Brighton & Hove City Council
Tourism Equalities Community
& Culture Committee
Agenda Item 60
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Subject: |
Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-2028 |
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Date of Meeting: |
9th March 2023 |
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Report of: |
Executive Director Housing, Neighbourhoods, Communities |
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Contact Officer: |
Name: |
Jamarl Billy |
Tel: |
01273 292301 |
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Email: |
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Ward(s) affected: |
All |
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FOR GENERAL RELEASE
1. PURPOSE OF REPORT AND POLICY CONTEXT
1.1 The need to address residents’ lived experience of racism in Brighton & Hove is well evidenced. Many sources such as community engagement, independent reviews, needs assessments and local and national data have highlighted the need to take proactive action to address racism in our city. In 2020, the council made its pledge to be an anti-racist council and an anti-racist city. Since then, the council has been engaging with various stakeholders across the city to develop an Anti-Racism Strategy. This strategy has now been drafted and is the subject of this report. The Anti-Racism strategy covers the period 2023-28.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS:
2.1 That Committee approves the Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-2028 as set out in appendix 1.
2.2 That Committee recommends the Anti-Racism Strategy to Policy & Resources Committee.
2.3 Policy and Resources Committee
2.3.1 That Committee approves the Anti-Racism Strategy as set out in appendix 1.
3. CONTEXT/ BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1 Anti-Racism Strategy Overview
3.1.1 The ‘Brighton and Hove City Council Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-28’ (appendix 1) outlines our vision and aims for the work over the five-year period; our strategic themes; our monitoring and reporting methods; and our gratitude to the organisations and residents involved.
3.1.2 The strategy has two supporting documents. Firstly, ‘Brighton and Hove City Council Anti-Racism Strategy Priority Actions 2023-2028’ (appendix 2). This document outlines our priority actions for our Anti-Racism work over the next five years, with particular focus on specific services that have been identified as priorities (see 3.5).
3.1.3 The second supporting document is ‘Brighton & Hove City Council Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-2028 Appendices’ (appendix 3). This is a collection of appendices that provide background context to the strategy; outline Anti-Racism actions that have already been taken by the council; explain the terminology used and other definitions; and other important information that supports the strategy.
3.1.4 It also contains national and local context data focused on Black and Racially Minoritised people. We recognise we have more work to do in terms of better understanding the experiences and requirements of Black and Racially Minoritised people living with other intersectional protected characteristics including disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment and faith/belief, both in the city and the council workforce. We will work to fill these data gaps as best we can, as the directorates begin to implement their anti-racism actions, many of which involve improving the gathering and analysis of intersectional data.
3.2 External Engagement
3.2.1 Thorough engagement with external organisations, individuals and residents has been undertaken as part of the development of the Anti-Racism Strategy. A key avenue for external engagement has been through the Anti-Racism Community Advisory Group (CAG). The CAG has met regularly since September 2020 to discuss the council’s Anti-Racism work. Further details about the CAG can be found in appendix 3.
3.2.2 The Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Officer with lead on Black and Racially Minoritised communities has had extensive conversations with individuals who are not part of the CAG but wish to engage in the Anti-Racism work of the council. This is to ensure a wide range of voices have a say on the direction of work.
3.3 Internal Engagement
3.3.1 Internal stakeholders have been heavily involved in the development of the strategy. All directorates have discussed the Anti-Racism Strategy at their Directorate Equality Delivery Groups. We have also held service specific focus groups with services that have been highlighted to us by communities as priority areas (see 4.5). The Corporate Equality Delivery Group and the Executive Leadership Team have also been involved in discussions about the Anti-Racism Strategy.
3.4 Strategic Themes
3.4.1 Through the process of developing the Anti-Racism Strategy, we have identified 3 strategic themes that the whole council will be working towards throughout the duration of the strategy. Full details in appendix 1.
3.4.2 The first strategic theme we have identified is ‘Engagement: communicating and collaborating’. We want to create a council that engages sensitively, flexibly, and innovatively with Black and Racially Minoritised residents and Black and Racially Minoritised led organisations. We want to create quality and sustainable dialogue between council services and communities with two-way feedback. We want to create a council that recognises the burden and impact of asking about people's lived experiences and actively avoids engagement fatigue and harm.
3.4.3 The second strategic theme is ‘Data: collecting and using’. Through this priority action we want to create a council that monitors, develops, and enhances our organisational knowledge through data-driven insights and equality, diversity, and inclusion informed data dashboards.
3.4.4 Our third strategic theme is ‘Policy and Practice: reviewing and changing’. Through this priority action we want to create a council that intentionally and consistently conducts robust Equality Impact Assessments, holding ourselves to account and proactively applies and embeds innovative best practice into the way we think, work, and deliver.
3.4.5 These core council-wide aims will be fulfilled by directorate-specific actions carried out over five years. The detailed action plans are under development to aid strategy implementation.
3.5 Service Specific Actions
3.5.1 The Anti-Racism Strategy includes priority actions for specific services (appendix 2) within directorates in the council. Through conversations with the CAG, individual engagement with Black and Racially Minoritised-led organisations, internal services, and local and national data, we identified specific priority areas of change. Bespoke actions have been discussed and agreed with these services as part of developing the Anti-Racism Strategy.
