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Government Equalities Office - Autumn Performance Report
Thank you for your letter of 26 February seeking clarity on a number of issues relating to the GEO's 2009 Autumn Performance Report. I am pleased to provide the Committee with the information shown at Annex A.
I would be very happy to discuss any further queries the Committee might have.
Yours sincerely
Jonathan Rees 23 March 2010 Annex A
Departmental Strategic Objectives The notes to DSO 1.2 (Empowering women) suggest cross-government targets on gender, ethnicity, and disability for new appointments have been set. By March, 2011, 50% of new Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments regulated appointees will be women, 14% will be disabled, and 11% from an ethnic minority background. What are the present figures for new appointments for these groups?
Since the Government set these targets, GEO and Cabinet Office have for the first time set up a system to collect data every six months. This will enable us to monitor progress and take action as necessary. In relation to new OCPA regulated appointments, the most recent figures available are therefore for the six month period April-September 2009. In this period, there were 776 new appointments made of which: · 33.8% were women; · 8.2% were people from an ethnic minority; and, · 3.7% were disabled people.
The notes to DSO 1.3A (Tackling violence against women) state 20 Rape Crisis Centres and 40 sexual violence voluntary sector organisation remained open due to funding from the GEO. How much do these centres cost to run? All the organisations supported by the Special Funds in 08/09 and 09/10 are independent charities of varying size. Government Equalities Office does not collate data on how much they cost to run, but is pleased that since GEO provided funding nearly all centres which applied for support have remained open. GEO has been informed of the closure of one charity which received an award in 09/10 but this closure was apparently not due to lack of funding. An evaluation of the two Special Funds has been commissioned and will report later this year.
One element of DSO 1.3A (Tackling violence
against women) is to decrease the number of adverts for sexual services from
women in regional newspapers. Yet in The
follow-up snapshot research which GEO commissioned in 2009 shows that overall, across all the
English regions, there was approximately an 80% decrease in advertising in
local and regional newspapers which referred to women's national or ethnic backgrounds. In However, the snapshot did show an increase of approximately 102% in the number of personal classified advertisements which referred to women and services supplied by women in the London sample between the two assessments in 2007 and 2009. A like-for-like sample, comparing exactly the same titles in 2007 and 2009 (irrespective of substitutions) showed a smaller, but still worrying, increase of 79%. This is obviously a disappointing outcome, especially in the light of the independent research by Eaves Housing, which suggested that personal classified advertisements in local London newspapers (for example advertising escorting and massage services, which are of course legal activities) were in some cases a façade for advertising prostitution (Big Brothel, 2008 - this research was carried out before the Newspaper Society changed its guidance to reflect concerns about trafficking). GEO has shared these
findings with the Newspaper Society. We will continue to monitor this situation
and initiate further discussions with interested parties, including the
newspaper society, in order to tackle any particular developments in
The notes to DSO 1.3A (Tackling violence against women) also state key areas have been identified in relation to cash, commissioning, and capacity to prevent violence against women. What are these key areas? In short the key areas identified under each heading are: · CASH - ensuring a more streamlined process for the delivery of central Government funding for this part of the voluntary sector. We will seek, wherever possible to streamline funding processes and honour the Government's Compact with the third sector by committing to stable funding arrangements with specialist NGOs operating in the VAWG area. As a first step in this process for 2010/11 the Victims Fund and the GEO Special Fund have been combined, creating a single pot of £2.25M that will be administered by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform; · COMMISSIONING - looking at how this should be Compact and equality duty compliant. Home Office have recently consulted on draft guidance for commissioners on the best methods of achieving the right mix of services for women in their areas affected by VAWG; and, · CAPACITY - ensuring that the Government's capacity
building work for third sector incorporates the violence against women sector.
The GEO and Office of the Third Sector are committed to working together on
this issue. GEO awarded grants to Rape Crisis This approach to working with the third sector is reflected in the Government's Violence Against Women Strategy, Together We Can End Violence Against Women & Girls, published last November.
DSO 2.2 (Devising and using a framework for measuring progress towards a more equal society) states autonomy indicators would be developed by December, 2009. Have the indicators been developed, and if so what are they? Yes. The domains, indicators and specific measures that will initially be used for the Equality Measurement Framework are set out in the LSE report at:
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/fairer-britain/equality-measurement-framework
PSA 15 PSA Indicator 15.3 (Address inequalities in civic participation) is ongoing. While the gap for disabled people has narrowed, the gap for BME and young people has increased slightly. Why has the participation gap for BME and young people increased? What is being done to get the indicator on track? The latest data from the Citizenship Survey for April to September 2009 showed a small increase in the gap for BME, a decrease in the gap for young people and a statistically significant decrease in the gap for disabled people. We do not know why the participation gap has increased but it is worth noting that participation across all sectors of society has reduced. The Department of Communities and Local Government, which leads on this indicator, undertook an impact assessment evaluating the effectiveness of the programmes in autumn 2009. This assessment prioritised the actions that were identified as high impact and most likely to influence the indicator. These are reflected in the PSA 15 Delivery Plans (Updated in October 2009) which are published on the GEO website: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/13736%20GEO%20Equality%20Plan%201st.pdf Since then CLG has published Tackling Race Inequality Strategy on 14 January 2010. This discusses the importance of increasing civic participation amongst minority ethnic groups and sets out work underway in CLG to promote this. The strategy also sets race equality in the context of the wider equalities agenda and why it is important Below are the key programmes and initiatives in place to help tackle specifically the gap for BME: · Support a Take Part local pathfinder programme, offering information and training on how to be an active citizen · Youth · Local Involvement Networks will encourage a more diverse range of people to influence the provision of health and Social Care · An extensive work programme to promote diversity in public appointments · .Tackling Race Inequalities Fund (TRIF) i. included theme - Increasing levels of civic participation. ii. Grants allocated in July 2009 till end March 2011 iii. 12 projects have civic participation as an objective. · Primary TRIF projects: Black Environment Network, Council for Ethnic Minority Communities (CEMC) Northamptonshire; Friends, Families and Travellers; Minority Ethnic Network Eastern region (MENTER); North of England Refugee Service; Operation Black Vote (OBV); Olmec; The Interlink Foundation.
