Policy Updates & Briefing

BME Third Sector campaign to increase recognition of the positive contribution made by the Black and Minority Ethnic Third Sector

Voice4Change England’s is seeking your help in the ‘ Valuing the BME Third Sector’ campaign to increase recognition of the positive contributions made by the Black and Minority Ethnic Third Sector, in bonding communities and promoting equality. Organisations are being urged to Lobby their MPs, in support of the campaign.
Lack of visibility and a lack of understanding of the role of BME third sector organisations, is a key reason behind the disadvantage they suffer when it comes to securing funding. The result is a continuation of the historic under-resourcing that has limited the Sector’s ability to do more in reducing inequalities.
To raise the profile of the Sector and to build political support, Early Day Motion (EDM) No 620 Voice4Change, has been tabled by Alun Michael MP. Voice4Change needs organisations to support the effort by getting their MPs to both sign the EDM and engage with frontline services through meetings and project visits. Further information about the campaign and guidance on how you can write to your MP is available on Voice4Change website - http://www.voice4change-england.co.uk/valuing_the_bme_third_sector_campaign.html -

Place Satisfaction Survey

Every two years as part of the Comprehensive Area Assessment, all local authorities must carry out a place/quality of life survey. This survey is to discover local resident's views on a range of issues which affect their every days lives including crime, anti-social behaviour, street cleanliness, transport, health and general quality of life. The residents surveyed are randomly selected.
This survey replaces the Best Value Performance Indicators general satisfaction survey that was carried out every three years. It is a government requirement and all districts across the country will be asking the same questions so that national trends and comparisons can be made. Every London borough (and potentially the City of London) will be required to carry out the 'Place Survey' every two years.
Capturing local people's views, experiences and perceptions, means that the solutions for an area can reflect local views and priorities. The survey is also a way of tracking people's changing perceptions, including a way of determining whether interventions made in an area result in the right outcomes for local people for instance do people feel happier, healthier, safer etc?
The Place Survey of local boroughs, will eventually supply the data by which a number of national indicators will be measured. The national indicators will measure how well Government's priorities, as set out in the Comprehensive Spending Review- are being delivered by local government and local government partnerships.
The data will be published by Communities and Local Government – however local boroughs are expected to have a proactive communications strategy to disseminate the results widely.


Equality and Human Rights Commission Report on Police and Racism

10 years on from the publication of the Lawrence Inquiry report, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has put together a report on Police and Racism to consider what progress the police service has made in terms of race equality. The report considers four main themes:
• Employment, Training, Retention, and Promotion
• Stop and Search
• DNA database
• Race hate crimes

Employment
Recent statistics provide evidence of some progress in this area:

• For all staff, both civilian and sworn officers, the police has exceeded the Home Office target for ethnic minorities to make up at least 7% of the service in England and Wales by 2009. In 2007 the total was 8%.

• The proportion of ethnic minority officers has risen from 2% in 1999 to 3.9% (5,511 officers) in April 2007. However, the target of 7% will almost certainly not be met.

• The proportion of ethnic minorities who were successful police recruits increased from 6.3% to 10.7% of the total number of candidates during the first half of 2007-08.

• Nearly 12% of police community support officers are from ethnic minority groups.

• Targets on progression through the ranks have been met, in all but the very top levels.

• Ethnic minority officers do, however, have a higher resignation rate than white officers, particularly in the first six months of service.


Stop and search

Police statistics show that a decade after the Lawrence Inquiry report, black people are seven times more likely to be stopped and searched than white with Asian people twice as likely to be stopped and searched as white people.

The report expresses a concern that this disproportionate impact of stop and search on black people has shown no long term drop in the past 15 years and also with the Home Office making several significant changes to the way ‘stop and search’ is recorded.


DNA

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is against the database holding DNA samples and fingerprints of suspects who have been released or cleared as recently as October 2008. It also is of the belief that for the past 10 years the police service has failed to properly acknowledge or address the race equality impact of the database.

By the Commission’s calculations, more than 30% of all black males living in Britain are on the National DNA Database compared with about 10% of white males and 10% of Asian males. Estimates suggest that black men are about four times more likely than white men to have their DNA profiles stored on the police National DNA Database. This situation has the potential to result in race patterns on the database strengthening ‘ethnic profiling,’ also there is the possibility that samples or DNA records could be sold in the future to commercial research companies, for research such as trying to establish crimogenic genes in certain races.

Racist incidents

The Commission believes that overall there has been significant progress in the past 10 years in how the police deal with racist incidents and Figures from the latest British Crime Survey, indicate that the number of racially motivated incidents has fallen from 390,000 incidents in 1995 to 184,000 in 2006/07.

The majority of racist incidents are not reported to the police. Recorded racist incidents in England and Wales rose from nearly 14,000 in 1997/8 to 61,262 in 2006/7 and this rise in reported crime figures can be interpreted as a form of ‘success’, in the sense that the police and other agencies have been trying to encourage a greater level of reporting among victims of race crimes.


Conclusions

In some areas the police service is making clear progress in delivering race equality, however the Equality and Human Rights Commission has also identified issues and concerns that appear to have been ignored, and highlighted areas where initiatives are having little impact.

The report also contains recommendations.


Working in a consortium: a guide from Office of the Third Sector

BAMER organisations are being encouraged to work in consortiums, to enable them have greater access to funding. The Office of the Third Sector has produced a guide for third sector organisations involved or interested in being involved in public service delivery. The guide consists of an introduction to consortium working, a discussion on whether working in a consortium is right for the organization and a list of where to get more information and advice.

Why a consortium?
One of the key reasons to form a consortium is that it provides an organisation new opportunities to secure contracts which it would otherwise not have available. Other reasons for forming a consortium include to:
• Extend current activities, to include new ones for different client groups
• Deliver services in another geographical area
• Tender for a contract where the specification includes areas of activity the organization is unable to deliver
• Respond to another organisation which has approached with a view to joining a consortium; or
• Ensure the organisation continues to provide services to a particular client group
If the relationship is to be satisfactory for all parties, it requires: a shared vision; good communication; sound policies and procedures; effective financial, risk and environmental management systems; a clear understanding of the practical details including potential risks; and access to regularly updated relevant legislation.
Before an organisation takes any steps in the development of a consortium there are some key questions which it should be clear on in order not to loose organisational focus and to continue to meet it’s aims and objectives. These include:
• The organisations vision and values
• What is the organisations aim?
• Why the organisation wants to extend your operations?
• How it will measure success?
• What key Performance Indicators have been set for the expansion activity?
The guide also looks at potential pitfalls in developing a consortium and states that one of the most common is as a result of a lack of clarity of the purpose, structure and management arrangements for the consortium.

Organisations need to be aware that even if they deliver on their contractual requirements, they may still be liable because of the failure of one of the other consortium members. It is thus important that senior staff and governance of organizations think through possible implications and potential legal actions and consider how to mitigate these risks. A key area to explore is insurance and most financial risks can be insured but costs may be a prohibiting factor.

The guide strongly recommends that specialist legal advice be taken from the earliest stages in the development of a consortium, not just in relation to the drafting of the legal documentation for the consortium but also in ensuring that the formation of the consortium and the way in which the contract is to be delivered does not breach Competition Law. A copy of the guide is available from the link below.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/107235/consortium%20guide%20final.pdf