Equality and Diversity Report 2010/11

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Data sources Student data College Management Information System City College Plymouth workforce data Human Resources database FE colleges workforce data Annual Workforce Diversity Profile 2008/09 published in 2011 by LLUK

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Contents Introduction 2 Policy Statement 2 Targets and Key Achievements 3 Age 5 Disability 8 Gender 10 Gender Identity 12 Pregnancy and Maternity 14 Race 14 Religion and Belief 20 Sexual Orientation 20 Fair Trade 22 Eliminating Bullying and Harassment 22 Promotion and Engagement 23 Teaching, Learning and Assessment 24 Leadership and Management 24 Equality Objectives 27 Future Plans and Development 28

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

1. Introduction

2. Policy Statement

Welcome to the Equality and Diversity Annual Report for 2010/11. This report gives a picture of equality and diversity at City College Plymouth and shows how the College is working to drive forward equality and diversity and how we are meeting our legislative requirements under the Equality Act 2010.

City College Plymouth is a College of respect committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all our students and staff. One of our core College values is:

The College has a long established commitment to equality and diversity which gives responsibility for its achievement to everyone connected with the organisation. Equality and diversity is well embedded throughout the College and can be evidenced in our strategic, curriculum and quality processes. It has been driven by a comprehensive and well monitored Single Equality Scheme and underpinned by an Equality and Diversity Policy. The College meets its legal requirements for an equality and diversity policy with clear statements on protected characteristic discrimination.

Our aim is to create an environment where people treat each other with mutual respect regardless of age, disability, colour, ethnic origin, family responsibility, gender, gender identity, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, nationality, race, religion and philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

Diversity: equality, diversity and integration, fair treatment, mutual respect, trust and openness are the rights of all.

Key points

The College developed and published a Single Equality Scheme which covered the discrimination legislation.

This three year scheme ran from 2008/9 to 2010/11 and covered age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation. The scheme has now reached the end of its scheduled time and the Single Equality Scheme has been evaluated and will be replaced in 2011/12 with Equality Objectives underpinned by an Equality and Diversity Action Plan. Equality impact assessments are carried out on policy and strategic documents. The Accessibility Commitment giving guidance on the help available to students with learning difficulties and disabilities is published annually. These documents are all available from the College website.

• We welcome students and staff from all backgrounds and value and actively celebrate the benefits that diversity and difference bring to the College and our society.

In January 2010 the College was reaccredited with Investors in People, in March 2010 the Careers and Information, Advice and Guidance team were successfully reaccredited with Investors in Careers, and in June 2010 for Matrix. In July 2011 the College had a successful review for the ‘two ticks’ Disability Symbol.

• We expect all members of our community (students, governors, employees, agents, contractors, volunteers and visitors) to follow our vision and values for equality and diversity.

• The College raises awareness of equality and human rights, promotes diversity and combats all forms of inequality, disadvantage, prejudice, unfair discrimination, harassment and mistreatment within its communities.

• The College believes that all forms of prejudice and unfair discrimination are unacceptable.

• The College is committed to creating a safe environment for all students and staff.

I hope this report gives you an insight into how our commitment to equality and diversity is evident in life at our College, how far we have travelled in promoting equality and diversity and how we plan to take forward our vision for equality and diversity in our College community.

Phil Davies

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

3. Targets and Key Achievements Each year, to increase equality of opportunity, the College has set equality and diversity targets.

The targets in 2010/11 were set to improve the performance of underachieving groups by reducing achievement gaps between disadvantaged groups and their peers. Achievement gaps are differences in success rates between different groups of learners.

The College chose to use achievement gaps for the Equality and Diversity targets in 2010/11 to further raise awareness of the importance of achievement gaps by showing how the analysis of gaps leads to action and improved performance of underachieving groups.

The College Faculties set individual targets and put in place actions to improve gaps where they existed.

Seven out of 10 of these targets were achieved and significant reductions to the gaps have been made. The table below details the targets and the outcomes.

Further targets have been set to improve the performance of disadvantaged groups in 2011/12. The College has set Equality Objectives in 2011/12 which will be reviewed annually. These are in section 18 of this report and are published on our website.

