COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
Equality and Diversity Committee
Minutes of the meeting of Thursday, 17 April 2008
held in Room G1, 55 George Square
Present
Mrs Janet Rennie (Co Convener Convener for this meeting
CHSS Deputy College Registrar
Professor April McMahon (Co Convener)
Dr Elaine Kelly
Dr Alexandra Smith
Dr Alison Lenton
Head of School of Philosophy,
Psychology & Language Sciences
School of Arts, Culture & Environment
School of Literatures, Languages & Cultures
School of Philosophy, Psychology &
Language Sciences
School of Social & Political Studies
School Administrators’ Representative
Contract Research Staff Representative
University Equality & Diversity Manager
CHSS Human Resources
Office of Lifelong Learning
Ms Susan Hunter
Ms Jenny Ansett
Ms Kathryn Hunter
Mr Ian Bettison
Ms Lyn Adams
Dr Caroline Bamford
Apologies
Ms Marnie Roadburg
Dr Elizabeth Koepping
Ms Deborah Ritchie
Dr Glenys Davies
Mr Colin Campbell
Disability Office
School of Divinity
School of Health
School of History, Classics & Archaeology
School Secretaries’ Representative
In attendance
Chaplain Di Williams
Mr Ronnie Millar
Mrs Joan Kemp
Chaplaincy - attending for presentation
Deputy Director, Student Counselling Service - attending
for presentation
Secretary
Formal Business - Open Business
1.
Welcome
The Co-Convener welcomed Ms Kathryn Hunter, newly appointed Contract
Research Staff representative, Chaplain Di Williams and Mr Ronnie Millar,
Deputy Director of the Student Counselling Service to the meeting.
2.
Cultural and Faith Diversity Policies
A presentation was given by the Chaplain on the challenging and diverse
culture and faith issues faced by the University. She advised the Committee
that the role of Chaplaincy was the University provision of pastoral and
spiritual support for students and staff of all faiths and none. The Chaplaincy
team and staff offered support to both students and staff through places for
meeting, reflection, one-to-one support, welcome and hospitality. The
Chaplain encouraged the Committee to identify some of the issues regarding
religion and belief which could arise within the University. A number of
points were raised. These included:
Faith difficulties for Saturday exams (The Chaplain reported the
University’s arrangements for handling these for Orthodox Jews)
Scheduling of exams for those students fasting during the day
Stem cell ethical implications
Professional placements: issues regarding values and interaction
between gender and / or race
Teaching, e.g. evolutionary psychology
The Chaplain reported that there was successful interaction between student
faith societies. This could be seen, for example, from the Holocaust Memorial
Day which had embraced all faiths and had been very well attended.
The Chaplain also advised the Committee that an opportunity had arisen for
the Chaplaincy to work with the Edinburgh Interfaith Association to help
promote religious harmony, diversity and equal opportunities locally and
globally. Further information about the Association’s aims and policies could
be found on its website at:
http://www.eifa.org.uk/2.html.
The Convener thanked the Chaplain for her presentation which had been both
thought-provoking and informative.
3.
Support of distressed students and colleagues
The Deputy Director of the Student Counselling Service spoke to the
Committee about the work and services offered by the Student Counselling
Service.
The Service offered support to distressed students. In the main, the support
offered was on a short term basis of up to six sessions but it could also provide
longer term help to students with chronic mental health problems. The
Service sought to provide initial assessment appointments within one week of
contact by students. Student Counsellors had noted that increasing numbers of
students had approached the Service for support. The Deputy Director advised
the Committee that that there had been an increase this session of 12% on the
number of students contacting the Service for support from the previous
session.
The Counselling Service had also recognised increasing stress suffered by
Directors of Studies and Student Support Officers when presented by
distressed students, especially those with mental health issues. Commissioned
by the Disability Office, the Service had carried out two training workshops
on the role of “The Caring Director of Studies”. Both had been well attended
with approximately 25 Directors of Studies and Student Support Officers
attending in each case. The Counselling Service also offered consultations to
staff to advise and support those with distressed students. The Co-Convener
agreed to contact the Disability Office to request that further training
workshops be arranged in advance of the forthcoming session.
The Deputy Director advised the Committee that a guide for University staff
entitled ‘Helping Distressed Students’ had been produced by the Disability
Office. Staff who had received a copy of the booklet had found it very
helpful. Further copies were available from the Secretary to the CHSS
Equality and Diversity Committee.
The Co-Convener asked School
Representatives to advise the Secretary should they require extra copies.
The Committee was advised by the Chaplain that the Chaplaincy could also
offer support to distressed students and staff.
The Convener thanked the Deputy Director for his presentation which had
been motivating and informative.
4.
Minutes of the meeting of 23 January 2008
The Committee accepted the minutes as a correct record of the meeting.
5.
Matters arising
Item 5: The Committee was advised that the Mental Health sub group of the
Disability Office was not a new group but had been established for a number
of years. Its Convener was not able to attend this meeting of the E&D
Committee but would be invited to attend its first meeting in session
2008/2009.
Impact Assessment Project Board: The Committee noted that a Universitywide project board had not yet been established.
6.
Convener’s Business
The Convener advised the Committee that three papers concerning Equality
and Diversity were to be discussed at the next meeting of CMG:



