Corporate report

Inclusive Britain update report

Published 17 April 2023

Ministerial foreword

As Minister for Women and Equalities, it’s important to me that this country is one where everyone can reach their full potential, no matter where they come from or what they look like.

But equality of opportunity and inclusion have always been more than just policy objectives for me. As a first generation immigrant, I have first-hand experience of living in Britain as an ethnic minority. I hold deep convictions about how important it is to embed fairness and reduce disadvantage across all of society.

That’s why one year ago in March 2022, the government published its landmark Inclusive Britain strategy. This followed recommendations from the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, published in 2021.

The first of its kind in British history, the Inclusive Britain strategy committed the government to 74 bold actions to level up unjust ethnic disparities, focussing on increasing trust and fairness, promoting equality of opportunity, nurturing agency, and fostering greater inclusion. I was proud to put my name to such a pioneering, cross-governmental action plan and was pleased to see Inclusive Britain recognised by international peers as ‘good practice’.

One year on, I am pleased to report on the progress we have made. Delivering our actions has been a cross-governmental effort, involving the collaboration of numerous public sector organisations. The actions have been embedded in White Papers, policy initiatives, and delivery plans across government, recognising that reducing unjust disparities requires all hands on deck.

In education, we have published our ambitious white paper, ‘Opportunity for all: Strong schools with great teachers for your child’, and we are providing targeted support for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils. We have also started clamping down on low-quality courses to boost the career chances of students, especially ethnic minority students who see the lowest return on their university education. The Office for Students has introduced more stringent minimum standards for student outcomes and the Social Mobility Commission is making students aware of the labour market value of different qualifications to empower them to make the best decision for them.

We are committed to making workplaces inclusive and widening opportunities. In collaboration with a global bank, we supported a course for young underprivileged entrepreneurs to showcase and develop their business ideas, providing a model for other banks to emulate as a way to nurture talent. We have also published the first ever guidance to help employers measure ethnicity pay gaps in the workforce. The guidance will allow businesses to do so meticulously without placing an unfair burden on them. To drive fairness in the workplace, we have established an Inclusion at Work panel which will develop resources demonstrating to employers how they can use diversity and inclusion measures in an evidence-based way that fosters cohesion.

The recent Casey Review and the Children’s Commissioner’s report on the strip-search of children have shown that there is more work to be done to tackle disparities and build trust in our police forces. Under Inclusive Britain, new safety training is being delivered for police officers to improve interactions with the public and we are publishing much more detailed data on disparities in stop and search rates. A new national framework for how policing powers, such as the use of stop and search, can be scrutinised at a local level is also being developed alongside fresh guidance on the appropriate body-worn video to improve transparency.

The progress we have made in criminal justice is strong. The stop and search disparity between the black and white ethnic groups has decreased substantially from 8.8 times higher in the year ending March 2020 to 4.9 times higher in the year to March 2022. But stop and search remains a vital tool to tackle the most serious crimes, which can disproportionately impact ethnic minorities. I am also pleased to report that as of December 2022, we now have the highest proportion of ethnic minority police officers since records began and following our campaign launched in 2022 to broaden the diversity of the magistracy, more than 1 in 5 of those who applied to be magistrates were from an ethnic minority background.

In health, we have built on all the work this government did to reduce COVID disparities between ethnic groups. We can already see the impact in the data: there is no longer evidence of ethnic minority groups having a significantly higher mortality rate compared with the white British group when it comes to COVID-19. Additionally, the UK’s largest ever health research programme, Our Future Health, is underway and has focused on making sure black and Asian people are fully included in the research.

Staying one step ahead of the curve when it comes to emerging technology is also necessary. That is why we published last month our proposals for addressing concerns about the potential for bias and discrimination in algorithmic decision-making. Our ground-breaking Online Safety Bill will also make social media companies, for the first time, legally responsible for tackling discriminatory content and give users the tools to reduce exposure to abuse and harmful content.

This is just some of the work we have done, and we will continue to work hard to implement all the commitments in Inclusive Britain.

Thanks to the latest Census data, we know our country is more diverse than ever before. 18% of people in England and Wales are now from ethnic minority groups, compared to 14% in the 2011 Census - in Northern Ireland, the proportion of ethnic minority groups has doubled. Integration is also increasing, with the mixed ethnicity population in England increasing by 40% in 10 years and 2.4 million households now being multi-ethnic.

This one year-update demonstrates this government’s continued commitment to improving life chances for all, especially the least advantaged. Whether you’re a white working class pupil in Bolton, a black entrepreneur in Barking and Dagenham, or an Asian employee in Birmingham, this action plan will ensure you’re treated fairly and given the tools to thrive in society.

We will carry on the hard work to ensure the actions in Inclusive Britain are implemented and lead the way in creating a fairer, more inclusive society.

Kemi Badenoch

Minister for Women and Equalities

Introduction

On 17 March 2022, the government published its response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (the ‘Sewell Commission’). Inclusive Britain sets out a ground-breaking action plan to tackle persistent, unfair disparities, promote unity and build a fairer Britain for all.

We committed to reporting back to Parliament on progress in delivering this action plan 12 months after publication. Over the course of the last year, we have made significant progress in implementing the Inclusive Britain action plan. To date, we have delivered 32 of the 74 actions and intend to have implemented the remainder by the end of March 2024.

This report summarises the progress we have made and gives examples of how these changes are making a real difference to people’s lives.

The report follows the structure of Inclusive Britain, and summarises progress under the 3 main themes:

• trust and fairness – building a stronger sense of trust and fairness in our institutions and confidence in British meritocracy
• opportunity and agency – promoting equality of opportunity, encouraging aspiration and empowering individuals and
• inclusion – encouraging and instilling a sense of belonging to a multi-ethnic UK which celebrates its differences while embracing the values which unite us all

Annex A sets out in more detail progress against each of the 74 actions.

1. Trust and fairness

Inclusive Britain concluded that too many people from ethnic minority backgrounds feel that the ‘system’ is not on their side. In order to build trust, it found that people need to feel that they will be treated fairly and not discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity.

The ‘trust and fairness’ chapter in Inclusive Britain includes a number of important commitments to tackle racism and discrimination and, in particular, harmful online abuse. It also includes actions to address concerns about use of police powers such as stop and search, to promote fairer pay and to tackle long-standing health disparities.

Some of the key areas of progress are summarised below.

Tackle online racial abuse

Inclusive Britain reaffirmed our commitment to stamping out online racial abuse. Our ground-breaking legislation, the Online Safety Bill (action 2), will make social media companies legally responsible for protecting children and adults from harmful content, while at the same time defending freedom of expression. The bill will also compel social media companies to tackle racist and discriminatory content posted on their platforms, and force the biggest platforms to provide users tools to reduce their exposure to such content. The bill has completed its passage through the House of Commons and is on track to become law later this year.

We know that quantifying online abuse is complicated by a lack of available evidence. To address this, the Cabinet Office Race Disparity Unit (RDU) led a programme of engagement with other government departments and external bodies including the Alan Turing Institute, Ofcom and the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, and conducted a literature review on online abuse (action 3). The findings from this enabled RDU to develop a framework for measuring online abuse, which has been shared across the government, in order to enhance existing measures and develop a stronger understanding of the scale of online abuse.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the harmful role that deliberate misinformation can play in undermining trust among particular groups. To improve our understanding of how different groups are accessing and interpreting online misinformation, RDU undertook a literature review of online misinformation targeted at ethnic minorities (action 4). The review found that the spread of online misinformation through WhatsApp and other social media left people perplexed about the truth on COVID-19 vaccines.^{[footnote 1]} It also found that online misinformation and disinformation can spread more rapidly by:

• using content in different languages (especially the first language of the group being targeted with misinformation and disinformation)
• using individuals in videos who were (or were posing as) trusted professionals, such as teachers, nurses or doctors
• targeting an emotional response to the recipients of misinformation – the more controversial or dramatic the posts or videos were, the more likely they were to spread^{[footnote 2]}

RDU is considering these findings and will develop recommendations for other government departments on ways to strengthen our understanding of, and ability to tackle, online disinformation.

Report responsibly on race

Reporting on issues relating to race and ethnicity needs to be done sensitively, accurately and responsibly in order to maintain the trust of communities and to not mislead the public. This includes not lumping groups together based simply on skin colour, and disaggregating ethnicity data wherever possible.

We have stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in our communications, as it can mask differences and disparities between ethnic groups. We have taken a number of steps to embed this across the public sector and beyond (action 5) including:

• publishing a post on the Civil Service blog, which was also promoted via LinkedIn and other channels
• the Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service writing to all Permanent Secretaries highlighting the decision to stop using the term ‘BAME’
• updating the style guide for writing for GOV.UK to include a section on writing about ethnicity
• promoting this with the wider public sector, including through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ Local Government Bulletin

To encourage more accurate reporting on race and ethnicity, we consulted on a revised set of ethnicity data standards in 2022 (action 6). Respondents generally supported the standards as a way of improving the way ethnicity data is collected, analysed and reported. Our response to this consultation has been published alongside this update report. We are now working with data producers across government and the wider public sector to embed the new standards, and with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to review the use and impact of these standards.

Inclusive Britain also included a commitment to better understand the language and terminology with which people from different ethnic backgrounds identify in order to encourage responsible reporting of issues of race and ethnicity (action 7). Last year, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), we commissioned Basis Social to undertake qualitative research into the use of language and terminology relating to people’s ethnic identity. The research comprised a mixture of group discussions and depth interviews with participants identifying as members of different ethnic groups.

The findings, which have been published alongside this report, include:

• ethnicity should not be used as an identifier when reporting unless there is a clear and valid reason to do so
• care needs to be taken over the potential for ethnic terminology to be used in a way which is stigmatising and/or reinforces stereotypes
• when reporting on an ethnicity, specificity is important – the use of umbrella terms, such as Asian or black, should be avoided and instead, and only where necessary, references should be made as specific as possible to the exact ethnic group of relevance to avoid confusion or misrepresentation

We are considering these findings before determining next steps.

To support improved reporting of ethnicity data, we also consulted on reforms of our world-leading Ethnicity facts and figures website, with a view to maintaining a smaller range of the most useful data sets (action 8). The consultation launched in June 2022 and closed in August. The consultation received 500 responses and 9 actions have been identified as a result. These are set out in our response to the consultation, which has been published alongside this report. Work has begun on making these changes to Ethnicity facts and figures and streamlining the datasets, which will improve the impact and utility of the website and help its users to better understand and interpret ethnicity data.

Strengthening bonds of trust between people and their police force

Inclusive Britain acknowledged the need to improve confidence in policing, particularly among the black ethnic group.^{[footnote 3]} Recent reports from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and significant high-profile incidents have rightly raised concerns regarding police standards and culture. More recently, Baroness Casey’s review of standards of behaviour and internal culture of the Metropolitan Police Service has highlighted failures in the Metropolitan Police to tackle discriminatory behaviour and bias in its organisational processes.

In January, the Home Secretary announced a series of actions to ensure that police vetting is fit for purpose, that officers who fall short of the standards expected of them are identified and dealt with appropriately, and that concerns around policing cultures are being addressed to rebuild the confidence of all communities. Significant activity is underway across police forces to identify individuals who fall short of the high standards the public expect of them and to deal with those individuals appropriately. The government and policing leaders are determined to deliver on these commitments to help rebuild confidence and trust in policing among all communities.

Inclusive Britain also committed the Home Office and policing partners to developing a new national framework for how policing powers, such as stop and search and use of force, can be scrutinised at a local level (action 10).  Work is well underway on a national community scrutiny framework, which  we continue to develop with policing stakeholders and civil society organisations. The framework envisages a key role for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in supporting community scrutiny processes within their force areas. In January 2023 we launched a survey of PCC offices, gathering their thoughts on the role they should play within the community scrutiny process. Their feedback will be reflected in the new framework, which we aim to publish later this year.

Tackle serious violent crime

We know that those from the black ethnic group are more likely to be victims of serious violent crime than white people. The most shocking statistic outlined by the Sewell Commission was that young black people were 24 times more likely to die of homicide than their white peers.

The government takes a whole system approach to addressing violence, balancing early intervention to divert young people away from crime with targeted enforcement activity.

To help tackle serious violent crime, we brought into force the Serious Violence Duty on 31 January 2023, accompanied by new statutory guidance (action 11). This requires local authorities, the police, criminal justice agencies, health authorities and others to work together to understand why violent crime is taking place in their area and then to formulate and implement a strategy for tackling these drivers of serious violence. These strategies must be published by 31 January 2024.

As part of wider efforts to reduce and prevent violence, we have also invested in the development of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) that deliver a Public Health Approach to preventing serious violence, supporting at-risk young people. VRUs bring together local partners to tackle the drivers of violence in their area, and are delivering a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime, such as mentoring, behavioural therapy, sports-based diversion, and deterrence-based interventions.

Case study: Leicestershire and Rutland Violence Reduction Unit

The Serious Violence Duty obliges authorities to collaborate with multi-agency partners to prevent and reduce serious violence. In Leicester, the organisation leading this partnership is the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Violence Reduction Unit.

They lead the Violence Intervention Project (VIP) navigator scheme which engages with young people in custody suites, at a time they are most likely to accept help. Support workers create a ‘reachable moment’ to offer support and access to services to steer them back on track.

One 18 year old, James (not his real name), was helped by the VIP team after being caught in possession of a knife and drugs. Weekly mentoring, engagement with a substance misuse worker, and enrolment on a construction course and at a gym has helped him stick to his bail conditions. He has not reoffended, has been more open about his mental health and now understands how decisions at this stage of his life can impact his future.

Improve stop and search

Stop and search is a vital tool to tackle serious violence and keep our streets safe. In the year ending March 2022, 66,772 stops and searches led to an arrest.^{[footnote 4]} But to those subject to it, the stop and search process can often feel antagonistic.  To address this, the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) have designed and developed new Public and Personal Safety Training which includes developed de-escalation and communication skills (action 12). The new curriculum and associated training products are being made available to all forces since 1 April and will provide nationally-consistent standards of training and delivery and boost the quality of policing across the country.

