HC Deb 14 October 1996 vol 282 cc705-6W
Ms Abbott

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many women from ethnic minorities are employed by her Department and its agencies; at what grade; and what measures she has taken to encourage the(a) recruitment, (b) employment and (c) promotion of women from ethnic minorities within her Department and its agencies [39903]

Mrs. Gillan

The following table shows the number of women from ethnic minorities who are employed by the Department for Education and Employment and its agencies, broken down by grade.

Women of ethnic minority origin employed by the DfEE, ES and TPA at 1 July 1996
Black Asian Other Total
AA 93 84 6 183
AO 645 793 74 1,512
EO 169 207 31 407
HEO 15 16 10 41
SEO 1 4 0 5
G7 0 0 1 1
Total 923 1,104 122 2,149

DFEE and its agencies are committed to equal opportunities and, have established a number of initiatives to encourage the recruitment, employment and promotion both of ethnic minority staff and of women. For example: Advertising of external posts is targeted and the Department's equal opportunity committments appear in advertisements. Most departmental vacancies are filled from within. The internal vacancy bulletin explains the Department's comittment to equal opportunity and that applicants are considered on merit regardless of age, disability, gender, race religion, marital status or sexual orientation. The gender and ethnic origin of all applicants are monitored during the recruitment process to ensure that advertising is effective and the recruitment procedure fair. Recruitment is based on competence rather than on subjective criteria. The Employment Service has a mentoring programme for staff of ethnic minority origin and DFEE is setting up a similar scheme. DFEE is a member of the National Mentoring Consortium and the Windsor Fellowship, providing support for ethnic minority undergraduates with the aim of encouraging them to consider a civil service career. DFEE has a development programme for staff from ethnic minorities of AA grade and above, called "Equal Chance" to help develop the skills and competences required for career progression within the Department. The Department has a commitment to flexible working including part-time, job sharing and remote working and is taking measures to encourage and extend opportunities for working this way. The Department has participated in double disadvantage focus groups as part of a Cabinet Office study to consider the double disadvantage which might be experienced by women of ethnic minority origin.

It is of concern to the Department that staff of ethnic minority origin remain under-represented at senior levels. The Department's equal opportunities strategy has key priorities for action. These include ensuring that people from ethnic minority backgrounds have the same opportunities as everyone else to develop and progress and looking at strategies to enable women to progress on merit to senior posts. A research project has been mounted to identify barriers to progress for all ethnic minority staff. The findings from this research will inform future initiatives.