Proposal for a new approach to Dignity and Respect. If the proposal
was approved by CMG, work would begin to develop a new Policy
based on principles of a “business-centred approach”.
Paper on the Promotion of Women in the University, and
Paper on the Gender Equality Scheme
The Co-Convener also confirmed that the issues identified by the
Committee for referral for the annual College Plan had been included.
7.
Staff Appraisal
The Co-Convener advised the Committee that information had been received
from College HR which indicated that in the last 12 months 48 members of
staff in the College had attended training sessions for Appraisers whilst 22 had
attended sessions on appraisee training. The Co-Convener encouraged School
Representatives to promote the training sessions in their Schools.
The Co-Convener reminded the Committee that School Representatives had
been asked to provide to the Committee brief written reports on their progress
in extending the use of appraisal in their Schools. It was hoped that these
reports would help to disseminate best practice. The Committee noted that
these reports were also required by the Vice-Principal for Equality and
Diversity and were to be discussed at Staff Committee. The Co-Convener
advised the Committee that not all reports had yet been received. The
Committee also noted that appraisal should be a positive experience that could
lead to development opportunities or highlight other hidden issues which
could then be resolved.
The Committee observed that at its previous meeting some School
Representatives had advised that their Schools were unhappy with the current
version of the Appraisal form. The Co-Convener advised the Committee that
Schools had been asked to forward to the Co-Convener examples of the
changes they had made to forms. To date, information received from both
School Administrators and School Representatives indicated that no changes
had been made to the forms at School level: the Co-Convener asked for
confirmation that this was correct.
8.
Report of the University Equality and Diversity Manager
The Committee noted the points raised in the report of the University Equality
and Diversity Manager which is attached to this minute as Appendix 1.
9.
Report from the University Equality and Diversity Committee
(Paper 07/06)
The Committee noted the report.
10.
Any other business
The Committee agreed to invite the Director of the Disability Office to give a
short talk at a future meeting of the Committee on the work of the Disability
Office.
11.
Date of meetings in Session 2008/2009
11.00am - 1.00pm on 15 October 2008, 19 February 2009 and 14 May 2009.
Appendix 1
Update for HSS E&D Committee: Report from E&D Manager
17/04/08

Training rolled out for all co-ordinators. Feedback mostly positive. Further
development planned.

Initial E&D issue meetings with all E&D Co-ordinators.

4 School Meetings with HoS. E&D Co-ordinators and VP of E&D.
-
Very positive and well received.
Focus on potential areas for development.
Look at use of local monitoring.
Engage with Colleagues and collect feedback, cascade best practice.
Career Planning.

Leadership Foundation Diversity Diagnostic Survey ready to launch following
feedback and pilots.

Increase in issues relating to bullying and harassment, between staff and
students. Difficult situation relating to cyber-bullying.

New Approach to Dignity & Respect supported by Staff Committee.

Ongoing development and promotion of Contact Officers.

Paper on Promotion of Women at Edinburgh for Staff Committee.

Development of Impact Assessment.

Development of and consultation over Gender Equality Scheme.

New website development.