Race Equality: Good practice

Examples of work and activity across London boroughs aimed at improving race equality and addressing challenges within the sector and across local communities.

The first annual report from the London local government Tackling Racial Inequality programme. We have been running and driving action for around 2 years. Our first annual report reflects on the progress we have made and outlines what we want to achieve in the next year.

London Councils' Corporate Race Equality Strategy 2022-25. The strategy has been driven and developed by staff, for staff. We want race equality to be a consistent part of our everyday thinking and operations. That is why this strategy is for everyone in the organisation, both in supporting our individual race equality journeys but also in delivering our organisational ambitions.

 

London Borough of Hackney: Workforce Diversity & Inclusive Leadership. Recognising that the council will be best placed to successfully support those they serve through more inclusive and diverse leadership, in 2018 Hackney embarked on a major corporate equality programme, supported and promoted by a team of trained champions across the organisation.

London Borough of Camden: Zero Tolerance of Racist Abuse in Adult Care Settings. In response to concerns raised by staff, Camden Council’s adult social care service has articulated a zero-tolerance approach to racism and any form of prejudicial behaviour - and developed a Memorandum of Understanding to put that approach into practice.

London Borough of Sutton: a new approach to anti-racism in children’s social care and safeguarding. Sutton's Children Services have adopted a dynamic and innovative approach to delivering anti-racism practice by employing an Anti-Racist Practice Lead. 

London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham: Get Ahead. Hammersmith & Fulham have established a career development programme, centred around an individual's needs, that helps to grow their own talent pool.

London Borough of Bromley: Inclusive recruitment and professional development. Bromley is undertaking a range of activity to embed inclusivity and support professional success within the organisation.

London Borough of Southwark: Southwark Stands Together. Ambitions, activities and actions are underway in the local authority to establish an anti-racist organisation.

Westminster City Council: Westminster Police and Council Mentoring Scheme. In partnership, the local authority and Metropolitan Police Service have set up a mentoring scheme pairing local police officers with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff within the council to share their experiences of community policing.

London Borough of Barnet: Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard. Barnet has been developing a tool to help understand the EDI picture across the council and benchmark against other boroughs.

London Borough of Waltham Forest: Safe Space Clinic. Waltham Forest has established a Safe Space Clinic - led by the council's Race Equality Network - which aims to give staff a voice, address inequality and to do working alongside senior management. The Clinic is grounded within the ethos: change will only happen if we work together.

London Borough of Ealing: Cultural Competency. Ealing has implemented a range of actions to increase cultural competency within the organisations to both improve the working environment and relationship with local residents.

London Borough of Newham: Time to Talk. Newham has been hosting community Time to Talk events to identify where residents, borough staff, and partner agency members, experienced racism, disproportionality and racial inequality, and to identify ways of reducing or preventing them.

London Borough of Lambeth: Promoting Progression for Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic Groups. Lambeth introduced a promoting progression forum and programme to increase diversity and representation within its staff.

London Borough of Harrow: A Ground-breaking Approach to Organisational Change. Harrow commissioned an Independent Race Review by Patrick Vernon OBE, to survey 700 staff members. The findings from this informed the Race Equality Action Plan.

London Councils: Corporate Race Equality Strategy. In 2020 London Councils ambitiously set out to make all staff race equality champions, to make the organisation reflect the city it represents, and to make the workplace somewhere where all staff feel an active part of the organisation.

 

Draft products developed by the Tackling Racial Inequality programme's Data Task Group:

London Councils response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities consultation on Ethnic Disparities and Inequality in the UK

 

You may also be interested in our repository of good practice that demonstrates activity to tackle ethnic disproportionality in the criminal justice system.