Civil Service in the news
Civil Service Diversity & Equality Awards - Gus O’Donnell 2nd December 2008
Tonight we celebrate and reward achievements. Tonight is also an opportunity to highlight and share good practice.
I want the Civil Service to embrace a full range of perspectives, backgrounds, experiences and skills - that is the best chance we have of understanding our customers and meeting their needs. Improving diversity is one of my key priorities.
These awards recognise the diversity of the Civil Service. We come from all sections of society but we share common values. Honesty, objectivity, integrity and impartiality are the values enshrined in the Civil Service Code.
All civil servants serve the Government of the day. We are politically impartial and our actions are governed by the Civil Service Code. Political impartiality means we must serve the Government, whatever its political persuasion, to the best of our ability, no matter what are own political beliefs. To quote from the Code, this means acting “in a way which deserves and retains the confidence of Ministers, while at the same time ensuring that you will be able to establish the same relationship with those whom you may be required to serve in some future government.”
The Code provides ways for Civil Servants to raise matters of concern or things we think could conflict with the Code either with managers or by reporting the matter directly to the independent Civil Service Commissioners. Importantly in the context of these Awards, the Code also makes clear that civil servants must carry out their responsibilities in a way that reflects the civil service commitment to equality and diversity.
Adherence to these values has served the Civil Service well, ever since they were proposed by Northcote and Trevelyan over 150 years ago. I believe they are crucial to the ability of the civil service to serve effectively whatever Government is elected by the British people.
Our work touches all groups of society. We go out of our way to reach the most vulnerable. We improve opportunities, raise aspirations, fulfil potential. But we can always do more.
I value these events so highly because I really believe a diverse Civil Service will help us do more for all parts of society. Your stories and successes exemplify the values set out in the Civil Service Code and are an inspiration to us all.
Diversity & Equality Awards 2008 shortlist nominees
The shortlist for the Civil Service Diversity and Equality Awards 2008 has been announced. The overall winners will be announced at the 2008 Civil Service Diversity and Equality Awards ceremony on 2 December in Birmingham.
Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service said:
“Well done and congratulations to all the civil servants who have been shortlisted for the Civil Service Diversity and Equality awards. These colleagues are a real testament to the progress that we have made in the Civil Service and across government in equality and diversity. The awards are an opportunity to celebrate their achievements and say thank you for the difference they have made to this important agenda.”
Sir Bill Jeffery, Civil Service Diversity Champion and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Defence said:
“The civil servants who have been shortlisted for these awards provide a showcase for a Civil Service that is inclusive and confident about diversity, and that values people for who they are and what they bring. It is people like these who will be key to helping deliver our new strategy Promoting Equality, Valuing Diversity. As Civil Service Diversity Champion, I salute their achievements and thank them for all their hard work.”
For details of the award nominees use the links below or scroll down the page.
- Delivery of Customer Service
- Engagement and Involvement
- Improvement
- Innovation
- Inspiration
- Leadership
Delivery of Customer Service
TCO Corporate Responsibility Team – HM Revenue & Customs
The Child Benefit and Tax Credit Offices (CBO and TCO) have embarked on an innovative customer outreach pilot through the customer strand of our corporate responsibility plan. This aims to provide alternative avenues for vulnerable customers to access the services we provide and to increase take-up of tax credits and child benefit.
Vulnerable customers fall into five categories: disabled, ethnic minorities, low-skill, lowpaid and single parents. Through customer feedback sessions, we established that our customers would prefer contact that’s more convenient for them – at local events and in supermarkets.
The team contacted Preston City Council (PCC) to understand what services they provided and how we could work together for the benefit of the local community. All events were advertised on local radio.
The results: Preston Mela is an annual multicultural event attracting thousands of people. The organisers were keen for CBO / TCO to attend to provide awareness and we were able to invite three people with Urdu, Gujarati & Hindi language skills to the event to mitigate any potential barriers. Individual advice was subsequently offered to 230 people and 16 new claimants.
Safer Food, Better Business Diversity Work – Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has worked directly with small businesses, inspectors and other stakeholders to develop an innovative scheme to help small food businesses comply with new hygiene regulations. A range of easy-to-use information packs, including an interactive coaching DVD with voiceovers in 16 languages, forms the basis of the programme.
