Corporate
Race Equality Policy
1. Introduction
2. The College - its role, functions and policies
3. Organisational structure and decision making process
4. Race equality values, principles and standards
5. Race equality strategic aims
6. Arrangements for complying with the general and specific duties
7. Dealing with complaints
8. Consultation
9. Monitoring and target setting
10. Impact assessment
11. Publication of RES and progress reports
12. Staff training
13. Review of the scheme
14. Action Plan and timetable for policy review
Progress in implementing Race Equality Policy - October 2005
1. Introduction
Macclesfield College is committed to combating all forms of racial discrimination and to providing an environment that reflects and respects racial, ethnic and cultural diversity. The College acknowledges its responsibilities under the Race Relations Act 1976 as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 and this Race Equality Policy sets out how it will fulfil its obligations under the Act. The Macclesfield College Corporation undertakes to provide the resources necessary to enable its statutory duties with regard to race equality to be met.
2. The College - its role, functions and policies
Macclesfield College is a general further education college serving the further education and training needs of the Boroughs of Macclesfield and Congleton and the surrounding areas. The College provides training for a wider geographical area in some specialist subjects. It is the largest provider of further education and training in East Cheshire.
The College's mission is:
'Macclesfield College will encourage and support learning and achievement, by young people and adults, to enrich individual lives, promote social inclusion and provide skills required by the local and regional economies. It will do so by delivering the highest quality of education and training, designed to meet the needs and aspirations of individuals, industry and the communities it serves, in an efficient and effective manner.'
Strategic aim 6 is to demonstrate the College's commitment to diversity and equality of opportunity through a fully inclusive approach which promotes effective learning and the Race Equality Policy is intended to amplify this commitment and to provide an implementation strategy in relation to race equality. This policy should therefore be read in conjunction with the College's Corporate Plan, the Equal Opportunities Policy and the Equal Opportunities Code of Practice, all of which have been endorsed by the Corporation. The Equal Opportunities Policy and Code of Practice are attached at Appendix 1. Race Equality is important to the College even though the communities we serve currently include only a small number of people from ethnic minority cultures and the profiles of our students and staff reflect these communities. As an educational institution, the College plays a vital role in influencing the attitudes of students towards race equality and is responsible for preparing them for life in a multi ethnic society.
3. Organisational structure and decision making process
Ultimate responsibility for complying with the obligations of the Race Relations legislation lies with the Macclesfield College Corporation. The Corporation must satisfy itself that the Principal and Senior Management Team have put in place effective policies and procedures to meet the general and specific duties laid down by the legislation. The general duty is:
- to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination
- to promote equality of opportunity
- to promote good relations between people of different racial groups.
In addition, further education institutions have the following specific duties:
- to prepare and maintain a Race Equality Policy
- to assess the impact of their policies, including the Race Equality Policy, on students and staff of different racial groups
- to monitor recruitment and progress of staff and students of different racial groups
- to set out arrangements for publishing the Race Equality Policy, and the results of assessments and monitoring.
The Equal Opportunities Committee is responsible for developing the Race Equality Policy, for coordinating and monitoring its implementation, for keeping it under review and for evaluating its effectiveness. The Equal Opportunities Committee is chaired by the Principal and meets monthly. It makes recommendations to the Senior Management Team. As all of the further education institutions in Cheshire and Warrington operate in similar cultural environments, the Cheshire and Warrington Colleges' Consortium has worked collaboratively, with the support of Cheshire and Warrington Learning and Skills Council, to develop a common approach to race equality. This Race Equality Policy is therefore based upon a common template agreed as part of this collaboration.
Macclesfield College's Equal Opportunities Committee reports to the Quality Assurance Committee and the Principal provides annual reports on the Committee's work and progress to the Corporation's Personnel and Remuneration Committee. These reports then go forward to the full Corporation. The Equal Opportunities Committee also regularly informs other related cross-college committees, such as the Inclusive Learning Committee, of its progress. All staff are kept informed through their representatives on the Equal Opportunities Committee, through the publication of minutes and by means of whole College staff meetings and staff development sessions.