Equality and Diversity Targets 2010/11 Faculty

group

2009/10 Achievement gap

2010/11 Target

2010/11 Outcome

A&S

Minority ethnic heritage

-10.4%

-3%

2.2%

Business and Leisure Industries

Disability

-2.3%

0%

-4.2%

Learning difficulty

-2.3%

0%

10.4%

Minority ethnic heritage

-2.7%

0%

11.3%

Disability

-13.3%

-5%

-1.9%

Learning difficulty

-1.2%

0%

7.4%

Minority ethnic heritage

-8.7%

-5%

11.1%

Learning difficulty

-7.5%

-5%

2.0%

Health

Disability

-3.7%

0%

-1.3%

Skills for Life

Minority ethnic heritage

-6.5%

-3.5%

-9.1%

Whole College

Young white males

-5%

-2%

0.1%

Construction

Engineering

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Equality

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Key achievements in 2010/11 The key areas of progress made in 2010/11 include: • student achievement gaps which have narrowed for disability, remained positive for the learners with learning difficulties and remained narrow for gender • student feedback clearly showing that students felt safe and respected and understood the need to work well with people of different types and backgrounds and to value everyone’s contribution • a revised Equality and Diversity Policy streamlined to promote accessibility and effectiveness and updated to reflect the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 • the introduction of an Equality and Diversity Forum to promote the representation and interests of the protected groups amongst students and staff • the introduction of a pregnancy and young parents support group to encourage pregnant mothers and young parents to engage with learning and to achieve qualifications • the replacement of the Single Equality Scheme with a focussed Equality and Diversity Action Plan containing actions for all teams and addressing all the protected groups • the development of Equality Objectives to drive forward equality and diversity • the introduction of improved equality performance reporting for Governors.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

4. Age In 2010/11 the student age profile spanned from 13 to 79 years. The graph below illustrates the distribution of the age groups with the students under the age of 16 at 3%, the 16-19 age group at 33% and the 19+ age group at 64% of the student population.

Working with disengaged and deprived young people

The staff age profile ranged from 18 to 76 and had a fairly even distribution across the age groups as shown in the graph below. The largest age group was 50-54 (14%) and the 60-64 age group was the smallest (3%) with 26 members of staff aged over 65.

Future Jobs Fund

Examples of activities where the College engages with age equality include the programmes offered by the Work Based Learning Department such as Jumpstart, Prince’s Trust and V-talent. These focus on reengaging young people in education and training.

The Princes Trust Team Programme is designed to enhance the personal effectiveness and self esteem for the unemployed aged between 16-25.

On one project, in partnership with the police, the Prince’s Trust students raised money and then spent a week sprucing up the grounds of a residential home using materials donated by local businesses.

The College has also taken part in the Future Jobs Fund initiative which in 2010/11 gave 15 young people aged 18-24 who had been out of work for six months an opportunity to gain paid employment for a six month period.

Five young people have been offered a job at College as a result of this initiative.

Working with older people in the community

Working with young people The College engages with young people in many of its activities, for example organising vocational taster sessions for children from primary schools where youngsters tried activities from plaiting and spiking hair to de-scaling a fish. Another example involved raising money for the NSPCC when students and staff organised fund raising activities as part of the Dragon’s Challenge event where local organisations competed to raise the most money for the NSPCC.

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An example of students and the College working with older people is the Dementia Project which was part of a Learning and Skills Improvement Service 14-19 Vocational Curriculum Development Project. The aim was to raise awareness in the care sector of the problems and strategies associated with dementia. The College worked closely with Age Concern and the local museum to develop reminiscence training which will be taken into care homes. The completion of the project has resulted in a framework for developing the curriculum in the future.

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

5. Disability The College’s commitment to promote equality of opportunity for all its students can be shown by the positive support and care we provide to students with disabilities and learning difficulties. This is recognised by students in student feedback surveys with 98% of students finding the support offered by their learning support assistants useful. It is shown in comments such as “I have found this very helpful and it has given me confidence with my learning”.

In 2010/11 students who declared a disability made up 13% of the student population and 11% declared a learning disability. Declared disability has plateaued (14% in 2008/09; 14% in 09/10; 13% in 10/11) while the number of students who are unknowns, giving the College no information on whether a disability exists, has significantly dropped (13%, 5%, 3%). Declared learning difficultly has risen slowly (9%, 10%, 11%) and again the unknowns have dropped (14%, 5%, 3%).

Students with disabilities had success rates which were just above the success rates of students with no disabilities and students with learning difficulties had success rates which were well above students with no learning difficulties. The achievement gap analysis for long course success rates over the last 3 years shows a positive trend for students with disabilities (-1.1%, -3%, 0.7%) and for those with learning difficulties (-1.5%, 2.5%, 7.6%).

The graph below illustrates this trend.

The College has a specialist Learning Support team who support students across the College with disabilities and learning difficulties. The team supported 653 students in 2010/11 (537 in 09/10 and 387 in 08/09). Students are empowered by this team and one student commented “I feel very comfortable with my support and would find things very difficult without her.” The team provides specialist training to support the individual needs of students and in 2010/11 trained 173 staff and 32 students.

The College’s learning accommodation is highly accessible for people with motor and sensory disabilities. Details are set out in Accessibility Commitment and the College joined the DisabledGo website in September 2009. The high numbers of computers for private and group study (284 in the Learning Resource Service and more in curriculum areas with all the Microsoft accessibility features and Inspirations), adjustable furniture, assistive aids and programmes all facilitate use by students with disabilities as do the course Moodle sites and course materials.

