Equality and Diversity Report 2010/11

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Contents Introduction 2 Policy statement 2 Targets 3 Age 4 Disability 6 Gender 8 Gender identity 10 Pregnancy and maternity 10 Race 11 Religion and belief 16 Sexual orientation 16 Fairtrade 18 Eliminating harassment 18 Promotion and engagement 19 Teaching and learning 22 Leadership and management 22 Future plans and development 24

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

1. Introduction

2. Policy Statement

This report gives an overview of equality and diversity at City College Plymouth in 2009/10. It examines how the College is meeting its legislative requirements and how it will meet the new equality legislation from the Equality Act 2010.

The College believes that every individual has the right to fair treatment, respect and understanding. It holds that people’s ability to achieve their potential should not be hampered by prejudice and unfair discrimination and that everyone should have an equal opportunity to participate in society. It values the benefits that diversity and difference bring to society and actively promotes these within its communities and beyond. It raises awareness of equality and human rights and combats all forms of inequality, disadvantage, prejudice, unfair discrimination and mistreatment within its communities.

•

The College has a long established commitment to equality and diversity which gives responsibility for its achievement to everyone connected with the organisation. Equality and diversity is well embedded throughout the College and can be evidenced in our strategic, curriculum and quality processes. It is driven by a comprehensive and well monitored Single Equality Scheme and underpinned by an Equality and Diversity Policy. The College meets its legal requirements for an equality and diversity policy with clear statements on protected characteristic discrimination. The College has developed and published a Single Equality Scheme which covers the discrimination legislation.

This means that age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion and sexual orientation are covered by the scheme. Equality impact assessments are carried out on policy and strategic documents and published.

The Accessibility Commitment giving guidance on the help available to students with learning difficulties and disabilities is published annually. These documents are all available from the College website.

In January 2010 the College was reaccredited with Investors in People, in March 2010 the Careers and Information, Advice and Guidance team was successfully reaccredited with Investors in Careers, and in June 2010 for Matrix. In July 2010 the College had a successful review for the ‘two ticks’ Disability Symbol.

Key points The College and the people that make up its communities (students, staff, governors, agents and visitors) will: • treat everyone fairly, with respect and understanding • seek out and welcome individuals and groups from all sections of the local and wider community • educate its students, staff, agents and visitors together with the wider community in equality, fair treatment, awareness of cultural and social diversity and the benefits they bring • encourage and promote diversity and difference • combat mistreatment and unfairness • continuously improve its equality and diversity through three year rolling schemes of improvement and development • seek advice and guidance from external agencies and consult cross-sections of its community • recognise and address its corporate liability and ensure its members are aware of their individual responsibilities • have robust systems of monitoring and action.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

3. Targets The College achieved its 2009/10 Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs) with one exception. The College met the majority of the EDIMs set for 2008/9 and achieved its EDIMs in 2007/8. The exception was the target to increase female participation in automotive, engineering and construction which decreased by 1% reflecting the overall small decline in female student numbers across the College.

Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs) Success rates Group Increase black and minority ethnic participation in Apprenticeships and E2E Race Increase number of females into automotive, engineering and construction Gender Increase the number of learners with learning difficulties and or disabilities supported at level 3 Disability Increase the number of males succeeding in hairdressing Gender Increase performance of black and minority students Race

2008/9

2009/10

Improvement sought

2.8% 1.6%

+

7.1%

6.2%

1%

17%

22%

2%

57.1%

61.5%

2%

74.9%

2%

E2E 2.5% Apprenticeship 1.0%

72.3% (all students, all courses)

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

4. Age In 2009/10 the student age profile ranged from 13 to 84. The graph below shows the distribution of the age groups with the under 16 age group at 2%, the 16-19 age group at 29% and the 19+ age group at 69% of the student population.

Working with disengaged and deprived young people Examples of activities where the College engages with age equality include the programmes offered by the Work-based Learning department such as Jumpstart, Prince’s Trust and V-talent. These focus on re-engaging young people in education and training. It has a variety of initiatives for building relationships with learners, for example ‘Twenty Questions’ sessions in which students can ask questions of members of staff (all volunteers for the activity) about their life journey as a way of challenging stereotypes and prejudices.

