Diversity information
Introduction
In our Single Equality Scheme (SES) we commit to being transparent about the make-up of our workforce. We believe that it is important that our colleagues, stakeholders, and the public can hold us to account as an excellent employer and the diversity of our workforce is part of that.
We are also working hard to improve the transparency of the diversity of the wider legal services sector workforce. This site’s section on workforce development contains more information. We believe it is important that we hold ourselves to account in the same way.
On 1 October 2010, the majority of the provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force. The Equality Act introduced the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires all public bodies to play their part in making society fairer by tackling discrimination and providing equality of opportunity for all. The Duty came into force on 5 April 2011. Colleagues are aware of their responsibilities under the Duty.
It is expected that Parliament will approve the draft Specific Duty regulations in September 2011. Once the Specific Duty regulations have come into force, we will develop and consult on our Specific Duty. In the meantime, we have updated our SES to demonstrate what actions we have taken in order to advance equality and diversity in our work.
Diversity survey
Earlier this year, we carried out an anonymous and voluntary diversity survey of our staff and Board members. Once our results were tabulated, we destroyed the individual inputs. In presenting the results, we have decided not to include percentages; industry or sector comparators; or, general or economically active comparators because we do not think that such comparators are directly applicable to very small organisations. For us, one person in any category represents a 3% shift and as we break the organisation down into levels of seniority, one person can shift results by as much as 20%. The results should therefore be used to ‘paint a picture’ rather than assess performance.
| Points to consider | Planned response | Review point |
|---|---|---|
| Good response rate of 33 out of 42 (including Board members) | Build stronger case for completion in 2011 and give longer for completion. | January 2011 and 2011 review point* |
| We are predominantly white/male at middle manager | Strengthen diversity message on recruitment and use SES 20% shortlist target. | April 2011 and whenever recruiting and 2011 review point |
| We are most ethnically diverse at junior level | Build on this through staff development to ensure junior staff have opportunities to develop skills to compete for higher-level jobs either within or outside LSB. The learning and development programme to specifically target this. | August 2011 and 2011 review point |
| Overwhelmingly female at junior levels | Build on this through staff development to ensure junior staff have the opportunity to develop skills to compete for higher-level jobs either within or outside LSB. Learning and development programme to specifically consider and target this. | August 2010 and 2011 review point |
| ‘No transgender’ isn’t statistically significant | No need for action but we should be aware of it being a new issue if we do recruit a person identifying as transgender and we should ensure our recruitment is positive about all diversity. | April 2011, whenever recruiting and 2011 review point |
| Only one person who considers themselves to have a disability | No need for immediate action but ensure recruitment is positive and use SES 20% shortlist target. | Whenever recruiting and 2011 review point |
| A quite positive story on social mobility of workforce | No need for action but review categorisation, learning from best practice for 2011 round. | January 2011 and 2011 review point |
*By 2011 review point we mean after the survey is completed in second half of 2011
Next steps
We have already committed in our SES to a range of actions to promote equality and diversity in line with our legal obligations. One of our planned actions is to ensure that, when we use recruitment agencies, we ask them to ensure that shortlists include at least 20% from traditionally under-represented groups. We will use the information from this diversity survey and the planned action in the table above to help us promote diversity through recruitment.
Our SES also commits us to the development of an appropriate method to harness colleague views generally about equality and diversity. We are considering the development of a staff survey and will use it to help us better understand the views of our colleagues on equality and diversity in the workplace and to use that information to improve outcomes.
We will repeat our diversity survey in the second half of 2011. That will allow us to assess what changes have happened in the first year and provide us with additional information to review our actions and their ongoing applicability. We do not expect change to happen overnight but we are committed to being transparent about where we are.
LSB Governance Manual