4. Race equality values, principles and standards
This policy is underpinned by the following values, principles and standards:
- equality and social justice
- respect for others
- acknowledging and valuing diversity
- elimination of all forms of prejudice and discrimination
- active challenge to prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behaviour
- commitment to inclusive education which enables and assists all students to develop their full potential
- commitment to the positive development of all staff and governors
- accountability for compliance with this policy by all members of the College community and others engaged in College business or activities
5. Race equality strategic aims
Macclesfield College makes a commitment to the following strategic aims:
- to develop an ethos which respects and values all people irrespective of their colour, culture, ethnicity, race and religion;
- to eliminate all forms of colour, cultural, ethnic, racial and religious discrimination in recruitment, selection and induction processes and procedures;
- to ensure that there are no barriers based on colour, culture, ethnicity, race or religion which limit or discourage access to College provision and activities;
- to ensure that all aspects of the College service, including curriculum delivery, avoid stereotyping based upon colour, culture, ethnicity, race or religion;
- to promote good understanding of cultural, racial, ethnic and religious diversity, and good race relations, through the curriculum and the wider learning environment;
- to prepare students for active citizenship in a multi-ethnic society;
- to take positive action to encourage the development of a more racially and ethnically diverse workforce.
6. Arrangements for complying with the general and specific duties
Macclesfield College will eliminate unlawful discrimination by:
- communicating this Race Equality Policy to students, staff, governors, partners, stakeholders, contractors and visitors to the College
- ensuring that all parties understand their rights, responsibilities and accountabilities under the policy
- having in place clear and effective complaints and disciplinary procedures for dealing with direct and indirect racial discrimination
- monitoring, reviewing and reporting on the effectiveness of these procedures to the Senior Management Team and Corporation
- regularly reviewing all College policies and procedures to ensure that they do not impact adversely on any cultural, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Macclesfield College will promote equality of opportunity by:
- ensuring that all staff and governors understand their responsibilities and accountabilities for promoting equality of opportunity
- consulting with students and staff from ethnic minority cultures to obtain feedback on their experience in College and using the outcomes to guide future action
- making the College welcoming to all, irrespective of colour, culture, ethnicity, race or religion
- identifying and removing barriers, within the College's control, which hinder or prevent students or staff from ethnic minority cultures from achieving their full potential
- taking positive action to provide individual encouragement and support to students and staff from ethnic minority cultures
- ensuring that all curriculum teams actively seek opportunities within their programmes to celebrate cultural diversity, widen students' cultural understanding and prepare them to be effective citizens in a multi-ethnic society
- training and developing all staff to ensure that they have the skills needed to promote equality of opportunity within the scope of this Race Equality Policy.
Macclesfield College will promote good race relations between people of different racial groups by:
- ensuring that all members of the College community, partners, stakeholders, contractors and visitors conform to the College's equality values and standards
- making use of opportunities within the learning environment to promote knowledge and understanding of cultural diversity
- seeking opportunities for meaningful joint activities between students and staff from different racial and cultural backgrounds
- actively preparing students to play a full part as citizens in a multi-ethnic society.
7. Dealing with complaints
Students bringing complaints under the Race Equality Policy will do so through Macclesfield College's standard Complaints Procedure. Staff complaints will be brought through the Staff Grievance Procedure. The Equal Opportunities Committee will give consideration to developing a supporting checklist and/or a standard reporting form for racial incidents to assist with monitoring. Staff or students who contravene the Policy will be subject to the appropriate Disciplinary Procedure.
8. Consultation
In developing this Race Equality Policy and drawing up a Race Equality Action Plan for 2002-03 the College has sought to learn from the experience and opinions of its students and staff from ethnic minority cultures. Thus all 16 to 18 year old students enrolled at the College in summer term 2002, who have identified themselves as coming from ethnic minority backgrounds, have been interviewed to enable them to provide feedback on their experience at College and to comment on how the learning environment could be made more welcoming and supportive. Students enrolled for courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) have provided their opinions through class discussion. Other adult students from ethnic minorities have been invited to put forward their views through focus groups held at the College and in community locations. Similarly, the small number of ethnic minority staff employed by the College have been interviewed. The outcomes of these interviews and discussions have informed the Race Equality Action Plan 2002-03.
In addition, the following groups have been consulted on the Race Equality Policy and Action Plan:
- College students through the Students' Union
- all staff
- the recognised trade unions through the College Joint Forum.
Staff and student consultation will be repeated in future years as part of the review and impact assessment of the Race Equality Policy (see also section 10 below).
9. Monitoring and target setting
The Equal Opportunities Committee is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Race Equality Policy and progress in maintaining the targets set out in the Race Equality Action Plan which will be reviewed every 3 years. To enable governors to fulfil their responsibilities under the Race Relations legislation, the Principal will report progress to the Personnel and Remuneration Committee annually in May. The reports will then go forward to the full Corporation.
In addition, the College's action to address its general and specific duties will be subject to scrutiny by the Cheshire and Warrington Learning and Skills Council as part of their biannual Provider Performance Reviews and by Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate as part of their quadrennial inspections.