Working with older people in the community The staff age profile ranged from 18 to 71 and as the graph below demonstrates has a fairly even distribution with 50-54 age group the largest (16%) and the under 25 age group smallest (5%). There were 20 members of staff over the age of 65.

An example of students working with older people in the community is the serving of tea and cakes for residents of two local care homes as part of Colleges’ Week in November 2009. Residents enjoyed handmade cakes and biscuits baked by the College’s catering students and served by our front of house students in the Cité Brassiere.

The College reaches out to support this community in other ways, for example providing a location for activities such as ballroom dancing.

Future Jobs Fund The College has also taken part in the Future Jobs Fund initiative giving 12, 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for six months an opportunity to gain paid employment for a six month period. Five young people have been offered a job at the College as a result of this initiative.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

5 Disability In 2009/10 over 14% of students declared a disability and 10% a learning difficulty. Achievement gap analysis at cross college level for long courses shows the gap has widened for declared disability achievement by 1.9% over the last year to 3% below students with no declared disabilities, while the learning difficulty gap is showing a positive trend and learning difficulty students’ achievement was 2.5% above students without learning difficulties in 2009/10. The graph below shows the three year trend.

The College has a specialist Learning Support team who support students across the College with disabilities and learning difficulties. The team supported 201 students, 34% of students who disclosed, and of these supported students 96 progressed with their studies in 2009/10. The dyslexia team supported 51 students and 92% either achieved their qualification or successfully continued to the second year of their course.

Students are empowered by this team and one student commented: ‘I have Aspergers Syndrome … In the past I used to self-harm as a way of coping with my home and college life, and also stress. Over the last year I have become much more confident and happy with myself. … I have not needed much support from the Learning Support team this second year. This is because they felt that I was capable of completing the course on my own, however, support was offered if and when I needed it’.

The College supplies four members of College staff for two days a week to run four groups (16 learners) for an educational trust for disabled people. These students have profound, multiple/complex needs and are aged over 19.

The College’s learning accommodation is highly accessible for people with motor and sensory disabilities.

Details are set out in Accessibility Commitment and the College joined the Disabledgo website in September 2009. The high numbers of private study computers (284 in the Learning Resource Service and more in curriculum areas with all the Microsoft accessibility features and Inspirations), adjustable furniture, assistive aids and programmes all facilitate use by students with disabilities as do the course Moodle sites and course materials. The College has had an annual capital budget to invest in improving access for the disabled for over a decade. Reasonable adjustments are made for individuals where needed and improvements in 2009/10 included adjustable benches in the science laboratories.

In 2010/11 the budget amounts to £50,000 and is being invested in refurbishing a care room and installing refuge area communication devices for example.

There is a disability forum to gain student engagement and feedback on the College provision and resources, and the Students’ Union has set up a SWD (students with disability) society.

The College has the ‘two ticks’ standard demonstrating it is positive about disabled people. Specialist training is provided for staff to raise awareness of the needs of students with disabilities and learning difficulties and there were 415 staff attendances at these sessions in 2009/10.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

In 2009/10 declarations of disability amongst staff stood at 5%. The further education college average was 2.7% in 2007/8 (Annual Workforce Diversity Profile 2007/8 published in 2010 by LLUK). The graph below shows the declared disability trend for applicants and employees.

Feedback has been extremely positive with Derriford Hospital’s Chief Executive saying: ‘It’s fantastic to have the interns coming to work at the Trust, and it is also great to work in partnership on this initiative’.

One student who is working as a patient porter commented: ‘I have only been working as an intern in the department for a short time, but already feel like part of the team. I hope after being on the Project Search initiative to be offered a paid job in a department at the hospital’.

What Next

Project Search An example of College activity is Project Search, a work-based initiative which began in the USA and is now active in the UK. It is a proven way of progressing young adults with learning disabilities into sustained mainstream employment.

The four Plymouth partners involved in the scheme, Derriford Hospital, City College Plymouth, Pluss and Serco, provide work experience through internships.

The interns spend an academic year within hospital departments with the support of City College Plymouth and Pluss staff. Additionally, they also complete a level 1 Diploma in Skills for Working Life, which underpins and validates their involvement in the scheme.

