Acas: Race Equality Impact Assessment of Acas Training Services

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1 Acas: Race Equality Impact Assessment of Acas Training Services Description of Service / Product Acas runs a series of training sessions on a variety of employment issues from half-day to full-day sessions that can be booked online. In addition Acas offers bespoke training for workplaces. Advisers help define the training needs and work in partnership with organisations to develop the programmes to match needs. Acas training can address the developmental needs of individuals as well as relevant organisational challenges using interactive training interventions. Both the solution and the training are designed to improve organisational competitiveness, service delivery and profitability by stimulating long-term behaviour change in the workplace. Typical subjects include equality and diversity, tackling absence, managing recruitment and developing ways of working together effectively as a team. Acas also deliver subject conferences and events to support national as well as regional workplace policy initiatives Evidence Used All Acas training events and conferences are carefully monitored and feedback sheets issued at all our events. These feedback sheets are the basis for our analysis against the Work & Employment Relations Survey (WERS) 2004 of workplaces. Significantly when making this interim impact assessment, it must be borne in mind that attendance at these events is likely to be through the individual s employer or organisation. In other words, the attendee may be instructed to attend or attends by virtue that they work for this particular organisation Whilst some events are populated through individual selection, most are not. This will mean that the evidence based on attendees will be heavily influenced by the

2 representation of the workforces of the attending organisations and not necessarily as a result of the way acas delivers this particular service. Our Findings Overall attendees at our training events for 2005/06 points to 4% national attendance from minority ethnic groups against a workplace population of 6% (Workplace Employment Relations Survey WERS) In London region the proportion of minority ethnic attendees rises to 19% (25% for 1 st quarter 06/07)which is consistent with the 20% ethnic minority population in work according to WERS This mirroring of uptake of acas training with ethnic minority settlement patterns holds broadly true in Birmingham and Nottingham areas at 6% and 4% EM attendance respectively compared to 7% and 5% for the minority ethnic population in the workplace. (6% & 5% attendance for 1 st quarter 06/07) However it falls short in Leeds (Yorkshire and Humber) where there is a minority ethnic population accounts for 5% of people in work according to WERS for 2004 and yet the training course populations are 98% white during 2005/06 and 99% for the 1 st quarter 06/07. Similarly in the North West with a minority ethnic population of 4% (WERS 2004) we have a take up of 2% on our training events from these communities. Our data collection suggests that attendees from Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other South Asian populations (which are significant in Y&H) on acas events is less than 1% nationally. This is may be a reflection of the forms of employment these communities are engaged in that may not be so readily accessible to acas training events. It also may raise questions as to the marketing mix and impact and relevance of our training programmes bearing in mind how candidates for these events are selected.

3 Our Assessment Taking into account the nature of the attendance criteria at these events, we feel the overall picture and that for London and the Midlands adequately reflect a programme that does not unintentionally restrict access of opportunity for minority ethnic groups. However, even in these areas there is no room for complacency and that improvements could be reasonably expected by all our stakeholder communities. The two geographical areas that are counter intuitive are the Leeds, Bradford Sheffield area and the North West. All other things being equal, we would have expected a higher attendance rate and will be undertaking a further study to better understand these figures. Acas, in signing off this assessment therefore commits itself to a period of research and evaluation into this aspect of our service delivery to see if we can secure access improvements.. S Williams August 2006

4 Training Sessions and Conferences ethnicity of delegates % White British % White Irish % Other White % Indian % Pakistani % Bangladeshi % Other Asian Caribbean Birmingham Bristol Bury St Edmonds Fleet Glasgow Leeds Liverpool/ Manchester London Newcastle Nottingham Paddock Wood Wales UK African % White and Asian % Other Mixed % African % Caribbean % Other black % Chinese % Other no. of answers No. of delegates who filled in questionnaires Delegate response rate%

5 Jan March 2006 Training Sessions and Conferences ethnicity of delegates % White British % White Irish % Other White % Indian % Pakistani % Bangladeshi % Other Asian Caribbean Birmingham Bristol Bury St Edmonds Fleet Glasgow Leeds Liverpool/ Manchester London Newcastle Nottingham Paddock Wood Wales UK African % White and Asian % Other Mixed % African % Caribbean % Other black % Chinese % Other no. of answers No. of delegates who filled in questionnaires Delegate response rate%

6 Annex 2 Minority Ethnic people in the Workplace: by ethnic group and region, Great Britain, Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 Percentage % EM Region Ethnic Minority Attendees 2005/06 South East 4 3 South West 1 3 Eastern 3 2 East Midlands 5 4 Wales Less than 1 3 London Scotland 1 1 West Midlands 7 6 Yorkshire & Humber 5 2 North West 4 2 North East 2 1 Great Britain 6 4