promoting equality is an integral part of making the College a world class institution. Like other public bodies, the College must meet the requirements of equality legislation.
Legal Context
The Equality Act became law in October, 2010. It replaced previous legislation (such as the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995). The public sector duty contained in the Act covers eight of the protected characteristics. We demonstrate our understanding of the effect of our policies and practices on people with different protected characteristics by complying with the general duty. This is done through monitoring (and publishing the results) of the impact of our activities and functions and making adjustments to our actions where necessary.
The Equality Act requires public bodies to meet the three aims of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) which are to have due regard to the need to:
· Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act.
· Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic (PC) and those who do not.
· Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.
The Equality Act explains that the second aim (advancing equality of opportunity) involves, in particular having due regard to the need to:
· Remove or minimise disadvantages suffered by people due to their protected characteristics.
· Take steps to meet the needs of people with certain protected characteristics where these are different from the needs of other people.
· Encourage people with certain protected characteristics to participate in public life or in other activities where their participation is disproportionately low.
The College has to comply with the specific duties of the Equality Act, which are:
· Publish information to demonstrate its compliance with the general equality duty. This information must include in particular, information relating to people who share a protected characteristic who are:
v its employees
v people affected by its policies and practices.
· Prepare and publish one or more objectives that it thinks it needs to achieve to further any of the aims of the general equality duty. The objectives must be specific and measurable.
The Royal Northern College of Music is fully committed to meeting its duties under the Equality Act and the following equality objectives have been developed during 2016 by the College’s Equality and Diversity Forum.
· Increase the return rate of academic staff personal details forms from 43% to 55% in 2016/17 and 65% in 2017/18
· Increase the return rate of professional services staff personal details forms from 76% to 80% in 2016/17 and 85% in 2017/18
· To formalise and introduce a ‘Student Mental Health Policy’ during 2016-17, and to distribute the same to all students and staff across the College
· To analyse the admissions process from start to finish for 2017 entry, reporting on the protected characteristics (age, sex, disability, ethnicity) and to include this within the Equality & Diversity Report for 2016-17
· To expand the data presented for staff and students for the previous three years to enable trend analysis in the Equality & Diversity Report for 2016-17
2.2 National Context
The government announced measures to modernise the Disabled Students’ Allowances (DSA), which are available to Higher Education students from England in 2014. The changes apply to all full-time, full-time distance learning, part-time and postgraduate students applying for DSA for the first time in respect of an academic year beginning on or after 1 September 2015
We are yet to see the impact these changes will make to the College. In future more responsibility will be put on Institutions to provide the non-medical support to those students with mild difficulties i.e. those with specific learning difficulties – this type of disability is high in the Arts and will have an impact on our current provision provided by our Learning Support Tutor. Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) are expected to consider how they deliver information to students and whether strategies can be put in place to reduce the need for support workers and encourage greater independence and autonomy for their students.
Another change is that all non-medical helpers funded through the DSA will be required to have a recognised qualification.We know this will affect our students on the Autistic Spectrum (ASD). We have an in house ASD tutor funded through DSA who is also a Musician with on the job training and not a recognised qualification. Students on the spectrum need support from a tutor that has knowledge of the course subject for them to understand what the college requires from them and to help with the transition (a new routine can take months to get used to). DSA only fund non course specific tutors so all future ASD students in receipt of DSA will be provided with a mentor/support tutor it is likely they will have no knowledge of Music and this will affect their study unless the College is prepared to fund this support.