UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
For the meeting of Senate to be held on 24 June 2013
Annual Report on Equality and Diversity
The attached paper updates the Steering/Senate Committees on progress on key equality
and diversity activities during 2012/13.
In addition to reporting on Equality and Diversity Strategy and supporting projects, the paper
also highlights areas of current internal and external activity that may be of interest to the
Steering/Senate Committees.
The Steering/Senate Committees are invited to receive the update report and provide
any feedback to the Chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee accordingly.
Christina Hughes
Chair of the Equality and Diversity Committee
June 2013
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UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
For the meeting of Senate to be held on 24 June 2013
Annual Report on Equality and Diversity
Central to the University’s Vision 2015, and with the increased emphasis on the staff and
student experience, Equality and Diversity is fundamentally key to many of Warwick’s
strategic objectives.
Equality and Diversity has also become increasingly important as a component of many of
the external reviews, such as the REF and QAA, that Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs)
are required to comply with. In addition, funding councils have significantly been placing
more emphasis on seeking assurances from HEIs that they are delivering on their equality
and diversity agenda.
Athena SWAN
Significant progress has been made by the STEMM departments in their Athena work. In
2012/13 the following departments have achieved awards: Chemistry has retained Silver
status; Physics has Silver status; Medical School has achieved Bronze and Silver status;
Psychology, Life Sciences, Engineering have all achieved Bronze status. WMG,
Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science have all submitted for Bronze awards and will
know the result of their submissions in September 2013.
The University has submitted for an institutional Silver award, and will know the outcome of
this in September 2013.
As recommended by the Equality and Diversity Committee, all STEMM departments have
either achieved or submitted for Athena awards.
The Equality Challenge Unit is developing a Gender Equality Charter mark which will extend
the principles of Athena SWAN awards to all disciplines. It is anticipated that the Gender
Equality Scheme will be rolled out to non-STEMM departments by 2014.
Warwick continues to use the PULSE Staff survey to inform work regarding institutional and
departmental Athena SWAN submissions. In the 2013 PULSE survey there is an improved
on-line reporting tool, which allows the University to report on demographics, such as
gender, disability, age group.
HR Excellence in Research Award
The University successfully achieved the HR Excellence in Research Award in January
2013. The award demonstrates the University’s commitment to improving the working
conditions and career development for research staff.
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Stonewall
The University became a Stonewall Diversity Champion in 2012. Stonewall is Britain’s good
practice employers’ forum on sexual orientation. Feedback from Warwick’s submission in
the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index was useful, but some of the suggested
recommendations made by Stonewall may be difficult to implement. Stonewall commented
that Warwick has some great generic equality work practices in place which look in a holistic
way at all protected characteristic groups, but that to score higher in the Stonewall
Workplace Index it would be necessary to further drill down and promote LGB into all
policies and training initiatives.
HESA Data Collection
Consultation had taken place with the Students’ Union and the Chaplaincy on whether the
University should start to collect data for staff and students on ‘sexual orientation’ and
‘religion and belief’.
Both the Students’ Union and the Chaplaincy were supportive of the collection of this data,
subject to terminology changes and clarification of where the data would be published being
addressed.
Subject to the changes identified by the Students’ Union and the Chaplaincy being made,
and an appropriate communication plan established for informing staff and students, a
recommendation will be made to Senate and Council that this data start to be collected from
2013/14.
Equality Objectives
Progress on the University Equality Objectives has been monitored and up-dated and
subject to approval from the Senate and Council will be published on the Equality and
Diversity web pages.
Workforce Profile
Statistical data is taken at a census date of 1 October each year to report on an analysis of
staff by ethnicity, gender, age and disability, and is broken down by staff category and
grades. A further report is produced on recruitment and selection. Both reports are used to
consider progress in relation to the equality objectives and to benchmark externally.
HESA Performance Indicators 2012: Participation of Students in Receipt of Disabled
Students’ Allowance (DSA)
It has been proposed by Student Support Services (Disability) that a management system
will be put in place to gather data and information on the level of support offered to disabled
students to assist them to complete their degree courses. This will help to ensure that the
University can effectively investigate and report into non-completion rates for disabled
students.
An Annual Report will be produced outlining non-completion rates.
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Training on Equality and Diversity
During the period 1 June 2012 to 31 May 2013 a number of Equality and Diversity Training
sessions have been held:
Face to Face Training Sessions: ‘Think What you Think’ Course = 140 staff attendees;
‘Types of Discrimination’ = 131 staff attendees (predominantly support staff). Four further
training days have been scheduled for 2013/14.