Reasonable adjustments are made for individuals where needed and improvements in 2010/11 included rise and fall units in the refurbished hospitality kitchens. There is a disability forum to gain student engagement and feedback on the College provision and resources In 2010/11 declarations of disability for our workforce stood at 5%. The further education college average in the South West was 2.4% in 2008/09 (Annual Workforce Diversity Profile 2008/09 published in 2011 by LLUK). The graph below shows the declared disability trend for applicants and employees. The College has the ‘two ticks’ standard demonstrating it is positive about disabled people.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Student enrichment projects Our College has a range of projects encouraging interaction and building life skills for our students with disabilities. Examples in 2010/11 included a trip to Finland for 8 of our students with learning difficulties and disabilities to learn employment skills relating to hospitality and catering and encouraging interaction with their European peers and helping to build important life skills. College students and staff attended a Disabled Activity Day in June on the Hoe, where lots of events and interaction took place.

6. Gender In 2010/11 there were approximately equal numbers of men and women students, with 43% female and 57% male students. The graph below shows the gender distribution across the College faculties and departments illustrating the gender divide in some areas.

Project Search Another example of College activity is Project Search, a work-based initiative which began in the USA and is now active in the UK. It is a proven way of progressing young adults with learning disabilities into sustained mainstream employment.

It launched in Plymouth last year and is a partnership between Derriford Hospital, City College Plymouth and Pluss which provides work experience through internships. The interns spend an academic year within hospital departments with the support of City College Plymouth and Pluss staff. Additionally, they also complete a level 1 Diploma in Skills for Working Life, which underpins and validates their involvement in the scheme.

In 2010/11 eight of our students took part and five subsequently gained jobs. One student commented “My life has changed for good, I feel like I am a different person, more confident in myself and capable of taking anything on�.

The gender gap between male and female success has narrowed over the last 3 years and analysis at cross college level for long courses showed male success was 1.2% below female success in 2010/11 (2.3% in 08/09; 1.2% in 09/10). Female success was 82.6% and male success stood at 81.4% as shown in the trend graph below.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

The staff profile does not closely match the student profile as 41% of the workforce were men and 59% were women in 2010/11. The graph below shows the staff gender distribution across the College faculties and departments reflecting the gender divide in the student profile. The senior team had a similar gender balance with 10 men and 14 women (42% and 58%).

The governor profile appropriately reflected the student profile with 5 female (31%) and 8 male (69%) governors.

Women into Technology An example of the activities organised to promote gender equality is the Women into Technology event.

Sixty-eight female students from schools in Plymouth and South East Cornwall came to the College for the annual ‘Women into Technology’ event in October.

The students were given the opportunity to attend workshops throughout the day, designed to give them a hands-on experience of what the industry can offer at a time when they are planning their future careers.

The event was sponsored by Plymouth Construction Training and representatives from Western Electrical, Grant Engineering, LEDZip and ABB were available to offer advice and guidance.

At an Engineering Enterprise event gender stereotyping was challenged by a contest to design racing car engine throttle won by girls from a local school.

7. Gender Identity

The graph below shows the gender trend for applicants and employees over the last 3 years.

The College is committed to tackling discrimination and this includes discrimination on the ground of gender identity. The Equality and Diversity Policy, the Single Equality Scheme and now the Equality and Diversity Action Plan include gender identity statements, actions and objectives. Gender identity equality is included in mandatory staff training and there is a resource section on the E&D Moodle site to provide additional support. Intercom Trust, a South West community support and advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people provides additional specialist training for staff.

The College is committed to supporting any transgender students or members of staff as appropriate to the needs of the individual. In 2010/11 specific guidance for tutors supporting transgender students was produced after consultation.

The gender pay gap refers to the difference between the average earnings of men and women. In the College the gender pay gap for all full time and part time staff was 18.8% in 2010/11. The comparable gender pay gap in the public sector for all employees is 19.2%.

The Students Union has established an LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society. This group is student led and provides support for students.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

8. Pregnancy and Maternity The College supports parents through the provision of nurseries. The two Curious Kittens nurseries provide childcare for children aged from six months to school age, and after school care and holiday clubs for five to eleven year olds at both the Kings Road and Goschen centres. The nurseries enable both students and staff to study and/or work knowing their children are well cared for and stimulated. Both nurseries were inspected by Ofsted in 2007 and both were awarded ‘outstanding’ for their nursery and kids’ club provision.

During 2010/11 the nurseries cared for 127 children, of which 59 were the children of students, 16 were the children of staff and 52 were from local community families.

