4. Prior to this, the City of
York Council was the first in the North of England to declare a
commitment for York to become an anti-racist and inclusive city. In
October 2021, a motion was unanimously approved by full council in
support of ‘Speak Up Diversity’ (now IERUK) with the
endorsement of several agencies across the city.
5. The overarching goal of the
motion was to develop a long-term anti-racism and inclusion
strategy and action plan for York. The action plan will provide an
evidence-based set of initiatives to tackle and dismantle casual
and systemic racism, promote equality and fairness and champion
diversity and inclusion in the city of York.
6. The long-term anti-racism and
inclusion strategy and action plan will be submitted to the City of
York Council in Summer 2023.
7. CYC welcome IERUK’s
work to understand how ethnic minority groups experience life in
the city and are grateful for their continued focus on this
important and challenging issue.
8.
York has long been recognised as a City of Sanctuary and
Human Rights City. CYC acknowledge, and will learn from,
IERUK’s work with residents who have been subjected to racism
and thank these individuals for sharing their experiences with
IERUK.
9.
To date the council has supported the
work of the group in the following ways:
·
funding the establishment of the group and its work
(£5k set up costs and £20k running costs – both
one off payments);
·
ongoing advice and support e.g. sourcing website
development resources;
·
distribution of survey material in the council’s two
main office buildings;
·
supporting data requests and sign posting information
published on York’s open data platform;
·
promoted IERUK’s request for support from volunteer
data analysts from the council workforce; and
·
facilitated introductions to future partners and support
agencies across the city, including IERUK discussing with the Head
of Communications Group.
Consultation
10. The portfolio holder along with senior
officers including the Chief Operating Officer have met, and will
continue to meet on a quarterly basis, with members of IERUK to
consider how best they
can consult and engage with CYC staff, and other city partners.
Options
11. It is open to the Executive Member to accept
the recommendation to move forward on the proposalsin this report
and CYC’s commitment to becoming an anti-racist and inclusive
city or decline to do so.
Analysis
12. This sets out in further detailthe
Council’s plan to deliverits contribution towards this
important commitment.
13. There are several practicalsteps the
council,and Executive, is taking to demonstrate its shared
commitment to being an anti-racist and inclusive city.
14. It has already been agreed there is a need
to allocate sufficient officer resource to Human Rights and
Equalities within the council. As such, a team to focus on all
aspects of Human Rights, Equalities, Diversity & Inclusion is
being brought together and led by the Assistant Director of
Customer, Communities
& Inclusion.
15. The team will also provide strategic
direction and organise trainingin relation to the council’s
human rights and equalities work, increasing knowledge and
awareness amongst all officers and elected members.
16. Refreshed Human Rights and Equalities Impact
Assessments will be introduced and form a fundamental part of
decision making and policy development. This process will be
continually developed and refined.
17. How we publicly report back on progress
against the long-term anti-racism strategy and associated action
plan will be agreed after
May’s election.
18. York Human Rights City Network (YHRCN) run
the Community Voices project on behalf of CYC, with the intent of
amplifying the voices and agendas of those residentsin marginalised
communities and groups. YHRCN are reviewing this programme with CYC
to ensure that it meets its original objective to work with the
most marginalised and:
a. Create an opportunity for them to be heard both
individually and collectively and influence policy
making.
b. Encourage meaningful participation by engaging with
communities and individuals in ways that enabled those participants
to set the agenda.
c. Engage with, and understand, the needs and priority issues
for those whose voices are not being heard already.
19. Key questions for CYC in the IERUK report
(found here
https://www.ieruk.org.uk/racial-disparity-in-york-report) are focused on the
number of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds and steps taken to
make the council more representative. The report states that only
6.3% of staff are from minority groups, compared to around 14% of
the population. This data comes from staff who have chosen to share
declare their ethnicity. The percentage of staff who choose to
declare this is around 6.5%.
20. To improve this data, we intend to look at
how we increase the declaration rate across all protected
characteristics.
21. We have recently established a new Black and
Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff network to learn from and improve
policies based on the experiences of staff in the
network.
22. The report also contains significant data on
race related hate crime. The council regularly hosts a Hate Crime
working group which is well attended by both the Police and
partners from across the city and is working through an action plan
to tackle hate incidents. The group’s current priorities
are:
·
Improve data capture to a) develop an intelligence-led
approach to addressing Hate Crime across York and b) monitor
performance (witha particular focus on improving data capture in
schools).
