PRESTON S COLLEGE WORKFORCE EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY STRATEGY

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1 PRESTON S COLLEGE WORKFORCE EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY STRATEGY

2 The College Preston s College is a large and diverse General Further Education College providing teaching, learning and skills development for both young people and adults in Central Lancashire and beyond. We play an important role in the local economy and work with many local employers and organisations in making these contributions. In 2014/15 the College had 12,433 learners and a turnover of 26,969,000. It is one of the larger employers in the City with a staffing base of around 625. The College operates from its site in Fulwood with dedicated community learning venues throughout the area to enable the College to deliver educational programmes in the heart of its local communities. We are working together to: Create an Enterprising College, firmly embedded within business and local community. Focus on excellence, helping to achieve ambitious outcomes for learners and offering good value for money Offer a dynamic portfolio of high quality learning and services, responsive to the needs of learners, employers and the community, grounded in the world of work Provide career pathways and progression for all, leading to a job, further training and higher education, self-employment and business start-ups Invigorate the campus, providing inspirational learning environments Explore new opportunities and markets, looking nationally and internationally Increase the College s profile, reputation and engagement in Preston, the North West, nationally and internationally Become an influential player in the locality supporting economic growth and social prosperity We also aim to be inclusive and in order to achieve that goal we need to seek ways of ensuring our workforce reflects the diversity of the Communities we serve and our learners. 2

3 2. The Diversity of the Communities we serve The diversity of our communities are complex. The immediate surrounding area has a large Asian heritage population which is the biggest ethnic minority group. However, within the Asian heritage background the majority of people are of Indian heritage. The following information has been obtained from the Office for National Statistics who have collated and reported on the data collected from the 2011 Census. The Preston area currently has a diverse population: 75.8% of the population is White-British, the next biggest ethnic groups are Asian or Asian British Indian (10.3%), any other White Background (3.5%), Asian or Asian British Pakistani (3.2%) and Mixed White and Black Caribbean (1.2%). The remaining 6% of the population is made up of different ethnic groups representing less than 1.0% of the overall population. Preston s population is split evenly between male (50%) and females (50%) 9% of the population in Preston have a long term illness or disability and as a result their day to day activities are limited significant and 9% of the population have a long term illness or disability that result in their day to day activities being affected a little. 6% of Preston s working population is under the age of 19 and 22% are between the age of 20 and 29. Half of Preston s population at the time of the census were aged between 30 and 49 (50%). The majority of the population in Preston declare themselves to be Christian (61%) % class themselves to be Muslim, whilst 18.40% have no religion. Around 82.2% of Preston s population is either married or single % are divorced and 6.50% are widowed. Only 0.2% of the population are in a civil partnership. Interestingly, people who completed the 2011 Census were not able to state whether or not they were a partner. Preston s social deprivation score is 26,348 out of 32,844 (1 is the most deprived area) The Community we serve has a higher proportion of working population between the ages of 16 29, than the rest of England. The same percentage of people in Preston declare themselves to be disabled as in the rest of England, however this figure is lower than the figure for the North West. 3. The Diversity of our Learners The majority of our learners are part time adults, we pride ourselves that our inclusive ethos means we support a large number of learners with additional learning support needs. 3

4 The College has produced data on the equality and diversity profile of learners in 2014/15 1 : The largest ethnic group in the learner population is White-British (74.9%) followed by White Any Other Background (9.0%), Asian / Asian British Indian (4.0%), Asian / Asian British Pakistani (2.5%) with Asian / Asian British Any other Asian and Black African both representing 1.0% of the learner population. 50.5% of the learners are female and 49.5% 13.6% of learners have a learning difficulty and 11.5% have a disability 24.7% of our learners are aged 18 and under. The biggest group of learners at the College is between 19 and 34 (42.6%) The biggest religious group in our learners are Christian (28.8%), followed by Atheist (20.6%). 38.7% of the learners have indicated the not known field % of learners have declared themselves as Heterosexual % of the learners have indicated the not known field. The majority of the Colleges learners are single (41.6%) and 13.7% are married. 35.1% of the learners have indicated the not known field. It is interesting to note that of the full time learners two thirds are under the age of 19, whereas only 13% of the part time learners are under the age of The Diversity of our Workforce We have been improving the capture of sensitive data from our workforce and we are now in a strong position to develop strategies and activities to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and our learners within the workforce. The following information has been obtained from data collected on the 2014/15 3 : 83.31% of the College s workforce is White-British and 6.94% are Asian or Asian British Indian. 1.98% prefer not to state their ethnicity while another 1.98% declared they are Asian or Asian British Pakistani. The College employs more females (64.13%) than males (35.87%). 2.48% of the workforce has stated they have a disability and 76.36% have declared they have no disability. Over 50% of the workforce is aged between 30 and 49 (56.2%) and 29.42% are aged 50 and over. Only 14.38% of the workforce is aged 29 and under. 1 The College produces annual data on the diversity of its learners. 2 The College collects data on learners, including equality and diversity data, which is then returned to the Government in the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). The ILR recognises not known as a valid response. 3 The College produces annual data on the diversity of its workforce which will be reported to the HR and Remuneration Committee. 4

