Public Sector Equality Duty: Annual report (March 2018) 1. Public Sector Equality Duty

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1 Public Sector Equality Duty: Annual report (March 2018) 1. Public Sector Equality Duty The Equality Act 2010, which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society introduced the concept of Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), which came into force in April 2011.This legislation consolidated anti-discrimination laws with a single Act. The PSED is intended to ensure that public bodies take a positive and proactive approach to promoting equality. They must set at least one equality objective every four years, and publish information to demonstrate compliance by a deadline of 31 January (30 March in 2018). Part of this compliance involves the consideration of equality impact in decision making. The PSED defines nine protected characteristics are part of its framework for considering equality. These are: age disability gender reassignment marriage and civil partnership pregnancy and maternity race religion or belief sex sexual orientation The PSED has three main aims: to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation to advance equality of opportunity - this includes removing or minimising disadvantages; taking steps to meet different needs; encouraging participation. to foster good relations by tackling prejudice and promoting understanding. 2. The College s fulfilment of its objectives in The College s objectives during was to embed equality within its structures and decision-making through the creation of an Equality and Diversity Forum to promote discussion of E&D initiatives. The Forum is made up of a cross-section of the college community: it includes academic staff, trustees, support staff, undergraduate and graduate members. The Forum meets twice termly, and has a modest budget to enable the implementation of various initiatives. Minutes of the Forum are presented promptly to the Governing Body, and the contents of the minutes are discussed by the Governing Body. The Forum is chaired by the Fellow for Equality and Diversity (currently Professor Abigail Williams) who is a member of the Governing Body. 1

2 Some of the activities undertaken by the Forum in are listed below in the section on E&D actions and initiatives completed and underway. 3. PSED objectives for During the course of the next year, the College intends to pursue the following objectives in relation to Equality: to produce an E&D policy for the whole college during the academic year. to ensure that all staff (support and academic) will have undertaken online equality and diversity online training by the end of the calendar year to ensure that decisions take account the equality impact by including regular reminders of trustees obligations to PSED within policy-making documentation and discussion. 4. Fulfilment of duties in relation to PSED The College currently meets its duties of eliminating discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations in a number of ways: having welfare structures for support of students and staff throughout the college having a member of staff responsible for co-ordinating arrangements for disabled students having an HR manager to ensure transparent recruitment processes and appropriate support for staff with disabilities meeting needs of individuals from protected groups where these are different from the needs of others: eg. dietary requirements, gender neutral toilets, step free access. rigorous and transparent selection procedures for the recruitment of the student population. The college seeks to attract applicants of the highest quality and potential regardless of background, and to monitor the composition of each cohort All staff involved in recruitment have compulsory training or refreshed training in admissions procedures The college seeks to attract staff of the highest quality and potential regardless of background, and to monitor the makeup of the staff population Attached to this report, as Annexes A and B, are information about the make-up of the staff and student populations of the College. 2

3 5. E&D activities and initiatives completed and underway at St Peter s College within The following activities have been completed, or significant headway towards them has been made, since the start of the academic year: Creation of a Forum for Equality and Diversity, composed of academic and nonacademic staff, and representatives from the undergraduate and graduate body. Evaluation of disability access to all communal college spaces and facilities by disability access consultants, with a view to improving access to the College Library and other key locations. This will result in a prioritised list and costing for future implementation. Review of the College website for E&D content and representation. Material on the website will be revised to reflect more effectively the provision the College makes for all its members. Improvements to signage and maps within college including better signage of the gender-neutral toilets, disability access routes and baby-changing facilities. The Governing Body agreed to implement compulsory (online) E&D training for all staff, and compulsory racial awareness training for all student-facing and managerial staff. Agreement by the Governing Body of College-wide policy and procedures in relation to harassment. Implementation of questionnaire for members of College staff to be used alongside data on the student population, to benchmark college diversity. An inaugural E&D dinner, with presentations by undergraduate and graduate representatives, and a guest speaker, June Sarpong MBE. Diversifying portraiture project: the college commissioned oil paintings of the first female fellow and a notable alumna to hang in the dining hall, alongside photographic portraits of current and recently retired female fellows. In the coming months, the College plans to commission an oil painting of the College s first BAME professor and assemble a collection of significant members of the college from BAME backgrounds. Installation of flagpole to enable public-facing display of rainbow and trans flags in February and November each year. Use of gender pay review snapshot to increase transparency of pay differential across workforce and diversify leadership roles. We hope to use data from this and future gender pay gap exercises to develop a strategy to provide gender equality and a more balanced representation within leadership roles; including those carrying additional responsibility. We will also explore further opportunities to encourage and review career and skills development and HR policies. 3

4 Annex A: Staff data This annexe provides data on St Peter s College non-academic employees by sex and age. The College s snapshot was taken on 1 March 2018 and includes all employees employed by the College on a permanent or fixed-term contract. It does not include casual workers. Staff Employed as at 1 March 2018 Sex Female Male Total % 43.5% 100% Age U Total % 6% 12% 13% 8% 8% 7% 18% 15% 9% 4% 100% 4

5 Annex B: Student data The information which follows is sourced from reports provided by the University of Oxford to support each college in meeting its obligations under the PSED. The reports have not (at the time of publishing this document) been updated to include the December 2017 snapshot of student data. Chart 1: On-course students: Overview of sex / ethnicity / disability proportions over time Chart 2: On-course students: Sex by division and programme type 5

6 Chart 3: On-course students: Ethnicity by programme type and region Chart 4: On-course students: Disability by programme type 6

7 Chart 5: Undergraduate admissions: Success rate by sex over time Chart 6: Undergraduate admissions: Success rate by ethnicity over time 7

8 Chart 7: Undergraduate admissions: Success rate by disability over time 8