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The annual ‘16+ What Next’ event was held in October at the Plymouth Guildhall for all young people with disabilities, over the age of 16, and their parents/carers. The College’s Skills Development team offered information about education, training, leisure, health, person-centred planning, adult and support services. Free short workshops were offered in the afternoon on direct payments, benefits and local services.

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

6. Gender There are approximately equal numbers of men and women students, with 45% female and 55% male students in 2009/10. Achievement gap analysis at cross college level for long courses shows a narrowing gap for gender by 4% over three years. In 2009/10 female success rates stood at 77.6% and male success rates at 76.4%.

The Governor profile more closely reflects the student profile with four female and eight male Governors in 2009/10.

The gender pay gap refers to the difference between the average earnings of men and women. In the College the gender pay gap for all full-time and parttime staff varies from 3% for managers (excluding the senior management team) to 20% for business support staff and 21% for lecturing staff with men earning more than women. The gender pay gap in the public sector for all employees is 19.2%.

Women into Technology

The staff profile does not reflect the student profile, 40% of the workforce are men and 60% are women.

The senior team has better balance with 13 women and 11 men. The further education average profile was 36% male and 64% female in 2007/8. The graph below shows the trend for applicants and employees by gender.

An example of the activities organised to promote gender equality is the Women into Technology event.

Over 70 female students from schools in Plymouth and South East Cornwall came to the College for the annual ‘Women into Technology’ event in October.

The students were given the opportunity to attend workshops throughout the day, designed to give them a hands-on experience of what the industry can offer at a time when they are planning their future careers.

The event was sponsored by Plymouth Construction Training and representatives from TEC Construction, ROK Group, Babcock Marine and GOSS Interactive were available to offer advice and guidance.

SkillBuild Bronze A female painting and decorating student won bronze at the 2010 SkillBuild final, the largest multi-trade competition in the UK for students and apprentices.

This success demonstrates that the College has promoted non stereotypical careers.

International Women’s Day

Two female apprentice bricklayers and six students from the painting and decorating department of the College attended an event on Plymouth Hoe to celebrate International Women’s Day, together with the Principal, Viv Gillespie, helping to highlight the College’s policy of encouraging more women to apply for construction and engineering courses in Plymouth.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

7. Gender identity

8. Pregnancy and maternity

The College is committed to tackling discrimination and this includes discrimination on the ground of gender identity. The Equality and Diversity Policy and the Single Equality Scheme include gender identity statements, actions and objectives. Gender identity equality is included in mandatory staff training and there is a resource section on the E&D Moodle site to provide additional support. Intercom Trust, a South West community support and advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people provides additional specialist training for staff.

The College supports parents through the provision of nurseries. The two Curious Kittens nurseries provide childcare for children aged from six months to school age, and after school care and holiday clubs for five to eleven year olds at both the Kings Road and Goschen centres. The nurseries enable both students and staff to study and/or work knowing their children are well cared for and stimulated. Both nurseries were inspected by Ofsted in 2007 and both were awarded ‘outstanding’ for their nursery and kids’ club provision.

During 2009/10 the nurseries cared for 204 children (170 in 2008/9), of whom 112 were the children of students, 25 were the children of staff and 67 were from local community families (for 2008/9 85, 30 and 55 respectively).

The Students’ Union has established an LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society and a specialist transgender NHS representative attended the summer student conference.

Currently the College does not have any transgender members of staff and this information is not collected from students. Any transgender students will be supported as appropriate to the needs of the individual student.

The College plans to develop a project to support pregnant mothers and young parents in response to the needs of the local community. The aim is to develop the current ‘ad hoc’ approach with a supportive framework of options. Plymouth has a higher than average pregnancy rate amongst teenagers so this is a relevant group to support.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

9. Race In 2009/10 the student population had a black and ethnic minority percentage of 10%, this is above the estimated Plymouth ethnic population of 7.1%. A detailed breakdown is shown below.