Body-worn video (BWV) is a further means of ensuring that police powers are used correctly, as well as protecting officers. The Home Office has worked extensively with police force leads and frontline officers to understand how BWV is used in practice, and to identify existing barriers to the use of BWV in promoting transparency and better enabling community scrutiny (action 13). The outcome of this work is informing the Home Office’s formulation of policy advice. The NPCC also published national guidance on BWV in October, which was produced in close co-operation with the Home Office. The document includes guidance on sharing BWV footage for community scrutiny.

Inclusive Britain acknowledged the concerns that some ethnic minority groups are disproportionately subject to stop and search. In the year ending March 2022, individuals from a black ethnic group were searched at a rate 4.9 times higher than that of those from a white ethnic group across England and Wales. This is down from 5.6 times higher in the previous year, and from 8.8 times higher in the year ending March 2020.^{[footnote 5]}

Inclusive Britain committed to further work to understand why this disparity persists. This includes improving the way this data is reported (action 14). The latest annual stop and search data was published in October 2022 (with updated ethnicity analysis based on the 2021 Census estimates in March 2023).^{[footnote 6]} This bulletin included additional analysis and outputs, including disparity analysis by force and by reason for search, additional ‘hotspot’ analysis, analysis of the relationship between stop and search and deprivation, as well as new data on stop and searches at Community Safety Partnership level. Additionally, for the first time, a new experimental data query tool was published to allow users to carry out their own bespoke analysis of stop and search data.^{[footnote 7]} This was also the second year of publishing statistics based on incident-level stop and search data from police forces, which allows for much more in-depth analysis than was previously possible.

We are considering with stakeholders how we can further improve our outputs for the September/October 2023 release. This includes the possibility of measuring ethnic disparities by stop and search outcome and further developing the suspect-adjusted disparity analysis (SAD). This SAD analysis calculates disparities based upon the population of actual suspects of crime rather than the wider population, and potentially aids an understanding of stop and search as an operational tool.

Under action 15, we committed to working with policing partners and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to consider a range of metrics for stop and search rates at police force area level. For the first time, the annual stop and search statistics published in October included new ‘quadrant analysis’ comparing the overall rate of stop and search for the black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic groups in comparison to white individuals, for all 43 police forces. This allows comparisons to be made between police force areas. We are considering next steps with this work, including how we link this to the new national framework for scrutinising the use of police powers such as stop and search (under action 10).

Taken together, these measures allow for much more meaningful interrogation of the stop and search data, shine a light on disparities at a local level and ensure that police forces are held to account for these disparities.

Promote fair pay

The UK workforce is becoming increasingly diverse but there is still more to be done to remove barriers to entering the labour market and to ensure pay and progression in the workplace is fair for all. Data has shown there are wide variations in earnings between ethnic groups. ONS data on ethnicity pay gaps in 2019 showed that most of the ethnic minority groups analysed continued to earn less than white British employees, but those in the Chinese, white Irish, white and Asian, and Indian ethnic groups all earned higher hourly pay than white British employees.^{[footnote 8]}

Analysing ethnicity pay information is one tool employers can use to help identify and investigate disparities in the average pay between ethnic groups in the workforce. It can help employers understand whether unfair disparities exist between different ethnic groups and in turn, gives them an evidence base from which to develop an action plan.

In Inclusive Britain we committed to helping employers who wish to report on their ethnicity pay and to address any identified ethnicity pay gaps (action 16). We have published alongside this report new guidance for employers to help them collect their employees’ ethnicity data, make ethnicity pay calculations, analyse and understand the results and consider evidence-based actions to address any unfair disparities.

Identify and tackle health disparities

Inclusive Britain – and before it the Sewell report – highlighted that, contrary to the widespread view that ethnic minorities always have worse health outcomes than white people, the evidence showed the picture was much more varied.^{[footnote 9]} For example, for the 30 leading causes of death (responsible for about 80% of all deaths) ethnic minorities had lower mortality rates for 15, higher for 8 and no significant difference for 7. For those areas where persistent disparities remain, Inclusive Britain set out a number of actions.

In January 2023, the Health Secretary announced that in consultation with NHS England and other government departments, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) would develop and publish a new Major Conditions Strategy. The strategy will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda with a shift to integrated, whole-person care, building on measures taken forward through the NHS Long Term Plan. The strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England including cancers, cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill health and musculoskeletal conditions.

Inclusive Britain found that deprivation and geography remain the key drivers of poor health. The strategy will therefore apply a geographical lens to each condition to address regional disparities in health outcomes, supporting the levelling up mission to improve health and reduce disparities. This work combines key commitments in mental health, cancer, dementia and health disparities into a single, powerful strategy (action 19).

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), which was established following a recommendation in the Sewell report, will play a leading role in developing and delivering the Major Conditions Strategy. OHID is leading work across government to address the causes of health disparities, including by continuing to help people to quit smoking, taking focused action aimed at the groups and areas with highest tobacco use. OHID is tackling obesity by taking forward a health incentive pilot programme and promoting physical activity in schools. OHID is also working to reduce overall drug use. This includes commissioning a number of research projects through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). One such project is looking at drug use within ethnic minority groups and is due to conclude in August. This will help us understand the prevalence of drug use amongst ethnic minority groups, as well as how we can improve the available treatment (action 21).

In addition, NHS England’s Core20PLUS5 approach is driving a focus on reducing the negative disparities in healthcare in our most deprived and underserved communities across 5 key clinical areas (CVD, cancer, respiratory disease, mental health and maternity), with a focus on secondary prevention interventions. This approach initially focused on negative disparities in healthcare experienced by adults, but has now been adapted to apply to children and young people too.

One of the more significant health disparities is the poorer outcomes for mothers and babies from black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups and those living in the most deprived areas. We are serious about addressing the causes underlying these disparities and are working with the NHS to ensure equity in maternity care for all women. Inclusive Britain set out a number of steps we are taking to understand the data and to develop tangible, achievable solutions. This work is being led by DHSC, OHID and NHS England, with the Maternity Disparities Taskforce seeking to provide an important focus and driver for action (action 22).

The Taskforce brings together experts from across the health service, mothers, government and the voluntary sector. Its aims are to tackle disparities for mothers and babies by improving access to effective pre-conception and maternity care for women from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.

The Taskforce met 3 times in 2022 and will meet again shortly. The meetings to date have enabled valuable discussions around the role of primary care in the preconception health of women and provided organisations such as Birthrights UK and the Muslim Women’s Network with the opportunity to present their research and understanding of women’s experience of maternity care to clinical leaders.

This work sits alongside other work being undertaken in the NHS to tackle disparities in outcomes and experiences of maternity care at a local level.

Inclusive Britain also summarised our work to understand and address the disproportionate impact COVID-19 had on ethnic minority groups, in terms of infection and mortality rates. It committed to implementing the package of recommendations from the then Minister for Equalities’ final COVID-19 disparities report (action 23).

One of these recommendations was that the government should continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 by ethnicity as the virus evolves. According to the latest ONS data, in the latest period (since 10 January 2022, when Omicron became the main COVID-19 variant) there is no longer evidence of ethnic minority groups having a significantly higher COVID-19 mortality rate compared with the white British group. In fact, males in the black African, black Caribbean, Chinese and other ethnic groups now have lower mortality rates involving COVID-19 than the white British group, while females in the black African group had lower rates than the white British group. Therefore, the latest figures on mortality by ethnic group (from all causes) present a similar picture to pre-pandemic rates. Although mortality trends are influenced by a complex set of factors which are difficult to disentangle, the change is likely to reflect the range of measures we put in place to tackle COVID-19 disparities from non-pharmaceutical inventions (including guidance aimed at particular sectors such as taxi drivers – a significant proportion of whom are from an ethnic minority group) to building vaccine confidence among those ethnic groups that had lower COVID-19 vaccination rates.

2. Opportunity and agency

This theme in Inclusive Britain is about giving people equal access to opportunity and the chance to fulfil their potential, irrespective of their race or background. It is based on the commitment that no-one’s destiny should be determined by their background.

This chapter includes a number of actions aimed at giving children the best possible start in life, throughout their schooling and into higher education. It also includes commitments to improve career choices, improve progression out of low pay, help ethnic minority entrepreneurs and tackle disparities in the criminal justice system.

This section summarises areas of progress in relation to these actions.

Support families

One of the Sewell Commission’s key conclusions was that the support offered to families makes a big difference to outcomes for children. In line with action 25 of Inclusive Britain, the Children’s Commissioner for England conducted a review into how public services can better understand the needs of children and families, and how those services can be improved.

As part of this review, the Children’s Commissioner’s office commissioned 2 nationally representative online panel surveys, with additional boost samples for parents from ethnic minority groups. They also conducted additional analysis of the Annual Population Survey to produce breakdowns of family composition by ethnic group.

The Children’s Commissioner’s findings are set out in Family and its protective effect: Part 1 of the Independent Family Review, published in September 2022, and A positive approach to parenting: Part 2 of the Independent Family Review, published in December 2022. Alongside and following the publication of Part 2, she also published a number of research and policy annexes focused on particular barriers to improving services, children and families in particular circumstances and new research findings.

The Family Review sets out 23 recommendations to the government on how to improve support for children and families. We are now considering those recommendations carefully and will respond in due course.

Improve adoption rates for disadvantaged children

We are committed to increasing the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted (action 26). Since 2019, we have funded a national recruitment campaign to find more adoptive parents, with a particular focus on prospective ethnic minority parents. The latest data shows that the number of ethnic minority approved adopters has increased from 450 at March 2020 to 670 at March 2022.^{[footnote 10]} Regional adoption agencies (RAAs) have set up projects to trial outreach ambassadors to support ethnic minority adopters, and embed learning from the Black Adopters Project, a campaign which partnered with the media to deliver bespoke and targeted content, combined with community outreach in key areas, encouraging people to consider adoption.

In addition, the Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (ASGLB) launched a Task and Finish Group made up of black social workers, adopters, adoptees and experts in the field with the aim of presenting constructive proposals to end racial disparity in adoption.

The group’s report Ending Racial Disparity in Adoption was published in December 2022, with its findings grouped under 3 main themes:

• recruiting black adopters and matching black children
• rebuilding trust
• resourcing interracial adoption

The Department for Education (DfE) has committed to implementing the recommendations in the report, notwithstanding the closure of the ASGLB under refreshed governance arrangements.

Inclusive Britain acknowledged that we need to improve the quality and availability of ethnicity data and evidence about looked-after children and their routes out of care (action 28). We are therefore publishing alongside this report a looked-after children data strategy. DfE is now progressing a number of pieces of work including considering whether ethnicity data about looked-after children can be disaggregated into more detailed ethnicity categories, and reviewing what data is published that is not currently broken down by ethnicity, particularly focussing on outcomes.

A more detailed understanding of the demographic profile of looked-after children could inform:

• better planning around providing the right permanence options for children – including adoption, special guardianship, long-term fostering or a return to parents
• the recruitment and approval of adoptive parents willing to take children who are waiting and special guardians or foster parents who can meet their needs
• the provision of early intervention policies and strategies to support children and families to minimise the risk that the children do not enter or re-enter care

Enable better quality learning

Disadvantaged pupils and some ethnic minority groups are overrepresented in the cohort not meeting expected literacy and numeracy standards in schools. To address this, we published our ambitious schools white paper, Opportunity for all: strong schools with great teachers for your child, in March 2022 (action 32). It seeks to raise the attainment of all pupils by setting 2 headline ambitions that, by 2030:

• 90% of children will achieve the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary school
• in secondary schools, the national GCSE average grade in both English language and in maths will increase from 4.5 in 2019 to 5

Since publication, we have been working towards delivering our headline ambitions for 2030. This includes helping to provide children who fall behind with the support they need to get back on track through proven methods such as small group tuition. In the Autumn Statement 2022, we announced an extra £2 billion of funding for schools over each of the next 2 financial years. This will enable school leaders to continue to invest in the areas that we know positively impact educational attainment, including high-quality teaching and targeted support to the children who need it most.

Delivering on the schools white paper links to other actions in Inclusive Britain. As part of our teacher development reforms, we have introduced a fully funded new suite of National Professional Qualifications based on the best available research and evidence (action 59).

We have also made available almost £5 billion to support recovery for children and young people (action 61), including nearly £2.5 billion in targeted funding towards the most disadvantaged. This funding includes the Recovery Premium and the creation of the National Tutoring Programme, through which as of 6 October 2022 nearly 3 million tutoring courses had started since November 2020, with 6 million aimed to be delivered by 2024.

In addition, pupil premium rates will increase by 5% for 2023 to 2024, a £180 million increase from 2022 to 2023, taking total pupil premium funding to £2.9 billion. As part of the core schools budget, the pupil premium enables schools to provide extra support for disadvantaged pupils to improve their academic and personal achievements.

Increase quality of alternative provision in education

Some ethnic minority groups, such as black Caribbean and white Gypsy and Roma, are over-represented in alternative provision. Certain ethnic groups, such as black Caribbean pupils, are also disproportionately represented in different types of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) identification and SEND children are being excluded or are absent or missing from school much more frequently than other pupils nationally. Outcomes for pupils in alternative provision are not good enough and Inclusive Britain includes measures to address this.

We published our SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan on 2 March (action 35). This commits to establishing new national standards – across education, health, and care – with the aim of driving fair and consistent identification, assessment and support, no matter where a child or young person lives or is educated. The Improvement Plan also set out our national vision for 3-tier alternative provision, with a focus on providing early support to avoid issues escalating. This will enable more children and young people to have their needs met in high-quality, mainstream provision, giving parents and families reassurance and clarity about the support they can expect to receive. The Improvement Plan also announced the extension of the Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce (APST) pilot which is co-locating teams of different specialists in alternative provision schools.

