19/07-08
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Equality and Diversity Committee
Minutes of the meeting of the held on Monday 4 th February 2008
Present: Professor Y Carter (in the Chair), Ms J Abson, Dr J Burns, Ms G Frigerio,
Professor J Hutton, Dr C Jenainati, Mr S Lamb, Mrs E Meininger, Mr D
Persaud, Mr M Potter, Professor S Singh, Mr K Sloan, Ms M Standing
In Attendance: Ms L Aspinall, Mrs E Harrison, Ms L Morris, Mr S Russell, Ms H Spittle
Mr D Veale and Mr R B Wilson (for Item 10)
Apologies: Dr A Dolan, Ms D Markham, Mr P Stephenson, Mr D Wright,
18/07-08 Minutes
RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting held on 29
Matters Arising
(a) Terms of Reference and Membership
(i)
(ii)
Terms of Reference
RECEIVED:
(A) A copy of the revised Terms of Reference for the
(B)
Equality and Diversity Committee for 2007/08 that were approved by the Senate and the Council at their meetings on 5 December 2007 and 19 December
2007 respectively (Paper EDC 13/07-08).
Membership
RECEIVED:
(A) A copy of the revised Membership as approved by the Senate and the Council at their meetings on 5
December 2007 and 19 December 2007 respectively
(Paper EDC 14/07-08).
REPORTED:
(A) That following the revised organisation structure, effective from 1 February 2008, Mr Ken Sloan would continue to attend the Committee as Deputy
Registrar. th October 2007 be approved.
That Mr Dan Persaud would attend the Committee as
Director of Student Support and Residential Life.
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(C) That Ms Marguerite Standing would attend the
Committee as External Representative.
(D) That Ms Frigerio had elected to stand down from the
Committee with effect from the academic year 08/09.
RESOLVED:
That further changes to the membership of the Committee should be considered during the Summer term, taking into account the changes to the grading structure, and that a revised membership be proposed to the Senate and the
Council, in preparation for the Academic Year 08/09.
(b) Workforce Profile: Equality Monitoring Report 2006/07 (Minute 6/07
08 refers)
REPORTED:
(i) That the Workforce Profile: Equality Monitoring Report
2007/06 was considered by the Senate and the Council at their meetings held on 5 December 2007 and 19 December
2007 respectively and that the recommendations outlined in the report were supported.
(ii) That examples of ‘best practice’ in addressing the under- representation of women in senior academic positions could be referred to in the following reports:
Women in Academic Medicine www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/content/wam2007
Women in Clinical Academia – www.chms.ac.uk/documents/medicalschoolscouncil - womeninclinicalacademicreport 2007.pdf
(iii) That the final Report of the Athena project would be presented to the House of Lords in March 2008.
(c) Recruitment Data Monitoring Report (2006/07) (Minute 7/07-
08 refers)
REPORTED:
That the Recruitment Data Monitoring Report (2006/07) was considered by the Senate and the Council at their meetings held on 5 December 2007 and 19 December 2007 respectively and that the recommendations outlined in the report were supported.
(d) Disability Policy (Minute 11/07-08 refers)
REPORTED:
(i) That the Disability Policy was approved by the
Senate and the Council at their meetings held on 5
December 2007 and 19 December 2007 respectively.
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20/07-08
(ii) That this joint policy, which related to both staff and students, had now been publicised on the
University web-site.
(e) Gender Re-assignment Policy (Minute 12/07-08 refers)
REPORTED:
(i) That the Gender Re-assignment Policy was approved by the Senate and the Council at their meetings on 5
December 2007 and 19 December 2007 respectively.
(ii) That the Policy had now been publicised on the
University web-site.
(f) Equality Impact Assessment (Minute14/07-08 refers)
REPORTED:
(i) That a letter from Professor Carter, as Pro Vice-
Chancellor responsible for equality and diversity, had been sent to departments yet to return information relating to the Equality Impact Assessment.
(ii) That the aim was to complete the collation of Equality
Impact Assessment information from Departments by
1 April and that a final report would be presented to the next meeting of the Equality & Diversity
Committee.
Induction Programme for EDC Members
REPORTED:
(a) That an induction programme for all members of the Committee had been held on 22 January 2008 at which a reference pack was distributed and members encouraged to contribute to the Agenda and raise relevant issues for discussion at future meetings.
(b) That individual sessions would be held, if required, with those members who did not attend the Induction session and that reference packs would be distributed.
(c) That Freedom of Information requests were becoming more regular and advice would be welcomed on how these should be approached.
RESOLVED:
That Mr C Jones (Legal Compliance Officer) would be invited to the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee to discuss the Freedom of
Information Act and the implications of requests made under the Act.
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21/07-08
22/07-08
Equality Impact Assessment
RECEIVED:
Details from the recent publication from the Equality Challenge Unit/HEFCE entitled ‘Conducting Equality Impact Assessments in Higher Education’ which can be downloaded from the attached link: http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/pubs_guidance.html
(Paper EDC 15/07-
08)
REPORTED:
(i) That the above document had been sent to all Higher Education establishments outlining the requirements of Equality Impact
Assessment.
(ii) That Professor Carter and Ms Aspinall had given a presentation to the University’s Steering Committee outlining progress with the
University’s EIA project.
(iii) That the current stages of the project were being completed and the final stage of the project was the need to embed Equality Impact
Assessment into future University processes and policies.
RESOLVED:
That a report, pulling together the cover sheets from Departments, be compiled and presented as a summary EIA report to the next meeting of the
Equality & Diversity Committee before forwarding to the Senate and the
Council.
Disability Equality Scheme
RECEIVED:
An oral report from Ms H Spittle (HR Adviser, Information) on progress with the Disability Equality Scheme.
