Last year, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (CRED) concluded that Britain had made major advances in narrowing racial inequalities. It found that, although “impediments and disparities do exist, they are varied, and ironically very few of them are directly to do with racism”, as opposed to class and family background. The report set out 24 recommendations to forward four overarching aims:
(i) to build trust between different communities and the institutions that serve them,
(ii) to promote greater fairness to improve opportunities and outcomes for individuals and communities,
(iii) to create agency so individuals can take greater control of the decisions that impact their lives, and
(iv) to achieve genuine inclusivity to ensure all groups feel a part of UK society.
A year later, on 17 March 2022, the government published its “Inclusive Britain” response to CRED’s report which sets out 74 steps that ministers will take such as: scrutinising the use of police stop and search powers; reducing the number of young Black men sent to prison for drug offences; creating a body to measure racial health disparities; and revamping the history curriculum.
We welcome many of the report’s recommendations, but these do not go far enough. In many, there is no specific mention of the term racism. In fact, there is a clear effort to defend statistics, undermine the work of racial justice organisations, and put forward any explanation other than race, explanations which are often placed on geography and poverty, i.e., class. And of course its linked to class, but class and race are inextricably linked. While we agree with the government's concern that the Levelling Up programme can only succeed if race equality is integral to every Levelling Up policy and programme, admitting that these disparities exist because of inequities in the systems set up to benefit a relative few is central to that.
The CRED report was criticised for failing to acknowledge systemic racism in the UK, and although Inclusive Britain now accepts that racism exists, it goes out of its way to note that inequality in society should not be “seen solely through the prism of ethnic minority disadvantage”. Inclusive Britain states that White people from deprived backgrounds “continue to be left behind by society”. There is a clear effort to say that White people experience these issues too - which of course they do! The point is that they do not experience this becausethey are white.
Consider the case of “a grotesquely inappropriate strip search” carried out by police on a 15-year-old black girl in East London. She was intimately searched by officers, without parental consent or the presence of a teacher, because she allegedly smelt of cannabis. An official investigation found that racism was likely to have been an “influencing factor” in her treatment. The case is a reminder that people from Black and Minoritised communities are treated differently by institutions in the UK, of which there is mounting evidence.
Instead of pledging to address the issues highlighted by the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic in a meaningful way, the Government continues to downplay the challenges and barriers faced by Black and Minoritised groups. By failing to acknowledge this disparity, the Inclusive Britain report has missed a chance to expose how racism operates in organisations and institutions in the UK and while we do not necessarily disagree in principle on many of the measures it proposes, it provides very little discussion of funding to reduce these inequalities, or indeed to ‘level up’. It talks about, for example, tackling bias and ensuring fairness in the workplace by creating an ‘Inclusion at Work Panel’ to develop and disseminate effective resources to help employers drive fairness across organisations (although, again, this is notably not limited to race and ethnicity). But there is no discussion of targeted support for Black and Minoritised-led Organisations and Businesses or to invest in a targeted programme of support across all Black and Minoritised sectors that provides advice and support in applying for financial assistance from the available schemes. There is no discussion of funding and investment to contribute to economic recovery by creating an inclusive matrix of support, including grants, wage subsidy and micro-loans, for those small Black and Minoritised-led charities and voluntary organisations, start-ups and new businesses that fall out of the current eligibility criteria and definitions for public sector loans and social investment.
Key points:
1. The government will not be legislating for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting. Instead, the department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy will publish guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay gap reporting this summer. Those companies that choose to voluntarily report should include a diagnosis and action plan, setting out the reasons for and steps to address the disparities.
It is disappointing the Government has chosen to produce only guidance on ethnicity pay gap for employers as this will not change the embedded biases of employers, particularly as these pay gaps are only set to increase due to the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Black and Minoritised people.
Employment equity and wealth creation/stability is central to driving change. A labour market that ensures equitable opportunities, representation, career-focused education and wealth creation for Black and Minoritised workers will support the creation of leaders who are inclusive, competent, effective and supportive. Equally, a career-focused education, partnerships with local businesses and educational facilities to equip Black and Minoritised youth with skills and role models are key to creating leadership that is inclusive, competent, accountable whilst embedded in equity and justice. More broadly, employment equity and wealth creation create the economic circumstances for parents to support children in the pursuit of education as well as for further educational development.
2. Employers will be encouraged to use specific ethnic groups (using the categories set out in the ONS census) rather than broader categories when publishing their data. The government has stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in its own communications and will encourage other public sector bodies to do the same. Where a binary distinction must be made, the government will use the term ‘people from ethnic minority backgrounds’ instead.
We do not believe the term ‘ethnic minority’ provides any better nuance and recommend that report writers use ‘Black and Minoritised communities’, ‘Black and/or Asian heritage communities’ or more specific terms. In saying that, while we do believe that language is important (we have written on this topic before), terminology should not be used as a distraction to divert attention away from taking effective action. We want to see Government and organisations take effective action in the right areas to end race disparities in their areas of work.