Ethnicity Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi Asian or Asian British: Pakistani Asian or Asian British: Indian Asian or Asian British: Other Asian Black or Black British: Black African Black or Black British: Black Caribbean Black or Black British: Other Black Chinese or Other Ethnic Group: Chinese Mixed: White and Asian Mixed: White and Black African Mixed: White and Black Caribbean Mixed: Other Mixed White: British White: Irish White: Other White Any other Not known Grand Total The gap for black and minority ethnic achievement has widened by 1.1% over 3 years as the success trend graph below illustrates so that success rates in 2009/10 were 77.4% for White British and 73.3% for all other ethnicities.

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Number of students 13 25 38 124 158 23 14 280 30 32 33 41 13804 49 547 142 112 15465

% of student population 0.10% 0.20% 0.10% 0.20% 0.80% 0.10% 0.10% 1.80% 0.20% 0.20% 0.20% 0.30% 89.30% 0.30% 3.50% 0.90% 0.70% 100%

Plymouth population 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.8% 0.4% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 92.9% 0.6% 2.1% 0.6%

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

The staff profile had a black and ethnic minority of 4.7% and there was one ethnic minority governor in 2009/10. The further education average for black and minority ethnic staff is 8.5%. A detailed staff breakdown is shown below.

Ethnicity Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi Asian or Asian British: Pakistani Asian or Asian British: Indian Asian or Asian British: Other Asian Black or Black British: Black African Black or Black British: Black Caribbean Black or Black British: Other Black Chinese or Other Ethnic Group: Chinese Mixed: White and Asian Mixed: White and Black African Mixed: White and Black Caribbean Mixed: Other Mixed White: British White: Irish White: Other White Any other Not declared Grand Total

Number of staff

% of staff

1 2 1 2 1 3

2 2 784 6 18 5 7 834

0.0% 0.1% 0.2% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.1% 0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2% 0.2% 94.0% 0.7% 2.2% 0.6% 0.8% 100.0%

Plymouth population 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.4% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.8% 0.4% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 92.9% 0.6% 2.1% 0.6%

The Human Resources team makes strong efforts to recruit a diverse workforce including advertising in the Diversity Handbook and the ethnicity profile at the College has increased from 4.3% in 2008/9 to 4.7% in 2009/10 and now stands at 5.1% (January 2011).

Rock against Racism One College event designed to promote awareness of racial discrimination and the impact it can have on society was the ‘Rock Against Racism’ concert organised by the College’s Students’ Union. The concert featured six College bands and the Students’ Union president, said: ‘It was a great opportunity for the College’s students to show their united support in the fight against racism.’

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Leonardo programme As one approach to addressing the lack of diversity in the local area the College provides work placements for European Union students through the Leonardo programme. Leonardo funds staff and students involved in vocational education and training to set up cooperative activities, work experience placements and work shadowing in another European country. Our College currently runs Leonardo placements in fifteen European countries, primarily in construction and hospitality. Staff from across the College have benefited from vocational development through Leonardo funding.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

International Developments In the academic year 2009/10 the International Office continued to develop links and partnerships in a range of different countries and to diversify international activity across the College curriculum. The College hosted visits by St. Lawrence College, Nepal, in December 2009, and by Hanoi Tourism College, Vietnam, in March 2010, to begin the process of establishing articulation agreements for the progression of students to the UK to study. The College continued its participation in a PMI2 funded project to promote vocational education and NVQs in Korea, with three UK college partners, and four Korean partners, with Plymouth focussing on beauty therapy and hairdressing with our partner, Dong-Eui Institute of Technology in Busan. The outward mission of four UK colleges to Korea took place in October 2009 with a return visit by Korean partners in January 2010. The College also welcomed the first group of eight students from Huzhou University in China to study a one year International Education Diploma in September 2009, and the first ever government sponsored students from Korea on the Global Workforce Training Programme in August 2010.

The International Office held a two day Orientation Programme for all new international students in September, including information talks, a coach tour of Plymouth and the surrounding area, and a boat cruise in Plymouth Sound. Student trips were organised by the International Office to Cotehele House, London and Bath, and the annual Christmas Party and Chinese New Year Party were great successes and enjoyed by students, staff and visitors. The International Manager co-presented a workshop on Cross-Cultural Communication at the Staff Training Day in July 2010, and also gave a well-received presentation to Governors on their annual Strategic Planning Day in April. The International Manager also co-presented a session at the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching & Learning Conference at the University of Plymouth in June, on the ongoing transitions joint project.