EC regulations require all food businesses to implement food safety management systems based on Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP). The FSA recognised the challenge this posed for the estimated 400,000 food establishments in England and Wales employing fewer than 10 staff, many with diverse language needs.
We worked closely with all stakeholders to make sure the Safer Food, Better Business (SFBB) guidance was appropriate. The design uses pictures and simple language, consisting of a series of factsheets, together with a diary for record-keeping.
Northwest Disability Champion Team – JobCentre Plus
Throughout the last 12 months, the Jobcentre Plus Disability Champion Team (JPDCT) has worked in partnership with the Marriott Group, designing, developing and implementing an initiative entitled ‘Accommodating Disability’ to support the employment and retention of disabled people working within the hospitality sector.
Evaluation from the project offers clear evidence that with support from the JPDCT, Marriott has become actively committed to the engagement, recruitment and retention of disabled people. The work undertaken by the JPDCT required Marriott to go beyond its diversity policies and implement practical steps to ensure that its managers are receptive to the recruitment of disabled people and become ‘disability confident’ during this process.
Through the implementation of the programme, Marriott identified potential attitudinal, organisational and physical barriers, which could negatively impact on disabled people applying to their vacancies. These issues were then addressed and a streamlined recruitment process was identified to increase the numbers of applications from potential disabled employees.
Coaching2 Team – Ministry of Justice
Coaching Squared is an innovative, crosssector development programme initiated by Mary Shaw, head of equality, diversity and human rights at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Tina Hallett, partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
In 2005, the Women’s Networks’ of the MoJ (formerly DCA) and PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) launched a scheme to test the value of having a co-coaching relationship between women across the public and private sectors.
It was found that by discussing issues with another woman from a different work environment/ background, those involved were able to form and generate new and innovative ways of tackling work-based issues and improve their networking techniques.
The first full programme, launched in April 2007, involved 12 women each from the Ministry of Defence, Department for International Development, BT, SERCO, PwC and MoJ.
Engagement and Involvement
REACH Team – Communities and Local Government
The REACH programme is a Communities and Local Government initiative aimed at raising the aspirations and achievement of Black boys and young Black men.
Launched in February 2006, the project took an innovative approach, both to partnership working and to developing policy solutions. It was vital to develop a strong insight into the minds of young Black men, including the views of the hardest-to-reach parts of the Black community.
The first output was a groundbreaking report in August 2007. This was developed by the community, rather than civil servants. Everyone from the police, local authorities, schools to community groups were involved in drafting.
The REACH report recognised that many of these projects had limited resources and local horizons, and that projects of this type were unable to address negative media portrayals of Black men that have a detrimental effect on the aspirations of Black boys, their families and their teachers.
To address this, REACH designed a National Role Models Programme aiming to raise the self-image and aspirations of young Black men, challenge long-established negative stereotypes within the media, and encourage others to create an enhanced local network of Black male role models.
BME Fire Kills Campaign – Communities andLocal Government
The Fire Kills campaign has an enviable track record of driving down fire deaths by 50 per cent over the last 17 years. With the campaign raising smoke alarm penetration to an all-time high of 92 per cent, it is time to target those audience groups most resistant to fire safety messages.
Our research showed that the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali and Polish communities were potentially at higher risk from fire but had the lowest level of awareness of the risks. These groups were not necessarily exposed to our main campaign through mainstream advertising and media, with no cultural history of viewing fire safety measures as important or as their responsibility.
So we began by creating a specialist advertising campaign for the Somali, Pakistani and Bengali communities. Bilingual press adverts appeared, with TV adverts running in Urdu and Bengali on specialist satellite channels.
Our response for the Polish community was to engage England-based Poles through Polish culture from ‘home’. Kevin Aiston is a British-born Polish firefighter who has become a major celebrity in his adopted country. We recruited Kevin to be the face of the campaign for the Polish community.
Office for Disability Issues – Department for Work and Pensions
The starting point for the Office for Disability Issues’ cross-government Independent Living Strategy was that policies should be co–produced with the people whose lives they affect.
We used a variety of methods to involve disabled people and stakeholders in the development of our policy proposals and held workshops, bringing together disabled people and stakeholders to examine barriers, and solutions, in important policy areas.
Disabled people concerned with specific policy areas helped us develop proposals relating to disabled parents, people with learning disabilities, people with mental health support needs, older people, and employment.