New local inclusion partnerships will bring together key stakeholders, including children, young people, and families, in each area to develop local inclusion plans, setting out how standards will be delivered locally. Local and national inclusion dashboards will offer a transparent picture of how the system is performing, allowing for prompt intervention where needed. Accountability across the system will be strengthened, including through the new Ofsted inspection framework for local areas.

We also committed in Inclusive Britain to taking action to reduce ethnic disparities in exclusion rates. In the 2020 to 2021 school year, the highest permanent exclusion rates were for white Gypsy and Roma pupils and mixed white and black Caribbean pupils. And while black Caribbean pupils were more likely to be excluded than white pupils in that year, black African pupils actually had a lower rate of permanent exclusion than their white peers.^{[footnote 11]}

Relevant measures in Inclusive Britain include publishing updated guidance on behaviour in schools and suspension and permanent exclusion statutory guidance in July 2022 following a consultation exercise (action 36). These documents provide further clarity and support to head teachers on how to manage behaviour well, so that they can provide calm, safe and supportive environments which children and young people want to attend.

The updated Suspension and Permanent Exclusion guidance sets out that schools, local authorities, and local partners should work together to understand what lies behind local trends. Local leaders should use this understanding to plan and put in place additional and targeted action based on their own context. If they identify any gaps, they should act to ensure those who work with children have the training, services and support they need to address them. In addition, information has been provided for governing boards on carefully considering the level of pupil moves and the characteristics of pupils who have been permanently excluded to ensure the sanction is only used when absolutely necessary as a last resort.

Case study: APST pilot: Reuben’s experience

Reuben (not his real name) is in secondary school. His SEND needs include dyslexia, ADHD, social communication difficulties and learning difficulties. He lives with his mother and his younger siblings (a toddler and a premature new-born). Reuben often does not get to sleep before 1am and is torn between helping his mother and attending school. His school attendance is historically low. He has a history of offending behaviour associated with being a victim of child criminal exploitation.

The APST’s family worker conducted home visits, made regular phone calls and visited Reuben at school. The mental health lead gave Reuben’s mother safety advice around managing a new-born child in restricted living arrangements and advised on an approach to support Reuben’s emotional wellbeing. The youth offending worker took Reuben on as a prevention case, bringing additional intelligence to inform his safety planning.

The APST’s interventions have meant that Reuben has been kept safe. While improvements in Reuben’s attendance are still being established, he is engaging and benefiting greatly from the support of the specialists. The taskforce is also arranging for him to access speech and language therapy. Reuben is being supported with his post-16 transition options and has now started to look to the future. Looking at possible careers, Reuben has said he would like to become an engineer.

Improve advice for young people in police custody

We know that people from the black ethnic group are more likely to be arrested and held in police custody than their white peers. In the year ending March 2022, people from the black ethnic group were 2.4 times more likely to be arrested than white people. Conversely, for the first time, people from an Asian or other ethnic group were arrested at a lower rate than white people.^{[footnote 12]}

Sir Christopher Bellamy KC (now Lord Bellamy) led the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid which highlighted the low uptake of legal advice by suspects in police custody and noted possible anecdotal explanations for this, including that young ethnic minority suspects have lower levels of trust in the criminal justice system. The Presumption of Legal Advice (POLA) scheme which has been rolled out across the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) automatically opts children into receiving the free independent legal advice in custody to which they are entitled.

Under action 40, the Ministry of Justice committed to supporting this scheme and considering whether this leads to improved outcomes for individuals following arrest, including whether this could reduce racial disparities in the justice system.

The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) consultation, which was published in November 2022, highlighted its ongoing support of the POLA scheme and that it would continue to collaborate with the police, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) and the Home Office to monitor the scheme and its impacts. The MoJ proposed using the outcomes from the scheme to review what the initiative could look like if rolled out for all children nationally.

Following the publication of the CLAIR consultation response, the MoJ continues to play an active role in supporting the ongoing POLA schemes, in coordination with policing partners, LAA, Home Office and others. This includes collaborating with forces to gather data on the scheme. An evaluation of this data will allow the MoJ to understand the impact of the scheme on outcomes following arrest, as well as the potential impact were it to be rolled out nationally. The MoJ will also engage with other police forces looking to adopt the POLA scheme to understand any potential operational consequences resulting from an increased provision of legal advice.

Case study: Presumption of Legal Advice

The MPS began their trial of the Presumption of Legal Advice (POLA) scheme in Brixton and Wembley police stations in February 2022. The trial was a success and early findings, which have not been published before, indicate that the average detention time for children reduced from 14.4 hours to 8 hours and uptake of legal advice increased from 65% to almost 100%. The scheme has now been rolled out to all MPS custody suites in London and a number of other police forces have started similar trials of POLA, or are planning to do so in the future. The POLA scheme has broad support from stakeholders across government and the criminal justice system.

Give young offenders a second chance

Inclusive Britain set out some of the work we are doing to understand and address ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system, especially amongst young adults.  For instance, drugs offences make up a much higher proportion of convictions amongst ethnic minority offenders compared to white offenders.^{[footnote 13]}

To address this, we have commenced pilots of a number of drug diversion schemes including Project ADDER (Addiction, Disruption, Diversion, Enforcement and Recovery) which has the potential to transform the way we tackle drug-related crime and engagement, including with young people and adults at risk (action 41). Project ADDER combines co-ordinated law enforcement activity, diversionary programmes and enhanced treatment and recovery provisions to drive down drug use and divert people away from offending.

We are capturing the learning from Project ADDER and sharing this with partners to inform local services of good practice when implementing a whole-system approach, including drug diversion programmes. Kantar Public is currently undertaking an independent evaluation of Project ADDER, quantifying the successes of the project, and is due to report in late 2023.

Project ADDER service-user, Wirral

Tom (not his real name) came into the treatment service following a Drug Test on Arrest appointment, he was seen by the ADDER-funded ‘test on arrest’ worker and reported using cocaine and cannabis. He was then assessed into treatment and offered support.

Tom has worked with his key-worker and attended one-to-one support sessions. He stopped his cocaine use and reduced his cannabis use, he feels his family life has improved since he has stopped his cocaine use and is working full time and feels his quality of life has improved. He has now been discharged from structured treatment into recovery support for aftercare support.

UPDATE:

I have stopped using cocaine in June 2022 and now have good relationships with my family and I am working full time and feel my quality of life has improved.

In July 2022 we consulted on proposals in our white paper, Swift, Certain, Tough: New consequences for drug possession. The framework proposed a new tiered approach to tackling drug possession offences, focusing on educating first time offenders about the impacts of their drug use.  Responses to the consultation are currently being considered and will shape our future drug policy.

A pilot scheme exploring the expansion of out of court disposals for first time offenders is also currently under development (action 42). The pilot scheme will focus on expanding the use of existing policing powers, focused on the most visible drug possession offences. The pilot will seek to understand how effective drug awareness courses can be in changing behaviour, and also ensure police are encouraged to tackle drug misuse in public places.

Career advice that expands choice and enhances social mobility and clamp down on low-quality courses in higher education

Most ethnic minority pupils outperform their white peers at school, but once they get to university (with the exception of Asian students) they are more likely to drop out, have lower levels of attainment and earn less money after graduating.  Some students may not be getting the right career advice or guidance and Inclusive Britain includes a number of actions to address this.

DfE has extended the statutory duty on schools to secure independent careers guidance to all pupils throughout their secondary education (action 47). The changes in the Education (Careers Guidance in Schools) Act 2022 came into force on 1 September 2022 and will ensure all pupils in all types of state-funded secondary schools, including those in academy schools and alternative provision academies in England, are legally entitled to independent careers guidance throughout their secondary education.

In terms of higher education, the Office for Students (OfS) consulted in autumn 2022 on its new approach to regulating equality of opportunity including changes to Access and Participation (A&P) plans. The plans set out how higher education providers will improve equality of opportunity for underrepresented groups to access, succeed in and progress from higher education (action 43). Over 250 providers submitted requests to vary their current plans in line with new A&P priorities, and these changes will start to be put in place from next academic year (2023/4). The OfS published its consultation response (PDF) in March, alongside new guidance for higher education providers on revising their A&P plans. It also published its new equality of opportunity risk register, which highlights 12 key sector-wide risks to equality of opportunity and the groups most likely to be impacted by each one. Higher education providers are expected to refer to the Risk Register when creating their own A&P plans.

In February 2023, the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) published a report reviewing the current evidence on labour market outcomes of higher education and further education qualifications. The report  looked specifically at earnings by qualification type, subject and institution type (action 53). The research suggests that, on average, studying a qualification in either higher education or further education is associated with increased future earnings. The majority of courses also provide positive ‘value-add’ – the difference in future earnings which can be associated with the qualification – when compared with other factors such as someone’s prior attainment. There is however a lot of variation in value-add across subjects, with STEM subjects and law associated with higher earnings.

In higher education, there is also a lot of variation in returns by university: more selective universities (such as those in the Russell Group) tend to have a higher value-add, whilst less selective universities (such as those in the Post-1992 group) tend to have a lower value-add, albeit with considerable variation at a course level within an institution.^{[footnote 14]} However, progression rates to the more selective universities are lower for the most disadvantaged pupils. While there is some evidence on returns by subject in further education, with subjects such as engineering for men and business administration and law for women tending to have a higher value-add, there is little evidence available on how returns may vary by institution.

The SMC also sought to understand what information is available to students, and what they are actually accessing. In its February report, the SMC identified potential next steps to be taken to make sure that high-quality information on the labour market value of different qualifications is made available to prospective students. The SMC concluded that ‘value-add’ appears to be a useful metric for understanding a student’s prospects from studying a given course at a given institution. It will look into pointing prospective students towards these statistics or providing them with a summarised and accessible version of value-add by subject and institution.

We have also taken steps to clamp down on low-quality higher education courses. Following extensive consultation, the OfS introduced new, more stringent minimum thresholds for student outcomes (degree continuation and completion, and progression onto positive graduate destinations) in October 2022, as part of its revised condition of registration (action 51). Universities and colleges that perform below these thresholds could face investigation to allow the OfS to understand the reasons for their performance. If, following investigation, performance is not adequately explained by a provider’s context, the OfS has the power to intervene and impose sanctions for a breach of its conditions of registration. The OfS will also consider performance in individual subjects, to ensure pockets of poor performance can be identified and addressed. The new approach will also take into account positive outcomes, for example professional/managerial employment, further study, or graduates building their own business or a portfolio career. This intervention will provide a clear incentive for universities and colleges to take credible action to deliver successful outcomes for their students.

Improve productivity of entrepreneurs from ethnic minority backgrounds

Inclusive Britain acknowledged that we need to do more to equip the next generation of ethnic minority entrepreneurs with the skills and confidence they need to succeed. In order to do so, the Department for Business and Trade has been supporting HSBC UK in its pilot of a competition-based entrepreneur support programme, in partnership with UK universities.

The ‘Student Incubator Programme’ has seen HSBC support ethnic minority students from Aston University, University of Bedfordshire, De Montfort University, University of East London, and Kingston University to bring their commercial aspirations to life.  The pilot provides a model for other banks and financial institutions to emulate, in collaboration with universities, as a way to nurture talent, encourage innovation, and offer support to aspiring entrepreneurs from under-represented backgrounds across the UK.

Case study: HSBC UK Student Incubator Programme

The programme was delivered over 12 weeks in partnership with Start Up Discovery School and focused on supporting founders to launch, grow and scale their business ideas. Dedicated support sessions included subjects such as minimum viable product, storytelling and knowing your niche. The entrepreneurs also received regular one-to-one mentoring from HSBC UK Commercial Banking Relationship Directors, as well as access to HSBC webinars delivered by their Chief Economist, Sustainability and Fraud and Cybercrime teams.

The programme culminated in a Dragon’s Den style pitch day, held at HSBC UK’s Head Office. Judging focused on business ideas that were innovative, achievable, market-focused and financially viable. All the students received some funding to support their start up business with the top 3 recognised with some additional monetary support and social media recognition on HSBC’s UK Facebook and Twitter platforms.

The winners on the day were:

• 1st place: Blackout Dance Camp C.I.C, an emerging community dance educational provider in the field of Caribbean, Diasporic and commercial dance
• 2nd place: Excel Learning, a tutoring service offering affordable prices and unique teaching methods for all students, especially for those from underprivileged and ethnic minority backgrounds
• 3rd place: Atls Blk, a social media app for black and mixed black students at UK universities that aims to make their university experience easier

Feedback from the students throughout the programme was positive:

Talking to the HSBC mentor, gave an extremely good insight into what my unique selling point is.

Learnt a lot about what is needed in a pitch deck and components of a good presentation.

To share the results and promote the learning from the Student Incubator Programme, DBT will invite HSBC to present to the Ethnic Minority Business Group (EMBG) to showcase the successes of the programme and demonstrate what can be achieved with the right level of support and investment in diverse entrepreneurs. EMBG is chaired by the Small Business Minister and meets bi-monthly to explore the barriers faced by ethnic minority business leaders, in developing and growing their business.

A summary of the key learnings will also be shared with a range of relevant stakeholders to raise awareness of the benefits of the scheme and encourage a continuing dialogue around the success of early support in entrepreneurship, particularly for ethnic minority businesses.

3. Inclusion

Building a stronger sense of inclusion is at the heart of the Inclusive Britain strategy. This means striving for a society based on shared values and a shared history, where no individual is treated differently because they belong to a particular group.

This chapter in Inclusive Britain contains commitments to develop a more inclusive history curriculum and school hairstyles policies, to improve diversity among the judiciary and make police forces more representative of the communities they serve, to promote inclusion in the workplace and enhance transparency, and to harness Artificial Intelligence for good.

Progress on these actions is summarised below.