5 Nearly 50% of the workforce have declared that they are Christian (48.75%) % have no religion and 7.27% prefer not to say. Only 3.47% of the workforce have declared they are Muslim % of the workforce is heterosexual and 6.61% prefer not to say % of the College s workforce is married and 20.17% are single. A consequence of a high number of female staff is that in 2014/5, 30 members of staff took maternity leave, this equated to 5.0% of the workforce. In 2012, a survey was commissioned to look at the cost of maternity leave 4. Of the organisations surveyed the average number of staff who had taken maternity leave equated to 3.14%. 5. Emerging Facts Reviewing the data on the communities we serve, the learners and the workforce has identified the following emerging themes: The College is less diverse than the Community we serve and the Learners and to ensure this is address we will need to identify why this is the case. Staff and Learners from an Asian or Asian British Indian and Asian or Asian British Pakistani are under represented at the College. We will work with staff and community representatives from this ethnic group to improve representation at the College. The College employs a greater proportion of females than is represented in Learners or the Community we serve but this is not dissimilar to other FE Colleges in England. Staff who have declared a disability are under represented at the College but believe the actual number of staff with a disability is much higher than has been declared. Compared to the Community we serve, the College is under represented by staff aged 29 and under and is over represented by staff aged between 30 and 49. The College wants to ensure there are more opportunities for staff aged 29 and under. The College workforce is more similar to the Community we serve in terms of religion than the Learners. The statistics for learners in areas of Religion, Sexual Orientation and Marital Status as information for 35% of learners is not known. This is because the learner has chosen to indicate this field. 4 The Cost of Maternity Leave: The 2012 XpertHR Survey, IRS Employment Review 5

6 6. People Strategy We want the diversity of our workforce to reflect that of the communities we serve. We believe that in achieving this aim, our staff will become role models for our learners to help overcome barriers and aspire to greater achievements both in learning and employability skills. In the People Strategy , the College set out its desire to develop a Workforce Equality and Diversity (WED) Strategy to deliver our aim set out above and to ensure that we focus on ensuring that equality and diversity is embedded in all our practice. The People Strategy specifically references the following activities for inclusions in the WED Strategy: - Ensuring that equality and diversity underpin our workforce values and behaviours Fostering a culture of understanding, tolerance and respect through mandatory training in equality and diversity Ensuring that relevant recruitment and development activities are implemented to recruit and retain a high performing and diverse workforce Facilitating a staff voice for underrepresented groups to ensure engagement and barriers in employment are removed Ensuring the College complies with its equality and diversity legal obligations as an employer Enshrining best equality and diversity in all our workforce policies and procedures to embed best HR practices Provide a suite of family friending employment policies and procedures which are accessible to all staff Use relevant WED metrics to identify areas of success and areas for improvement against our aim for a diverse workforce and reflective of the communities we service 7. Legal Context The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to protect people from discrimination in the workplace and in the wider society. The Equality Act 2010 replaced some other acts including: Sex Discrimination Act 1975 Race Relations Act 1976 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 The Equality Act 2010 contains an equality duty for Public Services which came into force on 5 April The Equality duty requires that the College: eliminate discrimination advance equality of opportunity 6

7 foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities The College was required under the Equality Act to publish relevant information in relation to Equality and Diversity including Equality Objectives. One of those objectives was to acknowledge a tenth protected characteristics that of socioeconomic background. Therefore, Preston s College respects and values social and cultural diversity and is committed to equality, irrespective of the following protected characteristics : Age Gender Disability/ learning difficulty Gender Identity Marriage, civil partnership Pregnancy, Maternity Race Religion, belief Sexual Orientation Socio-economic background The College complies with its legal responsibilities by: Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; Advancing equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; Fostering good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not; Embracing the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 through the Equality agenda. 8. Scope of the WED The WED Strategy will be the conduit through which the College will translate its aspirations to reflect our communities and learners. Here are a few of the activities we have already started or will commence during the lifetime of this strategy. In consultation with key stakeholders, these will be collated into a WED action plan. 8.1 To ensure the College s Equality and Diversity Policy is compliant with the Equality Act 2010 and provides a robust structure by which College can embed Equality and Diversity within its workforce. 8.2 To develop Equality and Diversity objectives to underpin the principles in the policy and ensure they become embedded into the workforce. 8.3 To ensure the Equality Impact Assessment process is entrenched in the policies and practices of the College. 7

8 8.4 To ensure the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 are embraced by the College through its Equality and Diversity policies and procedures. 8.5 To work with the Procurement Department to ensure Equality and Diversity is covered within the procurement process including elements of the Modern Slavery Act To ensure that staff have a knowledge of Equality and Diversity issues through the delivery of training and awareness raising. 8.7 To produce regular equality and diversity information and statistics on the College s workforce. 8.8 Provide the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee with annual Workforce Equality and Diversity Reports. 8.9 Use the information gathered on equality and diversity to inform and develop a Workforce Equality and Diversity action plan Report updates against the Workforce Equality and Diversity action plan to the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee on annually Ensure staff from underrepresented groups have a forum on which they can be heard Engage with external community groups to explore the barriers to working at Preston s College. 9. WED Working Group The College will set up a WED working group, consisting of cross college staff, to monitor progress against the strategy and any associated action plans. 10. Role of HR and Remuneration Committee It is the responsibility of this Committee to approve the College s Human Resources Strategy and associated objectives. The development of a WED Strategy is one of the associated objectives of the People Strategy. A Workforce Equality and Diversity Action Plan will be developed and will be submitted to the HR and Remuneration Committee on a regular basis for monitoring and scrutiny purposes. 8