Plymouth has a higher than average pregnancy rate amongst teenagers so in 2010/11 the College responded with a pregnancy and young parents support project to support pregnant mothers and young parents both at College and in the community.

The project has built partnerships and links to provide support mechanisms to encourage pregnant mothers and young parents to enrol and to stay on course.

Guidance for tutors supporting pregnant students has been developed and a parenting course with a crèche was provided. This project monitored the progress of the 57 pregnant students identified in 2010/11 and raised pregnant student success rates from 67% to 82%.

9. Race In 2010/11 the proportion of the student population from a minority ethnic heritage was 11%, slightly above the estimated Plymouth ethnic population of 9.7%. A detailed breakdown is given below.

% of student population

Plymouth population

White UK

88.6%

90.8%

White – non UK

4.6%

3.0%

Mixed/multiple ethnic groups

1.0%

1.3%

Asian/Asian British

1.6%

2.6%

1.4%

1.0%

1.2%

0.9%

Ethnic heritage

Black/African/Caribbean/ Black British Other ethnic group

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

The graph above gives a comparison of the College’s ethnic heritage profile for students and staff compared to Plymouth, the South West region and England.

The success rates of minority heritage students have improved but not at the same rate as the success rates for White UK students leading to the achievement gap widening over the past 3 years as shown in the graph below. The success rates for long courses across college were 83.8% for White UK students and 78.9% for students with a minority heritage giving an achievement gap of 4.9% (2.3% in 08/09 and 4.1% in 09/10). Nationally the largest achievement gap is 7.1% between the mixed White and Black Caribbean heritage and White UK students. There was a detailed investigation into the causes of the achievement gap to identify actions to counteract the situation.

Analysis of the gap showed that it was influenced by the high proportion of students from a minority heritage enrolled on the English for Speakers of Other Languages programme (ESOL). The ESOL success rates met the national average for minority heritage students on ESOL courses, but when compared with the high college success rates there is a gap of 8%.

The gap is minor for minority heritage students who are not on ESOL courses who have a success rate of 1% less than the overall College average. A high number of students who did not achieve were asylum seekers or refugees and further ways of supporting these students were investigated to be put in place for 2011/12.

% of workforce

Plymouth population

White UK

94.6%

90.8%

White – non UK

2.8%

3.0%

Mixed/multiple ethnic groups

0.7%

1.3%

Asian/Asian British

0.6%

2.6%

Black/African/ Caribbean/Black British

0.4%

1.0%

Other ethnic group

0.9%

0.9%

Ethnic heritage

The staff profile had a minority ethnic heritage of 5.2% with 2 ethnic minority governors. A detailed staff breakdown is shown above.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

The Human Resources team is continuing to make strong efforts to recruit a diverse workforce and the ethnicity profile at the College has increased over the past 3 years from 4.3% in 2008/09 to 5.2% in 2010/11 and now stands at 5.6% (January 2012).

The ethnicity profile in Plymouth is currently going through a period of fast change rising around 2% each year. The increase in people with a minority ethnic heritage is made up from economic migrants mainly from Eastern Europe and refugees and asylum seekers.

Promoting cultural diversity One example of a project to promote cultural diversity was the garden project when Construction students and English for Speakers of Other Languages students worked together to improve the quadrant garden.

Another event promoting respect and celebrating diversity with our Skills Development and Performing Arts students was the visit by Sadio Cissokho who led workshops exploring the with the musical instruments and songs of Senegal.

Leonardo programme As one approach to addressing the lack of diversity in the local area the College provides work placements for European Union students through the Leonardo programme. Leonardo funds staff and students involved in vocational education and training to set up co-operative activities, work experience placements and work shadowing in another European country.

Our College currently runs Leonardo placements in fifteen European countries, primarily in Construction and Hospitality. Staff from across the College have benefited from vocational development through Leonardo funding.

The International Office continued to develop links and partnerships in a range of different countries and to diversify international activity across the College curriculum. The College hosted visits by Shanghai International Studies University in January 2011, and

by Hanoi Tourism College, Vietnam, in March 2011, to continue the process of establishing articulation agreements for the progression of students to the UK to study. The College’s participation in a PMI2 (Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education) funded project to promote vocational education in Korea, with Plymouth focussing on Beauty Therapy and Hairdressing with our partner, Dong-Eui Institute of Technology in Busan, concluded in May 2011 with a high-profile Dissemination Event in Seoul attended by Government ministers and education professionals. The College also welcomed the first ever government sponsored students from Korea on the Global Workforce Training Programme for a 16 week placement from September to December 2010.

The College attended the British Council Education UK exhibition in Vietnam in October and made visits during the year to visit partners, to support prospective students and to recruit new students in China, Nepal, Hong Kong.