UK Border Agency conducted a rigorous inspection of the College’s international processes and practices in August, resulting in the College becoming a Highly Trusted Sponsor for immigration purposes.

The College attended British Council Education UK exhibitions in Vietnam (October), India (November), Hong Kong (January) and Sri Lanka (February) as well as a Pathways to University Colleges Mission to Vietnam in January. The International Manager and International Student Officer (China) visited Beijing, Shanghai, Jiaxing (Plymouth’s link city) and Huzhou in March.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

10. Religion and belief

11. Sexual orientation

The well established multi-faith chaplaincy team maintains quiet rooms at the Kings Road and Goschen centres and offers moral and spiritual support. There was greater student involvement in the carol service in December 2009 and in 2009/10 wider cross College involvement in the team has led to the development of multi-faith activities for 2010/11.

The Equality and Diversity Policy and the Single Equality Scheme include sexual orientation equality statements, actions and objectives. Sexual orientation equality is included in mandatory staff training and there is a resource section on the E&D Moodle site to provide additional support. Intercom Trust, a South West community support and advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people provides additional specialist training for staff.

Currently the College does not collect data on religion or belief from students.

The majority of staff (51.4%) have chosen not to comment on their religion or beliefs. Amongst the staff that did respond Christianity was identified with by 34% and 2.9% identified with another religion or belief.

Religion or belief Agnostic Atheist Christian Buddhist Hindu Muslim Other No comment Grand total

Number of staff 57 44 280 3 1 3 17 429 834

% of staff 6.8% 5.3% 33.6% 0.4% 0.1% 0.4% 2% 51.4% 100%

Chinese New Year One festival celebrated at the College is Chinese New Year. The annual, and hugely successful, Chinese New Year Party was held in February, celebrating the Year of the Tiger. Party guests enjoyed a buffet of Chinese food and an entertainment programme of traditional and contemporary Chinese music, dance and drama, performed by the College’s Chinese students.

An LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society was established by the Students’ Union.

Currently information on sexual orientation is not collected from students. The issues around collecting this data were explored with students at the student summer conference.

A large number of staff (46.4%) chose not to comment or not to declare their sexual orientation.

Amongst the staff who did declare 1.1% identified as lesbian, gay or bi-sexual. The Governor profile includes one gay member.

Sexual orientation Heterosexual Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual No comment Not declared Grand total

Number of staff

% of staff 438 9

52.5% 1.1%

29 358 834

3.5% 42.9% 100%

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

12. Fairtrade The Fairtrade Foundation is a campaigning organisation with a focus on alleviating poverty in the developing world. Through the Fairtrade Foundation the College has achieved Fairtrade status, which means that as a Fairtrade College we have, under our Fairtrade Policy committed to support and use Fairtrade products. The Principal chairs the College’s Fairtrade Focus Group who meet on a quarterly basis to discuss progress against yearly targets set.

During Fairtrade Fortnight last year (22 February - 7 March 2010) the College worked hard to educate staff and students about Fairtrade, highlighting the fact that by buying Fairtrade products, individuals would be helping farmers in developing countries get better prices, improve sustainability within the community and improve working conditions. The College’s fortnight event included hosting activities, games and competitions relating to Fairtrade as well as showing the film Black Gold.

With the help of the College’s catering contractor ‘Aramark’ Fairtrade items are available in all eateries and Fairtrade refreshments are served in meetings. The College’s hospitality programme area uses Fairtrade ingredients in their teaching and learning activities and support the Fairtrade Fortnight campaign by serving Fairtrade focused menus in their restaurant and Bistro. Fairtrade is also promoted through College training courses, induction programmes and through publications like the staff bulletin, staff magazine Pulse and student focused publications like the Loop.

13. Eliminating discrimination and harassment Student feedback in the summer 2010 survey indicated that students felt safe (91%), felt respected (86%) and understood the need to work well with people of different types and backgrounds and to value everyone’s contribution (89%).

Safeguarding The Safeguarding Team currently consists of a Senior Designated Person, a Safeguarding Coordinator and six Safeguarding Officers (one of whom has particular responsibility for the safeguarding of vulnerable adults).

