Public Sector Equality Duty: Annual report (March 2019) 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 March each year. 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 2018-19 The College aimed to meet its objectives during 2018-19 using the structures and decisionmaking of the Equality and Diversity Forum, which promotes 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. Some of the activities undertaken by the Forum in 2018-19 are listed below in the section on E&D actions and initiatives completed and underway.
3. PSED objectives for 2019-20 During the course of the next year, the College will continue to pursue the following objectives in relation to Equality: to produce an E&D policy for the whole college: due by December 2018, we intend to have a full draft of this document by June 2019 to ensure that all staff (support and academic) will have undertaken online equality and diversity online training. All academic and senior management have undergone Race Awareness Training, and online training is still underway. to ensure that decisions are informed by equality impact by including regular reminders of trustees obligations to PSED within policy-making documentation and discussion. This is an ongoing objective. Additional objectives for 2019-20: to change all single occupancy toilets on the main site to be labelled as gender neutral. to review the allocation of accommodation provision for students with disabilities. To ensure that the college s commitment to a gender-balanced workplace is reflected in its recruitment processes. To ensure that the recently-installed photo exhibition Who We Are continues to reflect the diversity of the college community and is refreshed on a regular basis. 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.
5. E&D activities and initiatives completed and underway at St Peter s College within 2018-19 The following activities have been completed, or significant headway towards them has been made, since the start of the 2018-19 academic year: 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 has resulted in a prioritised list and costing for future implementation, and plans are in place for the first round of improvements. Creation of Equality and Diversity pages on college website: these offer further information about initiatives across the college; sources of support; public documents; information about access. Improvements to signage and maps within college including better signage of gender-neutral toilets, disability access routes and baby-changing facilities. Single use m/f gendered toilets on the main site have been redesignated as gender-neutral. Implementation of compulsory (online) E&D training for all staff, and compulsory race awareness training for academic and managerial staff. An E&D dinner, with a guest speaker, activist and Oxford city councillor, Shaista Aziz. Diversifying portraiture project: the college has commissioned an oil painting of the College s first BAME professor and has installed in the dining hall a collection of newly commissioned photographic portraits of significant members of the college from BAME backgrounds. A new photo exhibition in the lodge, Who We Are depicts staff and students representing diversity in gender, age, disability, sexuality, class and faith. Review and discussion of available admissions data on undergraduate BAME applications to the college. 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 continue 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.
Annex A: Staff data This annexe provides data on St Peter s College employees by sex and age. The data has also been split between academic and non-academic appointments. The College s snapshot was taken on 1 March 2019 and includes all employees employed by the College on a permanent or fixed-term contract. It does not include casual workers. All Male Female Total 82 65 147 56% 44% 100% U18 18-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 Total 0 6 16 18 23 13 20 21 16 11 3 147 0% 4% 11% 12% 16% 9% 14% 14% 11% 7% 2% 100% Academics Male Female Total 42 18 60 70% 30% 100% U18 18-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 Total 0 1 6 7 15 7 13 5 5 1 0 60 0% 2% 10% 12% 25% 12% 22% 8% 8% 2% 0% 100% Nonacademics Male Female Total 40 47 87 46% 54% 100% U18 18-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-65 66-70 Total 0 5 10 11 8 6 7 16 11 10 3 87 0% 6% 11% 13% 9% 7% 8% 18% 13% 11% 3% 100%
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 data reported below is the most recent data available from the University. Chart 1: On-course students: Overview of sex / ethnicity / disability proportions over time
Chart 2: On-course students: Sex by division and programme type
Chart 3: On-course students: Ethnicity by programme type and region
Chart 4: On-course students: Disability by programme type
Chart 5: Undergraduate admissions: acceptance rate gaps over time