3 Diversity at the FCO
48. The FCO launched its first ever strategy on diversity,
entitled 'Fairness for All', in November 2008.[79]
The strategy was based on four key themes that were designed to
drive the mainstreaming of equality and diversity further into
every aspect of FCO business. The key themes were:
· To create a more inclusive FCO culture;
· To provide stronger leadership and accountability;
· To bring in and bring up diverse talent,
based on merit; and
· To better represent the communities it
serves.[80]
This section of the report considers the last of
these four themes in detail.
49. As part of the FCO's drive to be more representative
of the community, the Department set targets in 2008 to increase
the proportion of women, black and ethnic minority and disabled
staff in senior management. The targets were:
· 28 per cent of FCO senior management to
be women;
· Five per cent of senior management to
be people from minority ethnic backgrounds; and
· Five per cent of FCO senior management
to be disabled people.
The aim was to achieve these targets by April 2013;[81]
but, in the event, all were missed, and at the time of writing
this Report, the FCO had still not met any of them.
Table 4: 'Fairness for All' Diversity Targets
Diversity targets for senior management (SMS grades)
|
Group | Target
| November 2008 (baseline)
| December 2013 (last reported)
|
Women | 28%
| 20.1%
| 25.4%
|
Black and ethnic minority staff
| 5% |
3.9% | 4.4%
|
Staff with disabilities
| 5% |
2.2% | Not reported*
|
*December 2013 figure for staff in senior management grades with disabilities not reported due to low response rate
|
Source: NAO Departmental Overview 2013-14
We focus in this report on representation of women
in senior management in the FCO.
Missed targets
50. The FCO senior management structure is made up
of four grades: SMS 1, SMS 2, SMS 3 and SMS 4. The table below,
which is reproduced from the FCO's written evidence, shows the
number of women in each senior management grade for the last six
years:[82]
Table 5: The Number of FCO UK Based SMS (Senior
Civil Service) female staff, 2008 to 2014 (headcount)
Grade | 2009
| 2010
| 2011
| 2012
| 2013
| 2014
|
SMS 1 | 62
| 61 |
66 | 69
| 75 |
82 |
SMS 2 | 14
| 15 |
13 | 17
| 16 |
18 |
SMS 3 | 3
| 3 |
3 | 3
| 4 |
6 |
SMS 4 | 0
| 0 |
0 | 0
| 0 |
0 |
Total | 79
| 79
| 82
| 89
| 95
| 106
|
Source: Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Dates are
as 31 March 2014)
The number of female senior managers has increased
by 34 per cent in the past six years, from 79 in March 2009 to
106 in March 2014. The most noticeable rise took place in the
most recent financial year, when 11 women had either been promoted
from lower ranks of the FCO or brought in from outside into the
SMS grades. Despite this progress, the proportion of women in
senior management in March 2014 was 26.2 per cent
and still below the 'Fairness for All' representation target of
28 per cent.[83]
51. The Civil Service published a diversity strategy
in July 2008, in which it set targets to increase the representation
of women in senior management. The targets were:
i) 34 per cent of staff in top management posts
to be women;[84] and
ii) 39 per cent of the Senior Civil Service (SCS)
to be women.
