Council's social care team turn anti-racist pledge into action
An article on how Brighton & Hove is progressing its pledge to become an anti-racist council and city has been published by the government.
The blog entitled ‘Making good on a pledge’ has been co-written by the council’s principal social workers.
It focuses on the council’s experiences of implementing the objectives of the Workplace Race Equality Standards for social care (WRES) and the work being undertaken by staff in adult and children’s social care to put the pledge into practice.
Principal Social Worker for Children, Tom Stibbs, one of the article’s contributors, said: “We’re proud to be one of the first local authorities to drive our agenda through the WRES.
“We have a vision of what excellent social work and social care should look like and anti-racist practice is central to that.
“The WRES provides a tangible framework for collecting and analysing data on the experiences of our staff, broken down by ethnicity. It will hold us accountable and give us the tools to make a real difference.”
Actions already undertaken by the council include:
- Signing up to the Race at Work Charter
- Continuing to implement the council’s existing fair and inclusive action plan
- Appointment of a lead practitioner for anti-racist practice in children’s social work
Richard Cattell, Principal Social Worker for Adults, who also contributed to the article, added:
“With a willingness to listen, learn and most importantly act on what we find, we can take real steps to create an organisational culture that actively promotes equal and fair opportunities for all staff.
“Initial feedback to the WRES in our area has included comments about how brave it is to sign up for this level of public scrutiny.
"However, we know true transformation must come from open and transparent work. And meaningful change will only happen if we take deliberate action.”
