UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Equality and Diversity Committee
Minutes of the meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee meeting held on 31 May
2011.
Present:
Professor K Lamberts (Chair), Dr E Campbell, Mrs J Hodge, Mrs K
Hughes, Professor B Jackson, Ms D Markham, Mr D Persaud, Mr M
Potter, Ms D Weber , Dr M Shewring
Apologies:
Professor A Dolan, Professor E Hines, Ms J Horsburgh, Ms R Mason,
Mr S Lamb, Professor A Szczepura
In Attendance: Mrs S Beaufoy (Assistant Secretary), Professor A Rodger (for item
26/10-11)
24/10-11
Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the Committee meeting held on 8 February 2011 be
approved.
25/10-11
HR Adviser for Equality and Diversity
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That Sandra Beaufoy had been appointed as HR Adviser with Equality
and Diversity responsibilities with effect from 1 July 2011 and from that
date all E&D issues should be directed to Sandra.
26/10-11
Athena Swan
REPORTED: (by Professor A Rodger)
(a) That whilst the Athena SWAN Charter recognized and celebrated good
employment practice for women in Science, Engineering and
Technology in Higher Education and Research, Warwick’s Athena
focus group had broadened the scope of the principles of the Charter
to use as a vehicle to examine policies and procedures that would
benefit all staff.
(b) That Warwick had been awarded a Bronze Athena award, with
Chemistry and Physics having gained silver status; It being noted that
Psychology had recently submitted an application for a silver award.
(c) That Giles Carden had agreed to coordinate the production of Staff
and Student data and would provide SET departments with the data by
the end of July 2011.
(d) That the next deadline for applications was 30 November 2011 and it
was hoped that Chemistry and Physics would apply for a gold award,
with the University aiming for a silver award.
(e) That the Research and Development Fund had agreed to fund 10
childcare grants of £100 each for staff to attend conferences.
RESOLVED:
That best practice identified by SET departments should be shared with
other university departments.
27/10-11
Annual Report on Equality and Diversity
CONSIDERED:
(a) The Annual Report on Equality and Diversity detailing progress on
equality and diversity in 2010/11 (EDC Paper 12/10-11 refers).
(b) The revised and updated Single Equality Action Plan detailing progress
on equality and diversity actions in 2010/11 (EDC Paper 13/10-11
refers).
RESOLVED:
(a) Annual Report on Equality and Diversity
(i) That the Annual Report on Equality and Diversity as set out in EDC
Paper 12/10-11) be approved.
(ii) That whilst the Government had revised some of the regulations of
the Equality Act 2010 and had subsequently removed some of the
requirements to publish evidence of equality analysis undertaken by
HEIs, Warwick would continue to carry out Equality Impact
Assessments when designing and implementing new policies of
significant note.
(b) Progress on the Single Equality Action Plan
(i) That the revised and updated Single Equality Action Plan as set out
in EDC Paper 13/10-11 be approved.
(ii) That the Assistant Secretary be asked to contact Professor A
Caesar to progress item 6 of the SEAP, and The Senior Tutor be
requested to take item 7 forward, noting that it would be useful to
include information on E&D for SSLC’s in the Student Handbook.
(c) Disability Interest Groups and Students Union
REPORTED: (by the Director of Student Services)
That there had been a number of hate crimes reported directed at
students by visitors to campus in the form of verbal name calling; that
whilst these had been informally investigated, no formal action had
been instigated.
(d) Equality Act – Information for Departments
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That the need to ensure departments were kept informed of the
requirements of the Equality Act was an omission from the Annual
Report.
RESOLVED:
That the Assistant Secretary be asked to provide information on E&D
matters to departments through policy briefings.
28/10-11
PULSE: Staff Survey 2011 Results
REPORTED: (by the Deputy Director of HR)
(a) That the initial results of the PULSE survey had been received, and
would be presented at the next meeting of the Steering Committee,
after which the results would be disseminated to departments by mid
June.
(b) That the survey had been focused on the three main areas of
Leadership, Change Management and Communication, which would
continue to be monitored.
29/10-11
Single Equality Act – Specific Duties of the Public Sector Equality Duty
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That the Government had revised its intentions for the specific duties,
changing the deadline for publication of information to demonstrate
compliance with the general duty to 31 December 2011 noting that the
general duty requirement to publish evidence of equality analysis had
been removed.
30/10-11
Equality and Diversity Network
RECEIVED:
The minutes of the meeting of the Equality and Diversity Network held on
16 May 2011 (EDC Paper 14/10-11).
REPORTED: (by Mrs K Hughes)
That the meeting had focused on Athena Swan, which had resulted in
breakout groups having had productive discussions on how best practice
arising from the initiative could be translatable to other areas of the
University.
31/10-11
Disability Interest Group
RECEIVED:
The minutes of the meeting of the Disability Interest Group held on 16
March 2011 (EDC Paper 15/10-11).
REPORTED:
That the Disability Coordinator had been invited to present a paper on
Managing Reasonable Adjustments in Higher Education to Senior
Officers.
32/10-11
Membership of E&D Committee
REPORTED: (by the Chair)
That the Senate had approved the proposed recruitment process for
membership of the Equality & Diversity Committee (EDC Paper 02/10-11)
and that accordingly, recruitment to vacancies would commence over the
summer, in order that new members would be able to attend the first
meeting of the academic year 2011/12.
33/10-11
Any Other Business
(a) Equality and Diversity Training – Commercial Group
REPORTED: (by Mr M Potter)
That the Commercial group had purchased E&D training packages
which are proving to be a valuable tool in educating staff with respect
to E&D responsibilities and matters
RESOLVED:
That the L&D Adviser for the Commercial Group be asked to consider
whether there would be benefit in the package being made more
widely available to other departments.
(b) Equal Pay Review 2011
REPORTED: (by the Deputy Director of HR)
(a) That an equal pay review had been undertaken for staff in grades
1a to 8. No evidence had been revealed by the review of
inequitable disparities in base pay distribution within grades on the
grounds of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, contract type or
full/part time working arrangements.
(b) That there were some overall disparities which appeared to be
largely explained by the distribution of protected characteristics
across the grade structures, with staff having protected
characteristics being disproportionately represented in junior
grades.
(c) That the principal outcomes of the review would be published by 31
December 2011 in line with the statutory requirements under the
Equality Act 2010..
RESOLVED:
That the Assistant Secretary be asked to circulate the Equal Pay
Review document to EDC
members.
(d) Equality Challenge Unit – Strategic Priorities
REPORTED: (by the Deputy Director of HR)
That the University had received a report from the Equality Challenge
Unit on their strategic priorities and that the strategy focused on four
strategic priorities – Evolve, Assist, Transform and Understand.
RESOLVED:
That the paper would be considered at the next EDC meeting.
(e) HEFCE Consultation Document
REPORTED: (by the Deputy Director of HR)
(a) That the University had received a consultation document from the
HEFCE outlining its approach to Equality and Diversity with
feedback on the document being requested by 29 July 2011.
(b) That HR would review the document and draft a response to be
presented at the Steering Committee with a report back to the next
EDC meeting in the Autumn Term.
35/10-11
Date of Next Meetings
REPORTED:
That the dates of the meetings for the next academic year would be
circulated as soon as they became available.