A new Liberal Democrat report into race equality in education and employment received positive feedback at a conference headlined by the business secretary Vince Cable.
Over 100 delegates gathered on Saturday for the party’s first race equality conference which saw the launch of a 56-page report containing 30 recommendations for tackling racism in schools and the jobs market.
The report was the work of a race equality taskforce which was established by party leader Nick Clegg who also wrote a foreword.
Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats and the Social Liberal Forum, who joined forces to host the conference on Saturday 1st June, declared the event a success. You can see live Twitter reactions from delegates on hashtag #ldraceconf
The taskforce, led by former EMLD chair Baroness Meral Hussien-Ece, have spent a year taking evidence from experts, suggests measures to close the GCSE achievement gap between Black and white children and a schools ombudsman to make exclusions fairer.
On employment, the taskforce recommends that the private sector should monitor and publish equalities information just as public authorities do, and that national and local government should make better use of their purchasing power to force companies to improve diversity before getting public contracts.
You can view the report here and below:
View this document on ScribdIn his keynote speech, Cable said: “I found this report very helpful. It is really admirable. I hope the party will take it seriously.”
He acknowledged that race equality had” slipped off the political agenda”, adding: “I think this report was good in highlighting some of the concrete realities. In the schools we have a five percent exclusion rate but for black African Caribbean’s it is 11 percent and for African Caribbean boys its’ almost double that.
“The impact of unemployment has been disproportionately felt by ethnic minorities. Public sector is far ahead of the private sector in taking race equality seriously so there is a differential impact felt through that.”
He said that government were already doing some things recommended by the taskforce like using equalities in procurement of public contracts with businesses but that it was sometimes a “tickbox exercise” and there was an argument for going further.
The race equality taskforce report was covered by The Guardian who played up the areas of possible policy differences with the coalition. The paper commented:
“The panel, set up by the deputy prime minister to find effective measures to tackle discrimination, condemned plans in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act to reduce employers’ liability for workplace discrimination and employment tribunals’ power to address the issue. The taskforce called for firms seeking government contracts to be obliged to promote race equality, and for targets for schools to recruit black or ethnic minority teachers.”
However the Lib Dem Voice blog for grassroots members saw past the sensational spin:
“While these bombshells will grab the headlines, there is food for thought throughout the report. Recommendation 25, for example, addresses the lack of progress in access to private sector employment for BAME applicants. This is a challenge. Bidding for public sector contracts as a small business already represents a minefield of boxes to tick. So how do we establish this policy without compounding the unfairness to small business? Answers on a postcard please.”
Some of those answers were in the report itself, which suggested that this change should apply to bigger businesses. Cable noted evidence that private sector employers are many more times likely to discriminate against BAME people and said more action to tackle this problem was needed.
In a statement on the eve of the EMLD/SLF conference, Clegg commented: “The Lib Dems have a proud history of fighting against racism and discrimination in all areas of life. I welcome this report which raises important questions about how we can continue to tackle discrimination on the grounds of race and improve social mobility for people from ethnic minority backgrounds, helping us to build a fairer society.
“I’d like to give my personal thanks to all of those who worked on this report for shining a light on issues that are too often ignored, or else deemed too sensitive or difficult to grapple with.”
Former London region chair Jonathan Fryer, a Euro candidate, wrote a blog about the event which noted:
“A great deal of work still needs to be done. Although many of us living in London may be lulled into the comfortable feeling that we live in a happy, secure rainbow nation the facts often speak otherwise.”
Speakers at the EMLD-SLF conference, which was held at Amnesty International’s London headquarters, included ex-Charlton Athletic player Paul Mortimer from Show Racism the Red Card, Dr Rob Berkeley director of the Runnymede Trust, and senior police officer Leroy Logan.
A full list of speakers can be found here.
Launching the taskforce report, Baroness Hussein-Ece said: “We have made huge strides but it should not rely on luck. All too often it is still a question of who your parents are and where you come from rather than what abilities you have, and this is something that is still hugely discriminatory.”
“Too often they come from homes where parents are not good at navigating the system, perhaps their families don’t have the sharpest elbows, and face disadvantages because of their race.
“It means doing things differently. People say we should treat everyone the same, well this often discriminates against one section of society.”
Educationalist Professor Gus John told the conference: “Because of what you profess you have a particular responsibility to guard, uphold and advance an agenda that’s about equality and social justice.
“We struggle to put race on the political agenda in this country, and to this day it is not central to the concerns of politicians.
“Decade after decade certain things remain constant; the number of people excluded from school, the ethnic disproportionality, the number of those stopped and searched by the police.”
Lester Holloway, EMLD secretary, is a member of the race equality taskforce. He chaired a plenary on race and employment with Brake, Kelly-Marie Blundell, Janice Turner and Dr Berkeley. He said: “This is the first time a piece of work like this has been done within the Lib Dems and I really hope that we always have a process of policy formulation within the party on race equality.”
The conference also saw an education workshop with EMLD vice-chair Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera, Euro candidate Anuja Prashar and SLF director Dr Prateek Buch.
A full set of pictures of the event are available on EMLD’s Flickr here.
Chairing a plenary on employment with (l-r) Kelly-Marie Blundell, Dr Rob Berkeley, Tom Brake MP and Janice Turner
EMLD chair Issan Ghazni with SLF co-chair Gareth Epps
Leroy Logan
Professor Gus John, Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece and Paul Mortimer from Show Racism the Red Card
Duwayne Brooks, Gareth Epps and TUC’s Wilf Sullivan
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera, Dr Prateek Buch and Anuja Prashar