Alongside this, we have taken steps to recognise the vast contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants to British social, economic and cultural life. These steps include unveiling the National Windrush Monument in June. This now stands at London Waterloo station as a fitting tribute to the Windrush generation.

Create a more inclusive history curriculum

A key part of the Inclusive Britain strategy is that all children should grow up feeling a strong sense of belonging to this country. This includes how our past is taught in schools. We recognise there is good teaching in schools in this area, but also know more can be done to support the teaching of a high-quality, knowledge-rich and diverse history curriculum.

To address this, DfE appointed a model history curriculum expert panel in July 2022 to lead work on a new model history curriculum (action 57). The Panel, chaired by Dr Michael Kandiah (Lecturer in Contemporary British History at King’s College London) comprises history curriculum experts, historians and school leaders. The new model curriculum, which is on track for publication in 2024, will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history, and will cover the major contributions made by different groups that have made this country what it is today.

Support a more inclusive school hair and uniform policy

Another step towards greater inclusion in schools is ensuring that children – and black pupils in particular – do not face discrimination because of their hair. While schools have autonomy and the government does not dictate uniform policy, we recognise that advice on best practice would enable schools to ensure their approach to hair is consistent with equalities law so that black pupils in particular are not discriminated against. RDU worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on its guidance for schools on how to ensure hair or hairstyle policies are not unlawfully discriminatory (action 60). The guidance, which was published in October 2022, during Black History Month is based on real-life experiences. It includes practical examples for schools on when a policy may be discriminatory, a decision-making tool to help school leaders to draft and review their policies and an animated video to raise awareness of indirect race discrimination in schools and what should be done to prevent it.

DfE is monitoring feedback from schools to the EHRC guidance via its regular sector engagement and will undertake additional work to tackle hair discrimination if feedback shows the need for it.

Reinforce impartiality in the public sector

It is important that the debate about issues of race is conducted in a civil way and that people of all backgrounds feel they can contribute and participate in discussion. It is particularly important that public servants and public institutions recognise the diversity of opinion on these issues, and encourage an environment that is free from bias. Inclusive Britain committed to new guidance to civil servants promoting the values of tolerance and equality, but with careful delineation of ideas and views which are more political in nature (action 62).

We are issuing guidance to civil servants alongside this report. It is intended to support them when working on diversity and inclusion issues, and in particular to ensure that all perspectives are discussed in an objective way whilst meeting obligations under the Civil Service code. This includes avoiding the promotion of partisan political views or presenting contested theories as fact. The guidance also sets out how to ensure impartiality in use of language and communications, and how to ensure training materials and events (including use of external speakers) do not undermine the obligations under the Civil Service code.

Make police forces more representative of local communities

We are committed to increasing diversity within the police service and to making forces in England and Wales more representative of the local communities that they serve. Delivery of our Police Uplift Programme (PUP), announced in July 2019, has been an opportunity to attract the best talent for our police forces, from all ethnic backgrounds. Over the course of the PUP, forces have received £700 million in year 1 (2020 to 2021) and £425 million in year 2 (2021 to 2022), specifically for uplift. For year 3 of uplift (2022 to 2023) an additional £550 million has been provided including funding to deliver the final 8,000 additional officers of the 20,000 target.

Data to December 2022 show that since April 2020 a total of 34,647 new police officers have been recruited to forces in England and Wales. Of these, 11.5% (3,825) identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). Overall, as at 31 December 2022, 11,691 police officers identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) – 8.3% of those who stated their ethnicity – the highest figures since comparable records began.^{[footnote 15]}

During the uplift, there has been ongoing work across policing partners and forces to ensure that best practice and the many improvements to the police recruitment process delivered by PUP are captured and embedded as business as usual. As part of PUP we have also delivered a diversity support package to forces, which helps them to understand how representative their workforces are of the local population, and what more they may need to do to make any necessary improvements (action 64). Decisions on what interventions and approaches best meet the needs of a particular force are for the Chief Constable.

Improve judicial diversity

Inclusive Britain also included actions to increase diversity among the judiciary and the magistracy. These commitments include working with the Judicial Diversity Forum to increase the pool of applicants and ensuring the very best talent is promoted through the professions and on to the bench (action 67).The latest judicial diversity statistics, published in July 2022, show that the proportion of judges who identify as being from an ethnic minority background has been slowly increasing, from 7% in 2014 to 10% in 2022, but this remains low in senior court roles.

The MoJ leads and coordinates the Pre-Application Judicial Educational (PAJE) programme which supports eligible lawyers from under-represented groups, including those from an ethnic minority background, who are considering applying for a judicial appointment. As of October 2022, 633 participants had completed the programme.  Ethnic minority participants with a solicitor background were appointed to judicial roles at a significantly higher rate than non-PAJE ethnic minority candidates over the last 3 years.

The MoJ also funds the Targeted Outreach programme which from April will be jointly led by the Judicial Appointments Commission and the judiciary. The programme supports improved outcomes for under-represented target groups and provides support for key selection exercises as a pipeline to senior judicial appointments. Since its launch in September 2020, female ethnic minority solicitors on the Targeted Outreach programme were appointed at rates more than 3 times higher than candidates with the same characteristics who had not taken part in the programme.

In January 2023, the judiciary also published an update to their Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020 to 2025, setting out progress on their actions.

As of 1 April 2022, 14% of magistrates were from an ethnic minority background (up from 8% in 2014). We have invested over £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of 4,000 new and diverse magistrates over the next few years (action 68). In 2022, the MoJ launched a revised, streamlined recruitment and selection process, alongside an inclusive recruitment marketing campaign. This marketing campaign is designed to appeal to under-represented groups that may have never considered, or thought they are eligible to join, the magistracy, particularly those from an ethnic minority background. As of 31 October 2022, 4,321 individuals had applied to join the magistracy. Of the 96% of applicants who disclosed their ethnicity, 22% were from an ethnic minority background. This year’s annual judicial diversity statistics in July will include more detailed diversity data on magistrates, including applications and appointments.

Promote inclusion in the workplace

Inclusive Britain recognised that ensuring all people, regardless of background, to thrive at work benefits everyone. Action 69 committed us to launching an Inclusion at Work Panel to develop and disseminate resources that can help employers achieve fairness and inclusion in the workplace. Work is well underway to establish the Panel and Pamela Dow has been appointed the Chair.

This Panel will develop a new voluntary Inclusion Confident Scheme for employers who want to demonstrate their commitment to improving race equality and progression in the workplace (action 71).

One way of promoting greater representation and inclusivity in the workplace is through use of positive action, a tool which allows employers to lawfully target employment schemes to disadvantaged groups. Inclusive Britain set out the need to support employers – and smaller organisations in particular – to understand how to use positive action under the provisions in the Equality Act 2010 and how to avoid unlawful positive discrimination.

We have therefore issued alongside this report new guidance for employers on positive action in the workplace (action 70). This sets out how to apply the legislation and includes illustrative examples to support those employers that wish to create opportunities for underrepresented groups within their workforce.

Harness Artificial Intelligence for an inclusive future

We are committed to harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) for good, in order to improve people’s lives. We do not yet fully understand how the use of AI will impact ethnic minorities, although we do know that bias can enter AI just as it can enter any process. Inclusive Britain includes 3 actions to address potential risks with AI and to enhance transparency and trust.

We committed to developing our national position on governing and regulating AI  (action 72). We published on 29 March our AI regulation white paper. This sets out a proportionate and outcomes-focused approach to the regulation of AI which addresses the needs of innovators and strengthens public confidence in the way AI is being used. This includes addressing wider concerns about the potential for bias and discrimination in algorithmic decision-making.

In addition, EHRC published new guidance in September 2022 on how the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010 applies when a public body uses AI (action 73). That guidance gives practical examples of how AI systems may be causing discriminatory outcomes.

EHRC is currently monitoring how local authorities are meeting the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty whilst using AI and will consider whether there is a need for further case studies and interventions to tackle any particular gaps in knowledge or action.

Tackling discrimination in AI is a major strand of EHRC’s 3-year strategy. As part of this, EHRC is exploring how best to use its powers in areas such as police use of facial recognition technology, recruitment in industry and the public sector, and the identification of fraud. EHRC has signed an MoU with the Information Commissioner’s Office and intends to work closely in this area, to ensure their respective remits are aligned.

We also committed to piloting the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) for the public sector that was developed by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) and the Cabinet Office’s Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) (action 74).

The first version of the ATRS was published in October 2021. It establishes a standardised way for public sector organisations to proactively and transparently publish information about how and why they are using algorithmic approaches in decision-making.

The ATRS was piloted with public sector organisations in 2022, ranging from central government offices to local police departments, and 6 completed records are available on GOV.UK. Based on feedback and lessons learned from the pilots, CDEI and CDDO launched an updated version in October 2022 on GitHub, for open feedback. The updated standard, alongside guidance and the completed reports, were also made publicly available through the ATRS Hub on GOV.UK.

In October 2022, the standard was endorsed by the UK Data Standards Authority, which recommends the standards, guidance and other resources government departments should follow when working on data projects.

4. Next steps

Work will now focus on delivering the remaining actions from Inclusive Britain including the new, national framework for scrutiny of police powers, our major conditions health strategy and the Model History Curriculum. We will also continue work on key measures in Inclusive Britain, such as driving up the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted and increasing the diversity of our judiciary and police forces.

We will work across government and the wider public sector, and with voluntary and community organisations, to promote the work of the Inclusive Britain action plan and to highlight the steps we are taking to increase trust and fairness, promote equality of opportunity, nurture agency and foster greater inclusion.

We will also reflect on how this work links to some major landmarks this year, including the coronation of His Majesty King Charles III and the 75th anniversaries of the arrival of the Empire Windrush and of the National Health Service, and the opportunities these events provide to further promote and celebrate our diversity as a nation.

We will report back to Parliament in 12 months’ time setting out the progress we have made in delivering the remaining actions from Inclusive Britain, tackling negative disparities, promoting unity and building a fairer Britain for all.

Annex A: Progress by action

Action 1

To enable EHRC to increase its vital work in tackling race discrimination and disadvantage, the Cabinet Office will invest in EHRC enforcement activity to challenge race discrimination through investigations and supporting individual cases.

To improve good practice in equality law across Britain, EHRC will also support a wider range of organisations to comply with equality law and develop policies and processes that support equality of opportunity for all.

Progress update

The Cabinet Office continues to fund EHRC’s statutorily independent work, through its £17.1 million budget for 2022 to 2023.

EHRC also launched a landmark Race Legal Support Fund designed to tackle race discrimination and help victims seek justice. So far, the fund has supported people with claims of race discrimination against employers and service providers, including high street retailers, airlines, banks and pubs. Successfully resolved cases include that of a civil servant who was employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service who claimed she experienced a series of acts of direct race discrimination, harassment and victimisation. A settlement was reached after EHRC funded the 8-day final hearing through the legal support scheme. This case will help ensure all employers are aware of their legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

EHRC is currently supporting individuals without legal representation to access the Equality Advice and Support Service to get the advice they need. They will soon be appointing a panel of solicitors which is intended to make it easier for these individuals to find representation and to access justice with the support of this scheme and will be promoting this next phase of the scheme widely.

Action 2

To clamp down on racist abuse online, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Home Office will introduce the world-leading Online Safety Bill as soon as possible. Companies that fail to comply with their legal duties in the bill could face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their qualifying annual global turnover, or business disruption measures.

Progress update

The Online Safety Bill has now completed its passage through the House of Commons, and had its second reading in the House of Lords on 1 February.

The bill will make social media companies legally responsible for protecting children and adults from harmful content, while at the same time defending freedom of expression. The largest platforms will have to provide adult users with tools to help reduce the likelihood that they will encounter certain types of content that will be set out in the bill. Examples include content that does not meet a criminal threshold but is racist, anti-semitic or misogynistic.

Action 3

To improve our understanding of online harms, RDU will engage with service providers, international organisations and experts to better measure and monitor online abuse. This programme of work will also consider how specific events, such as high-profile football matches, can act as instigators for online abuse.

Progress update

RDU led a programme of engagement with other government departments and external bodies and conducted a literature review on online abuse. These findings enabled RDU to develop a framework for measuring online abuse for use within government which has been shared across government, including through a blog post setting out what we can do to improve measurement of online abuse.

Action 4

To improve online transparency, RDU will lead a review into online misinformation to better understand how different groups are accessing and interpreting information online. The review will provide a series of data and policy recommendations to strengthen the government’s understanding and ability to tackle online abuse.

Progress update

RDU undertook a literature review of online misinformation targeted at ethnic minorities. The review found that online misinformation and disinformation can spread more rapidly by:

• using content in different languages (especially the first language of the group being targeted with misinformation/disinformation)
• using individuals in videos who were (or were posing as) trusted professionals, such as teachers, nurses or doctors
• targeting an emotional response to the recipients of misinformation – the more controversial or dramatic the posts or videos were, the more likely they were to spread^{[footnote 16]}

RDU is now considering these findings.

Action 5

To communicate more effectively on racial issues and to avoid lumping together different ethnic minority groups, the government has stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in its own communications and will encourage other public sector bodies to do the same.

Progress update

We have stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in government communications and have taken a number of steps to embed this across the public sector. This includes publishing a blog post on the Civil Service blog website and the Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service writing to all Permanent Secretaries on this and a range of other diversity and inclusion issues.

Action 6

To ensure more responsible and accurate reporting on race and ethnicity, RDU will by the end of 2022 consult on new standards for government departments and other public bodies on how to record, understand and communicate ethnicity data.

Progress update

RDU issued a consultation in July 2022 on a set of revised Standards for Ethnicity Data. The consultation response has been published alongside this report and RDU is now working with OSR to review the use and impact of the new standards.