10. Impact assessment
In relation to the Race Equality Policy
The Equal Opportunities Committee will conduct an annual self assessment of the impact of the Race Equality Policy in addressing the general duty under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. In so doing it will gather evidence from a range of sources including the following:
- student and staff questionnaires
- feedback from students and staff from ethnic minority cultures
- analysis of complaints and grievances and their outcomes
- analysis of suggestions
- annual course reviews
- annual quality reviews of business support and academic support functions
- quality audits.
This annual self assessment will form part of the College's Self Assessment Report and, where appropriate, the outcomes will be reflected in the College's annual Development Plan.
In relation to other College policies
The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 also places a duty on Macclesfield College to assess the impact of each of its policies on students and staff from different racial groups. This requirement will be built into the College's policy review processes. Currently the College reviews each of its policies and procedures at least triennially through the quality audit cycle.
To achieve this:
the Director of Learning and Quality will develop the guidelines for conducting quality audits to include consideration of the impact of the policies and procedures on students or staff from different racial groups;
the Director of Information and Planning will provide baseline data on the admission and progress of students from ethnic minority cultures in the College. Since small numbers of students are involved, this analysis will initially be confined to whole College level and will simply compare the admissions and performance of ethnic minority students to those of white UK origin;
the Head of Human Resources will produce similar baseline data for staff recruitment and career progress.
The Director of Learning and Quality will produce a yearly report for the Equal Opportunities Committee on the outcomes of quality audits with respect to their impact on students or staff from ethnic minority backgrounds. He will discuss with them any action required to address adverse impacts. Changes to procedures may be authorised by the responsible senior manager. Where policy matters are concerned, the responsible senior manager will propose a solution to SMT.
11. Publication of RES and progress reports
The College's Race Equality Policy will be published as follows:
- on the College website
- as part of the Staff Handbook
- in summary form, in the student Diary.
The Equal Opportunities Committee will consider, and keep under review, the publication of the Policy in different languages. The Policy will be made available on tape on request.
In addition, a statement of the College's commitment to promoting race equality and combating racial discrimination will be displayed throughout the College.
Progress reports in implementing its Race Equality Policy will be published annually:
on the College website
in the Customer Focus newsletter
12. Staff training
Macclesfield College makes a commitment to provide the staff and governor training and development necessary to support the successful implementation of the Race Equality Policy. In the first year of operation this included:
- awareness raising of legislative and College requirements for all staff and governors
- training to develop and communicate the specific responsibilities and accountabilities for different groups of staff
- how to promote race equality through curriculum delivery
- training for Quality Managers and others in using teaching and learning observations to monitor the promotion of race equality through the curriculum and/or tutorial
- developing staff skills to support and encourage individuals and small groups of staff and students from ethnic minority cultures.
Thereafter staff development needs will be assessed as part of the self assessment and appraisal processes. The Race Equality Action Group will be responsible for working with the Head of Human Resources to ensure that a suitable programme of training is provided.
13. Review of the scheme
The Principal, as Chair of the Equal Opportunities Committee, is responsible for ensuring that the Race Equality Policy is regularly reviewed. The Policy will be reviewed after one year of operation and then triennially thereafter.
14. Action Plan and timetable for policy review
The Equal Opportunities Committee will agree an annual Race Equality Action Plan to support the implementation of the Race Equality Policy. From 2003-04 this will be incorporated into the committee's annual Equal Opportunities Action Plan. Appendix 2 contains a copy of the current Action Plan.
As part of the Action Plan, the SMT has agreed a three year timetable for the review of all College policies and procedures to assess their impact on different racial groups. This is attached as Appendix 3.
Progress in implementing Race Equality Policy - October 2005
The College gather information from sources listed in section 10 of the Policy and other relevant monitoring information. A self assessment was conducted at a meeting of the Equal Opportunities Committee.
An analysis of 2002-03 student performance data by ethnicity was undertaken and this was reviewed by the Equal Opportunities Committee. Black and minority ethnic students showed better retention and achievement than white students.
An analysis of 2004-05 student enrolments by ethnicity was also undertaken and this was reviewed by the Equal Opportunities Committee. 4% of students were of black and minority ethnic heritage compared with less than 2% of the local population.
A Cultural Diversity Open Day was organised at the College in May 2005.
Training & Staff Development events, for all College staff, were organised on race equality, culture and diversity during 2004/05.
6% of the College's staff are from ethnic minority or mixed origins, compared to fewer than 2% of people in the local population.
There were no complaints or grievances concerned with race or ethnicity in 2004/05.
The Race Equality Policy is displayed on the College web site and copies of the Policy are available from the College Reception
The College's course guides and publicity material and the College web site include positive images of students from a range of ethnic origins.
The College Corporation receives regular reports on equality and diversity, including race equality
Wendy Wright
Principal
29 April 2002