Working with BME colleagues

As a predominantly white workforce we must recognise what we don’t know, what we don’t experience and see.

We aim to be a fair and inclusive place to work, and it is everyone’s responsibility to take action to address these inequalities.

What we've done

We have:

  • reviewed our progress towards race equality with over 200 key stakeholders and co-created our Fair & Inclusive Action Plan in 2019
  • collaborated with BME colleagues to co-create our We Need to Talk About Race campaign which launched in March 2020 and aims to openly discuss race and racial inequality, challenge racism and value diversity
  • published the council’s definitions of racism and our zero tolerance approach to racism in the workplace
  • created an additional safe space – our virtual Fair & Inclusive team – to raise and report issues of discrimination
  • held joint workshops with our BME Workers’ Forum and HR Advisory Services to improve our approach to HR investigations relating to race, ethnicity and culture
  • delivered mandatory unconscious bias training for all staff

What we will do

We will:

  • hold managers to account through our performance management framework
  • communicate to staff how and where to raise issues and get support
  • communicate our anti-racist values and behaviours to existing and future employees
  • deliver anti-racist training and publish anti-racist resources for all staff
  • continue to collect, use and share data to ensure actions to address inequalities for BME staff are targeted and effective
  • continue to collaborate with our BME staff forum and community groups to improve the experience of our BME staff, and BME staff that apply to work for us

View our current and previous workforce equalities reports.