The focus of the Safeguarding Team is to ensure that all of the students in College ‘feel safe’ and are safe.

Safeguarding includes many issues that are involved in being safe; health and safety, child protection, bullying (including ‘cyber bullying’), e-safety, life style choices and some welfare related matters. Safeguarding contributes to the Every Student Matters agenda in the College to create an environment where students can achieve, succeed and fulfil their potential by raising personal ambition.

During 2009/10 130 referrals were made to the Safeguarding Team. Students are familiar with the reporting process and many of the referrals made to the Safeguarding Team were initiated by students reporting either directly to one of the Safeguarding Officers or to their tutor or other staff members. Of these 130 referrals 23 were bullying cases; 22 were resolved using the informal procedure and one case resulted in formal disciplinary procedure being carried out with formal written warnings to seven students.

107 referrals relate to other safeguarding issues and of these cases nine were referred to Children’s Services and one was referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Mediation

Homeless project

There is a College mediation service available to students and staff which dealt with ten cases in 2009/10 as well as counsellors and Students’ Union support lines. In addition the Safeguarding Team operates an initial informal route for cases of bullying.

The College has identified that some students are vulnerable as they are homeless. The risk to the student can range from the practice of ‘sofa surfing’ to having nowhere to go. There is a project planned for 2010/11 to explore ways of supporting these vulnerable young people. Assistance has been provided in the past and the project will explore ways of providing more comprehensive and structured support.

Complaints The College responded to 126 formal complaints with two concerning equality and diversity issues in 2009/10. All complaints were resolved, 79% within the ten working day response time frame.

Knife crime project During the annual review with the Prince’s Trust and in response to learner concerns, the Workbased Learning department decided to develop a project covering knife crime in the City of Plymouth.

Within the western region of the country Cardiff and Plymouth have the biggest problem with knife crime per capita, exceeding cities such as Swansea and Bristol.

Learners were involved to gather ideas on how to address this problem and raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime. A group of learners attended a two day interactive session run by Plymouth City Council to gather ideas and discuss ways forward.

After much debate a three point approach was agreed upon. Firstly two learners, one a victim of knife crime and one a perpetrator, agreed to talk to learners about their experiences and the negative effect it has had on their lives. Secondly learners designed an anti knife carrying poster and a newsletter which could be distributed around College and hopefully further afield. The final stage is a short dramatised video of the causes and consequences of knife related crimes.

This project has raised awareness of the effect of knife crime and the College believes that this project, delivered alongside our other personal development activities could help to encourage learners to question the knife culture they see around them on a daily basis.

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14. Promotion and engagement Students have both sought engagement with and driven the equality agenda. The range of the student contribution to the operation of the College is set out in the Student Involvement Strategy. There are student representatives on the Corporation, Academic Board, Equality and Diversity Committee (previously the Equality Assurance Steering Group), the Chaplaincy team, course committees and other working parties.

The Students’ Union plays an active role in equality and diversity supported by the Student Liaison team.

An LGB and T (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) society was established and a SWD (students with disability) society. There were volunteer focus groups for equality impact assessments. Visits on campus, presentations, drop in sessions offered by professionals from in house support or local support agencies included Young Carers, Intercom Trust, Refugee Support, Shelter, and the Racial Equality Council.

Events such as Black History Month, the Respect Festival, Cardboard City for homelessness, Holocaust Day Fairtrade Fortnight, the sub-regional Amnesty International Conference, Citizen 16 and Jnta were promoted through displays and activities.

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

The College promotes respect and tolerance successfully. Students are trained in equality and diversity during induction, through the tutorial programme and during lessons. The spring 2010 student survey showed that 83% of students understood the importance of treating others fairly and being treated with respect and the summer survey showed that 89% understood the need to work well with people of different types and backgrounds and to values everyone’s contribution. The summer 2010 survey showed that the response to how good is the respect staff show to you was good or better for 86% of students.

The College responds well to student feedback about concerns. Concerns over the lack of response by some lecturers to racist and homophobic comments were raised via student focus groups and the Student Council. The equality and diversity strategic committee took action by providing training and by setting up a Challenging Behaviours working group. A challenging behaviours training programme is now being rolled out to all staff.