The FCO has opted not to benchmark its performance
against either of the Civil Service targets. It has not tracked
progress against the first objective at all; and on the second
target, the FCO set its mark 11 per cent lower than the Civil
Service milestone. The FCO does not compare favourably with some
of its Whitehall partners, most notably DFID. Not only did DFID
achieve the 39 per cent target for women in the Senior Civil Service;
it tracked, monitored and exceeded the other target on women in
top management posts. 42 per cent of DFID directors were women
in December 2013.[85]
52. FCO performance in promoting women to the very
top posts has been disappointing. Only 19 per cent of the top
two senior management posts are occupied by women. Only 6 out
of the 29 positions in SMS 3 are held by women, and in the highest
and best-rewarded branch of the diplomatic tree (SMS 4), there
were no women (out of a possible three positions).[86]
In the history of the FCO, no woman has ever held a post at the
highest grade (SMS 4). There are a number of 'glittering posts'
in which there has never been a woman head of mission: Washington,
Paris, Tokyo, New Delhi, Permanent Representative at the UN in
New York and Permanent Representative at the EU in Brussels;[87]
and no woman since at least 1984 has been Ambassador in Rome,
Bonn/Berlin, or Ottawa.[88]
Out of 125 people appointed to Head of Mission posts in 14 BRIC
or emerging market countries between 1984 and February 2014, just
nine were women.[89]
The list of women appointed comparatively recently to high-profile
posts includes Dame Mariot Leslie, the UK's Permanent Representative
to the North Atlantic Council since April 2010, Dame Nicola Brewer,
High Commissioner in South Africa from 2009 to 2013, Dame Anne
Pringle, Ambassador in Moscow from 2008 to 2011, and Barbara Woodward,
appointed as Ambassador in Beijing in August 2014.
Addressing barriers
53. FCO officials told us that it was "regrettable"
that the 'Fairness for All' targets had been missed, and they
acknowledged that it had "some catching up to do".[90]
The FCO identified a number of key barriers that were still preventing
the progress of women:
· Difficulty maintaining a work-life balance
in senior roles;
· Reconciling work with caring responsibilities;
· The difficulties of partners finding employment
when accompanying their diplomatic spouses overseas; and
· Self-confidence.[91]
Deborah Bronnert, the new Chief Operating Officer
at the FCO, told us that there was still a misconception across
the Office that women did not see themselves in an ambassadorial
role and that it was still perceived as a role for a man.[92]
Some of these problems, particularly ones related to confidence,
still appear to be linked to historic policies of discrimination,
such as the marriage bar.[93]
Although it was lifted in 1972, Ms Bronnert told us that it still
casts a long shadow over the FCO.[94]
54. We were given assurances that that the FCO was
working hard to remove the remaining barriers blocking the progress
of women. In its written submission, the FCO outlined its "radical
policies" for improving diversity.[95]
These included:
i) Extending tour lengths for disabled staff
beyond five years;
ii) Using diversity factors as a legitimate consideration
in appointment decisions; and
iii) Allowing interview panels to be composed
of staff at different levels, including more junior staff members.
In addition to these "radical" policies,
the FCO said that it would run communication campaigns to encourage
talented people from under-represented groups to consider a career
in the FCO; run targeted coaching and mentoring schemes to help
support the advancement of existing staff from underrepresented
groups; make diversity and inclusion a key focus in the Leadership
Conference sessions for senior staff; and encourage staff to complete
unconscious bias training.[96]
55. We questioned whether any of these policies were
as "radical" as the Department had claimed. It appeared
to us that many of these ideas had been discussed and implemented
by many different organisations for many years. Sir Simon, in
response to this assertion, told us that the "absolute principle
of appointments has to be
the best person for the job".
He categorically ruled out the possibility of "positive discrimination
in terms of actual appointments".[97]
It is not clear to us therefore what is meant by the FCO in its
policy of using "diversity factors as a legitimate consideration
in appointment decisions".[98]
We recommend that the FCO, in its response to this Report,
explains how it plans to use diversity factors as a "legitimate
consideration in appointment decisions", if it has ruled
out the use of positive discrimination.
