Agenda item

[Jin Takhar, Head of EDI and Suki Mattu, Service Lead – HR Policy, to present report]

The Chair invited David Pattison, Chief Operating Officer, and Suki Mattu, Service Lead – HR Policy, to present their reports.

The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that the purpose of presenting the report was to provide an update on work done in relation to the actions taken to deliver the Race Equality Code requirements.

The presentation would also include an update from the Service Lead on actions taken following the report to the panel of the Ethnicity Pay Gap in June 2022.

The Chief Operating Officer commented that the purpose of the report is also to evidence delivery and outcomes following the commitment in the equality and diversity inclusion strategy that was adopted in 2002. The Chief Operating Officer commented the importance of the issue to the Council and that it makes good business sense to meet the needs of diverse communities across Wolverhampton.

 The Council have worked with Dr Karl George MBE to get an external peer assessment of progress against the RACE Code criteria. The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that other local authority members of West Midlands Combined Authority have also completed the equality review.

The Chief Operating Officer outlined the stages of the assessment process and gave a summary of the findings and the strengths identified. 

The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that Wolverhampton have been awarded the Race Code Quality Charter Mark in March 2023.

The Race Action Plan when completed will be incorporated into the Council’s EDI strategy and presented to the panel in June 2023 for comment on progress.

The Chief Operating Officer commented on the statement from Dr Karl George and highlighted a key challenge, while recognising the significant improvement in diversity in terms of promotions, was the lack of diversity at senior management level of the Council. The Chief Operating Officer commented the range of initiatives, for example The Brilliant Leaders programme, which is helping to provide a strong talent pipeline for developing employees within the Council to support them progress to more senior positions.

The panel were invited to comment on the presentation.

The panel thanked the presenter for the presentation.

The panel queried the reasons for recruiting Dr Karl George to undertake the review and the fee paid for the work.

The Chief Operating Officer commented that Dr Karl George was provide an independent assessment about the planned actions were taking the Council in the right direction against the self-assessment criteria and identify if there was anything further that could be done, based on learning elsewhere, to improve the situation. The Chief Operating Officer acknowledged that the Council was in a good place in terms of equalities but highlighted the value of getting an independent assessment and to build on the progress made.

The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that a fee of £8000 was paid to Dr Karl George.

The panel discussed the reasons for the presenting information about pay gap in terms of gender and ethnicity. The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that there is a legal requirement on the Council to publish an annual report detailing the mean and median pay difference for female employees compared male employees. The Council decided to also produce are report on ethnic pay gap difference and work being done to reduce it. The annual gender pay gap difference has reduced to about four per cent and the ethnicity pay gap also narrowed in recent years.

The panel expressed concern about the payment of the fee and the added value of findings and the rational for undertaking the review, when considering the progress made to improve equalities previously reported.

The Chief Operating Officer advised the panel that the fee represents good value for money and the Council has benefited from working with someone with a strong reputation of supporting other local authorities in this area. The Chief Operating Officer added that the assessment report is very detailed and offered to share the information with the panel.

The assessment process provided a challenge to the Council to show that the work it is doing to improve equalities is having a positive impact and that progress is being made to meet the previous policy commitments. The findings are supported by a process of independent external validation and verification of the evidence presented.

The panel commented the importance of having an external review of the Council’s progress towards becoming more inclusive and representative of the communities that it serves. The report findings were welcomed and provide evidence that the Council is making good progress in many areas, while accepting there is more work to be done.

The Chair invited Suki Mattu, Service Lead – HR Policy, to present the ethnicity pay gap section of the presentation.

TheService Lead – HR Policy advised the panel that it when a similar report was presented in 2021 the panel were asked to comment on the findings. The panel feedback was well received at the time and changes were made to the improve the content of the ethnicity pay gap report published in 2022.

The Service Lead – HR Policy commented that the purpose of presenting the latest report is to get further panel feedback on the findings and actions proposed to address areas of concern highlighted in the presentation.

The Service Lead – HR Policy advised the panel that ethnicity pay gap reporting is not a statutory requirement and is part of the Council’s commitment to improve inclusion and tackle inequality in the workplace.

The report going forward will include background information on why the difference in pay is measured between White or White British and minority groups.

The Service Lead – HR Policy advised the panel that use of terms to describe different groups in the report is based on the terminology recommended in the Council’s inclusive language guide. The guide itself is based on the Governments preferred style of writing about ethnic minority groups. The Service Lead – HR commented on further changes to the report made in response to Government guidance, for example, ethnic minorities include white minorities such as Gypsy, Roma, and Irish Traveller groups.

In response to previous comments from the panel the report includes information about other factors which can affect the ethnicity pay gap over which the Council has very limited control.

The report has also been changed to include real time data on the performance of the Council, for example, changes at Grade 10 and above when compared to the City’s population profile. The Service Lead – HR Policy advised the panel that the previous report highlighted there was less ethnic diversity among senior management positions and the data will be used with pay gap information to decide where action is most needed to improve the situation.

The Service Lead – HR Policy outlined the current and future actions planned to support equality of opportunity in the Council.

The Service Lead – HR Policy outlined the timeline for publishing the final ethnicity pay gap report and different groups that will be consulted with over the next few months. The Service Lead – HR Policy offered to present the final report to a future meeting of the panel. The panel were invited to comment on the report.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report.

The panel commented on how an action plan aimed at reducing the ethnicity pay gap, while welcome, can deal with the structural and historical nature of the issues it is trying to overcome, for example, the lack of representation at senior management level in Wolverhampton is similar to that of other local authority areas.

David Pattison, Chief Operating Officer, acknowledged the challenges facing local government sector in improving ethnic representation at senior management level and commented on work done to remove artificial barriers to progression which require experience or qualifications which is some situations is not essential to the role.

The Chief Operating Officer highlighted the success of doubling the number of non-white employees at Grade 9 or above since 2018/2018 in the Council as evidence of progress in responding to the concerns from the panel.

The panel queried the expectation of progress in reducing the ethnicity pay gap in 12 months’ time.

The Service Lead – HR Policy commented that there is an expectation that the pay gap will have reduced in 12 months, while accepting that this may fluctuate and was unlikely to be zero as there are a range of factors that will influence the figure. The overall aim of the plan is to reduce the pay gap to a lower figure as possible.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report.

Resolved:

1.    The panel comments on the ethnicity pay gap report to be noted.

2.    The panel agreed to receive a further report on progress to a future meeting.