Race Relations (Hansard, 22 February 1989)

§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke

My Department is fully committed to achieving equality of opportunity throughout all its activities.

In the employment field my Department has implemented many of the recommendations of the joint review of policies and procedures on race relations in the Civil Service (1983) and the programme of action for women (1984). The more significant initiatives on race equality which have been carried out include.

a. the participation in the phased programme of departmental ethnic surveys of staff which was completed last year with the then DHSS response rate averaging 75 per cent.
b. the introduction of ethnic monitoring of recruitment in 1987 when early surveys indicated a shortfall in ethnic minority recruits compared with the ethnic minority working population, and
c. following a pilot exercise, ethnic monitoring of promotion and job allocation will be carried out this year. In addition my Department has undertaken to sponsor

a Windsor Fellow in 1990.

With regard to sex equality my Department has seen an increasing number of women progressing to middle and senior management grades (14 per cent. of SEOs and above are women). Encouragement is given to part-time working and job sharing with over 3 per cent. of staff (about 200) working part-time. Improved special leave provisions have specifically targeted help for single parents and those caring for elderly or infirm relatives and a "Keeping in Touch" scheme was introduced in 1988 which allows preferential reinstatement for people who have to take a break from work for domestic reasons. A holiday play scheme for the children of staff working in headquarters will run during Easter 1989 and child care provision is one of the areas being examined in a review of opportunities available to women employees in the Department.

Turning to employment in the NHS, every opportunity has been taken to remind health authorities of their responsibilities under the Race Relations and Sex Discrimination Acts and they have been urged to take account to implement the codes of practice of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

My Department supports the work of the King's fund task force on racial equality and has also established the national steering group on equal opportunities for women in the NHS.

My Department's social services inspectorate (SSI) is engaged in a programme of work to promote race equality in the provision of social services by local authority social service departments (SSDs). In 1988, the SSI issued a document of guidance on good practice for use by SSDs. Since 1987 we have funded the race equality unit at the National Institute of Social Work. The unit provides independent advice to SSDs on implementing effective race relations policy and practice. Funding to the unit will 668W rise from £95,000 in 1988–89 to £127,500 in 1989–90. The SSI is currently running a series of workshops focusing on the professional needs of senior women managers in SSDs.

In the area of health care services, in 1982 my Department appointed an adviser on ethnic minority health. She had already directed the "Stop Rickets" campaign, designed to explain the nature of the disease and the role of vitamin D in its prevention through material in the major languages of the Indian sub-continent, and through meetings with members of the community. From 1984 she directed the Asian mother and baby campaign, a key feature of which was the appointment of "link-workers" to overcome the barriers of language and culture which often exist between patients from ethnic minorities and health professionals.

My Department has provided funding for a number of voluntary organisations concerned with ethnic minority health. For example, grants to organisations working with people affected by sickle cell disease and thalassaemia and their relatives amounted in 1988–89 to £15,000 each to the Sickle Cell Society, the Organisation for Sickle Cell Anaemia Research and the Thalassaemia Society. Altogether, we have provided over £¾ million since 1984 for a variety of innovative projects to improve access to health care for ethnic minorities. A further £1 million is being provided over three years from 1988–89 to produce health promotional material in minority languages. In 1987 the Minister for Health chaired a seminar on ethnic minority health for chairmen of regional and district health authorities, and Ministers are monitoring the progress of health authorities and family practitioner committees in this area.

In 1986 we became the first Government specifically to identify women's health within the responsibilities of a Government Minister. In addition to implementing screening programmes for breast and cervical cancers we are providing funding of almost £½ million in 1988–89 for some 20 voluntary organisations concerned with women's health. The Health Education Authority is planning to give more prominence to women's health and the maternal death rate continues to fall.

Model guidance on equal opportunities proofing of policy proposals, recommended by the ministerial group on women's issues, covers race and sex discrimination and has been extended in my Department to include disability issues. This guidance will shortly be circulated within the Department and this will direct further attention to equal opportunities issues in all the Department's activities.