Inspiring leaders to
improve children's lives
Mike Smith
Lead Commissioner, Disability Harassment Inquiry
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Arndale House, The Arndale Centre
Manchester M4 3AQ
9 February 2012
Dear Mike
Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to comment on the outcome
of the inquiry on disability-related harassment.
We believe that the strength and effectiveness of a workforce and its
leadership are enhanced by drawing on the talents and experiences of people
from diverse backgrounds. In order to rise to the inherent challenges, we
have developed a strategy which covers the National College's role in:
 external activity: as an authontattvs national voice on school and children's
services leadership issues;
 delivery: as a commissioner and provider of leadership development and
support;
 internal activity: as an employer.
In a number of ways, activities identified in the core recommendations already
underpin the College's strategy and some examples are given below.
Our Executive Directors and Directors provide leadership to the College on
equality issues and they are supported by our Governing Council. We have
access to three dedicated Diversity Associates who work out in the field. They
provide expert advice to the College on a range of diversity issues including
support to the Equality and Diversity Manager in engaging with the College's
programme teams to ensure that diversity/equality issues become
mainstream activity. We, therefore, believe that there is real ownership and
commitment from the top to drive forward transparency in our performance on
all aspects of disability issues both in the College and within the activities we
provide for our communities.
Our Dignity at Work policy sets out our commitment to ensure fair treatment
and dignity for all staff at work and for our clients. It prohibits all forms of
harassment and bullying whether or not amounting to unlawful discrimination
and all allegations result in a formal investigation lead by a senior manager.
Our process ensures that any incident of harassment is automatically
reported to the Director of HR and the Chief Operating Officer who are
responsible for monitoring outcomes to ensure that appropriate action is
taken and that there is no evidence of an escalating pattern. Where
appropriate, the Occupational Health Service can also be called upon to
provide specialist advice and guidance.
All the College's facilities are easily accessible to guests and staff with
disabilities. We provide special reserved car parking and purpose-built
bedrooms. The National College's conference room and a selection of
meeting rooms are equipped with facilities for delegates with hearing
difficulties. Furthermore, the National College provides alarm systems in
bedrooms for guests with impaired hearing. We undertake workplace
assessments and provide reasonable adjustments to ensure that we can fully
meet the needs of our staff.
Both workshops and on-line training on equality and diversity issues
(including harassment and disability) have been mandatory for all our staff
and line managers so that they can recognise when harassment is taking
place and have the skills to address it.
As well as collating and monitoring the general employee diversity data which
is regularly reported to the Senior Leadership Team and the Governing
Council, we also collect data about our external programmes and evaluate
outcomes to inform future provision.
As a provider of services we have taken the following steps to ensure
individuals with a disability are not discriminated against, harassed or
victimised in any way:
 Our programmes and any related workshops are all held at venues
accessible to all. This is one of the essential criteria used when assessing
a venue's Suitability.
 All associates, facilitators, trainers and those working on behalf of the
College must comply with the National College Equality and Diversity
policy. This includes explicit reference to the eight protected characteristics
under the Equality Act and our commitment to preventing and tackling all
forms of harassment, discrimination and victimisation.
 All providers of services for the College have been approached to submit a
copy of their own E&D policy to ensure equality governs their values as it
does ours.
 Equality Impact Assessments have been undertaken for our programmes
and provision to ensure our approach does not disadvantage particular
groups of individuals in any way.
 Reasonable adjustments are made as needed for any disabled applicants
to our programme and this is handled with sensitivity and discretion by
programme leaders and teams, also liaising with the diversity manager as
needed.
As a public sector organisation we take steps to engage with and hear the
views of disabled teachers aspiring to school leadership in the following ways:
 The Equality and Diversity Manager has been a regular member of the
Disabled Teachers Taskforce run by the General Teaching Council for
England. Membership includes representation from disabled teachers and
ensures a forum through which the National College can better understand
the barriers and challenges faced by disabled teachers, particularly those
aspiring to leadership. A report was produced by the GTC during this time,
the content of which will be used as a starting point for future follow up
focus group work.
 Funding has been provided for a regional project looking at barriers to
school leadership for disabled teachers. The project will initially focus on
consulting with a range of aspirant disabled leaders and will go on to
explore strategies for overcoming these challenges. Case studies and
good practice will be written up and shared more widely via the College
website.
Therefore, through effective data capture, equality impact assessments and
the reporting mechanisms already in place we can evaluate the impact on our
communities and take action where necessary.
As an organisation we are committed to the seven suggested
recommendations you suggest and from our experience, of these
recommendations, the one we believe of key importance and most
achievable is real ownership and strong leadership of the equality agenda to
deliver change. Our moral purpose and values set the scene for our staff to
work compassionately in showing a strong personal commitment to
identifying and dealing with any forms of harassment. Our equality scheme
and action plan outline our commitment to equality and diversity in the way
we employ staff, provide services and work with partners and stakeholders.
Our 'two ticks' disability accreditation demonstrates our drive to show good
practice in this area.
Not only do we deliver our legal duty to meet the Equality Act 2010
requirements, we also stress our moral duty to promote diversity and to value
the differences that each individual brings. This contributes to and enables
our drive to diversify the leadership of schools and children's services and
underpins our aim to encourage and support a diverse National College
workforce.
Along with the first of the seven recommendations, another one which is
particularly relevant to us as an organisation is to continue to look for ways to
prevent harassment at work and to respond positively and with challenge to
the perpetrators and with compassion and support for those who feel this
issue affects them. As previously mentioned all of our staff (not just frontline
staff) have been through diversity training recently and have responded very
positively to the experience.
We will continue to work closely with the Human Rights Commission and
other agencies in the development of our provision and remain willing to
provide feedback and input at relevant forums. From 1 April 2012 we will
become an Agency of the Department for Education which will give us access
to a wider range of support mechanisms for staff and other specialist advice
and guidance. This change will also lead to a consistent approach across
agencies, learning from the best practice within each to effectively take
forward the equalities agenda.
In summary, the College will continue to support the achievement of real
progress in tackling disability harassment and we will use the
recommendations made by the EHRC to guide work in this area. We will
continue to embed equality and diversity as a mainstream activity within our
work with leaders in the wider community and we will keep listening to the
views and challenges facing disabled leaders and aspirant leaders, providing
support where we can.
Yours sincerely
Steve Munby Chief Executive
Triumph Road Nottingham NG8 1DH
T 0845 609 0009 F 0115872 2001
E enquiries@nationalcollege.org.uk www.nationalcollege.org.uk