PSA Indicator 15.4 (Tackle discrimination in employment) shows no progress. The gap between advantaged and disadvantaged groups who feel they have been discriminated at work remains the same at 3.2%. The notes to this indicator state that as this is a perception based indicator, progress is more likely to be seen over a longer term. Why has there been no progress on this indicator? When are we likely to see positive change? The Government has set in hand a number of programmes to tackle discrimination at work. Some recent key ones include: · A sustained campaign to improve awareness and enforcement of employment rights amongst vulnerable workers · EHRC's actions to help individuals and businesses understand and comply with equality law through production of accessible and high quality guidance on the Equality Act. · Working to ensure equality plays an appropriate role in the area of procurement, helping to prepare public bodies to fulfil the new specific duties on them to use public sector procurement power to influence greater diversity in the work place · The Ethnic Minority Taskforce which aims to reduce the ethnic minority employment gap
The Government believes these programmes will have a real impact in reducing discrimination at work. However perceptions of discrimination may take longer to shift .Research also shows that when awareness of discrimination is raised then the perception levels of discrimination also initially increase.
PSA Indicator 15.5 (Understand and address unfair treatment) is ongoing. Latest data show an increased gap from 0.2 to 0.6%, and the notes to the indicator state evidence from other sources shows that people do not feel that they are treated fairly by public services. To which public services does this refer? How are the GEO working with other departments to promote fair treatment? The question in the Citizenship Survey refers to the following public services; work, school or college, public transport and health services. GEO is working with the following government departments and the EHRC to promote fair treatment in public services with programmes that include: Department for Transport (DFT) · DfT commissioned Goskills to develop appropriate accredited training packages for travel trainers and interested groups. This will allow consistency throughout the country. Department of Health (DH) · The Dignity and Care Campaign where in 2008/9 patients who said they were always treated with dignity and respect whilst in hospital has increased from 78% to 79%. Although small this is a statistically significant increase. · The creation of a new National Health Service Equality and Diversity Council was announced on 3 August 2009. Reporting to the NHS Management Board, the Council will champion and lead improvement in equality and diversity within the NHS and campaign for change. · A national review report on age discrimination in health and social care services was published by Department of Health in October 09
Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) · Enforcement of the positive duties on the public sector to promote equality in relation to disability, race and gender. EHRC has published comprehensive guidance for all public bodies on how to conduct equality impact assessments
Government Equalities Office (GEO)
· The Equality Bill before Parliament provides for a new single public sector equality duty which will strengthen the way public bodies deliver on equality. This duty will require all public bodies to consider the needs of diverse groups in the community when designing and delivering services. · Due to the complex nature of perception based indicators; GEO commissioned a research programme to gain a greater understanding on perceptions of unfair treatment and to improve the quality of the data collection. This report was published on 18 March 2010. Although evidence from the Citizenship Survey suggests that the vast majority of people feel they are treated with dignity and respect most or all of the time, and there are no significant differences between groups, evidence from a range of other sources, including surveys[1] conducted by individual Government departments, suggests that particular groups of people do report more unfair treatment. This research project was commissioned to improve our understanding of unfair treatment and how it is perceived. The project sought to find ways of improving the data collection process and as a consequence raise the quality of the evidence on unfair treatment.
Efficiency savings What targets have been set internally in regard to efficiency and value for money? The Government Equalities Office has an efficiency saving built into its administration budget of 3.5%, and an informal internal comparison of our efficiency against indicators set out in the 'Smarter Government - Putting the Frontline First' White Papers shows GEO to be doing well against the mean for all departments.
This year's EHRC budget is 11% smaller than it was 2008-09. How much does this year's capital budget for the EHRC compare with last year's spending? The latest EHRC estimate of capital expenditure for 2008-9 is £1.8m. Considering that there are still start up costs associated with 2008-9 we would expect the requirements for 2009-10 to be less.
Staffing In a written response, the GEO told the Committee that staff numbers have increased from 97 to 106 as a result of the Department taking on new work on the Equality Bill, National Equality Panel, and the Stern Review. What do the Department plan to do with these extra staff when these one-off tasks are concluded?
GEO was set up as a cross-cutting Department to promote equality. Its work is therefore inevitably in part project based with new programmes and projects succeeding each other depending on Ministerial priorities and where we can make a difference. A good recent example is the work GEO initiated in September 2009 with MOD on improving conditions for service families which led to an action plan published earlier this month. We are currently reviewing our priorities and organisation as part of our Business planning process for 2010/11. Where new work is required for example on implementation of the Equality Act or to pursue Ministerial priorities, we shall move staff across from existing teams. If staff are no longer required we will take normal workforce management action, including redeployment to other parts of the Civil Service.
[1] Key sources with respect to public transport are: the Citizenship Survey (CS); the Scottish Social Attitudes (SSA) survey; the National Travel Survey; and, Experiences and Perceptions of Anti-Social Behaviour whilst Using Public Transport. Key sources with respect to health services are: the CS; Northern Ireland Life and Times (NILT); the European Social Survey; and, the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA). Key sources with respect to education are: the CS; NILT; the BSA. Key sources with respect to the criminal justice system are: the CS; NILT; BSA; and, the Community Attitudes Survey. Key sources with respect to other services are: the CS; NILT; BSA; SSA; Welsh Perception Survey; and, World Values Survey.
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