There is good promotion of equality and diversity during the application process where applicants are encouraged to disclose learning difficulties/disabilities so that appropriate support can be provided for students and tutors throughout their programmes.

The College is a member of the Plymouth Prevent Group, the Race Equality Council, the Equality Network South-West and the South West Peer Federation. The College tests itself against national standards and has the ‘two ticks’ standard demonstrating it is positive about disabled people.

There is good promotion of equality and diversity to employers. Examples include the promotion of the Skills Pledge and Skills for Life initiatives, bespoke equality and diversity courses, employer newsletters and the employers’ zone on the College website.

Equality and diversity is promoted with employers through placement checks before and during a student’s work placement. The College requires its sub-contractors to demonstrate a high level of commitment to equal opportunities as part of all subcontracting arrangements.

The promotion of equality and diversity to the community is good with a variety of projects supported such as the Art in the Community theatre project involving schools from the poorest areas of Plymouth with children of all ages and diverse backgrounds having the opportunity to experience all aspects of Theatre production. The Transformation Fund project involved the College working with 18 providers across the city to run adult informal learning activities where progression into formal learning was a key aspect.

There are good links between the College and external equality and diversity organisations. College equality and diversity representatives attend external equality networks and training events to research good practice. Advice is sought from local organisations including the Plymouth Religious and Cultural Resource Centre, Fata Hé, Refugee Action, and the Race Equality Council, together with national bodies such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the Association of Colleges, the Higher Education Funding Council (England), the Learning and Skills Improvement Service and specialist organisations like Action for Blind People, etc.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

15. Teaching and learning The promotion of equality and diversity in teaching, learning and assessment is generally well established.

There is guidance for lecturers on the Equality and Diversity, Teachers’ Manual and the Behaviours that Challenge in Education pages on the College Moodle site. Lesson plans and schemes of delivery are designed to ensure teachers plan equality and diversity aspects into lessons and embed equality and diversity topics into the curriculum. Embedding equality and diversity training has been provided to support this in 2009/10 and will be further developed in 2010/11. The Tutorial Moodle site and tutorial processes embed equality and diversity into tutorials and include promotion of events such as Fair Trade fortnight. The Ofsted Reinspection Report (January 2010) identified that ‘too few observations report on the promotion of equality and diversity through the curriculum’. The observation form has been revised for 2010/11 to capture equality and diversity practice. Equality and diversity is monitored as part of the review process for students in work-based learning.

Each College faculty had a focus group set up, with the exception of Higher Education, to support development and the sharing of good practice in 2009/10. The Faculty of Higher Education has established a group in 2010/11. These groups address areas for improvement and differences in engagement and performance by different groups of students and share and promote ways of embedding equality and diversity in teaching and learning.

An external audit of equality and diversity in March 2010 commented that ‘There is already much good embedded E+D practice in some programme area teams’.

16. Leadership and management The cross College strategic equality and diversity committee has governor and student representatives and monitors the progress of our Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs), the Single Equality Scheme and complaints and the Corporation receives regular progress reports. Achievement gap analysis by faculty and by level has been completed and investigation and action to address the underperformance in the EDIMs and achievement gaps is being led and monitored by the strategic committee.

One of the vice principals and one of our governors took a lead on equality and diversity in 2009/10 and in July 2010 the equality and diversity lead moved to the new College Executive post of Director of Human Resources. A reformed strategic committee has been established to drive forward the promotion of equality and diversity and enable the College to achieve the criteria in the Ofsted Common Inspection Framework.

The Governors are included in the Single Equality Scheme and received equality and diversity training specific to their role in June 2010. There is a reporting cycle to ensure that Governors receive the information needed to manage their equality and diversity responsibilities at a strategic level. There is a governor who is an equality and diversity champion.

There is a strong equality and diversity element to strategic planning.

Single Equality Scheme The College developed a three year Single Equality Scheme to run from 2008/9 to 2010/11. In anticipation of the new legislation it covered seven protected groups: age, disability, gender, gender identity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Pregnancy and maternity was included in the gender strand and not covered specifically. Each faculty, department and service area within the College has a set of targets and the progress towards achieving those targets has been reviewed each year.