More positive signs
56. The FCO has argued that it has built good foundations
for improvement in the past few years, and it appears to be confident
that it is heading in the right direction. Sir Simon Fraser told
us that the "single biggest and most important achievement"
was the shift in culture of the organisation, and that diversity
had been taken away from being something that is purely seen in
terms of numbers and targets into something that the FCO genuinely
understands is in the interests of efficiency and high performance.[99]
This has become "well-entrenched" and would "drive
real change" in the future.[100]
57. We have also seen signs that the FCO is willing
to experiment: Jonathan Aves and Katherine Leach have been job-sharing
the role of Ambassador to Armenia since 2012, on a four month
on/off format.[101]
Ms Bronnert told us that the Department encouraged job-sharing
and indicated that there were other examples of this happening
in the Department, including job shares at senior levels of the
FCO. Ms Bronnert claimed that perhaps in this area, the FCO had
been radical after all.[102]
58. There have been signs of positive change on increasing
representation at some of the key decision-making functions of
the FCO: five out the 11 members of the FCO Management Board are
women; and on the Senior Appointments Board, which makes recommendations
for all ambassadorial appointments, there are four women and three
men.[103]
New targets
59. The FCO has set new diversity targets for its
under-represented groups, including an aim to have 39 per cent
of senior management to be women by 2019.[104]
The FCO Board has also set a new target to have 24 additional
female Heads of Mission overseas by 2017, from its baseline of
39 female Heads of Mission in 2013 to 63 in 2017.[105]
60. These targets are challenging. On the assumption
that the number of senior managers at the FCO remains at the current
level of 404, the FCO would have to promote 52 more women
into senior management, either from the lower ranks of the FCO
or directly from outside in the next five years. We note that:
· Talented women in junior ranks would have
to be retained in order to build a corps suitable for promotion
into senior management;
· A low churn rate of senior managers would
place additional pressure in meeting the target. With less staff
turnover, fewer positions would become available for women to
occupy; and
· If staff turnover remains at current levels,
on average 12 vacancies would become available each year. Even
if none of the people at SMS grades leaving the Department between
now and 2019 were women, the FCO would need to appoint 10 or 11
women each year into the vacant positions that become available,
in order to meet its target. On that basis, the FCO would have
to appoint, on average, 86 per cent female candidates into these
positions each year.
61. Persistent under-achievement on diversity
targets has the potential to drain morale and risks damaging the
reputation of the FCO as an employer and service provider. The
problems do not appear to reflect institutional barriers but rather
a lack of confidence among women that they have the same opportunities
for career development and advancement as their male colleagues.
We would expect the measures already in hand to have an effect,
if not an immediate one; and we endorse the principle that the
FCO should continue to make appointments on the basis of best
person for the job. The FCO will, however, need to continue to
demonstrate that cultural change is under way, if women in the
FCO are to feel confident that they can make it to the top of
the organisation.
79 "The FCO's Inclusion & Diversity Strategy
2008-13: Fairness for All Strategy", November 2008, www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/11859/FCO_DI_2008-13_FINAL_Jan09_doc.pdf
Back
80
Ibid Back
81
Ibid Back
82
FCO written evidence, answer to written question 2 Back
83
As at 31 March 2014, there were 404 people in FCO senior management.
See FCO Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14, page 44 Back
84
Top management posts were defined as Director and above Back
85
"DFID Diversity and Inclusion - Annual Report 2013-14",
DFID, page 19, www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/339639/Diversity-Inclusion-Annual-report-2013-2014a.pdf Back
86
FCO written evidence, answer to written question 2 and FCO Annual
Report and Accounts 2013-14, page 46 Back
87
"Review: The slow progress of women in the diplomatic
service" by Dame Nicola Brewer, The World Today - Chatham
House, June and July 2014, page 48-49 Back
88
HL Deb, 24 February 2014, col WA 170 Back
89
BRIC/emerging market countries: China, Russia, India, Indonesia,
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Nigeria,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Turkey. Back
90
Q 19 and 20 Back
91
FCO supplementary written evidence, answer to written question
5 Back
92
Q 20 Back
93
Up until 1972, the FCO required female staff to resign from the
Diplomatic Service if they became engaged to be married. Back
94
Q 20 Back
95
FCO written evidence, answer to written question 3 Back
96
FCO supplementary written evidence, answer to written question
4 Back
97
Q 23 Back
98
FCO written evidence, answer to written question 3 Back
99
Q 23 Back
100
Ibid Back
101
"British Ambassador to Armenia", Gov.uk website, www.gov.uk/government/people/james-aves Back
102
Q 23 Back
103
Q 21 Back
104
Q 19 Back
105
"2014 Diversity and Equality Report", FCO, page
4, www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306569/FCO_Diversity_and_Equality_Report_2014_-_FINAL__25_April_2014__for_publi___.pdf Back
|