Jrf poverty-and-ethnicity-presentations-may-2011

Poverty and ethnicity:exploring the connections

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mobilising business for good

Poverty and ethnicity: exploring the connections

Sandra KerrNational Campaign Director Race for Opportunity

Business in the Community


Overview

• Race for Opportunity• Government priorities• Poverty and ethnicity: Review of Evidence• Challenges for the UK in the future


Race for Opportunity network

• Employer network that recognise race diversity and inclusion is good business sense for employers in the UK.

• Government Departments and policy makers who recognise the need

to be diverse as employers and to consult and engage with all the diverse groups in the UK on policy and practice to ensure they develop effective policy solutions that do not unwittingly discriminate or disadvantage any group.


Race for Opportunity employers

• Diverse customers, clients and employees • Innovation and creativity produced from increased diversity in teams• The UK talent pool now and in the future• Globalisation and engaging new markets - EMEA• Reputation and profile


Government Priorities - DCLG

• Economic inactivity amongst Pakistani and Bangladeshi women is over twice as low as the national average - 27% compared to 70%.

• Irish Traveller and Gypsy/Roma children are most likely to be permanently excluded from school, and are the only ethnic group whose performance has deteriorated significantly in recent years

• On average, five times more Black people than White people are imprisoned in England and Wales – a more disproportionate figure than in the USA

• Nearly 20% of people believe that to be truly British you have to be white


Poverty and ethnicity: A review of evidence

• Complexities and dichotomies recognised • ‘One size fits all’ solutions not appropriate: • Better understanding needed on some of the key issues across the

board• Glaring absence of evidence of what employers are doing and the

good practice that could provide guiding principles to facilitate improved employment outcomes: attraction, recruitment, retention and progression


Challenges for the UK in the future

• To engage the increasingly diverse talent pool emerging in the UK • To tackle key challenges linked to work• Enterprise and procurement • Ensure inclusiveness within Localism and the Big Society agenda

and actions • Increased collaboration between Employers, Academia, Government

and policy makers to provide effective and informed policy solutions through to pilot and implementation


Career Progression

The importance of career progression to UK workers


Career Progression

Key findings• Perceived barriers to career advancement include:

– a shortage of promotion opportunities – demand for mentors and expanding professional networks– a lack of support or poor relationships with their manager– Some ethnic minority groups cited racism as a barrier– Well over half of BAME workers believe they are treated unfairly

by recruitment agents when being put forward for roles


Career Progression

Key findings• BAME workers know what they require from their workplace yet more

than half said their employer did not provide what they were looking for. • Most commonly cited factors for joining or staying with an

employer were: – the organisation values its workers; – there are fair pay arrangements with a bonus scheme;

– appropriate training is available.


Increased collaboration

Increased collaboration between Employers, Academia, Government andPolicy makers to provide effective and informed policy solutions through to pilot and implementation

‘Leadership and identity of ethnic minority women’

Race for Opportunity,

Dr Victoria Showunmi, Institute of Education, University of

London

Ethnic Minority Advisory Group [EMAG]


Thank You


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Poverty and ethnicity

Dr Elizabeth Henry

www.rota.org.uk

About ROTA www.rota.org.uk

• Race on the Agenda (ROTA) is a social policy research organisation that focuses on issues impacting on Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities. Our policy priorities are health, education and criminal justice.

• Membership is free and the online membership form only takes a few minutes to complete. Members automatically receive our services including invitations to events, policy briefings, our monthly policy e-bulletin and more.

• To join, visit www.rota.org.uk.

What has changed?

• The Scarman Inquiry into the 1981 riots reported the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of ‘stop and search’ powers by the police against Black people

• 30 years later, Black people are stopped and searched by the police at more than 7 times the rate of White people and Asians are stopped and searched at more than twice the rate of White people.

What has changed?

• In 1971 in inner London: 17% of children in mainstream schools were from BAME groups, while 34% in ESN schools were; four out of these children were of West Indian origin.

• 40 years later, nearly 6% of all pupils experienced a fixed term exclusion compared with 17% of Irish Traveller, 16% of Gypsy/Roma, 11% of Black Caribbean and 11% of mixed Black Caribbean and White pupils.

So what has changed, and what difference can we now make?

What are the current challenges?

• Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA): In 2008, 43% of all 17 to 18 year old students received EMA compared to over 80% of Bangladeshi students; 70% of British Pakistani students; over 55% of black African students and 50% of black Caribbean students do.

• Further segregation within education.

• Discipline and exclusion in education is an equalities issue.

What are the current challenges?

• Welfare and housing benefit reforms will impact disproportionately on certain BAME groups.

• Child Poverty Strategy is a missed opportunity to address high poverty levels among certain BAME groups. Contradicted by public spending cuts and reforms in welfare and education.

• The Equality Act 2010 is vulnerable.

• The capacity of the BAME voluntary and community sector is much reduced.

What needs to happen?

• Support for community-based responses.• The success of our Female Voice in Violence project is

attributable to the personal experience of the girls who pioneered it.

• The movement; mobilisation to involvement, inclusion, voice & representation

• Engaging with young people.

What difference can we now make?


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Scoping the new programme

Literature scanning Meetings and formal roundtable events Commissioned work

3 community consultations in London, Bradford and Inverness & the Highlands Range of groups including Bangladeshi, Somali,

Polish, Chinese, African-Caribbean, White British, White Scottish

6 expert papers Education, unpaid caring, employer practices, social

networks, the role of place, inequality within ethnic groups

Overarching themes

Intersectionality is vital - to understand ethnicity we must also consider Gender, age, religion, disability, health, location…

Individuals’ outcomes are shaped by: Informal processes Wider structures

We need evidence about the interaction between How people make decisions The constraints & opportunities around them

The goal of the programme

Increase understanding of the relationship between poverty and ethnicity

Use it to create more effective approaches to tackling poverty across all ethnicities

Key areas for investigation

Four of the topics highlighted by the scoping workCaring and earningHow ethnicity affects in work povertyHow social networks can support people to

escapee povertyThe influences of the places people live and

work in

Workshops

Based around the topics of the expert papers Education Caring Employer practices and behaviour Social networks The role of places Inequality within groups

Final plenary session will draw out links across areas And consider ways forward