Race equality management

This page forms part of the Transcultural Health resource, published in 2004, and is preserved as a historical document for reference purposes only. Some information contained within it may no longer refer to current practice. More information

Introduction

The prime focus of this module is to explore the management requirements of organisations which put race equality at their core. That is equality must be the premise, process and product of quality management. It is our view that quality is not a label that can be attached to any system, policy or product unless their foundations are based on fairness and equity. Further, where race equality has been an adjunct to existing policies and practices its effective implementation has been marred by a lack of integration into the everyday running of the organisation. Hence, we are concerned here not only with effectiveness but also with the occupational culture of an organisation which makes it possible to create a sustainable race equality strategy.

There are many current initiatives which are attempting to dovetail approaches to all issues of equality. This is in part driven by European Directives which require national governments of member states to introduce protective legislation across race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, religion and belief. While consistency can only be good for equalities and for management processes, it is also important to recognise and address the specific nature of each. This module is primarily concerned with race issues but it also relates to the cross issue initiatives which are currently being introduced.

This parallels the current emphasis on, and approach to, quality contained in contemporary National Health Service clinical governance frameworks. Our aim in this module is therefore to integrate the sentiments behind quality approaches, clinical governance and equality. This is also the agenda of the NHS as the following quotation illustrates:

The concept of clinical governance was first introduced in the white paper the new NHS: Modern, Dependable (DoH, 1998). The paper states (para3.2) that the new NHS will have quality at its heart and recognises that in the past not only have standards of service not been as high as expected, but that one of the founding principles of the NHS that of equity of provision is slowly being eroded. In addition it notes that assessment of service efficiency has tended to focus on activity measures alone, which has not addressed the issue of demonstrable quality of care or the meeting of patient need.

(Boden and Kelly 1999:177)

In addition to this NHS agenda, there have been several events and initiatives regarding race equality in recent years which embrace new legislative and policy provisions; and enhance the imperative for race equality management. These include the:

Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report 1999
Human Rights Act 1998; (implemented October 2000)
Race Relations Act 1976 and Amendment Act 2000;
European directives under Article 13 of the Amsterdam treaty.
Race Equality in Public Services (Home Office publications 2000/2001)
The Equality Standard

There is also an increasingly politicised Black and anti-racist voluntary sector with organisations such as Operation Black Vote, 1990 Trust, Liberty, the National Assembly Against Racism, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust which have led to a heightened awareness of the issues of ‘race’ and racism in the general public.

The academic and business world has also been exploring new discourses on race, one of these being the concept of ‘managing diversity’. All of these elements are subject to exploration in this module.

There are therefore some key drivers for the pursuit of race equality:

public demand.
legislative and policy frameworks.
business models/ economic drivers
moral racism is a violation of human rights.

As a point of interest, in the introduction to the consultation document on the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 Jack Straw, the then Home Secretary, outlined the case for both moral and economic drivers:

Moral

The Government believes that race equality is essential in order to build strong, inclusive, communities. There is a moral case for striving for race equality. It is a basic human right to be treated with equality and fairness. This is recognised in the European Convention on Human Rights and reflected in the Human Rights Act 1998.”

Economic

There is an economic case for (race) equality too, as everyone’s potential can be utilised. In a diverse nation such as ours, whose history has seen successive waves of migration both in and out of the country, that is all the more important.”

As you may expect, these imperatives overlap and drive each other. As a result, they can appear as a great mass of new information. However, do not be overwhelmed. It has been one of the features of race equality debates and training that managers relinquish action to a ‘back burner’ because they do not have the time or resources to digest all of the frameworks they are required to incorporate. Consequently, our intention here is to view equality as part and parcel of the drive for quality. It is a question of priority, leadership and commitment. It is amazing how quickly people have been able to grasp the new concepts and language of managerialism and ways of working with new technologies, but still find the relatively simple notions of best practice in delivering race equality ‘difficult’. It could be that the degree of difficulty has been directly related to the degree of indifference to the issue. What do you think?

However, indifference is no longer an option. Legislation, global market places on our doorsteps and public demand to provide fair equitable and quality services are driving the context for all organisations to change.

Aims

The aims of this module are:

To enable understanding of the rationale and principles of race equality management.
To develop an understanding of the current concepts and terminology concerned with race equality management, including managing diversity.
To enable the use of some pragmatic tools for putting race equality management into practice.
To explore how health institutions can embrace race equality management.

Outline of the module

This module contains discussion of the following:

the context of race equality in Britain, legislation policy and terminology
equality management and diversity management.
changing occupational culture
policy and planning
employment - recruitment and selection, retention, training, grievance and disciplinary, appraisal
service delivery and customer care
consultation, partnerships and multi-agency work
marketing and corporate image.