Race Equality Improvement

Adult Services

Summary of activities from Race Equality Improvement Groups (REIG)

History - How did the Work and the Groups start?

The work of the REIG groups started in April 2001 when a conference for staff was organised to bring together staff from across all of Social Services (now Social Care and Health). All service areas were asked to contribute and share what they had or were currently doing to improve delivery of their services to BME communities.

From the event, action plans were developed looking at four thematic areas which seemed important for all services areas (see below). These were matched up to legislative requirements to ensure we were able to meet all the requirements we needed to.

The four themes covered in more detail are:

• Access to initial services and information
• Improvement of Ethnic Monitoring
• Workforce planning
• Planning and Delivery of appropriate services

The Improvement of Ethnic Monitoring group focussed on improving ethnic monitoring was disbanded after 2005 as the initial work to set up the systems and data collection processes had been achieved.  However, the other 3 groups have integrated the monitoring role and use the data as required. 

REIG Access to initial services and information

• Consultation and research about how and where people get general information from including what the levels of literacy are within different communities with service users and the public
• Development and delivery of training courses:- a) towards Cultural Competence in Assessments b) working with different cultures (cultural competence in service delivery
• Recruitment of a Public Information Development Worker to implement recommendations from previous research, particularly in relation to improving how "hard to reach" communities can get the information they need.
• Recruitment of bilingual staff at the reception points in Adults Services to facilitate effective access and support outreach activity and awareness raising in BME Communities
• Co-ordination of what public events we organise or are part of and which services are represented

REIG Workforce planning

The work of this group was met through corporate improvements to the human resources services and most areas have been addressed through the corporate Human Resources business plan.

Key aspects of improving the recruitment, retention, development and support for BME staff are built in to the corporate processes, policies and procedures. In addition to this there is an Adults Services Workforce Planning group to deliver race equality specifically to BME staff.

One new development is developing a BME staff network.  This is based on consultation with

• BME staff throgh application process
• Existing staff in Adults Services

Based on Equality Impact Assessment where there is value or a recommendation that a member of the BME Community to be recruited in a targeted 'Service Development role' the REIG group or RED Team support the recruitment process.

We have delivered cultural competence training (now called Working with different cultures) to over 700 people since 2004 across a range of agencies.

The Ethnic Monitoring Improvement Officer (2 year recruitment June 2003 - June 2005) also produced a report to support managers to understand their ethnic monitoring requirements when employing staff. The group aims to ensure this is integrated into training for managers and into the work of other groups. Therefore this group was terminated in August 2005.

Improvement of Ethnic Monitoring data

• The introduction of an Ethnic Monitoring Prompt card which is being used service wide (and by partners) to support staff in the collection of the ethnicity of clients
• Providing guidance for managers in collecting ethnicity data about staff and service uptake
• Ensuring new ethnicity classifications from 2001 census (to 99 categories) are integrated into SWIFT system appropriately
• Providing the Directorate with correct data sets by which to collect ethnicity and an analysis of the data across the service
• Improving Ethnicity monitoring across a range of Social Care and Heath and Acute Health services (through the Improvement officer)
• Production of a poster and leaflet for the public are being produced to support this agenda and clearly explain to the public why this information is needed by us and what we use it for. (Copies available from RED Team).

REIG Planning and delivery of appropriate services

• Adopted a definition of Culturally Competent services for Tameside
• Shared information across the service about community groups in Tameside serving the BME communities
• Identified what services are available to the communities of Tameside through the above groups.
• Ensured that equalities principles have been integrated into the service specifications and contracting process as part of the corporate requirement.
• Ensuring that equality principles are integrated into the collection of aggregation of needs and unmet needs
• Ensure all contract monitoring processes and forms include relevant data regarding ethnicity of clients
• Developed new project plan to reflect new structures of planning and commissioning services

We plan to continue with the following areas of activity - please enquire or join the group - you will find it helpful, as we will.