We set up an expert panel, chaired by Baroness Jane Campbell, to give advice to the review. Members provided important information on the issues relating to Black and minority ethnic (BME) communities, and harder to reach groups.
We then held four regional events to help test our emerging proposals with disabled people and other stakeholders. A summary of what disabled people told us at these and our other co-production events held during the course of the review were posted on our website.
Improvement
The CPS Equality & Diversity Unit – Crown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Equality and Diversity Unit (EDU) is a small team of 15 people reporting directly to the chief executive.
In 2001, the Denman Report saw the CPS as ‘institutionally racist’. In the seven years since, the EDU has transformed the CPS so that it is not only a more statistically representative organisation (with 14.8 per cent BME staff and 67.2 per cent female staff) but one which has also been praised by the Cabinet Office Capability Review Team as having “transformed its approach to and performance on diversity issues”.
This summer we launched a new Violence Against Women Strategy to ensure a coordinated approach to a wide range of crimes. July 2008 also saw the launch of a new policy on crimes against older people, which aims to help up to 500,000 older people who are victims of crime each year.
Internally the EDU supports a number of thriving staff networks. In March 2008 the CPS Disabled Staff Network held its first ever conference to enhance the personal power and effectiveness of our disabled staff. Also in March, the National Black Crown Prosecutors’ Association hosted its seventh annual general meeting. And in July 2006, members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Network hosted a stand at London Pride to highlight the support available to victims of hate crime.
Liam Flynn – Department for Children, Schools and Families
Working within DCSF and another government department, Liam Flynn has made a major contribution to IT systems that help those with visual impairments to operate effectively in the civil service.
Liam is in a relatively rare position as a blind team leader working on complex and high–profile policy development. It is as a direct result of his persistence that the Department has given two people in the IT department specific responsibility for ensuring systems are accessible – previously there was no-one.
Liam is proactive in working on the development of technical solutions that don’t just support his own work, but apply more widely. Most recently, he has supported colleagues in DIUS as they have developed systems in the new Department. This work will be replicated when DCSF reviews its intranet systems.
Yaser El–Borgi and Michael Mahoney – National Archives
Yaser El-Borgi and Michael Mahoney, both junior managers at the National Archives in Kew, recently joined forces with Prospects, the National Autistic Society’s employment and training service, to organise a number of successful work experience placements for young people with autism and Asperger syndrome.
Yaser and Michael believed that people with autism should have the same training and employment opportunities as those without a disability. They wanted to give young people with autism the transferable skills and confidence they need to help fulfil their career aspirations.
Each placement lasted for eight weeks, and the young people taking part were thrust into a busy, customer-facing environment. They joined the team responsible for providing access to original records, which can present complexities and considerable challenges. However, participants were given plenty of support and training and were encouraged to deal with customers face-to-face.
Innovation
Senior officer Fiona Brown – HM Prison Service Wakefield
I would like to nominate senior officer Fiona Brown, coordinator for the Elderly and Disabled Offender Team at HMP Wakefield, for her innovative, creative and externally recognised work. Fiona has focused on providing better facilities and a regime to elderly and disabled offenders at HMP Wakefield, demonstrating a significant level of custodial care. This has included networking with organisations such as PCT, RNIB and Age Concern.
As leader of this team Fiona has been requested to attend a forum for the team of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons. Anne Owers has personally requested that Fiona give a presentation of the work undertaken by her team.
Linda Jones, head of learning services at HMP Long Lartin, has been seconded to Cambridge University to undertake a thesis on learning difficulties within the Prison Service. She has asked Fiona Brown for direct input into this, based on the work the disability team has already undertaken.
Gill Jackson, the lead for the SAP initiative and lead in the PCT on care for the elderly in West Yorkshire, meets bi-monthly with the disability team to ensure HMP Wakefield is in line with the community for caring for the elderly.
Joe Dilger, Rising Stars – Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform
Having identified a need and opportunity to raise pupils’ aspirations and promote entrepreneurship in London schools where there was educational disadvantage, BERR civil servant Joe Dilger and his Rising Stars conference project team worked with Addington High School in Croydon to deliver a successful event for its year 7 pupils (aged 11-12), and with Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets, on another event for year 12 pupils (aged 16).
In early 2008, in his outside work in the voluntary role of coach for Teach First (www.teachfirst.org.uk [External website]) Joe Dilger met a teacher, Katy Hall from Addington School, who was keen to raise her pupils’ aspirations. Joe and Katy worked together on an event proposal, which BERR director general Mark Gibson approved for BERR to host and fund the £1,100 cost.