For the on-line modules ‘Recruitment and Selection’ 74 people have completed the course
(13 academic, 11 research staff, 37 support staff levels 6-9 and 13 support staff levels 1-5)
and for ‘Diversity in the Workplace’ 118 people have completed the course (24 academic, 13
research staff, 47 support staff levels 6-9 and 34 support staff levels 1-5). The Learning and
Development Centre have purchased up-dated interactive versions of these two e-learning
modules and these will be rolled out to staff in the summer of 2013.
Other Equality and Diversity training include: REF E&D training on the REF Code of Practice
(which has been given to the REF Steering Group, Heads of Departments, HR Advisers,
REF Coordinators, members of the REF Special Circumstances Group and the Appeals
Panel. Equality Act Presentations to E&D Network group, Windows on Warwick sessions on
the Equality Act 2010 and Athena SWAN Charter briefings to departments.
Departmental Disability Contacts
Departmental Disability contacts have been appointed on a voluntary basis to provide
support and guidance for staff and students with disabilities. Briefing sessions have been
held with the disability contacts on emergency evacuation procedures for staff/students in
their departments who may have mobility problems. A number of ‘Disability Awareness’
training sessions have been organized for later in 2013.
Interest Groups
Disability Interest Group (DIG) continues to meet termly, reporting to the E&D Committee.
The group provides an open forum for discussion, review and implementation of disability
related actions.
Equality and Diversity Network Group also meets termly and is open to all staff, but is
primarily attended by Departmental equality and diversity contacts. The E&D Network group
reports to the E&D Committee.
Returning Parents Network Group meets twice a term and is a group formed by and run for
returning parents. The meetings have all been well attended and have received talks by
external trainers and by University nursery staff. Through consultation with this group, HR
have improved information for individuals going on maternity/adoption/paternity leave and for
line managers on how to improve the transition back to work for individuals who have been
on this type of leave.
Senior Womens’ Network Group
The Senior Womens’ Group was re-launched in February 2013 and is chaired by Professor
Pam Thomas (Chair of the Faculty of Science). The group was formed in response to
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requests from female academic staff through the STEMM departments Athena work. The
group has met twice (February and May 2013) and membership has been primarily aimed at
mid-career female academics. Future meetings will be held termly, and will discuss the midcareer progression of women academics within the university and particularly to elicit the
views of this career group on the sort of support that might be offered or initiatives that could
be instigated to ensure that all staff achieve their full potential both now and in the future.
Legislation and External Benchmarking
Review of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
The Government has undertaken a review of the public sector Equality duty and the specific
duties, in particular in relation to public sector procurement processes and the collection,
retention and use of diversity data by public bodies.
The Equality Challenge Unit has responded to the review on behalf of the Higher Education
Equal Opportunities Network to stress that more time was needed for HEIs to embed
practice to meet the current requirements of the duty, and that to change legislation at this
stage would be counter-productive.
The final report of the review is expected in June 2013.
Report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
An assessment of public bodies had been undertaken by the EHRC between February and
April 2012 covering 1,159 public authorities, including all 130 Universities. The EHRC has
responsibility for assessing compliance of public bodies to promote equality across the nine
protected characteristics as set out under the Equality Act 2010.
During the assessment the EHRC found that 50% of the listed public authorities in England
had published equality information on both their staff and service users for 2011/12, whereas
others had only partially complied to meet the requirement. The EHRC found that the
performance of Universities was relatively mixed and that there was considerable scope for
improvement against most of the measures assessed. Warwick’s performance against the
measured criteria was reasonable, but areas of improvement were identified.
RCUK Equality and Diversity Statement
The RCUK have produced a statement of RCUK Expectations for Equality and Diversity,
which sets out their expectations for organisations who are in receipt of research council
funding. The statement also provides suggestions for the type of evidence RCUK will be
looking for to demonstrate commitment to equality and diversity, such as participation in
schemes such as Athena SWAN, Project Juno, Investors in People, Stonewall Diversity
Champions and other similar initiatives to demonstrate departmental (as well as institutional)
action. RCUK will review the overall effectiveness of the approach at an institutional/
departmental level through its audit and assurance programme and through institutional
visits.
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External Networks
The University will continue to participate in appropriate Equality and Diversity Network
Groups such as the Russell Group Diversity Network and the Higher Education Equal
Opportunities Network to share best practice and to consult with the sector.
Future Plans
Work will continue on many of the initiatives mentioned above in this report, and further
engagement with the staff and student community is planned to highlight equality and
diversity issues, with a view to embedding E&D into core processes.
Sandra Beaufoy
June 2013
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