Race Equality and Diversity Task Force

Private Sector

PROJECT BRIEFING PAPER

The Institute for Public Policy Research is a charity established in 1988 to contribute to public understanding of social, economic and political questions through research, discussion and publication. Its research agenda reflects the challenges facing Britain and it has a long record of involvement in equality and diversity issues, and in issues on the business agenda.

This briefing sets out information about ippr’s Race Equality and Diversity Task Force in terms of:

  • Purpose
  • Background
  • Membership
  • Methodology
  • Outputs and dissemination

PURPOSE

The aim of ippr’s Race Equality and Diversity Task Force is to examine, report on and recommend possible innovative, workable and cost-effective policy options to deliver improvements to ethnic minorities’ participation and attainment in the UK labour market, which also benefit the productivity and competitiveness of business and the economy.

The Task Force will be employer-led and will be supported by a project secretariat (Project Manager and Research Assistant) based at ippr.

The Task Force will draw on current best practice within the private sector, reflected in and through its membership, to inform government ministers and policy makers, academics and the wider policy community.

The Task Force will make a unique contribution to the debate because:

  • It will complement “good practice” initiatives such as Race for Opportunity, by focusing on the public policy framework which fosters good practice;
  • It will build on the work of the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, which has recently reported on the position of ethnic minorities in the wider labour market, by focusing specifically on initiatives for the private sector;
  • It will capitalise on ippr’s extensive network of policy makers and political leaders with responsibility for this field, and its experience of informing and influencing the policy agenda.

BACKGROUND

Race equality in employment is moving up the business and political agenda for a number of reasons:

  • Demographic trends indicate that more than half of the growth in the UK’s working population over the next decade will be within ethnic minority communities. Recruitment, retention and career advancement of ethnic minorities will therefore be increasingly important for employers;
  • There is widespread recognition that a commitment to social justice demands that people should not be disadvantaged by their ethnic background. However, it is clear that some ethnic minority communities continue to experience higher levels of poverty and exclusion. The reasons for this are complex, but the difficulties faced by some people in accessing employment and in progressing within the workplace are central concerns;
  • As part of its drive to achieve full employment the government has committed itself to a specific target to increase ethnic minority employment rates and reduce the difference between their employment rates and the overall rate. As part of its aspiration to build an enterprise society the government also wants to achieve more enterprise in disadvantaged communities. Clearly engaging the business community will be critical in achieving both of these objectives;
  • Firms are themselves increasingly recognising the business benefits of fostering a diverse workforce, within the context of a growing share of the UK's working population coming from an ethnic minority background. They see the need to provide opportunities to attract the best talent and meet the needs of new markets.

Many private sector leaders are already achieving impressive race equality outcomes, having developed and implemented innovative responses and initiatives to meet these priorities. There is a consensus, however, that good practice is not widely adopted, and that the current framework of guidance, incentives and regulation has not led to the level of progress that is needed. There is no suggestion that a heavy regulatory approach would be appropriate, but the task Force will explore constructive alternatives.

For government the challenge is to know:

  • What constitutes best practice;
  • What elements of best practice are transferable across different business sectors and sizes;
  • What are the most constructive steps that the government itself can take to facilitate that transfer, working in partnership with business to ensure wider take up of the race equality agenda in the private sector.

Ippr’s Task Force draws on the expertise and ideas of business leaders in order to inform government and business thinking in this area.

MEMBERSHIP

Peter Ellwood, CBE, Group Chief Executive of Lloyds TSB will chair the Chief Executives Forum, which will guide and sign off the work of the Task Force Practitioner Group. Both groups are made up of representatives (senior executives and specialists) of large, medium and small companies, including many household names.

The following private sector firms are currently represented on the Task Force:

B&Q PLC, Barclays, BT PLC, Ford, Innogy PLC, IXL Laundry Group Ltd, KPMG, Lime Hill Consultancy, Metdist, Northern Foods PLC, Madi Group, Prudential Corporation PLC, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Reed Executive PLC and J. Sainsbury’s.

Race for Opportunity will have an active involvement in the work of the Task Force.

METHODOLOGY

The aim of the Task Force is to identify policy proposals that can be put to government, and disseminated to business, with demonstrable support from representative private sector employers. It is vital therefore that that the methodological framework provides Task Force members with a central role in identifying the key issues which the work will address and an opportunity for in-depth discussion on the issues examined in the commissioned papers and wider research findings. Commissioned papers will be circulated to promote wider debate during the course of the project. The Task Force Secretariatbased at ippr will produce a final report for the project, which draws on the evidence and expertise of those involved and reflects the considered views of Task Force members.

The specific aims of the Task Force, as reflected in its Terms of Reference, are:

  • To set out the current position on ethnic minority participation and attainment in UK private sector;
  • To identify examples of best practice in the private sector and understand the reasons for their success;
  • To evaluate the limitations of existing legislation and public policy initiatives;
  • To determine what further steps the private sector and government should take to harness the skills and experience of people from minority ethnic communities.

A range of methods will be used to identify effective mechanisms for facilitating good practice within the private sector. These will include:

  • The production of background papers by the Tack Force secretariat which will provide information on the current position in relation to race equality and diversity within private sector employment and set past and current developments and initiatives within an international context;
  • A series of commissioned papers by academic and practitioner experts in the field on the key issues on which public policy could contribute to progress;
  • A call for evidence from relevant individuals and organisations with an interest and expertise in this area;

The work of the Task Force was launched at Downing Street on 23rd January 2003 and will run for the course of the year, with the last three months devoted principally to consolidation and finalisation of outputs and their dissemination.

OUTPUTS AND DISSEMINATION

The principal outputs of the Race Equality and Diversity Task Force will be:

  • A final report, with executive summary, setting out the analysis and recommendations;
  • A short accessible document aimed specifically at employers, with emphasis on how to implement good practice and including examples;
  • A series of in-depth papers addressing specific issues in more detail (based on the commissioned papers and outputs of in-house research).

The Task Force Secretariat will have the responsibility of coordinating the work of the Task Force and for drafting the final report for the Task Force’s approval. The secretariat will organise the event at which the final report is launched, and actively promote its dissemination with Task Force members to those key organisations and individuals in a position to take forward its recommendations, including business leaders and government policy makers. Meetings will be sought with the relevant Ministers in the DWP, DfES, DTI, Cabinet Office and Home Office. There will be a strong emphasis on dissemination within the private sector itself.

SUCCESS

At the completion of this project, the Task Force will have:

  • A better understanding of what works and what doesn’t work in promoting diversity and race equality in the private sector, and why it is beneficial to business to promote and address race equality and diversity issues;
  • Helped to build a business led consensus on the most constructive role for business and government in promoting private sector initiatives to secure race equality in employment;
  • Engaged the relevant political leaders and policy makers in government in the developing analysis;
  • Produced a report based - on what works and doesn’t work – that will assist employers to be successful both in promoting race equality and profitable businesses;
  • Agreed a set of recommendations that will enable government to support and encourage more private sector firms to promote race equality in employment;
  • Identified a series of innovative, workable and well supported proposals for policy reform;
  • Disseminated those ideas effectively to Ministers and officials, to business leaders and their representative bodies, and to opinion formers and other stakeholders.

CONTACTS

For more information on the Task Force please contact Veena Vasista (Senior Research Fellow, ippr) or Dharmina Shah (Research Assistant, ippr) on 020 7470 6128 /

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