The International Office held a 2 day Orientation Programme for all new international students in September, including information talks, a coach tour of Plymouth and the surrounding area, and a boat cruise in Plymouth Sound. Student trips were organised by the International Office to London and Bath, and the annual Christmas Party and Chinese New Year Party were great successes and enjoyed by students and VIPs.

International developments The highlight of the academic year 2010/11 in May 2011 was to become the third college in the UK to be awarded the new Association of Colleges’ Charter for Excellence in International Education and Training, a new kitemark recognising the commitment of the College to responsible and ethical international activities, and also the quality of the provision and support for international students. The College’s status as a Highly Trusted Sponsor was also renewed by UKBA in August 2011.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

10. Religion and Belief

Chinese New Year

The multi faith chaplaincy team is well established and maintains quiet rooms at the Kings Road and Goschen centres and offers moral and spiritual support. In 2010/11 the Chaplaincy participation in student life has included the Chaplain attending induction and speaking at the student conference, increased student performance in the Carol Service, the Chaplaincy team taking part in the Affairs of the Heart student event and the Breathe event for students during the Spring term. It ran for 2 days in the main hall at Kings Road and 170 students from a wide range of courses took part. Breathe is a resource for the spiritual development of 16-19 year olds, encouraging them to explore and consider themes of belief, journey and values through a series of activities. It aims to give students of all faiths and none an opportunity to stop and reflect on their life, values and beliefs. Student feedback was very positive and comments included ‘Made you wonder and question things’.

Chinese New Year is a festival celebrated annually at the College. The 2010 Chinese New Year Party was held in February to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. Party guests enjoyed a buffet of Chinese food and an entertainment programme of traditional and contemporary Chinese music, dance and drama, performed by the College’s Chinese students.

11. Sexual Orientation The Equality and Diversity Policy, the Single Equality Scheme and now the Equality and Diversity Action Plan include sexual orientation equality statements, actions and objectives. Sexual orientation equality is included in mandatory staff training and there is a resource section on the E&D Moodle site to provide additional support. Intercom Trust, a South West community support and advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people provides additional specialist training for staff.

Currently the College does not collect data on religion or belief from students. The issues around collecting this data have been explored with students and there are plans to introduce monitoring when the College moves to online enrolments.

An LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society has been established by the Students Union.

This group is student led and provides support for students.

The majority of staff (51.8%) have chosen not to comment on their religion or beliefs. Amongst the staff that did respond Christianity was identified with by 33.2% and 2.8% identified with another religion or belief.

Currently information on sexual orientation is not collected from students. The issues around collecting this data have been explored with students and there are plans to introduce monitoring when the College moves to online enrolments.

Religion or belief

% of staff

A large number of staff (45.8%) chose not to comment on their sexual orientation. Amongst the staff who did declare 1.2% identified as lesbian, gay or bi-sexual. The Governor profile includes one gay member.

Agnostic

7.2%

Atheist

5.1%

Christian

33.2%

Buddhist

0.4%

Hindu

0.1%

Sexual orientation

Muslim

0.3%

Heterosexual

53%

Other

1.9%

Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual

1.2%

No comment

51.8%

No comment

45.8%

% of staff

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

12. Fairtrade The Fairtrade Foundation is a campaigning organisation with a focus on alleviating poverty in the developing countries. Through the Fairtrade Foundation the College has achieved Fairtrade status, which means that as a Fairtrade College we have, under our Fairtrade Policy committed to support and use Fairtrade products. The College’s Fairtrade Focus Group meet on a quarterly basis to discuss progress against yearly targets set and achievements are promoted through their annual report.

During Fairtrade Fortnight last year (28 February to 13 March 2011) the College worked hard to educate staff and students about Fairtrade, highlighting the fact that by buying Fairtrade products, individuals would be helping farmers in developing countries get better prices for their products, improve sustainability within the community and improve working conditions. The College held a one day festival during the fortnight which was sponsored by the Co-operative and open to all. The event consisted of free food sampling, live cooking, atmospheric music, stands/ displays for visitors to browse and games and activities for all to enjoy. The event was a great success and the intention is to hold something similar in 2012.

With the help of the College’s catering contractor Aramark, Fairtrade items are available in all eateries throughout the year and Fairtrade refreshments are served at meetings. The College’s Hospitality department uses Fairtrade ingredients in teaching and learning and always support the Fairtrade Fortnight campaign by serving Fairtrade focussed menus in their restaurant and Bistro. Fairtrade is also promoted through College training courses, induction programmes and through publications like the staff bulletin, staff magazine Pulse and student focussed publications.

13. Eliminating Bullying and Harassment The College has robust systems and procedures to protect students and staff from bullying and harassment. Student feedback from surveys in 2010/11 indicated that students felt safe (93%), felt respected (88%) and understood the need to work well with people of different types and backgrounds and to value everyone’s contribution (90%). This was a small improvement on 2009/10 (91%, 86% and 88% respectively).

