UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
EQUALITY & DIVERSITY DUAL ASSURANCE, 11 February 2011
Present:
Mark Overton (Management Lead), Bettina Rigg (Lay Lead), Dorcas
Cowan (Equality & Diversity Manager), Lisa Pacey-Wonnacott (HR
Business Partner) and Helen Booker (Equality & Diversity
Administrator)
DISCUSSED:
1.
Actions arising from last meeting (2 December 2010) not covered elsewhere on
agenda:-
To ask Paul Blackmore about high percentage of BME academic staff at
Lancaster: DC met with Paul Blackmore and discussed the high number of
BME academic staff at Lancaster, however he was unaware of anything
specific that Lancaster had done to attract BME staff.
It was suggested that once the online recruitment is up and running we
could look at the numbers of BME applicants.
-
DC to find out about the Concordat referred to in ‘Equality Issues in
Research Careers’ paper: DC reported that the Concordat is a charter of
seven principles to support the career development of researchers and is
something the University of Exeter has signed up to. DC has met with
Claire Lambert, Staff Learning & Development, who is very involved in this.
One of the principles of this concordat is E&D and it mentions Athena
Swan, which also relates is one of our employment targets. DC reported
that an Athena Swan/Project Juno working group has been set up and is
progressing well.
All other actions arising are covered on the agenda.
2.
E&D Annual Operating Plan - Performance Report for Council
-
To establish clear procedures/protocols for dealing with individual cases
and ensuring that appropriate support is available to students: DC has been
in touch with Simon Wright about this and a procedure has been agreed.
-
Complete achievement of “Positive about Disability” (Two Ticks) status: DC
confirmed that we have now achieved Two Ticks status.
-
To clarify and agree specific outcomes for the University and to ensure
compliance to the Equality Act 2010: DC confirmed that this has been
completed and we are now working on collating and publishing equality
data which will inform the identification of equality objectives for 2011/12.
-
To progress implementation of E&D employment targets and establish
monitoring arrangements: This is ongoing.
-
To develop methods for E&D monitoring of students/admissions with
Planning Services: This is ongoing.
-
To review and update E&D policy statements: DC confirmed that the E&D
Policy has been updated, impact assessed and is now published online.
-
Establish close working relations between the E&D team and Director of
Employability: DC has met with Paul Blackmore (mentioned above in 1).
-
To further progress a process of equality impact assessing policies,
specifically to develop a process for VCEG to assess the equality impact of
its decisions: A procedure was implemented in January 2011 to ensure that
policies are not approved by VCEG, Council and PSMG unless they contain
an equality statement confirming that they have been impact assessed the
summarising the outcome of the EIA. Guidance about this is available on
the E&D website
(http://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/equality/equalityimpactassessments/handbook/).
3.
Equality Act 2010 - Implications of Public Sector Duty
The public sector duty comes into force in April 2011, and July 2011 is the
deadline for reviewing and publishing Equality information. Instead of
producing Equality schemes public bodies will be required to publish
Equality Objectives by April 2012 across all the protected characteristics.
Action: DC to add two more dates to AOP related to the Public Sector Duty
(July 2011 and April 2012).
4.
Equality Impact Assessment Update
DC reported that she will be meeting with Academic Policy to discuss impact
assessing major over-arching University-wide policies.
It was felt that policies relating to widening participation such as fees, bursaries
etc were high priorities for impact assessing, as are publicity produced by the
International Office.
Action: MO to speak to Neil Armstrong and Shaun Curtis about a recent
International Exeter video with some inappropriate scenes involving alcohol.
5.
E&D Risk Review (formerly Risk Register)
DC reported that the overall risk severity has been reduced from 4 to 3. This is
due to the additional resource in the E&D team, policies being reviewed and
updated, and the recent review of the EIA process and the improvements made
as a result.
Action: DC to add a sentence to Risk Review to explain why the risk severity
has been reduced. Also to add achieving Two Ticks status to ‘major changes’
section.
6.
E&D Annual Report to Council
The structure and content of this year’s report was discussed and it was agreed
to keep it similar to last year’s. However MO was keen for this year’s report to
include more details of everything the E&D Office is involved in, including the
more routine things. This will be included in the E&D action plan and appended
to the report. It was also felt that it is important to include all the actions
resulting from legislation changes so that Council are aware of the statutory
requirements that the University must fulfil.
Action: DC to circulate draft report to MO and BR once it is completed.
7.
E&D Newsletter – January 2011
There has been lots of positive comments about the Chinese New Year
celebrations and the volunteers who were helping out at the event. The
celebration attracted a large amount of people including a mixture of staff,
students and local residents.
There was also praise for the Insight programme, however a query was raised
about whether the volunteers receive any guidance on appropriate behaviour.
DC confirmed that the University will be sponsoring Exeter LGBT Pride this
year and will have a visible presence at the event.
Action: DC/HB to find out whether Insight volunteers receive any guidance.
8.
Any other business
Camborne School of Mines: MO reported that there had been an issue with
inappropriate and offensive material printed in CSMs RAG magazine. The
circulation of the magazine was immediately stopped, and an investigation is in
progress which could result in disciplinary action taken against the publisher
and editor. The RAG society will also receive guidance on what is appropriate.
English Defence League march: MO advised that the EDL plan to march
through Exeter High Street on Saturday and that there had been concern about
the impact of this on students, particularly international students. The
advantages of informing students about the march had been discussed,
however bearing in mind advice from the Police, that they expected the turnout
to be very low, and in order to avoid causing unnecessary concern or providing
additional publicity for the march it was decided not to warn the generic student
population. However individuals will be speaking informally to staff and
students in specific key areas to advise them.
EHRC guidance: BR highlighted a useful resource on the EHRC website called
‘What Equality Law means for you as an HE provider’.
AGREED ACTIONS:

DC to add two more dates to AOP related to the Public Sector Duty (July
2011 and April 2012).

MO to speak to Neil Armstrong and Shaun Curtis about a recent
International Exeter video with some inappropriate scenes involving
alcohol.

DC to add a sentence to Risk Review to explain why the risk severity has
been reduced. DC to add achieving Two Ticks status to ‘major changes’
section.

DC to circulate draft report to MO and BR once it is completed.

DC/HB to find out whether Insight volunteers receive any guidance.
NEXT MEETING: Thursday 21 April, 10.30am–12.00pm
Helen Booker
Equality and Diversity Administrator
March 2011