The Futurefocus lab at BERR offered its services as facilitators for the second event, which asked pupils at Mulberry School to think about and discuss what life may be like in 2028 and what it may mean for them. Joe worked with BERR colleague Zahir Sachak on the event proposal, which was approved with a £1,600 budget.
The Trafford Centre Fair Employment Zone – ACAS
The Fair Employment Zone (FEZ) is a public–private partnership established in 2005 to promote diversity through good employment practice. The partners are Acas (lead), Manchester’s Trafford Centre, Jobcentre Plus, LSC, GMEC and USDAW, and funding was initially provided by the North West RDA.
FEZ brought together the strengths of a major retail centre, public sector providers and a trade union to benefit businesses and visitors to the Trafford Centre. FEZ is unique in that it covers diversity in both business and public awareness.
Acas is the lead partner and has coordinated activities for the partners as well as organising various events. Good practice in employment has been promoted through training events and a resource centre, which is available through the FEZ website. Face-to-face visits have been made to the majority of retailers and food outlets within the Trafford Centre. As part of the rollout to Cumbria two conferences have been held in Penrith, one on age discrimination and the other on migrant workers. Jobs fairs have allowed access for priority groups before opening to the general public, to ensure those lacking in confidence have the opportunity to participate.
Inspiration
Amir Waseem – HM Revenue & Customs
Amir Waseem has broken down the stereotypical view of a disabled person in a wheelchair, demonstrating that disabled people can achieve all the same goals and aspirations of an able-bodied person.
Amir began at HM Revenue and Customs Contact Centre as a telephone adviser and applied his skills and abilities to demonstrate his suitability for promotion, which in turn gave able-bodied advisers encouragement and belief in themselves that through hard work and determination they too could achieve their own personal goals and aspirations.
Amir has built relationships with all people, regardless of age, gender and race, and communicated in a polite and professional manner so that they see Amir as a whole person rather than someone in a wheelchair for whom they might feel sympathy. As Amir is extremely open and approachable, he is able to alter the perception of people with physical disabilities.
Amir was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and has been in a wheelchair since the age of 14. He has overcome many personal barriers relating to his illness and has great drive and determination. As a young man his ambition was to go into law: he went to university and graduated with honours in June 2001 and joined a community project within his own local area on a voluntary basis. He has recently applied for a magistrate’s position in Oldbury Magistrates’ Court.
Debbie Lane – HM Land Registry
Debbie Lane at the Land Registry has truly given her life to the cause of changing attitudes and behaviours towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Although the Land Registry has sponsored her by awarding special leave to support parts of the community-based elements of her work, the majority of her annual leave, evenings and weekends are spent tirelessly working for the cause.
In 2002 Debbie successfully campaigned to set up the first Welsh establishment in which it was possible to have commitment ceremonies. Following this, as founder and chair of the Wales TUC lesbian and gay committee, she lobbied Westminster to push for the Civil Partnership Act of 2004. She took part in the consultation for the draft legislation, which eventually became the 2003 Employment Equality Act – Sexual Orientation Regulations.
In 2004 Debbie was awarded the Wainwright Trust Equality Breakthrough award for her representation of the gay community in Wales and success in representing discrimination cases. With a 95 per cent success rate prior to court appearance, her reputation was enviable. She still enjoys the opportunity to go into government departments and either interview individuals or intervene to find a solution. Because her attitude is one of conciliation, employers welcome her into the workplace.
It was also in this year that Debbie started up the first LGBT Cymru helpline in Wales, a registered charity that provides a support lifeline and free legal advice. In recognition of this Debbie was awarded the Mardi Gras Community Spirit Award 2007.
Sarah Wood – HM Revenue & Customs
Sarah has made a major contribution to a sensitive part of the civil service diversity and cultural change agenda, the treatment of transgender people, engaging at civil service wide and departmental levels, tackling issues from staff and customer perspectives.
Following the merger of IR and Customs & Excise in 2004, she argued successfully against the usual lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) configuration to set up a separate Transgender Network to raise awareness of differences between sexual orientation issues and transgender issues; bring more focus onto trans issues; and encourage inclusion.