Action 7

RDU will lead work to:

• engage with people from different ethnic groups to better understand the language and terminology that they identify with
• review how media coverage of race and ethnicity issues impact the communities being covered
• develop recommendations which will encourage responsible and accurate reporting on race issues by June 2023

Progress update

RDU and ONS commissioned Basis Social to undertake qualitative research into the use of language and terminology relating to people’s ethnic identity. The findings from this research have been published alongside this report.

We are considering these findings before determining next steps with this action.

Action 8

To improve the presentation and to assist the interpretation of data on ethnic disparities, RDU will consult by summer 2022 on a set of proposals to reform the Ethnicity facts and figures website, with a view to maintaining a smaller range of the most useful data sets.

Progress update

RDU launched a consultation in June 2022 on proposals to reform our world-leading Ethnicity facts and figures website, which currently includes 185 pages of data on outcomes for ethnic groups. This consultation closed in August and received 500 responses. The government’s response has been published alongside this report.

Work has now begun on making these changes to Ethnicity facts and figures and streamlining the datasets. The changes will improve the impact and utility of the website, help its users to understand the drivers and factors behind disparities, and minimise the risk of misinterpretation and incorrect conclusions being drawn. For policy-makers, we will be providing better evidence for targeting interventions and resources at the point of need.

Action 9

To identify and fill evidence gaps about the social mobility, skill and role mismatching and health outcomes of immigrants, RDU will lead a new, cross-government analytical work programme with input from external experts in 2022. This will include analysis of the structural issues that immigrants may face in the UK, and understanding the lessons that the government has learned about policy making in this area.

Progress update

RDU, in partnership with the University of Essex, has published new analyses on the outcomes in the labour market for ethnic minorities by immigrant generation status alongside this report.

The paper explores how being a first- or second-generation migrant impacts the likelihood of being unemployed or economically inactive across different ethnic groups.

Work will now turn to health outcomes for immigrants.

Action 10

The police need the powers to tackle crime – but there also needs to be effective local scrutiny of these powers in order to enhance trust and strengthen relations between police and communities. The Home Office, with policing partners including PCCs, will develop by summer 2023 a new, national framework for how the use of police powers – including stop and search and use of force – are scrutinised at a local level. This framework will ensure that local scrutiny panels are independently-led, reflect the diversity of the areas they represent and give police officers the confidence to use their powers with the backing of local communities.

Progress update

The Home Office and national policing partners are developing the new national framework for how policing powers, such as stop and search and use of force, can be scrutinised at a local level.  Work is well underway on the community scrutiny framework, which we aim to publish later this year.

Action 11

To tackle serious violent crime, which disproportionately affects some ethnic minority groups, the Home Office is bringing into force the Serious Violence Duty which will require local authorities, the police, criminal justice agencies, health authorities and others to work together to understand why violent crime is taking place in their area, and then to formulate and implement a strategy for tackling these drivers of serious violence.

Progress update

The Serious Violence Duty came into force on 31 January 2023, accompanied by new statutory guidance. This requires local authorities, the police, criminal justice agencies, health authorities and others to work together to understand why violent crime is taking place in their area and then to formulate and implement a strategy for tackling these drivers of serious violence. These strategies must be published by 31 January 2024.

The statutory guidance will also be reviewed a year after its publication, to ensure that it incorporates insight on how the new Duty is working in practice.

Action 12

To protect the public and police officers and to give communities confidence that they are being policed fairly, the Home Office will support the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council by autumn 2024 to review and deliver any necessary improvements to police officer training in de-escalation skills and conflict management in everyday police-citizen encounters, such as use of stop and search and use of force powers.

Progress update

The new College of Policing Public and Personal Safety Training Curriculum, including de-escalation and communication skills and associated training products, is being made available to all forces since 1 April 2023 and will provide nationally consistent standards of training and delivery.

Action 13

To improve transparency and promote uptake, the Home Office will identify and seek to remove unnecessary barriers that prevent increased use of body-worn video (BWV) and will encourage policing bodies to share guidance and best practice on the use of BWV.

The Home Office, with policing partners, will also explore how best to facilitate the sharing of BWV footage with local scrutiny panels, in order to improve the scrutiny of police decision-making and improve the understanding of legitimate police use of powers such as stop and search. This will feed into the new framework for scrutinising use of police powers that will be developed by summer 2023.

Progress update

The National Police Chiefs’ Council issued updated guidance on the use of BWV in October 2022. This included best practice protocols.

Delivery of the community scrutiny framework is well underway. The framework will have a revised focus on the role of PCCs to lead community scrutiny processes within force areas. The parallel work in relation to barriers to the use of BWV will feed into the framework.

Action 14

To give greater clarity and context to stop and search data, and reassure the public about its use, RDU will work with the Home Office, OSR and ONS to improve the way this data is reported and to enable more accurate comparisons to be made between different police force areas.

Progress update

The latest annual stop and search data was published in October 2022 (with updated ethnicity analysis based on the 2021 Census estimates published in March 2023). This included additional analysis and outputs, including disparity analysis by force, new disparity analysis by reason for search, additional hotspot (areas of high stop and search activity) analysis and the relationship between stop and search and deprivation, as well as, for the first time, data on stop and searches at Community Safety Partnership level. This was accompanied by a new, experimental, data-query tool to allow users to carry out their own bespoke analysis of stop and search data.

Action 15

The Home Office and RDU will work with policing partners and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to consider a range of metrics for stop and search rates in order to identify and, where necessary, challenge disparities at police force area level. To be clear, a higher rate should not automatically be regarded as a problem, but the reasons should be transparent and explicable to local communities.

Progress update

The annual stop and search statistics published in October included, for the first time, new ‘quadrant analysis’ comparing the overall rate of stop and search for the black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic groups in comparison to white individuals, for all 43 police forces. This allows comparisons to be made between police force areas. We are considering next steps with this work, including how we link this to the new national framework for scrutinising the use of police powers such as stop and search.

Action 16

We will address the challenges with ethnicity pay gap reporting to support employers who want to demonstrate and drive greater fairness in the workplace.

BEIS will publish guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay reporting in summer 2022. This guidance, which will include case studies of those companies who are already reporting, will give employers the tools to understand and tackle pay gaps within their organisations and build trust with employees.

Progress update

We have published alongside this report new guidance for employers to help them collect their employees’ ethnicity data, make ethnicity pay calculations, analyse and understand the results and consider evidence-based actions to address any identified disparities.

Action 17

To close the gap in pay between different ethnic groups working within NHS England, we will commission a new Ethnicity Pay Gap research project. The project will consider the scale and causes of the ethnicity pay gap across the NHS and produce actionable recommendations on how to reduce it.

Progress update

NHS England is developing an NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion workforce plan which will include specific actions and expectations to embed inclusive and fair recruitment and promotion practices in organisations, to address under-representation and talent management across all protected characteristics.

As part of this work, NHS England has been collecting data on the ethnicity pay gap and is currently analysing this to establish their understanding of the pay gap for all ethnic minority staff working in the NHS. The analysis stage is due to be completed by summer 2023. This will include looking at total earnings, contracted hours worked and paid, the progression rate between different pay bands and the differences across different staff groups.

Action 18

As part of its new assessment framework, and to ensure that healthcare providers are held to account for why ethnic disparities exist in their workforce, the CQC will be assessing how providers are addressing the experiences, progression and disciplinary actions in respect of ethnic minority staff in their workforce. Once the CQC has evaluated how this new framework has been implemented over 2022 to 2023, DHSC will carefully consider whether the concerns raised in the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ report have been addressed.

Progress update

The CQC has made good progress in developing its approach to workforce race equality in NHS Trusts including:

• use of data: CQC continues to work with NHSE to obtain improved information around NHS Trust performance on Workforce Race Equality Standards (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standards (WDES)
• the development of escalation of concerns: CQC has been bringing issues to the Workforce Equality Risk and Oversight Group (WEROG) discussion and where action is needed it has been taken
• quality control of inspection reporting: CQC has reviewed its oversight of inspection reports to look at ways to improve reporting on workforce equality issues following NHS inspections – a robust system of quality checking NHS inspection reports for workforce equality content began in early January 2023, and CQC is working to develop this in other sectors
• developing refinement of approach to using staff experience: CQC has carried out a survey of frontline staff in health and social care about approaches to gathering their feedback more effectively (staff experience framework), CQC’s approach to developing feedback mechanisms will be built on the results of this survey

The evaluation timelines for the new framework are yet to be decided, but a provisional timescale is an interim evaluation in June 2024 with a fuller review in December 2024.

Action 19

To reduce the gap in health outcomes and tackle current health disparities, DHSC will publish a new strategy in a health disparities white paper for England later in 2022.

Progress update

In January 2023, the Health Secretary announced that in consultation with NHS England and other government departments, DHSC will develop and publish a new Major Conditions Strategy.

The Strategy will set out a strong and coherent policy agenda that sets out a shift to integrated, whole-person care, building on measures taken forward through the NHS Long Term Plan. The strategy will tackle conditions that contribute most to morbidity and mortality across the population in England including, cancers, cardiovascular disease (CVD), including stroke and diabetes, chronic respiratory diseases, dementia, mental ill health and musculoskeletal conditions. This work combines key commitments in mental health, cancer, dementia and health disparities into a single, powerful strategy.

Action 20

To address concerns about the way medical devices and technologies are designed and used, and their impact on ethnic minority patients’ diagnosis and treatment, DHSC will consider carefully the findings of Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead’s review when this reports in 2023.

Progress update

The Independent Review on Equity in Medical Devices held a Call for Evidence (CfE) between 11 August and 6 October 2022. The aim of this was to collect existing data and evidence, information on ongoing data collection and research or evaluation projects, as well as views and insights from the general public. The CfE had a wide audience, including but not limited to academics, researchers, patients and members of the general public.

An interim Report was submitted to DHSC in late 2022.This set out the approach the Panel is taking to fulfil its terms of reference. The report provided an overview of findings to date, and included examples of draft high-level recommendations to give an idea of the direction of travel.

The Independent Review Panel has also commissioned several experts and academics to prepare reports on the topics pertinent to the Review and are regularly engaging with key stakeholders, including MHRA, NICE, Health Technology Assessment Groups, different organisations within the NHS, industry representatives, academics and healthcare professionals.

A series of thematic roundtables is currently underway to discuss draft recommendations with key stakeholders.

The Review is on track to report later this year.

Action 21

To improve life expectancy across all groups and to reduce health inequalities, DHSC established OHID in October 2021. OHID is leading cross-government work to address the causes of health inequalities (such as deprivation, tobacco, alcohol, diet and physical inactivity) which often disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups, and on the health disparities white paper. OHID’s mission is to improve and level up the health of the nation.

Progress update

OHID is leading work across government to address the causes of health disparities, such as continuing to help people to quit smoking, reducing overall drug use and tackling obesity. This includes commissioning a number of research projects through the NIHR. One such project is looking at drug use within ethnic minority groups and is due to conclude in August. This will help us understand the prevalence of drug use amongst ethnic minority groups, as well as how we can improve the available treatment.

Action 22

To improve maternal health outcomes for ethnic minority women, DHSC, the new OHID and NHS England and NHS Improvement will consider and support evidence-based interventions to address the current disparities in outcomes through the Maternity Disparities Taskforce.

Progress update

The Maternal Disparities Taskforce was established in February 2022 to tackle disparities for mothers and babies by improving access to effective pre-conception and maternity care for women from ethnic minorities and those living in the most deprived areas.

The Taskforce met 3 times in 2022. The sessions facilitated a valuable discussion around the role of primary care in the preconception health of women and provided organisations such as Birthrights UK and the Muslim Women’s Network with the opportunity to present their research and understanding of women’s experience of maternity care to clinical leaders.

The Taskforce will meet again this month.

Action 23

To reduce the health disparities we have seen during the pandemic, the government will implement the package of recommendations from the Minister for Equalities’ final COVID-19 disparities report, published on 3 December 2021.

Progress update

There were 17 recommendations in the final COVID-19 disparities report. Four of these became actions in Inclusive Britain (recommendations 5, 6, 15 and 16, which are now actions 21, 24, 5 and 7 respectively). Four of the remaining recommendations have been completed. This includes recommendation 7 (the government should continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 by ethnicity) as the latest data from the ONS suggests that during the Omicron period, we no longer see evidence of ethnic minority groups having a statistically significantly higher COVID-19 mortality rate compared with the white British group. Work continues to deliver the remaining 9 recommendations.

Action 24

To build confidence in future vaccination schemes and other health interventions, the NIHR and the NHS Race and Health Observatory will seek to increase ethnic minority participation in clinical trials and research through methods such as promoting the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework.

Progress update

A significant amount of activity to promote, disseminate and adopt the framework has taken place over the last year through the NIHR’s Under-served Communities Programme, which seeks to ensure that research studies are delivered where the need is greatest.

In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding between NIHR and the NHS Race and Health Observatory is in draft to strengthen and support a shared mission to identify opportunities to increase ethnic minority participation in clinical trials and research.

The NIHR has also published its first randomised controlled trial data report, which includes some initial data on the diversity of its research participants. This found that the diversity of NIHR’s randomised controlled trial participants is in line with the diversity of the 2011 census population.

Work continues in this area including improving inclusion in research by mandating inclusion strategies for all NIHR’s funded research infrastructure and improving NIHR diversity data collection, extending parameters to include all 9 protected characteristics, and socio-economic factors.

Action 25

The Children’s Commissioner for England will commence a review in April 2022 to improve the way public services understand the needs of children and families, so every child has the best start in life and the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Progress update

The Children’s Commissioner has published Part 1 and Part 2 of the Independent Family Review which contains 23 recommendations for the government. Alongside these 2 substantive reports, the Children’s Commissioner has published 3 reports examining particular barriers to improving services, 3 reports focused on families in particular circumstances and 7 additional annexes covering specific pieces of new research. The recommendations in these reports are designed to improve support for children and families, so that every child has the opportunity to reach their potential. We are now considering these recommendations carefully and will respond in due course.

