For many years, Barking & Dagenham LBC had the most homogeneous and stable population in London.
Many families arrived with the building of the huge Becontree estate in the 1920s, and subsequent generations had stayed here.
Over recent years, the picture has been changing – and changing fast over the last five years.
The diversity of the borough is now increasing more rapidly than any other local authority in Britain, not only in terms of overall numbers, but also in terms of the diversity of new communities moving to our area.
The council is committed to equality and fairness. And we want to ensure that our workforce properly represents the growing diversity of our community.
By actively promoting our approach to equality, we saw the proportion of black and minority ethnic (BME) staff increase from a low base of 3.2% in 2000/01 to 11.05% in 2003/04, and 14.4% today.
About 10% of the top 5% learners in the council are from BME communities. However, although our workforce has caught up with the 2001 census, in terms of being representative, by the time of the next census, we estimate the BME population of the borough will be at least 30%.
The election of 12 BNP councillors in May 2006, to form this party’s first official opposition in any council in the country, brought a national spotlight to bear on the borough. Inevitably, this raised issues about race, and senior officers discussed staff and community concerns with the new councillors, who said they wanted good relations with BME staff and community groups.
New, democratically-elected councillors needed to be supported to operate in support of constituents and carry out their new roles, but we also discussed that the council had to address the widespread concerns about what the election results might mean.
Several incidents where members of the public responded more aggressively to frontline BME staff, referring specifically to the election result, fuelled this anxiety.
As a council, we have a duty of care to our staff and were concerned to continue to ensure a representative workforce in the light of our increasingly-diverse community.
In London, staff have a wide range of alternative local authority employers. If Barking & Dagenham gained a reputation as a place where it was uncomfortable for BME staff, then our recruitment profile could rapidly change. As a result, actions were taken to address the issues, including the following:
l statements were issued emphasising the council’s absolute commitment to equalities and to dealing vigorously with any incidents of harassment
l the leader and chief executive met all BME staff and community groups to reiterate these messages and respond to questions
l cascade briefings were held for all staff
l recruitment material was re-visited to ensure that positive statements about equality were prominent
l exit interviews and recruitment statistics were closely monitored
l extensive equalities and diversity training was arranged for all manual staff, so they would be confident when dealing with racist comments in the community
l cohesion training for managers took place to build greater confidence at dealing with complex issues.
The results have been very encouraging, with applications from BME communities staying above 40%, with monthly returns as follows:
There is more to do, especially in ensuring better opportunities for career progression, and new projects are being put in place to address this.
But we are encouraged by the progress we have been able to sustain in potentially-difficult circumstances, so that we can continue to ensure good workforce planning and talent management in support of our much improving services. n
Rob Whiteman is chief executive at Barking & Dagenham LBC
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