Safeguarding The Safeguarding Team consists of a Senior Designated Person, a Safeguarding Coordinator and 6 Safeguarding

Officers (one of whom has particular responsibility for the safeguarding of vulnerable adults). The focus of the Safeguarding Team is to ensure that all of the students in College feel safe and are safe. Safeguarding includes many issues that are involved in being safe; health and safety, child protection, bullying (including cyber bullying), e-safety, life style choices and some welfare related matters. Safeguarding contributes to the Every Student Matters agenda in the College to create an environment where students can achieve, succeed and fulfil their potential by raising personal ambition and “to enter adulthood successfully”.

During 2010/11 there were 190 referrals made to the Safeguarding Team. Students are familiar with the reporting process and many of the referrals made to the Safeguarding Team were initiated by students reporting either directly to one of the Safeguarding Officers or to their tutor or other staff members. Of these 190 referrals 25 were bullying cases; 20 were resolved using the informal procedure and 5 cases resulted in formal disciplinary action. 165 referrals relate to other safeguarding issues with a rise on housing issues and domestic violence. In some circumstances individualised “safeguarding plans” are developed (in partnership with other agencies) which have included timetables being amended, extra support or tuition being provided and students being supported at reviews or meetings.

Mediation There is a College mediation service available to students and staff and 18 students and staff have used the service in 2010/11 to resolve situations. In addition the Safeguarding Team operates an initial informal route for cases of bullying.

Complaints The College responded to 91 formal complaints with 6 concerning equality and diversity issues in 2010/11 (there were 126 formal complaints with 2 concerning equality and diversity issues in 2009/10). All complaints were resolved, 84% within the 10 working day response time frame. Complaints are analysed by equality groups.

Lust in Translation Our English for Speakers of Other Languages and our Princes Trust students took part in a film project promoting responsible sexual relationships. The project was sponsored by Plymouth City Council and involves Age Concern, Effervescent and the Plymouth City Museum as well as being lottery funded. The students were involved in the development of three films looking at young people’s views on sexual relationships and are intended to be used to provoke ideas about attitudes and to inform discussion.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

14. Promotion and Engagement Students are engaged with the equality agenda at our College. The range of the student contribution to the operation of the College is set out in the Student Involvement Strategy. There are student representatives on the Corporation, Academic Board, the Equality and Diversity Forum, the Chaplaincy team, course committees and other working parties. Student feedback is collected in a variety of ways including student satisfaction surveys each term. In 2010/11 the College started to analyse the student survey results by protected characteristic and plans to use this data to monitor trends and investigate gaps.

The Student Union plays an active role in equality and diversity supported by the Student Liaison team.

An LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society was established. Visits on campus, presentations, drop in sessions offered by professionals from in house support or local support agencies such as Young Carers and Shelter. Events such as Black History Month, Holocaust Memorial Day and Fairtrade Fortnight were promoted through displays and activities. Workshops delivered to increase student understanding of equality issues include Cultural Communication, Drugs and Alcohol awareness and Body Image (Platform 51).

There is good promotion of equality and diversity during the application process where applicants are encouraged to disclose learning difficulties/disabilities so that appropriate support can be provided for students and tutors throughout their programmes.

New systems under development for 2011/12 include updating the enrolment form to reflect a social model of disability, moving to an electronic admissions system and developing online enrolments. Initially this may have a negative impact on the number of declarations but in the long term it should improve understanding and awareness and increase the number of students declaring a support need.

At our College promotion of respect and tolerance is good. Students are trained in equality and diversity during induction, through the tutorial programme and during lessons. The spring 2010 student survey showed that 83% of students understood the importance of treating others fairly and being treated with respect and the summer survey 2011 showed that 90% (89% in 09/10) understood the need to work well with people of different types and backgrounds and to value everyone’s contribution. The surveys showed that the response to how good is the respect staff

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show to you had increased from 86% good or better in 09/10 to 88% (1% above Framework for Excellence median) in summer 2011.

There is good promotion of equality and diversity to employers. Examples include the promotion of the Skills for Life initiatives, a project with Royal Mail migrant workers improving literacy skills, employer newsletters and the employer zone on the College website. Equality and diversity is promoted with employers through placement checks before and during a student’s work placement. The College requires its sub-contractors to demonstrate a high level of commitment to equal opportunities as part of all sub-contracting arrangements.

There are good links between the College and external equality and diversity organisations. College equality and diversity representatives attend external equality networks and training events to research good practice.

Advice is sought from local organisations including the Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity, Fata Hé, Refugee Action, and the Race Equality Council, together with national bodies such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Association of Colleges, the Higher Education Funding Council (England), the Learning and Skills Improvement Service and specialist organisations like Action for Blind People, etc. The College is a member of the Plymouth Prevent Group, the Race Equality Council, the Equality South West and the South West Peer Federation. The College tests itself against national standards and has the ‘two ticks’ standard demonstrating it is positive about disabled people.