Action 26

To increase the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted, and to reduce the time they have to wait to be adopted, DfE, together with RAAs, will work to launch a new drive to match children with adoptive families. DfE will work to ensure that potential adopters are not discouraged to apply because of their ethnicity.

Progress update

Since 2019, we have funded a national recruitment campaign to find more adoptive parents, with a particular focus on prospective ethnic minority parents. RAAs have set up projects to trial outreach ambassadors to support ethnic minority adopters, and embed learning from the Black Adopters Project (see above).

Action 27

In line with commitments in the adoption strategy, DfE will start to modernise data collection and information sharing so that RAA leaders have access to data which can be used to speed up matching of ethnic minority children with new adoptive families.

Progress update

DfE continues to improve data collection and information sharing with RAA leaders to help target activity where it is most needed. For example, DfE has targeted recruitment for adopters who could adopt children who currently wait the longest, which includes black boys who wait the longest out of all ethnic minority children. DfE has also gone further and funded 12 matching pilots to trial innovative practice and reduce waiting times for children who typically wait the longest. Increasingly, we are setting up new procedures so that RAA leaders have access to national data which can be used to improve processes and ultimately, the delivery of services to children and their families.

Action 28

To improve the existing evidence base, RDU will work with DfE and other stakeholders to develop and publish, in 2022, a strategy to improve the quality and availability of ethnicity data and evidence about looked-after children and their routes out of care.

Progress update

The looked-after children data strategy has been published alongside this report. It sets out what data is available, areas more data is required and the priority pieces of work that DfE will lead.

Action 29

To drive up levels of attainment for under-performing ethnic groups, DfE will carry out a programme of analysis in early 2022 to understand pupil attainment and investigate whether there are any specific findings and implications for different ethnic groups to tackle disparities.

Progress update

DfE has collated and published 2 evidence notes on outcomes by ethnicity both in schools and after leaving school. This thorough review of the evidence has identified where ethnicity is a significant factor in the outcomes of children and young people, drawing out central narrative themes that run across the education system.

Outcomes by ethnicity in schools in England findings include:

• socio-economic disadvantage varies by ethnicity
• white British pupils, on average, make less progress than their nonwhite peers during their time in school
• pupils with black Caribbean heritage and pupils with white Gypsy and Roma and Irish Traveller backgrounds are more likely to have poor attainment than white British pupils
• economically disadvantaged pupils are more likely to have lower attainment and make less progress than pupils who aren’t economically disadvantaged
• when economic disadvantage is partially accounted for by controlling for free school meals (FSM) eligibility, disadvantaged white and mixed white/black Caribbean pupils on average have worse outcomes than other disadvantaged pupils
• among pupils who are not FSM eligible, pupils of black Caribbean heritage and white Gypsy and Roma and Irish Traveller pupils have worse average attainment outcomes than other pupils
• pupils with black Caribbean heritage are more likely to be excluded than their peers, even once disadvantage been controlled for

Post-16 education outcomes by ethnicity in England findings include:

• nearly all pupils go into employment, additional education or training following KS4, as required by law – this is true across ethnic groups, with the exception of Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller pupils
• pupils from a black Caribbean background are less likely to be in employment, education, or training than the national average
• A-level pupils in Pakistani, Bangladeshi and all black groups are less likely to get top results than their peers from other ethnic groups
• entry rates to higher education are more than twice as high for students in the Chinese ethnic group compared to white students
• Asian and black pupils are twice as likely to attend a lower tariff university as white pupils
• students from Asian and black African backgrounds are most likely to study ‘high earnings potential subjects’ at university
• white British pupils opt out of higher education and into apprenticeships at higher rates than their peers

These findings will inform future policy decisions.

DfE also undertakes ad hoc analysis and literature reviews on the pathways different groups take through the education system and to explore the drivers of divergence across the education sector. For example, analysis for post-16 education and labour market activities, pathways and outcomes includes split by ethnicity. A dashboard has also been created which allows individuals to observe differences in earnings trajectories and main activities over time by minor ethnic group (and other comparators).^{[footnote 17]}

Action 30

DfE and RDU will investigate the strategies used by the multi-academy trusts who are most successful at bridging achievement gaps for different ethnic groups and raising overall life chances. The lessons learnt will be published in 2022 and will help drive up standards for all pupils.

Progress update

In January 2023 DfE commissioned Isos Partnership to complete research to better understand what actions have been taken by trusts and individual academies to narrow attainment gaps between different ethnic groups (including white British pupils).

The research has been commissioned on a small scale initially, focused on the secondary phase. The specific aims of the research are to:

• identify whether there is hard or soft evidence of effective practices in schools and trusts whose data shows they have a narrow or narrowed attainment gaps between different ethnic groups
• report good practice and illustrate with case studies that can be used by other schools and trusts to help reduce attainment gaps
• seek views on any other contextual influences (at school or trust level or externally) which are identified as influencing attainment by different ethnic minority groups

The research is underway, and will involve discussions with national education stakeholder organisations, school and multi-academy trust leaders. A report setting out the key findings from the research, as well as any case studies of effective practice, will be finalised by summer 2023.

Action 31

DfE will investigate the publication of additional data on the academic performance of ethnic groups alongside other critical factors relating to social mobility and progress at school level, in post-18 education and employment after education by the end of 2022.

Progress update

DfE continues to improve the available data on academic performance.

To improve analyses on destination measures (which show the percentage of pupils going to an education, apprenticeship or employment destination after completing key stage 4 and 16 to 18 study), DfE have recently added cross tabulations between disadvantage and ethnicity, gender, and prior attainment.

DfE will continue to make improvements and explore the feasibility of introducing additional data in 2023 including:

• ethnicity breakdowns at local authority level for destination measures
• ethnicity minor for key stage 1 and phonics or the multiplication tables check at local authority or regional level
• ethnicity minor breakdowns at local authority level at key stage 4 performance

DfE has considered publishing additional data on the performance of ethnic groups at school level. DfE’s policy is not to publish data based on less than 6 pupils to protect the confidentiality of those pupils. At institution level, this would apply to a significant number of ethnic minority groups and so a large amount of data would have to be suppressed. While attainment data itself is not sensitive, it is when combined with other characteristics as that could lead to a pupil being identified. This could then harm a student’s prospects, for example when seeking job opportunities.

Action 32

DfE will bring forward an ambitious schools white paper in spring 2022 which will set out a long-term vision for a stronger school’s system. There will be a focus on improving the literacy and numeracy outcomes of those not meeting expected standards because this is one of the most important factors for children’s life chances. Disadvantaged pupils are overrepresented in the cohort not meeting expected standards. A core pillar of the white paper will be providing targeted support for those who need it most, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. We will also look at ways we can target interventions in areas and schools of entrenched underperformance.

Progress update

We published the schools white paper in March 2022.

Disadvantaged pupils are overrepresented in the cohort not meeting expected standards. A core pillar of the white paper provides targeted support for those who need it most, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. It also targets interventions in areas and schools of entrenched underperformance.

Since publishing the white paper, we have worked to deliver our commitments and have made progress in working towards our headline ambitions for 2030.

Action 33

In order to tackle disparities in educational outcomes for disadvantaged groups and to ensure that funding streams sufficiently address pupil needs, from September 2021 DfE has required all schools to publish their strategies for spending money allocated for disadvantaged pupils through the pupil premium and the recovery premium. The funding grant conditions require these strategies to be built around well-evidenced approaches, such as classroom practice that has consistently demonstrated accelerated pupil progress. DfE will not have ethnicity-based funding streams unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Progress update

Schools are now required to publish an annual pupil premium strategy statement, explaining how they plan to spend the pupil premium, and demonstrating that their approach is informed by research evidence, including the Education Endowment Foundation’s guidance.^{[footnote 18]}

Activities in the strategy statement should include those that:

• support the quality of teaching
• provide targeted academic support, such as tutoring
• tackle non-academic barriers to success in school, such as attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional support

This will support schools to develop their pupil premium strategy based on the best evidence and improve outcomes for disadvantaged students.

DfE is reviewing a sample of the annual pupil premium statements in early 2023 to build its understanding of how schools are planning to use their funding.

Action 34

To maximise the benefits of the pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils, DfE amended the pupil premium conditions of grant for the 2021 to 2022 academic year to require all schools to use their funding on evidence-based approaches. To the extent possible, DfE will investigate the scale of these benefits.

Progress update

From academic year 2022 to 2023, schools are required to use their pupil premium in line with a ‘menu of approaches’ which has been informed by evidence of effective practice.

The menu is designed to help schools to spend their pupil premium effectively and will help them to:

• ensure the activities they have selected are focussed on raising disadvantaged pupils’ attainment
• balance their spending – the Education Endowment Foundation recommends that schools spend around half of their funding on high-quality teaching, and the other half between targeted academic support and wider strategies

Action 35

DfE will take action to improve the quality of education outside mainstream schools. These proposals are part of the forthcoming schools white paper and the SEND review and measures will be announced in 2022 to deliver significantly improved outcomes for children and young people at risk of being excluded from school or who are in Alternative Provision.

Progress update

The government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published on 2 March 2023, sets out further how we will be taking forward our reforms to improve alternative provision. The improvement plan  commits to establishing new national standards – across education, health, and care – with the aim of driving fair and consistent identification, assessment and support, no matter where a child or young person lives or is educated. As part of this, through our SEND and Alternative Provision Change Programme we will test how local authorities and alternative provision schools can best work together to deliver a system that is based on early provision of support for children while still in mainstream schools, reducing admissions to alternative provision schools. This will be supported by wider work to drive improvements across the alternative provision sector.

We expect to publish the analysis of our call for evidence on the use of unregistered alternative provision later in 2023.

Action 36

DfE will consult on and publish new and improved guidance on behaviour in schools and on suspensions and permanent exclusions in 2022. Both sets of guidance will help local leaders identify and address any disparities that might exist within suspension and permanent exclusion rates.

Progress update

In July 2022 we published updated guidance on Behaviour in Schools and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion statutory guidance following a consultation in the spring of 2022. These documents provide further clarity and support to head teachers on how to manage behaviour well so they can provide calm, safe and supportive environments which children and young people want to attend.

Action 37

DfE will launch a £30 million, 3-year programme to set up new SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil and Exceed) taskforces led by mainstream schools to deliver evidence-based interventions for those most at risk of becoming involved in serious violent crime. These will run in 10 serious violence hotspots from early 2022 targeted at young people at risk of dropping out of school: reducing truancy, improving behaviour and reducing the risk of NEET.

Progress update

SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil and Exceed) Taskforces have been set up in the 10 local areas of England most affected by serious youth violence. Led by mainstream schools, the Taskforces are now working with local partners to commission, fund and deliver interventions (such as mentoring and social skills programmes) for children at risk of becoming involved in serious violence.

Action 38

DfE will invest £15 million in a 2 year-programme to pilot the impact of co-locating full-time specialists in Alternative Provision in the top 22 serious violence hotspots.

Progress update

The Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce (APST) pilot went live on 1 November 2021 testing co-location of a diverse specialist workforce in pilot alternative provision schools. ASPTs are delivering in 22 serious violence hotspots.

We announced in the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan that we have extended funding of the pilot programme until March 2025.

Action 39

To enable more grassroots, ethnic minority-led and specialist, voluntary or community sector organisations to provide rehabilitative services, the MoJ launched a new Stewardship Fund for 2021 to 2022. We will also provide advice and support to help these organisations bid for funding and following an evaluation of the impact of the stewardship fund we will assess if funding provision can be made on a longer-term basis.

Progress update

An evaluation of the Stewardship fund has been carried out which has provided HM Prisons and Probation Service with an understanding of the impact of the initiatives procured through the fund.  Recommendations from this evaluation will inform the future status for this fund which is due for review this year. There is an ongoing commitment to working with the third sector going forward. How this is financed, resourced and organised is currently under review.

Action 40

To ensure that ethnic minorities and others receive the legal advice they need when in police custody, the MoJ will support a number of police forces to trial the effect of an automatic ‘opt-in’ to receive independent advice over 2022 and to build trust to see if this reduces disparities. This will assess whether better advice could lead to improved outcomes following arrest, such as better protection of vulnerable individuals, and increased take up of Out of Court Disposals.

Progress update

MoJ’s full response to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) consultation was published in November 2022. This proposed using data from the Presumption of Legal Advice (PoLA) schemes to review what the initiative could look like if rolled out for all children nationally.

The MoJ is continuing to play an active role in supporting the ongoing schemes.

Action 41

To tackle the disproportionate criminalisation of young adults, who are often from ethnic minority and/or deprived backgrounds, we have begun to pilot a number of drug diversion schemes through Project ADDER which have the long-term potential to transform the way we tackle drug-related crime and engagement with youth at risk. We have extended Project ADDER to 8 additional local authority areas, as announced in July 2021. We will also explore ongoing current drug diversion schemes and share what works with other areas.

Progress update

We are capturing the learning from Project ADDER and sharing this with partners to inform local services of good practice when implementing a whole-system approach including drug diversion programmes.

In addition, Kantar Public is currently undertaking an independent evaluation of Project ADDER and is due to report in late 2023.

Action 42

To ensure that more people using illegal drugs receive a relevant and proportionate consequence, the Home Office will support a number of police forces with £9 million in funding to introduce, or expand, out of court disposal schemes from summer 2022.

Progress update

In July 2022 the Home Office consulted on a white paper ‘Swift, Certain, Tough: New Consequences for Drug Possession’ which outlined a new tiered approach to drug possession offences. Consultation responses to these proposals are currently being considered and will shape our future drug policy.

A pilot scheme exploring the expansion of out of court disposals for drug possession offences will focus on expanding the use of existing policing powers, focused on the most visible drug possession offences. The pilot will build on existing powers and seek to understand how effective drug awareness courses can be in changing behaviour, and also ensure police are encouraged to tackle drug misuse in public places

Action 43

To empower pupils to make more informed choices about their studies, DfE will ensure that higher education institutions support disadvantaged students before they apply for university places.

