Supplementary memorandum submitted by
the CBI
EXAMPLES OF
PRIVATE SECTOR
COMPANIES AND
THEIR CLIENTS
PUTTING EQUALITY
AND DIVERSITY
AT THE
HEART OF
THE PROCUREMENT
PROCESS AND
THROUGHOUT SERVICE
DELIVERY
Interserve and Slough Borough Council
— Engaging with public sector
clients on a range of initiatives to ensure that services delivered
closely reflect the diverse needs of the local population.
— Focusing on understanding the
importance of promoting equality and diversity in the delivery
of back office services but also when employees are interacting
with customers face-to-face.
Interserve currently delivers housing repairs
and maintenance services to Slough Borough Council. Almost 42%
of the population are non-White British (2001 Census). The largest
black and ethnic minority community in Slough is Indian, accounting
for 14% of the population and over 13% of the population identify
their religion as Islam. These proportions are significantly above
the national average.
With 24% black and ethnic minority staff, Interserve's
workforce reflects the diversity of the community with a range
of languages and cultural backgrounds present in the team. The
nature of the work is such that staff need to be able to work
in the community and understand cultural differences and barriers
to communication when repairing or maintaining a property.
Interserve—in partnership with Slough
Borough Council—acknowledges that the services it provides
to customers must take into account equality issues that may arise
in the way in which services are delivered including:
— language barriers in terms of calling
helpdesks and the difficulties some customers may have in effective
communication of their needs/requirements; and
— technology barriers that people may
have in terms of understanding how to use specific types of technology;
— prioritisation of work—to
ensure that work targets are set objectively and do not discriminate
against specific customer types or services;
— treatment of people—particularly
in the front end service delivery areas where employees are interacting
with service users on a daily basis; and
— feedback—both in terms
of complaints, praise and suggestions for service improvement.
Serco and Docklands Light Railway
— Effectively engaging service
users to identify how to improve service delivery to meet a diverse
set of needs.
In partnership with Serco, Docklands Light Railway
(DLR) runs through five distinctly different boroughs comprising
190,000 households, high rates of unemployment and crime, 102
languages spoken in just one borough, and low income families
living in high density housing.
To work in unison with the boroughs and its
residents, Serco Docklands and DLR undertook a research project
to identify the "barriers to using the DLR" in the local
communities it serves. 724 families who are non-users of the DLR
provided 1,600 interviews. These revealed that many residents
felt socially excluded for a number of reasons—all of which
were a combination of physical and psychological barriers. Residents
were asked what would make them use the DLR more. The top six
suggestions were: cheaper fares, security, information about job
opportunities, better walking routes to stations, better station
environment and more information about places to visit.
Serco and DLR sought to address these issues
by:
— putting in place live CCTV on
board trains and introducing patrol officers on the platforms
and in the trains;
— introducing a DLR-only travel
ticket for local residents allowing short, flexible journeys—sales
for this ticket alone represent 45%;
— putting in place DLR Ticket
Vending Machine training—the groups were all made up of
women wanting the training in Bengali and Somali;
— introducing a new cleaning agent;
— investing £1.5 million
to launch a Community Skills and Recruitment centre in conjunction
with the Pecan Community charity; publishing a guide listing free
courses reachable by DLR to help improve local residents' skills
in computing, childcare and languages as identified by a simple
survey to community centres to investigate needs; recruiting passenger
service agents for the London City Airport extension via a local
campaign using press adverts published in Bengali; and
— publishing a Docklands Time-Out
guide.
Accord and a range of public sector authorities
— Partnership approach built around
sharing strategic diversity objectives with the public sector
client.
— Good employment standards, particularly
on diversity and equality, are at the heart of contracting with
public authorities.
— Client and external stakeholder
focus groups allow public sector bodies to understand how best
they can work with their private sector partners to promote equality.
Established in 1999, Accord provides street
cleaning and refuse collection, housing maintenance, highways
and transport, facilities management and consultancy services.
The company employs nearly 4,000 employees—most joined by
transferring under TUPE.
Accord is the first company to have volunteered
for a pilot project with the CRE to identify how the private sector
could voluntarily assume responsibilities to promote equality,
akin to the legal duties increasingly being placed on the public
sector.
This pilot project involves mainstreaming and
promoting equality and diversity in service delivery. By working
together, Accord and its public sector clients have helped each
other to understand the benefits that integrating equality and
diversity in the planning stage can bring to improving service
delivery. This has led to refuse crews helping disabled people
to put out their bins, housing maintenance teams respecting the
cultures of tenants when working in their homes and university
bus drivers helping women to feel more safe during their journey.
Working in partnership has also meant thinking
proactively about how all employees at Accord can help public
sector partners fulfil their duties by:
— nominating diversity champions
across the company, from the management board to each local business
unit, to sit on a diversity working group;
— conducting an employee survey
on matters ranging from workforce composition data to family-friendly
working practice. Specially selected diversity champions encouraged
participation by all staff and participants were entered into
a prize draw with a first prize of £1,000;
— establishing employee focus
groups to understand and influence what happens on the ground;
and
— establishing client and external
stakeholder focus groups to explore the range of practical steps
that could be taken and challenge all partners to implement.
May 2007
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