·
Improve awareness and understanding of Hate Crime and
challenge attitudes and prejudices. Work with North Yorkshire
Council to develop and deliver an annual training
programme.
·
Establish a network of Hate Crime Reporting Places across
York.
·
Increase community engagement and improve community
cohesion. Identify areas of Community Tension.
·
Ensure
appropriate and accessible advice and support is available to all
victims of Hate Crime. Increase the number of successful
prosecutions for Hate crime offences by building trust and
confidence between victims and the police to encourage
reporting.
·
Identification of Cross-Cutting Themes Across Community
Safety Work-streams (Prevent, Domestic Abuse, Violence Against
Women and Girls (VAWG), Gypsy, Roma, Traveller (GRT) Strategy
Group, Night Time Economy).
·
Coordinate communications with North Yorkshire Police (NYP)
in respect to a calendar of activities, including Hate Crime
Awareness Week.
23. The work of the group needs to ensure it is
learning from lived experience and will ensure that it considers
IERUK’s work and their final strategy proposals.
Council Plan
24. Demonstrating our commitment to becoming an
anti-racist and inclusive city is consistent with the CouncilPlan
priority of “Safe communities and culture for all”.
However, the impact of structural inequalities and racism has an
impact on every element of the Council Plan and associated
policies.
25. York has a long history of being proud to
welcome and learn from everyone who chooses to the city home. We
recognise the importance of upholding, and standing up for, our
values. This work will contribute to significantly improving the
quality of life for those affected - together with reinforcing
York’s reputation as a City of Sanctuary and Human Rights
City.
Implications
26.
a)
Financial – The only costs
expected as a result of the work outlined in the report, will
be officer time that can be contained within existing
budgets.
b)
Legal – The Council needs
to take into account the Public Sector Equality Duty under Section
149 of the Equality Act 2010 (to have due regard to the need to
eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other
prohibited conduct; advance equality of opportunity between persons
who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do
not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a
relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it
in the exercise of a public authority’s
functions).
The motion to become an
anti-racist and inclusive city will assist in demonstrating the
Council’s consideration of impacts of both the Executive and
non-Executive decisions it makes on minority groups; however, all
parties must be clear that, with regard to decision-making, the
Council’s discretion to take decisions which are contrary to
expressed views cannot be fettered.
c)
Equalities – This is an information for
noting rather than decision – making report so whilst there
is no decision to assess, increased knowledge of this work may
improve awareness across all groups but especially BAME groups. We
will need to consider how we assess the impact of the final
proposals and the council’s response that will be set out in
the Anti Racism Strategy and accompanying action plan, produced by
IERUK.
d)
Human Resources – Human Rights and
equalities training / awareness will be undertaken to embed these
themes into all aspects of everyday working at the Council to
further embed a positive culture.
e)
Crime and Disorder The hate/crime elements of work
undertaken in partnership will have a positive impact on crime and
disorder implications.
f)
There
are no known Information Technology, Property, or other
implications arising from the report.
Risk Management
27. The main risks that have been identified
associated with the proposals contained in this report are those
which concern risks to effective working in partnership and work
toward becoming an Anti-Racist city.
ContactDetails
|
Author:
|
Chief Officer responsible:
|
|
Laura Williams
Assistant
Director - Customer, Communities and Inclusion
laura.williams@york.gov.uk
Claire
Foale
Assistant
Director Policy and Strategy
claire.foale@york.gov.uk
|
Pauline Stuchfield
Director - Customer and
Communities
|
|
Report
Approved
|
ü
|
Date
|
13 March
2023
|
|
Specialist Implications
Officers:
Legal
– Bryn
Roberts
Finance – Dawn Shaw
|
|
Wards Affected:
All
|
|
For further information please
contact the author of the report
|
Annexes: None
Background Documents:
‘A
snapshot view of racial disparity in the City of
York’
https://www.ieruk.org.uk/racial-disparity-in-york-report
Council Motion:
https://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=331&MId=12805&Ver=4
Abbreviations
BAME – Black and Minority
Ethnic
CYC – City of York Council
IERUK – Inclusive Equal Rights UK
3.0
NYP – North Yorkshire
Police
YHRCN – York Human Rights City
Network