Progress update

Following the refresh of the access and participation regime announced by the DfE in November 2021, all higher education providers with an A&P plan are being asked to rewrite and renegotiate their plans with the OfS to include a new focus on raising aspiration and improving attainment for students before they apply to higher education.

This work is being led by the Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS is currently working with the sector to identify 40 ‘pioneer’ higher education  providers who will be the first to revise their plans and put them in place for September 2024. All other  providers will have their revised plans in place for September 2025.

In the interim, the OfS has invited providers to vary their current A&P  to include a focus on these new priorities to encourage faster progress. Over 250 higher education providers submitted variations to their plans to the OfS, which will be in place for September 2024.

Action 44

DfE will work with UCAS (the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) and other sector groups to make available both advertised and actual entry requirements for courses, including historic entry grades so that disadvantaged students have the information they need to apply to university on a fair playing field.

Progress update

In May 2023, UCAS will launch the student-facing version of its ‘Historic Entry Grades Tool’, allowing students to access course-level information on the grades students held when entering higher education. The launch of this service will significantly increase the transparency around university entry requirements, supporting more informed choices and raising aspirations.

In February 2023 a new partnership between UCAS and DfE was also announced that will allow students to access apprenticeship opportunities alongside higher education choices from autumn 2023. From 2024, students will also be able to apply for these opportunities alongside their undergraduate degree application.

UCAS will also launch an Outreach Connection Service in 2023, which will raise awareness of the full range of outreach and support available to students, helping overcome challenges with awareness and access.

Action 45

Higher education providers will help schools drive up standards so that disadvantaged students obtain better qualifications, have more options, and can choose an ambitious path that is right for them.

Progress update

The Office for Students (OfS) consulted with the sector in autumn 2022 on changes to A&P plans to include a new prioritisation of attainment-raising interventions in schools and offering and promoting diverse pathways through higher education, including courses at levels 4 and 5, part-time courses, and degree apprenticeships. It is expected that this new focus will support the long-term continuation, attainment and outcomes of students through improving preparedness for higher education and expanding the range of high-quality choices for post-18 study and training.

The OfS published its consultation response in March 2023, alongside new guidance for higher education providers on revising their A&P plans. The OfS also launched its new Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, which will empower providers to deliver interventions for groups of students least likely to experience equal opportunity in higher education settings by highlighting key sector risks and the groups most likely to experience these.

Over 250 providers submitted requests to vary their current plans in line with new A&P priorities, and these changes will start to be put in place from next academic year (2023 to 2024).

Action 46

Higher education providers will revise and resubmit their Access and Participation plans with a new focus on delivering real social mobility, ensuring students are able to make the right choices, accessing and succeeding on high quality courses, which are valued by employers and lead to good graduate employment.

Progress update

Higher education providers drafted variations to their A&P plans  in May to July 2022 to be in place for September 2023. Rather than simply recruiting more disadvantaged students, this new approach aims to encourage providers to develop interventions that support successful participation and good graduate outcomes by raising aspirations and attainment in schools and colleges.

All registered higher education providers have been asked to revise their A&P plans to meet these priorities and the OfS is working with the sector to identify 40 ‘pioneer’ providers to be the first to carry out this work.  Pioneers’ plans should be in place from September 2024 with all other registered providers revising their plans for September 2025.

Action 47

To improve careers guidance for all pupils in state-funded secondary education, DfE will extend the current statutory duty on schools to secure independent careers guidance to pupils throughout their secondary education.

Progress update

Through the Education (Careers Guidance in Schools) Act 2022, the department has extended the legal requirement on state-funded secondary schools to secure independent careers guidance to all pupils throughout their secondary education. The act has been in force for 6 months.

Action 48

To increase the numbers of young ethnic minorities in apprenticeships, DfE is, since November 2021, working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and partner bodies and employers to engage directly with young people across the country to promote apprenticeships. This will use a range of mechanisms to attract more ethnic minority starts identified in the Commission’s report, such as events in schools with strong minority representation, relatable role models, employer testimonies, data on potential earnings and career progression. It will also explore the impact of factors that influence a young persons’ career choices.

Progress update

DfE has worked in recent years to transform apprenticeships so they are higher quality and better meet the needs of both employers and individuals of all backgrounds. DfE regularly publishes data on apprenticeships participation. In the last academic year, 2021 to 2022, the percentage of apprenticeship starts from ethnic minorities rose to 14.7%, up from 12.5% in the same period in 2018 to 2019.

Over the last year, DfE has continued to engage directly with young people across the country to promote apprenticeships through the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme. DfE has engaged with over 600,000 young people in schools and Further Education colleges since September 2022. Engagement has included targeting schools in areas with high proportions of ethnic minority residents and adapting to the needs of local communities, for example by working with faith school imams to ensure parents are informed of the benefits of apprenticeships. DfE has also continued to work with DWP to deliver support to young people, including linking up the ASK programme and DWP’s schools advisers and reaching out to new audiences to provide information on apprenticeships.

Action 49

In January DfE launched a major communications campaign Get the Jump: Skills for Life, a new integrated communication and engagement campaign that will target young people aged 14 to 19 about the full range of options available to them post 16 and post 18. It will help to tackle disparities by featuring a diverse range of young people in the campaign imagery, through case studies, influencers and through media targeting. DfE will measure and publish participation levels of people from ethnic minorities, including a breakdown by age. This will allow us to track the progress of apprenticeship uptake by ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups in particular sectors.

Progress update

We have reached out to young people through the Get the Jump campaign. The campaign launched in January 2022 and continues in 2023 with activity focused around key moments for young people, such as the new year (UCAS deadline, National Apprenticeship Week, National Careers Week), results days in the summer, and the start of the academic year. A broad range of channels are used to reach young people, including radio, digital audio, tv-on-demand, cinema, billboards close to schools/colleges, posters and leaflets in schools, social media, gaming platforms, Google search. We have also established partnerships with organisations such as The Student Room, UCAS and Not Going to Uni. A series of case study videos have been produced, featuring a diverse range of young people.

Campaign channels have been chosen for their audience reach, which includes those from disadvantaged groups and areas. For example, we run video-on-demand adverts through Diversity, who specialise in a minority ethnic audience.

During the new year campaign burst (January to March 2023), 97% of 15 to 19 year olds from households with at least one non-white-British/Irish individual should see or hear Get the Jump adverts approximately 19 times.  In addition, 97% of 15 to 19 year olds from working class households should see or hear adverts approximately 23 times. Evaluation has so far shown ethnic minority audiences have good levels of campaign recognition and consideration of skills products. The Get the Jump content hub, hosted on the National Careers Service website, has become a trusted source of information for young people researching their next step. Users are from a broad spread of locations across England.

We plan to continue the campaign in 2023 to 2024 with a summer burst focused on signposting support for young people around results days. This will be followed by autumn and new year bursts.

Action 50

To help high-achieving, disadvantaged students to reach their full potential whilst studying in higher education, including degree courses or apprenticeships, DfE will invest up to £75 million to deliver a state scholarship programme.

Progress update

Our higher education policy statement and reform consultation, published last year, sought views on a range of issues including the National State Scholarship. The consultation closed in May and we are considering the responses to it. We will respond in due course.

Action 51

To clamp down on low quality courses, the Office for Students will set minimum acceptable standards for student outcomes and work to ensure universities rewrite their Access and Participation Plans to include more focused and transparent targets.

Progress update

Some ethnic minority students  are more likely to drop out of university and achieve lower levels of attainment.^{[footnote 19]} Students from the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Arab and black African Caribbean ethnic group are also more likely to earn less money after graduating than their white counterparts.^{[footnote 20]} There are a number of factors which may potentially influence this, and this may vary between different higher education providers.

As part of our efforts to ensure that courses are of high quality and meet the needs of students and employers, OfS introduced revised conditions of registration for quality in 2022, ensuring that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers. These include new, more stringent minimum thresholds for student outcomes of degree continuation, completion and progression onto positive graduate destinations.

Action 52

The government is consulting on means to incentivise high quality provision and ensure all students enter pathways on which they can excel and achieve the best possible outcomes, including exploring the case for low-level minimum eligibility requirements to access higher education student finance and the possible case for proportionate student number controls.

Progress update

As part of the conclusion to the Review of Post-18 Education and Funding, we have announced reforms to our student loan system to put it on a fair and sustainable footing, and to ensure that higher education in England is open to everyone with the ability and the ambition to benefit from it.

The higher education policy statement and reform consultation also sought views on measures to improve outcomes for students, improve social mobility and tackle low quality provision.

The consultation closed in May, and we will respond to this in due course.

Action 53

To help disadvantaged students to choose the right courses for them and to boost their employment prospects, the Social Mobility Commission will seek to improve the information available to students about the labour market value of qualifications and, where possible, the impact of those qualifications on social mobility.

Progress update

In February 2023, the SMC published a report reviewing the evidence on the labour market value of qualifications in both higher education and further education. The report also sought to understand what information is currently available to students, and what they are actually accessing. Based on this research, the SMC has  identified potential next steps to improve the information available to students.

Action 54

To unleash people’s potential, DWP will roll out a new in-work support offer to every Jobcentre from April 2022. The new programme will appoint 37 new specialist Progression Champions to deliver specialist support to Jobcentres and develop tailored progression plans to support working claimants to climb the career ladder.

Progress update

The independent In-work Progression Commission’s report highlighted that certain ethnic minority groups are overrepresented in lower-skilled and lower paying occupations. It set out key actions to remove barriers to progression. We published a full response to the recommendations in December 2022, setting out how we are working to remove these barriers and promote career progression pathways.

Central to our response was DWP’s new In-Work Progression offer for low paid Universal Credit claimants. This voluntary support offer is now live in all Jobcentres across Great Britain, with the 37 Progression Leads also in place.  We estimate that around 1.2m low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work. The offer is provided by work coaches and focuses on removing barriers to progression and providing advice, such as considering skills gaps and identifying training opportunities. This support is for people looking for progression opportunities in their current role or considering a move into a new role or sector.

To expand the impact of this support, the Chancellor announced at Autumn Statement 2022 that in future we will start to require that some claimants engage with this support.

Action 55

BEIS will work with Code signatories and their trade associations to pilot data collection on the ethnicity of entrepreneurs applying for finance. This pilot will inform future options for data collection and follow-up actions designed to improve access to finance for ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

Progress update

The Code partners – British Business Bank, UK Business Angels Association and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association – have successfully completed the first pilot study. Over 50% of angel networks and venture capital signatories invited to participate in the pilot study have submitted ethnicity data related to over 1,000 investment decisions taken in 2021. This showed a clear willingness from Code signatories to collect and provide this data.

The number of signatories providing equity finance has since increased by almost 50% (75 as of January 2021 to 162 as of January 2023). The Code partners have therefore invited existing and new signatories to share ethnicity data relating to investment decisions taken in 2022, with the aim to publish a robust set of findings, combining data from 2 years, and clear recommendations for the wider industry to increase investment in diverse entrepreneurs in summer 2023.

Alongside the publication, Code partners will hold a roundtable with the business angel and venture capital industry later this year, to discuss the report’s recommendations, including those organisations who did not take participate in the study

Action 56

To equip entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds with the skills they need to build successful businesses, BEIS is supporting HSBC to develop and launch its pilot for a competition-based, entrepreneur support programme in spring 2022. The programme, which will be run in partnership with UK universities, will equip entrepreneurs with the skills they need for years to come.

Progress update

The ‘Student Incubator Programme’ has seen HSBC support ethnic minority students from Aston University, University of Bedfordshire, De Montfort University, University of East London, and Kingston University to bring their commercial aspirations to life. Two students from each university were carefully selected to take part in the 12-week pilot course designed by Start Up Discovery School. They received 1:1 mentoring from UK CMB Relationship Directors, access to HSBC UK customer webinars, and some financial support to help them develop their business ideas, as well as a programme of training support and access to external entrepreneurial mentors. All students were then invited to a ‘demo day’ in July to pitch to a judging panel for grant funding and showcase the skills they learnt throughout the course. Each student shared their start-up idea during the event, which all sought to solve a challenge or problem that reflects the reality of people from under-represented backgrounds.

Action 57

To help pupils understand the intertwined nature of British and global history, and their own place within it, DfE will work with history curriculum experts, historians and school leaders to develop a Model History curriculum by 2024 that will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history.

The Model History Curriculum will support high-quality teaching and help teachers and schools to develop their own school curriculum fully using the flexibility and freedom of the history national curriculum and the breadth and depth of content it includes. The development of model knowledge-rich curriculums continues the path of reform the government started in 2010.

Progress update

DfE appointed an Expert Panel in July 2022 to lead work on a new Model History Curriculum. The Panel, chaired by Dr Michael Kandiah, comprises history curriculum experts, historians and school leaders. The new model curriculum, which is on track for publication in 2024, will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history, and will cover the major contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today.

Action 58

DfE will actively seek out and signpost to schools suggested high-quality resources to support teaching all-year round on black history in readiness for Black History Month October 2022. This will help support schools to share the multiple, nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today.

Progress update

DfE signposted resources to schools through a blog post on the Education Hub. Last year’s theme was ‘Sharing Journeys’, exploring the lives and stories of the people who came to Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries and helped lay the foundations of today’s diverse society. The blog post provided links to a number of useful sites including the Historical Association, BBC Bitesize, the National Archives, Oak National Academy and the Royal Mint, who worked with the West India Committee to create a black British history pack titled ‘Diversity Built Britain’.

Action 59

To equip teachers to make ethical decisions and deliver high-quality education, DfE will embed new reforms to transform the training and support teachers and school leaders receive at every stage of their career. These measures include national roll-out of the new Early Career Framework and reformed National Professional Qualifications from September 2021.

