ASSESSING THE SUCCESS OF THE RACE RELATIONS (AMENDMENT) ACT 2000

Introduction

Our client is an Agency of a major Government Department. The Agency (18,000 people) wanted to assess progress with implementing the positive duty to promote race equality set out in the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

Methodology

Astar carried out a review of overall progress, as well as identifying areas of strength and areas requiring further work within the Agency. This involved examining a combination of written and oral evidence from the Agencies 42 service areas across England and Wales. The review looked at:

• The state of play at 31 May 2002 (implementation date for the RRAA)
• Progress one year on
• Areas of best practice and areas for further work

The findings were analysed by Astar using our own Assessment Methodology, in this case built around the European Foundation for Quality Management Framework. This was further supported by qualitative research with those responsible for the implementation of the RRAA at a local level, across a national spread.

The Analysis was used to:

• Evaluate how far the service areas had come in meeting RRAA requirements and Race Equality Scheme objectives
• Identify best practice, poor performers and those who needed specific support on particular aspects of race equality work
• Make recommendations for improvement

Key Findings

There were wide variations in progress across the Agency. There was evidence of some good progress in relation to:

• BME representation within the staff of the Agency (although not at senior levels)
• Improvements in service delivery
• Consultation and community engagement

Factors influencing progress included level of skill/knowledge, e.g. for impact assessment of policies and services, exposure to race equality issues, i.e. some areas with low BME populations found it difficult to make progress as quickly as they would have liked, particularly in terms of building links with BME groups.

Recommendations

Astar made a number of recommendations around sharing best practice and innovation; putting in place effective systems for monitoring progress across the Agency and support for those parts of the Agency not making sufficient progress.

Follow Up

A presentation of findings from the progress review was made to representatives from the Agency’s regional service delivery areas. Astar was also asked to develop an assessment tool for the Agency to use in the following year, taking into account the lessons learnt from the Year 1 progress review.