The promotion of equality and diversity to the community is good with a variety of projects supported such as a Learning and Skills Improvement Service funded project with the Shekinah Mission using technology to support the engagement of the homeless and those recovering from drug dependency.

An example of a project reaching out to young unemployed is the Faculty of Construction taster session delivered with Working Links to give young unemployed people an insight into the construction industry combining theory sessions with a three day practical session on skills in brickwork, and wall and floor tiling.

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

15. Teaching, Learning and Assessment Equality and diversity is promoted in teaching, learning and assessment while there is still room for further development. Lesson plans and schemes of delivery are designed to ensure teachers plan equality and diversity aspects into lessons and embed equality and diversity topics into the curriculum. During 2010/11 monitoring of the promotion of equality and diversity was integrated into the College’s Internal Verification procedures. The tutorial processes embed equality and diversity into tutorials and include promotion of events such as Black History Month, Anti-Bullying Week and Fair Trade fortnight. The student services team provide a wide ranging calendar of activities and displays which link to the tutorial activities.

The College provides extensive equality and diversity training and in 2010/11 had Dr Christine Rose, a national expert, to provide training on embedding equality and diversity in the curriculum. There is guidance for lecturers on the Equality and Diversity, Teachers Manual, the Tutorial, Behaviours that Challenge in Education, Disability Awareness and Dyslexia pages on the College Moodle site to support the promotion of equality and diversity and support from the advanced teaching practitioners.

Each College faculty has a focus group set up to support development and the sharing of good practice. These groups address areas for improvement and differences in engagement and performance by different groups of students and share and promote ways of embedding equality and diversity in teaching and learning.

16. Leadership and Management The cross college strategic Equality and Diversity Committee was restructured in 2010/11 to strengthen the impact of its activities. The Committee has responsibility for meeting legislative requirements and the criteria in the Ofsted Common Inspection Framework. The committee monitors the progress of the equality and diversity targets, the Single Equality Scheme and complaints. The Corporation receives progress reports and the Equality and Diversity Annual Report. One governor takes a lead on equality and diversity and the Director for Human Resources is

the College Executive lead and chairs the Equality and Diversity Committee.

There are Equality and Diversity focus groups in the faculties and in the Learning Resources Team to support promotion and the development of good practice. There is a student led Disability Forum, a well established Chaplaincy team and a pregnancy and young parents support group was established in 2010/11 which improved success rates for pregnant students (67% in 09/10, 82% in 10/11). An Equality and Diversity Forum was established in 2010/11 with student and staff representatives for all the protected characteristics to ensure useful consultation on equality aspects.

Legal responsibilities were underpinned by a high quality Single Equality Scheme which concluded in July 2011. The Equality and Diversity Policy has clear statements on all the protected characteristics and is supported by Anti-Bullying and Harassment Policies for students and staff. The College published its Equality Impact Assessments, a positive Equality and Diversity Annual Report and its Accessibility Commitment appropriately in 2010/11.

Single Equality Scheme The Single Equality Scheme (SES) has been in place for the last 3 academic years. The SES covered seven of the ‘protected characteristic’ groups – disability, gender, race, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender – and set targets for faculties, the Work Based Learning Department and service areas across the College. A summary of progress towards targets was produced by each team involved for 2008/9 and 2009/10. The scheme has now reached the end of its scheduled time and the Single Equality Scheme has been evaluated and will be replaced with Equality Objectives underpinned by an Equality and Diversity Action Plan.

The majority of the actions for the year 2010/11 progressed well and most targets were met by the end of the plan. By the end of the scheme 86% of the actions were assessed to be completed across the College (76% in 09/10 and 64% in 08/09).

Uncompleted actions (53) will be carried forward to the replacement Equality and Diversity Action Plan.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Key improvements brought about during the period of the plan include: • significant drop in number of students who are recorded as unknown for disability and learning difficulty • equality and diversity focus groups set up in each faculty to share good practice • raised awareness of the importance of achievement gaps • the governor profile has moved to more appropriately reflect the student profile with 5 female (31%) and 8 male (69%) governors, 1 gay, 1 disabled and 2 ethnic minority governors (12.5%) • all staff attend equality and diversity training every 3 years (100% compliance – 811 staff at attended mandatory training between September 08 and June 11) • College joined the DisabledGo website in September 2009.

The SES has been replaced by Equality Objectives, a public sector equality duty requirement, and an underpinning Equality and Diversity Action Plan which cover all the protected characteristics. The Equality Objectives are set to address challenges highlighted by analysis of our equality and diversity performance. The Action Plan contains actions for all College faculties and teams designed to achieve the Equality Objectives and support our aim to become outstanding in equality and diversity.