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Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

In 2009/10 across the College 76% of the 447 actions in the Single Equality Scheme were assessed on target, 22% progress not sufficient and 2% at risk of noncompletion (64%, 29% and 7% in 2008/9).

The final outcomes will be reviewed at the end of 2010/11 and a replacement action plan will be developed to support the equality objectives that the College will set in response to the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010.

Workforce Equality and diversity is embedded into the human resources policies and processes from recruitment and application to interview and mandatory training during induction. The Equality and Diversity policy requires staff to attend a mandatory refresher course every three years and the Single Equality Scheme now requires them to take part in least one equality and diversity continuing professional development event every year. Staff are required to identify their individual contribution in their annual performance review.

Human resource statistics are monitored by protected characteristic by the equality and diversity strategic committee.

Staff are trained and supported to embed equality and diversity in their work. 510 have taken courses related to equality and diversity such as lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender, mental health awareness and cultural awareness in the last three years. 214 have undertaken either the mandatory equality and diversity course or a refresher in 2009/10 and 98% of staff have currently completed their mandatory training (79% in Summer 2009). The training is now provided internally to ensure it is relevant to staff roles and has been

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updated to include Prevent and the new Equality Act. This is supported by guidance published in the staff bulletin, in Wavelength communications, in the staff magazine Pulse, through the faculty focus groups and through individual and team advice.

There were three staff grievances received by the College in 2009/10. These staff members were all white British and none had declared any disability, none had declared a religious belief and none had declared a sexual orientation. One member of staff was male in the 50-54 age range, one was female in the 45-49 age range and one was female in the 56-60 age range. No grievance related to any equality and diversity issues.

There were six dismissals of staff in 2009/10. These staff members were all white British and none had declared any disability. The religious beliefs were one atheist, one agnostic, one Christian and three not declared. The staff consisted of three people whose sexual orientation was heterosexual and three who had not declared. Four members of staff were male and two were female and the age ranges were one in the 20-24 age range, one in the 30-34 age range, two in the 50-54 age range and one in the 60-64 age range.

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10

Equality and Diversity Committee membership The College had a long established team, the Equality Assurance Steering Group (EASG), which has been responsible for promoting equality and diversity at the College. A new team, the Equality and Diversity Committee, has been established to continue this work and to respond to the Equality Act 2010 and the 2009 Common Inspection Framework.

The committee has cross College representation to ensure the continuation of the College approach of giving the responsibility for equality and diversity achievement to everyone connected with the organisation. The committee members are: Director of Human Resources - Chair Deputy Principal (Curriculum and Quality) Director of Employer Engagement Director of Quality Head of Higher Education Head of WBLD Head of Student Services and Marketing Head of International Head of Estates Head of IT Head of MIS Head of Learning Resources Student Services Manager Disability Coordinator Governor E&D Coordinator Student representatives

17. Future plans and development These are the key areas for development in 2010/11 and onwards • review the Equality and Diversity Policy to respond to the new Equality Act • review the Single Equality Scheme which is due to complete in 2011 and develop a replacement action plan to drive equality and diversity forward and meet the new public sector duties • promote equality through projects to support disadvantaged students • enhance and clearly demonstrate that equality and diversity is embedded in the curriculum • enhance and demonstrate that the use of achievement gap data leads to improved outcomes for vulnerable groups of learners • further develop the collection and use of equality data • further develop and embed the use of equality analysis • further develop engagement through the development of an Equality Forum and through further developing partner and community contacts.

Targets Specific equality and diversity targets have been set for 2010/11 to address the achievement gaps identified for disability, learning difficulty and students from a black and minority ethnic background. The targets have been set at faculty level and aim to improve performance in areas where students from protected groups are achieving lower success rates than students not from a protected group.

Data sources Student data: College Management Information System.

City College Plymouth workforce data: Human Resources database. During 2009/10 the Human Resources team encouraged staff to update the declarations of their protected characteristics. The data shown is current data reflecting the increased levels of declaration.

FE colleges workforce data: Annual Workforce Diversity Profile 2007/8 published in 2010 by LLUK. 24

Equality and Diversity Annual Report 2009/10