3.5.2 This does not mean that services who do not have bespoke actions will not be working towards the Anti-Racism Strategy. All directorates and their services will be pursuing Anti-Racism work through the three main strategic themes mentioned in 3.4.
3.6 Monitoring & Reporting
3.6.1 The Anti-Racism Strategy will have multiple layers of accountability through rigorous monitoring and reporting. Internally these include via the Directorate Equality Delivery Groups in each directorate which meet quarterly, and the Corporate Equality Delivery Group chaired by the Chief Executive. The Anti-Racism actions will be incorporated into the existing corporate performance framework and align with the current process for reporting on the council’s Fair and Inclusive Action Plan.
3.6.2 The Anti-Racism Strategy will also have multiple layers of public and community accountability via the Anti-Racism Community Advisory Group and ongoing community engagement with Black and Racially Minoritised stakeholders. Updates will also be shared and reported to the council’s Tourism, Economy, Equalities and Communities Committee (TECC) and the City’s Equality & Inclusion Partnership (EQUIP).
3.6.3 For more details about the monitoring and reporting of the Anti-Racism Strategy, please see section 4 in ‘Brighton and Hove City Council Anti-Racism Strategy 2023-2028.’
4. ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION OF ANY ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS
4.1 The development of the strategy has been undertaken in response to the council’s pledge to become an anti-racist council, Notices of Motion and petitions about anti-racism accepted by full council/committees and previously agreed work under the Fair & Inclusive Action Plan.
4.2 2021 census data shows that the number of ‘BME’ (Black and Minoritised Ethnic) residents in the city has increased by 35%. This is despite the overall number of residents in the city only increasing by 1%. With an increasing Black and Racially Minoritised population in the city, not approving the Anti-Racism strategy will stall progress already made to become an anti-racist council and has the potential to damage trust and relationships built with Black and Racially Minoritised communities and residents over recent years.
5. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & CONSULTATION
5.1 Engagement is as outlined above in Section 3.
6. CONCLUSION
6.1 Our vision is to make Brighton & Hove inclusive, anti-racist and accessible for the diverse community of people who live, work, or visit the city, irrespective of their origin and backgrounds. This strategy aims to put anti-racism and intersectional considerations at the heart of how the council thinks, works, designs, and delivers its services to support Black and Racially Minoritised people, who are disproportionately impacted, to have equity of access, opportunity, and representation of voice to engage and thrive in everything the city has to offer.
6.2 For Brighton & Hove City Council it is not enough to be ‘not racist’. We must be anti-racist. This is evidenced through systemic change which means looking at our policies, practice, procedures, and service delivery. We made a pledge in 2020; worked on ourselves and our relationships with Black and Racially and Racially Minoritised residents, set this in writing, we want communities to be able to hold us to account and importantly, ensure that we hold ourselves to account. We strive to identify opportunities to take a civic lead and inspire inclusive, anti-racist, intersectional, and accessibility-informed change within our sphere of influence. This foundational strategy is council-wide and takes an integrated and holistic approach based on anti-racist principles and best practice, committing us long-term to intentionally creating systemic change and anti-racist policy and practice.
7. FINANCIAL & OTHER IMPLICATIONS
The publication of the strategy is being met from within the Communities, Equality and Third Sector (CETS) revenue budget. Any financial implications arising from the actions identified in the strategy will be considered by the relevant service as part of their standard budget management processes and decisions on allocation of funding will be made in line with council’s budget setting process.
Finance Officer Consulted: Michael Bentley Date: 21/02/2023
8. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
8.1 All the actions proposed in the Anti-Racism Strategy are in line with the Council’s powers and duties, in particular under the Equality Act 2010.
Lawyer Consulted: Joanne Dunyaglo Date: 22/02/2023
9. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS
9.1 The intention of this work is to address identified racial inequalities and racism experienced by people who live in, work in and visit the city. The range of engagement planned with people who share other characteristics in addition to their ethnicity will ensure that perspectives are heard from a wide range of people. This will enable the development of tailored and bespoke actions to address all forms of racism, where it is based on ethnicity, skin colour or any other attribute.
9.2 The work is central to the council’s legal duties under the Equality Act 2010 to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between communities, as well as to encourage civic engagement by under-represented groups. It also complements and supports the council’s Fair & Inclusive Action Plan in addressing the findings of the review of race diversity by Global HPO.
9.3 An Equality Impact Assessment of the Anti-Racism Strategy has been completed.
10. SUSTAINABILITY IMPLICATIONS
10.1 No implications arising from this report.
11. SOCIAL VALUE & PROCUREMENT IMPLICATIONS
11.1 There are no direct social value and procurement implications that arise from this report
12. CRIME & DISORDER IMPLCATIONS
12.1 Crime & Disorder implications are covered in section 3.10 & above
13. PUBLC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
13.1 There are no Public Health implications arising from this report.
14. OTHER IMPLICATIONS
14.1 There are no other implications that arise from this report.