Ethnic Minority Employment Policy

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Ethnic Minority Employment Policy

• Khamani Eze
• Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force Secretariat
• Department for Work and Pensions

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Content

• Ethnic Penalties
• Government Strategy and Targets
• Departmental Policies and Priorities
• Future Challenges
• Joining the policy debate

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Ethnic Penalties

• Key Indicators of Labour Market Achievement
• Employment/Unemployment rates
• Earnings levels
• Occupational attainment progression
• Levels of self employment

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Employment rate for ethnic minorities and the GB
working age population
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Employment rate by ethnicity and gender
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Government Strategy and Policy

• Strategy Unit Report Ethnic Minorities and the
  Labour Market
• Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force
• Departmental Strategies and Targets

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Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market

• Vision
• In ten years time, ethnic minority groups
  should no longer face disproportionate barriers
  to accessing and realising opportunities for
  achievement in the labour market.
• Prime Minister, March 2003

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Cross-Government Ethnic Minority Employment
Strategy

• Strategic Themes
• Building Employability
• Connecting People to Work
• Equal Opportunities in the workplace

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Building Employability

• Policy Objectives
• Raise educational attainment
• Ensure that key groups benefit from educational
  reform
• Outcome Target
• Key Stage 4. By 2008, 60 of those aged 16
  achieve the equivalent of 5 GCSEs at grades A to
  C) and in all schools at least 20 of pupils
  achieve this standard by 2004, rising to 25 by
  2006 and 30 by 2008.
• By 2010, increase participation in Higher
  Education towards 50 of those aged 18 to 30.
  Also, make significant progress year on year
  towards fair access, and bear down on rates of
  non-completion.

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Connecting People to Work

• Policy Objectives
• Streamline outreach initiatives
• Tailor labour market programmes to client needs
• Extend programme flexibility
• Increase housing mobility
• Increasing vocational skills
• Access to childcare and transport
• Outcome Target
• Over the three years to Spring 2006, increase
  the employment rates of ethnic minorities and
  significantly reduce the difference between their
  employment rates and the overall rate DWP PSA
  4b

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Equal Opportunities in the Workplace

• Policy Objectives
• Employers awareness and action
• Existing Equal opportunities levers
• Transparency and awareness
• Outcome Target
• By 2008, promote ethnic diversity, cooperative
  employment relations and greater choice and
  commitment in the workplace, while maintaining a
  flexible labour market - DTI PSA 10

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Government Initiatives
Child Care Adult Basic Skills Schooling Higher
Education
Childrens Centres/Extended Schools Skills for
Life Aiming High Aimhigher
Increase take up of formal childcare Increase
basic skills base Narrowing the EM achievement
gap Increase participation in HE

Mainstream provision Targeted employment
initiatives
Improving outcomes from mainstream programmes
JCP, BoND EMO,EMFF,WSP, SEAs, Fair Cities
Meeting the specific needs of Ethnic Minority
communities
Stimulating workplace and supplier
diversification Embedding diversity at board
level Tackling employer discrimination
Public Procurement BuildingBetter Boards Fair
Treatment at work
MEB sector Corporate Governance Discrimination
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DWP Initiatives
Directing JCP resources towards wards with high
ethnic minority populations
Jobcentre Plus PRA
Performance this year exceedslast years
Building local flexibility into programme design
to enable districts to meet the needs of local
ethnic minority groups
Ensuring mainstream programmes equally benefit
ethnic minority jobseekers
BoND
EM Outeach EM Flexible Fund Worksearch
Payment Fair Cities Specialist Advisers

• gt 4,000 job outcomes from EMO
• Local solutions
• Incentivising inactive partners
• Employer coalitions (demand-led)
• Encouraging employer action

Targeting activity to ethnic minority customers
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The Way Forward

• Brokerage
• Building end-to-end pipelines
• Demand Side
• Stimulating employer demand
• Business-case for workforce and supplier
  diversity
• Supply Side
• Focusing on economic inactivity
• Partnership working with the VCS

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DWP Priority - Economic Inactivity
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Demand-led models

• Fair Cities, Employer-led coalition
• Objectives
• Meet Employer demand for job-ready candidates
• Increase the number of BME resident who gain
  sustainable work
• Encourage fair and effective recruitment and
  promotion practices
• Increase the responsiveness of the employment and
  skills system to business and ethnic minority
  need.

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VCS Strategy

• Ethnic Minority Employment Objectives
• Working In Partnership
• Mainstream lessons learned from EMO into JCP
  strategy
• Disseminate good practice for reducing the
  employment rate gap and working effectively with
  the VCS.
• Consultation
• Ethnic Minority Employment Stakeholder Group
• Testing new ideas
• Sponsor VCS proposals for recently announced
  Invest To Save Inclusive Communities Budget

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Joining the Policy Debate

• Dissemination
• Contributing to the evidence-base of what
  works by co-ordinating with the Research
  Program
• Compiling a case study library of the Business
  benefits to employers
• Mainstreaming
• Establishing contact with policy units
• Engaging in public consultations
• Linking to the stakeholder groups

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Areas of interest to DWP

• Supply side
• What works for specific ethnic minority groups
• How best to deliver programmes in deprived areas
• Ethnic minority women in the labour market
• Barriers to employment
• Demand side
• Workplace discrimination and diversity
• Job interviews, ethnicity and disadvantage
• Ethnic penalties in the labour market
• Brokerage
• Developing positive action policies
• Evaluation of policy implementation
• Jobcentre plus-ethnic parity, perceptions and
  experiences