Progress update

The Early Career Framework (ECF) introduced in September 2021 supports early career teachers to develop their understanding of maintaining fair and inclusive school environments which enable young people to thrive. This is supplemented by a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to provide training and support for teachers and school leaders at all levels to improve outcomes for young people, including a specialist NPQ in Leading Behaviour and Culture which focuses upon the skills and knowledge required to have a positive impact on the wellbeing, motivation and behaviour of their pupils and create a school culture of high-expectations. The national roll-out of the new Early Careers Teacher induction, underpinned by the ECF, is part way through a 3-year process evaluation by the institute for Employment Studies and BMG Research.

In the academic year 2021 to 2022, 26,927 early career teachers started a provider-led ECF-based induction programme which represents 93% of early career teachers. Furthermore, in the academic year 2021 to 2022 a total of 29,425 funded NPQs were started by teachers and leaders.

Action 60

DfE will, in collaboration with the Equality Hub, work with leading schools to help them create a resource on pupil hairstyles and uniform policy. This will showcase best practice in uniform policy specific to the diversity of acceptable hairstyles in school to avoid unfair treatment of ethnic minority children whose hair type may not be like the majority.

Progress update

In October 2022, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued guidance for schools on preventing hair discrimination. This resource, which includes case studies, a decision-making tool, and a video explainer, is available on the EHRC website. DfE will use its regular engagement with schools to monitor how the guidance has been received and will develop additional support if needed in this area.

Action 61

To help all pupils, but especially the most disadvantaged who are more likely to have fallen further behind in their studies during the pandemic, DfE will invest almost £5 billion to support recovery for children and young people, with extra help for those who need it most. We are investing over £800 million across the next 3 academic years to fund 40 additional learning hours for 16 to 19 year olds – the equivalent of one extra hour per week in school or college.

Progress update

We have already invested nearly £1 billion directly to schools through:

• our catch-up premium (£650 million) in 2020 to 2021 academic year
• the recovery premium (more than £300 million) in academic year 2021 to 2022 – a further £1 billion is being provided directly to schools via the recovery premium in academic years 2022 to 2023, and 2023 to 2024

We continue to invest in the National Tutoring Programme, which as of 6 October 2022 has delivered nearly 3 million courses since November 2020. From September 2022, we also started funding an additional 40 hours across the academic year for 16 to 18 year old students, equivalent to 1 extra hour per week.

Action 62

We will develop refreshed guidance on Civil Service diversity and inclusion, with clear advice on impartiality in language and practice.

The UK Civil Service supports the UK government, Scottish Government and Welsh Government. We will work closely with the Northern Ireland Civil Service in delivering this action.

Progress update

We are issuing guidance alongside this report. It is intended to support civil servants working on diversity and inclusion issues, and in particular to ensure that all perspectives are discussed in an objective way whilst meeting obligations under the Civil Service code. This includes avoiding the promotion of partisan political views or presenting contested theories as fact. The guidance also sets out how to ensure impartiality in use of language and communications, and how to ensure training materials and events (including use of external speakers) do not undermine the obligations under the Civil Service code.

Action 63

DfE will encourage governing bodies to be more reflective of the school communities they serve and will recommend that schools collect and publish board diversity data at a local level. DfE will also update the Further Education Governance Guide in spring 2022 to include how to remove barriers to representation, widen the pool of potential volunteers and promote inclusivity.

Progress update

We published governance guidance for further education (FE) and sixth-form college corporations in June 2022. The guidance reinforces our advice on how best to recruit governors and senior leaders, the importance of diversity and inclusion, and reflects recent changes to statutory and funding requirements.

We have published alongside this report guidance on GOV.UK, which encourages schools^{[footnote 21]} and trust governing bodies^{[footnote 22]} to collate and publish their boards’ diversity data.

Action 64

To help police forces become more representative of their local communities, and benefit from local knowledge and experience, the Home Office, working with the College of Policing, will consider with individual forces measures to ensure that new recruits have a better understanding of the areas and the people they serve, including the feasibility of a local residency requirement where appropriate.

Progress update

At 31 December 2022 16,753 additional officers have been recruited in England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme, 84% of the target of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

Since April 2020 there has been a total of 34,647 new recruits to police forces in England and Wales. Of these, 3,825 identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), equating to 11.5%. This is an improvement on the 10.3% reported in the annual police workforce statistics for the year ending 31 March 2020 (during the early stages of the PUP).

As part of the programme, we have also delivered a diversity support package to forces, which helps them to understand how representative their workforces are of the local population, and what more they may need to do to make any necessary improvements.

Action 65

To ensure that the recruitment processes identify and select officers who are reflective of the needs of local communities, the Metropolitan Police Service, working with the College of Policing, is considering additional methods for assessing candidates’ understanding of those needs and will announce its plans later in 2022. Changes would be delivered via a pilot that will be evaluated by the College, with a view to applying learning to its ongoing development of the assessment process.

Progress update

The College of Policing and the Metropolitan Police Service are continuing to work together to support improvements to recruitment and selection processes.

Additionally, to benefit from a consistent approach which can be reviewed and assured nationally, the College has confirmed its intention to embed the end-to-end recruitment standard into guidance. This presents the next opportunity to review recruitment processes and ensure that they are robust and supportive of wider ambitions,for example, ensuring forces can continue to recruit more diverse officers.

Action 66

To protect police officers and others when exercising their functions, we will double the maximum penalty for common assault or battery committed against an emergency worker from 12 months to 2 years’ imprisonment.

Progress update

The relevant provision in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (section 156) came into force last summer and is now effective in relation to convictions on or after 28 June 2022. This will help to address concerns raised by the Sewell Commission about assaults against police officers from an ethnic minority background.

Action 67

To broaden the diversity of the judiciary, we will work with the Judicial Diversity Forum to increase the pool of applicants as well as continuing to scrutinise recruitment processes to ensure the very best talent is promoted through the professions and on to the bench. This includes delivering MoJ’s commitments set out in the 2022 action plan.

Progress update

The MoJ  funds 2 initiatives to increase judicial diversity. The Pre-Application Judicial Educational programme supports eligible lawyers from under-represented groups, including those from an ethnic minority background, who are considering applying for a judicial appointment. The other scheme is the Judicial Appointments Commission’s Targeted Outreach programme which provides support for key selection exercises as a pipeline to senior judicial appointments. More detail about these schemes can be found in the ‘Improve judicial diversity’ section.

In January 2023, the judiciary published an update to their Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020 to 2025, setting out progress on their actions.

Action 68

To broaden the diversity of the magistracy, the MoJ is investing over £1 million this financial year to support the recruitment of new and diverse magistrates, and launched a revised, streamlined recruitment process and inclusive recruitment campaign earlier this year. The new process will enable MoJ to better monitor recruitment information, understand any differences in attraction and success rates between ethnic groups and to identify action to address any issues highlighted by this data. An evaluation of this process will be conducted in 2022.

Progress update

As of 31 October 2022, 4,321 individuals had applied to join the magistracy following the launch of the magistrate recruitment campaign in January 2022. Of these applicants, 96% disclosed their ethnicity and of this, 22% were from an ethnic minority background. Judicial diversity statistics that will be published in July 2023 will include more detailed diversity data on magistrates, including applications and appointments.

Action 69

To tackle bias and ensure fairness in the workplace, by spring 2023 the Equality Hub will create an ‘Inclusion at Work Panel’. Made up of a panel of academics and practitioners in business it will develop and disseminate effective resources to help employers drive fairness across organisations. This will go beyond just race and ethnicity to identify actions to promote fairness for all in the workplace and will include a programme of research and workplace trials to provide a robust evidence base and root out poor quality training.

The panel will be supported by the Government Campus, specifically the new Leadership College for Government, to ensure the Government Curriculum defines effective leadership and management standards and products. The UK Civil Service and public sector employers will lead by example in adopting evidence-based practices and trialling new approaches.

Progress update

Work is well underway to establish the panel and Pamela Dow has been appointed the Chair. Working with the new Leadership College for Government and a wide range of stakeholders, the panel will work to develop resources which will give employers a set of evidence-based principles and practices they can adopt to do diversity and inclusion in a way that is meaningful and effective.

The panel will also support the development of a new voluntary Inclusion Confident scheme for employers who want to demonstrate their commitment to evidence-led diversity and inclusion practices.

Action 70

To support employers and industry sectors to create opportunity for groups that are underrepresented in their workforce, the Government Equalities Office will create new updated guidance on positive action by December 2022.

Progress update

New guidance for employers on positive action in the workplace has been published alongside this report. This includes illustrative examples to support those employers that wish to create opportunities for underrepresented groups within their workforce.

Action 71

Using evidence from the Inclusion at work Panel, and building on the curriculum standards underpinning the Government Campus, and Leadership College within it, the government will develop a new scheme for employers, working with stakeholders in business, civil society and academia, to provide an evidenced framework for improving race equality and progression in the workplace. Organisations will be able to sign-up to the scheme voluntarily, to be live by autumn 2023.

Progress update

Using evidence from the Inclusion at Work Panel, work is underway to develop a new voluntary Inclusion Confident Scheme for employers who want to demonstrate their commitment to improving race equality and progression in the workplace.

Action 72

To address the potential risks and opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, the Office for AI will develop our national position on governing and regulating AI, and set this out in a white paper in 2022. This will include how to address potential racial bias in algorithmic decision-making.

Progress update

We published on 29 March our AI regulation white paper. This sets out a proportionate and outcomes-focused approach to the regulation of AI which addresses the needs of innovators and strengthens public confidence in the way AI is being used. This includes addressing wider concerns about the potential for bias and discrimination in algorithmic decision-making.

The Office for AI and DCMS published an AI regulation policy statement and an AI action plan in July 2022.

A key part of the Action Plan is an expansion of AI skills programmes, including £17 million funding to expand postgraduate AI conversion courses, and diversity scholarships to attract more women, black students, disabled students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds to study AI.

Since publication of the policy statement, the Office for AI has engaged with over 130 stakeholders including Microsoft, Rolls Royce, and Tech UK. It has since carried out work to establish how these principles will be implemented and will be articulating the new regime in the forthcoming white paper. This approach will establish a framework based on a set of cross-cutting principles to inform how regulators should tackle risks arising from issues such as, for example, racial bias in AI decision-making.

Alongside this, the Office for AI’s Procurement Guidelines, developed in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, have sought to drive responsible public procurement of AI with considerations to mitigate bias and drive equality in AI-driven public services, such as recommending equality impact assessments be undertaken by public bodies procuring AI. These were integrated into Crown Commercial Service’s AI marketplace which is currently being updated into an expanded AI and Automation Procurement framework, to be launched in November 2023, which will bolster these ethical standards.

Action 73

To ensure technological advances do not have a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups, EHRC will advise on the safeguards needed and issue guidance that explains how to apply the Equality Act 2010 to algorithmic decision-making.

Progress update

EHRC published new guidance in September 2022 guidance on how the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010 applies when a public body uses AI. The guidance gives practical examples of how AI systems may be causing discriminatory outcomes.

EHRC is currently monitoring how local authorities are meeting the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty whilst using AI and will consider whether the need for further case studies and interventions to tackle any particular gaps in knowledge or action.

Action 74

To enhance transparency and trust, CDDO and CDEI published an algorithmic transparency standard for the public sector. This will be piloted by several public sector organisations before formal endorsement in 2023. The move makes the UK one of the first countries in the world to develop a national algorithmic transparency standard.

Progress update

The first version of the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard (ATRS) was published in October 2021. It establishes a standardised way for public sector organisations to proactively and transparently publish information about how and why they are using algorithmic approaches in decision-making.

The ATRS was piloted with public sector organisations through summer 2022, ranging from central government offices to local police departments. Based on feedback and lessons learned from the pilots, CDEI and CDDO launched an updated version in October 2022 on GitHub, for open feedback. The updated standard, alongside guidance and the completed reports, were also made publicly available through the ATRS Hub on GOV.UK. The standard was endorsed by the UK Data Standards Authority in October 2022.

1. Understanding COVID‐19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy in context: Findings from a qualitative study involving citizens in Bradford, UK - Lockyer - 2021 - Health Expectations - Wiley Online Library ↩

2. Understanding COVID‐19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy in context: Findings from a qualitative study involving citizens in Bradford, UK - Lockyer - 2021 - Health Expectations - Wiley Online Library ↩

3. For the black ethnic group, the level of trust in the police fell from 76% to 64% between 2017 to 2018 and 2019 to 2020, the latest data available. ↩

4. Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK ↩

5. Data for year-ending March 2021 onwards use Census 2021 populations. Data for years before this use Census 2011 populations: Update to stop and search and arrests statistics using 2021 Census estimates - GOV.UK ↩

6. Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK ↩

7. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1113383/Stop-search-experimental-data-query-tool.xlsx ↩

8. Ethnicity pay gaps - Office for National Statistics ↩

9. Mortality from leading causes of death by ethnic group, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics ↩

10. Children and Families Act 2014: government response to the Lords Select Committee report - GOV.UK ↩

11. Permanent exclusions - GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures ↩

12. Update to stop and search and arrests statistics using 2021 Census estimates - GOV.UK ↩

13. Ethnicity and the criminal justice system statistics 2020 - GOV.UK ↩

14. Britton et al. (2018) The impact of undergraduate degrees on lifetime earnings. P. 41 ↩

15. Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 December 2022 - GOV.UK ↩

16. missing from main doc ↩

17. Post-16 education and labour market activities, pathways and outcomes (LEO) - GOV.UK ↩

18. Pupil premium - GOV.UK ↩

19. Data dashboard - Office for Students ↩

20. LEO Graduate and Postgraduate Outcomes, Tax year 2019-20 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk) ↩

21. What maintained schools must publish online - GOV.UK ↩

22. What academies, free schools and colleges must or should publish online - GOV.UK ↩