Her priority remains the confidential support of isolated trans colleagues, by direct forms of contact and through Network updates, which consult members on development of HMRC policies affecting transpeople. She has also been instrumental in working with the Diversity Team to produce a ground-breaking gender reassignment absence policy, with more in progress, and working with HMRC’s Individual Customer Unit on how HMRC should treat transgender customers to protect their privacy and dignity.
Her HMRC Network role dovetails with her work with a:gender, the Civil Service-wide diversity network for transgender, transsexual and intersex people, which serves to support people through gender reassignment and raise the profile of issues throughout the civil service, constructively challenging adverse outcomes of policies and processes on transpeople as part of its equality impact assessment remit.
Leadership
Susan Robson & Jo Wilmott – Government of the South West
Currently only 5.3 per cent of staff in the Government Office for the South West (GOSW) declare themselves to be of non-White origin, compared to 9.4 per cent of the working-age population in Bristol.
At the end of 2002, Susan Robson, GOSW’s HR business partner, persuaded the management board to fill a vacancy in her HR team with a Positive Action Trainee from the BME community. This is made possible under Sections 37 & 38 of the Race Relations Act 1976.
Our first PA trainee was LW, a young woman in her late teens who had few qualifications and a patchy employment record. LW’s confidence and capability grew throughout her traineeship, to the point where she made a memorable presentation to senior directors of companies and organisations in Bristol, exhorting them to offer PA traineeships, using her own personal experience as a vehicle. At the end of 18 months, LW applied for two vacancies with Bristol City Council – and was offered both. She has since pursued and developed her career with the Council.
Our latest success has been Tamica Williams, who was selected for a PA traineeship, line-managed by Jo Wilmott. By her own admission, Tamica was not a ‘starter/finisher’ and was unsure, when selected for the traineeship, whether she would even stay the course. Jo, as her line manager, had to deal constructively with some challenging issues. After ten months of her traineeship and concurrent college course, Tamica applied successfully for a housing officer post in a Bristol Housing Association, her long-term career goal.
Donal Brown – Department for International Development Vietnam
Staff Appointed In-Country (SAIC) make up about a third of the Department for International Development’s total workforce, and three-quarters of staff in the Vietnam office. DFID benefits from their local knowledge, which enhances our delivery and enables us to influence other governments more effectively. However, traditionally, SAIC have been engaged more in carrying out operational functions than providing leadership and shaping the department’s forward agenda.
The DFID Vietnam office was fairly typical and traditional, in that the office leadership team was exclusively British. Many SAIC did not feel confident to speak out or provide management with constructive challenge.
A partnership between UK-based and SAIC has transformed this situation. This has been thanks to the vision of Donal Brown in providing opportunities for SAIC by transferring leadership, management and responsibility to local staff and ensuring they had the skills and support to take advantage and deliver.
The office restructuring opened up new opportunities for SAIC, who now fill 50 per cent of management posts. The office commissioned leadership development for local staff, building on Donal’s links with Cranfield University, one of the world’s leading management schools. A five-day residential course kick-started the learning cycle. The training was tailored to suit the different needs and learning styles of the Vietnamese participants. Donal drove forward his vision, ring-fenced budget for the training and ensured it was the highest priority for resources.
Cherron Inko–Tariah – Department for Communities and Local Government
Cherron’s main duties centre on providing excellent secretariat for the Race Equality Advisory Group (REAG) and the Third Sector Partnership Board. She has also taken on the ‘transforming public services’ dimension of engagement with the Third Sector.
Cherron has played an important and sustained role in promoting race equality to the widest possible audience, for example, through her work in the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, where she helped shape policy to improve outcomes for BME communities in England’s most deprived areas.
Cherron is a youth leader, working with young people from north London. She always finds ways to involve them in the Department’s agenda, and has been central to a variety of important initiatives that have promoted equality and diversity across DCLG. These include: providing excellent secretariat to REAG; and developing the ‘dear REAG’ problem-solving approach, where she liaised with various New Deal for Communities programmes and brainstormed to identify solutions to tackle race inequalities. By leading and pioneering the programme of events for the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, Cherron proved that by using passion, vision and strategic thinking, an idea can become a reality.
Her hard work led to, among other things: an award-winning programme of seminars on race equality/diversity; an exhibition showcasing the transatlantic slave trade and the legacy of slavery; and an external stakeholder reception attended by individuals and groups working on the race equality agenda.