The performance of the Equality Objectives and the Equality and Diversity Action Plan will be monitored termly via a performance report for the Equality and Diversity Committee and Governors and will reviewed annually.

Workforce Equality and diversity is embedded into the human resources policies and processes from recruitment and application to interview and mandatory training during induction with a follow-up mandatory refresher course every 3 years. Staff are required to identify their individual contribution in their annual performance review. Human Resource statistics are monitored by protected characteristic by the Equality and Diversity Committee.

Staff are trained and supported to embed equality and diversity in their work. All staff attend equality and diversity training every 3 years (100% compliance) and 811 staff attended either the mandatory equality and diversity introduction course or a refresher session

between September 2008 and June 2011. In addition 1,562 staff attended other equality and diversity training such as lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender, mental health awareness and cultural awareness, equality and diversity for managers and equality and diversity for governors in the last three years. The training is now provided internally to ensure it is relevant to staff roles and has been updated to include Prevent and the Equality Act. This is supported by guidance published in the staff bulletin, in Wavelength communications, in the staff magazine Pulse, in the Equality and Diversity Newsletter, through the faculty focus groups and through individual and team advice.

There were three staff grievances received by the College and there were two dismissals of staff in 2010/11 (this compares to 3 staff grievances and 6 dismissals in 2009/10). In addition 12 people were made redundant and 3 people had employment terminated due to ill-health. An equality analysis to ensure that there was no discrimination was completed.

Equality and Diversity Committee membership The Equality and Diversity Committee is the College’s equality and diversity strategy committee which is responsible for the promotion of equality and diversity values throughout the College and partners. The committee has cross college representation to ensure the continuation of the College approach of giving the responsibility for equality and diversity achievement to everyone connected with the organisation.

The committee members are: Director of Human Resources – Chair Deputy Principal (Learner Experience) Director of Employer Engagement Director of Learner Experience Heads of Faculties Head of Work Based Learning Department Head of Student Services and Marketing Student Services Manager Head of International Head of Estates Head of IT Head of MIS Head of Learning Resources Disability Coordinator E&D Coordinator Governor Student representatives.

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3.1

Promoting equality in our working practices

E3

Workforce profile

Gender pay gap data Ethnicity pay gap

Continue to provide training, support and guidance to enable all our workforce to be confident in promoting equality and diversity and Staff training statistics challenging unfair discrimination and harassment

Work to create a culture where staff feel comfortable declaring information on disability, religion and sexual orientation

Improve the diversity of our staff to reflect the communities we serve across all the equality areas Investigate the gender and ethnicity pay gaps and aim to decrease the pay gaps

2.3

2.2

2.1

Workforce profile

Take action to address any data gaps in our student equalities profile

1.3

E2 Promoting equality for our workforce

Student profile data

Students experience respect and fair treatment

1.2

100% staff trained Improved student feedback ratings

Disability profile 7% Religion not provided 50% Sexual orientation not provided 40%

Reduced pay gaps

Disability profile 7% Ethnicity profile 6.5%

Extend range of data collected to religion and sexual orientation

90% or above answer Good or better to relevant survey questions

Student feedback on being treated with respect and feeling safe questions in student surveys

High success rates for all students

Ethnicity achievement gap from 4.9% to 3% All other gaps maintain 0% gap or positive gap for disadvantaged group

Target

Disability attendance/achievement gap Learning difficulty attendance/achievement gap Ethnicity attendance/achievement gap Gender attendance/achievement gap

Performance Indicators

City College Plymouth

1.1

E1 Promoting equality for our students

Equality Objective

17. Equality Objectives

Jul-12

Jul-12

Jul-12

Jul-13

Jul-12

Nov-12

By when

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

Marriage/Civil Partnership Transgender

Sexual orientation Religion/belief

Pregnancy/maternity Ethnicity Gender

Disability Age

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11

18. Future Plans and Development The Equality Objectives are cross College objectives which have been set to drive forward equality and diversity and to meet public sector duties. The Equality and Diversity Action Plan contains the actions and targets which underpin the Objectives. This Action Plan will ensure that the promotion of equality and diversity and elimination of unfair discrimination and harassment are embedded in all College practices and it reflects the College’s approach of devolved responsibility for equality and diversity.

These are the key areas for development in 2011/12 and onwards: • review the Equality Objectives and the performance of Equality and Diversity Action Plan • enhance and demonstrate that the use of achievement gap data leads to improved outcomes for vulnerable groups of learners • improve timeliness and scope of additional learning support for learners with disabilities and learning difficulties • enhance and clearly demonstrate that equality and diversity is embedded in the curriculum • further develop the collection and use of equality data • further develop engagement through further developing partner and community contacts.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2010/11