3. The EHRC has launched a landmark new fund that will see up to £250,000 to help victims act against organisations which may have broken equality law. The fund will also support legal practitioners resolve complaints of race discrimination and help employers understand their responsibilities and what the consequences are for breach.
A Bristol-based organisation, SARI, had 350 hate crime cases between April 2021 and March 2022 across Bristol, BANES, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset. We highlight this only to show that an annual budget of £250,000 to help victims of organisations who have broken equality law is only scratching the surface of the issue.
4. The Model History Curriculum will support high-quality teaching and help teachers and schools to develop their own school curriculum fully using the flexibility and freedom of the history national curriculum and the breadth and depth of content it includes. The development of model knowledge-rich curriculums continues the path of reform the government started in 2010. The DfE will work with history curriculum experts, historians, and school leaders to develop a Model History curriculum by 2024.
This is welcomed but there is a distinct lack of funding to bring about the urgent reforms needed in an anti-racist education. Financial investment would most definitely demonstrate a drive and commitment to see an Inclusive Britain. Systemic racism remains prevalent and is experienced by diverse ethnic communities in every school. To actively advance anti-racism and to address inequalities in education, we cannot wait two years for just the subject of history to be reviewed.
5. The Home Office, with policing partners including Police and Crime Commissioners, will develop by summer 2023 a new, national framework for how the use of police powers – including stop and search and use of force – are scrutinised at
a local level.
We welcome the new policies to reduce the disproportionate numbers of Black men in the criminal justice system. However, we need police services to end their misuse of stop and search powers and focus on building trust and confidence among Black communities. The new framework must work to integrate the feedback and concerns of Black and Minoritised communities seriously and with sensitivity. The police do need to be more accountable to their local communities, but resources must be available to enable local Black leaders and groups to engage in these processes.
We were also disappointed to see the reiteration of the Commission’s finding that the lack of confidence appeared to stem from the types of experiences and the intergenerational memory that members of the Black Caribbean group have of the unfair and excessive policing that took place in the past. Excessive policing is not a historical fact, this continues to occur and is evidenced by the government’s own statistics which highlights the disproportionality in levels of stop and search, arrests, and so on. The disparities are the result of a long history of systemic racism which targets Black and Minoritised people, seeing them as the criminals. Black and Minoritised British people are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs for example than white British people, but they are made criminals at higher rates for that same conduct.
There are structural problems in terms of race and policing at every level of our criminal justice system – from who gets stopped and searched, to who gets arrested, charged, and convicted. These are all some of the factors which impact upon the relationship between communities and the police. Part of improving these relationships and perceptions is to creating permanent spaces for community engagement to allow for communities to engage with the police whilst also improving representation of Black and Minoritised individuals not only the police force but the criminal justice system more broadly.
It was also disappointing to that there was no discussion of the new immigration bill allowing for deportations which disproportionately impacts Black and Minoritised people.
6. To improve life expectancy across all groups and to reduce health inequalities, DHSC established the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in October 2021. The OHID is leading cross-government work to address the causes of health inequalities (such as deprivation, tobacco, alcohol, diet, and physical inactivity) which often disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups and on the health disparities white paper. OHID’s mission is to improve and level up the health of the nation. To reduce the gap in health outcomes and tackle current health disparities, DHSC will publish a new strategy in a health disparities white paper for England later in 2022.
We know NHS staff from ethnic minority backgrounds continue to experience racism at work, and patients from ethnic minority backgrounds have worse experiences of healthcare. The review into potential ethnic bias in the design and use of medical devices and technologies is welcomed, given the impact this could have not only on a patient's diagnosis and treatment but in worsening existing inequalities in care too. We also welcome the focus on improving maternity outcomes for ethnic minority women through the Maternity Disparities Taskforce, which will play a key role in helping us to understand the drivers behind disparities. It is, however, essential that tangible action is taken to tackle health inequalities across all parts of government, and we therefore look forward to further information on the jurisdiction of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the upcoming white paper which will have an important role to play.
The absence of Black and Minoritised-specific data in many areas, specifically health in the current context, is troubling. Policy and practice cannot be based on evidence if the evidence is lacking. Without the data, planning and decision-making will continue to be exclusionary. There is currently no performance management and quality assurance of contracts of social care services through a Black and Minoritised lens meaning that service delivery and impact are not benchmarked against non-Black and Minoritised communities, nor do we know how resources are allocated to BAME communities. Data on local Black and Minoritised population needs is not routinely collected and there is no systematic process which involves Black and Minoritised citizens in the commissioning or purchasing of health and social care services. This means that it is currently not possible to bring together data on the outcomes of services to Black and Minoritised citizens or indeed on the appropriateness of some services for certain groups. In addition to data issues, there are discrepancies in education, employment, income, and housing which have a direct impact on health. The report therefore would have benefited from a discussion of the social determinants of health and levelling up plans in these areas.
Most of our points above relate to our submission to the CRED’s call for evidence which set out ten key questions around education, health, crime and policing, and employment and enterprise. This response can be found HERE.