REPORTED:
(a) That reports had so far been received from the Library, Careers
Service, Purchasing, Human Resources, Learning and Development
Centre, Student Services and the Academic Office on progress
against their actions plans and highlighting areas for progressing
during 2008. Reports from some support areas were still awaited from Estates, Communication, and Accommodation.
(b) That the two electric wheelchairs had been purchased following advice from the Canley mobility centre and that the policy for the use of the wheelchairs was nearing completion with legal issues currently being investigated.
(c) That the budget for year 2 split by specific objective had been set and a Budget Steering group (comprising Mr K Sloan, Ms L Aspinall,
Mr S Lamb, Ms J Abson, Mr S Russell, and Mrs L Morris) would be considering how this should be spent together with timescales.
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23/07-08
RESOLVED:
(a) That a University policy and guidelines were required on how to approach the assessment of work by students with disabilities.
(b) That the Chair would write to Professor M Whitby requesting that consideration be given to providing guidance for academics on the assessment of work by disabled students as part of the current
Review of Assessment that was taking place.
(c) That the full Disability Equality Scheme Action Plan be updated to track progress and highlight future plans and that this should be presented to the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity
Committee.
Disability Interest Group
RECEIVED:
The notes of the meeting of the Disability Interest Group held on 19 October
2007 (Paper EDC 16/07-08).
REPORTED:
(a) That this was a group of volunteers who met termly to discuss disability related issues and report to the Equality & Diversity
Committee.
(b) That the Group had highlighted the current lack of opportunity for
work experience at the University and in particular for disabled persons.
(c) That work experience placements were regularly arranged across departments but that this was an area that might be considered further by the Regional Engagement Group.
(d) That staff who are disabled or become disabled during their working life are often referred to Occupational Health in order that reasonable adjustments can be considered but the procedure for this was not clear.
RESOLVED:
(a) That Mr Sloan would discuss the issues of appropriate work experience opportunities and placements with Darren Wallis and
Trevor Seeley before involving the Regional Engagement Group.
(b) That Ms Aspinall would further investigate the issue of referring disabled staff to Occupational Health and clarify the process.
(c) That the International Office and the Arts Centre be encouraged to be represented at future meetings of the Disability
Interest Group.
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24/07-08
25/07-08
Equality and Diversity Issues Relating to Students
RECEIVED:
A report tabled by Mr K Sloan outlining equality and diversity issues relating to students (Paper EDC 17/07-08).
REPORTED:
(a) That the Student Statistics had been deferred to the next meeting of the Equality & Diversity Committee as the comparative national data had not yet been made available.
(b) That there were a number of notable issues including the GOAL programme and Pathways to Law being led by the Student
Admissions Office, training and development opportunities for
Wardens and Deputy Wardens, the appointment of a new part-time
Mental Health Co-ordinator, the appointment of the new University
Muslim Chaplain and the planning for the first department Senior
Tutors’ Annual Conference to be launched in 2008/09.
(c) That a summary of annual reports from the Support and
Development Services relating to equality and diversity for students would be made available to the Equality & Diversity Committee for the 2008/09 cycle of meetings.
(d) That efforts were being made to track complaints from students in a more systematic way and that these would be reported, together with proposed resolutions, to the Equality & Diversity Committee at the end of the academic year.
RESOLVED:
The Equality and Diversity committee recognised the work of the Students
Union in respect of its one World Week Programme for 2007 and would like to congratulate the Union on its success.
Academic Probation 2006/07
CONSIDERED:
A report summarising the key data on ethnicity, gender, and disability in respect of academic probation 2006/07 (Paper EDC 18/07-08)
REPORTED:
(a) That the wording of the report be amended from “which” to “whom” to reflect the reference to humans.
(b) That it was not in the remit of the Equality and Diversity Committee to deal with complaints raised as a result of probation but to look for trends related to equality aspects.
RESOLVED:
That comparative data spanning a 5-year period be requested for further consideration at the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee.
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26/07-08
27/07-08
Senior Salaries Review 2007
CONSIDERED:
A report containing further information on salary differentials as requested at the Equality and Diversity Meeting held on 29 th October 2007 (Paper
EDC 19/07-08)
(a) That it would be useful to have the data showing the median salary in addition to the mean.
(b) That analysis was undertaken each year to investigate the gaps shown and to consider processes to reduce the gaps.
RESOLVED:
That comparative data spanning a 5-year period be requested and presented together with the median salary for further consideration at the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Equality & Diversity Network
RECEIVED:
A copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Equality & Diversity Network held on 14 January 2008.
CONSIDERED:
The following item brought forward from the Equality & Diversity Network
Meeting held on 14 January 2008:
A lift was out of action in the Ramphal Building for nine days which resulted in disabled students being unable to access the building. A number of issues were discussed including appropriate methods of communication in such circumstances. It appeared that the procedure for evacuating buildings when there is only one means of access and exit or where there is only one lift was not clear to staff.
Communication methods might include notification on a website, individual e-mails to users or registering for an update to a mobile phone.
REPORTED:
(a) That all staff and students who declare a disability have a personal evacuation plan that is discussed with them.
(b) That the fault with the lift in the Ramphal building was an intermittent fault requiring further work but, in general, lifts reported out of action are repaired within 24 hours.
(c) That this was a ‘cross team’ issue that required further discussion in order to sort propose a solution.
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28/07-08
(d) That the Health and Safety Team were currently working on evacuation plans but these were not yet finalised.
RESOLVED:
(a) That Mr Sloan would bring together a group of individuals from appropriate areas to discuss the Ramphal building scenario and to propose solutions that could, in future, be used in a similar situation.
Date of Next Meeting
REPORTED:
That the next meeting of the Equality and Diversity Committee will be held on 19 May 2008 at 2.00pm in the Council Chamber.
EDC4Feb08/EAH
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