draft response to the coalition government's programme

DRAFT RESPONSE TO THE COALITION GOVERNMENT’S PROGRAMME Dear CoRE partners and Black Manifesto contributors, Attached is a final draft version of CoRE UK’s (Coalition for Race Equality UK) response to the Coalition government programme. We would be grateful if you could look thru the responses, especially the sections pertaining to your area of work. Please mark them as track changes and send them back so that Karen and I can incorporate the changes. Ideally, we would like to send the documents before the budget announcement on the 22nd. We would therefore be grateful if you can send your comments back to us by Friday please. Clearly as time is tight we may not be able to incorporate all the changes but will endeavour to do our best.

We will be sending the responses to each of the respective government departments and we will be requesting a meeting to discuss the key issues emerging out of our response. As JUST and Equanomics UK’s capacity to lead on all sections of the initiative is unrealistic, we are proposing that CoRE UK partners and Black Manifesto contributors with the appropriate expertise/skills take lead responsibility for discrete area/s in the attached document. We believe this is in the spirit of a partnership approach that we are trying to forge.

We are proposing the following roles for the section/government department leads: • Bring together practitioners drawn from CoRE UK members and/or appropriate organisations as a thematic sub-group. • On behalf of the Coalition take a lead on discussions with government ministers once we have received a response • Keep Coalition members informed of developments and updates through the website and at meetings • Keep a monitoring brief on the government’s progress (or lack of progress) in their respective areas • Develop proactive relationships with leading civil servants/politicians to ensure government accountability

These are initial suggestions and we would welcome alternative views of the best way forward. In the interim we would be grateful if you could indicate which area you are able to lead on. If however you prefer not to lead but would prefer to be part of the sub-group, please indicate which theme you would like to be involved in.

Finally we would be grateful if you could complete the statement at the end of the document. We will be including the names of CoRE UK partners and those who have contributed to the submission and we want to ensure that we have your permission to do so. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact either Karen or me. Finally we would be grateful if you do not circulate the coalition response until we have had the opportunity to make our submissions to the various government departments on behalf of CoRE UK. We will be posting our final response on the CoRE UK website. Ratna Lachman Karen Chouhan JUST Equanomics UK

Coalition for Race Equality UK (CoRE UK) Response To The Proposals Set In The Coalition’s Government’s Programme

The document set out below is a response from the Coalition for Race Equality UK (CoRE UK) to the Conservative and Liberal-Democrat’s coalition government’s Programme for Government. CoRE UK is made up of over 50 BME and progressive organisations committed to working towards achieving a fair, just and equal society. We welcome the openness and transparency in setting out the Coalition government’s key priorities for action. We are however concerned that many the proposals are colour-blind and gender-blind. The proposals do not acknowledge the specific forms of poverty, disadvantage, exclusion and discrimination that BME communities in the UK experience. The attached document The Price of Race Inequality: The Black Manifesto that we produced for the 2010’ Elections clearly sets out the structural, systemic and institutional failures that have contributed to BME disadvantage in the UK. In setting out our response to the Coalition’s programme for government we are seeking to work in partnership with the Coalition government to develop a joint approach to meeting the needs of BME communities. Please do not hesitate to contact us on the email address below with any queries. Submitted by (JUST West Yorkshire) and Karen Chouhan (Equanomics UK) On behalf of the Coalition for Race Equality UK [email protected]

Coalition government programme Coalition for Race Equality Response Banking

Banking levy CoRE UK supports the principle of a banking levy however the current government programme document does not set out how the scheme will operate. Our Manifesto document entitled, ‘The Price of Race Inequality: The Black Manifesto’ (henceforth referred to as the Black Manifesto) calls for:

• A commitment for 1% of bank profit and 10% of dormant accounts to be invested in poor communities.

• The introduction a Community Reinvestment Act, with built-in mechanisms for targeted reinvestment in poor communities

• The introduction of a ‘Tobin Tax’ alongside a guarantee that any future tax on banks has a proportion ring-fenced funds for the poorest communities

• Investment in a community finance infrastructure These are clearly measures that we are calling for in the government’s review of banking as we consider this the best way to tackle poverty and disadvantage.

Proposal for action to tackle unacceptable bonuses

We seek an urgent clarification of the government’s definition of “unacceptable bonuses”. We are extremely concerned that the deficit burden is being disproportionately shouldered by the most disadvantaged sections of society for whom the severe public service cuts will choke off vital services and exacerbate unemployment. We therefore call for a clear articulation of how the government intends to tackle city bonuses that has left the taxpayer carrying all the risks and traders accruing all the advantages. It is our view that the government should prioritise the establishment of an independent High Pay Commission to review the effects of highly polarised pay differentials on society at large and recommend measures that ensure that banks make an equitable share to the public purse.

In this respect we call for the adoption of the four principles jointly presented by the previous PM Gordon Brown, Nikola Sarkozy and Angela Merkel that should cover bonus payments in the financial sector: • Bonuses should be based on performance and should be kept at an "appropriate level" in relation to basic pay.

• Bankers who receive their bonuses in the form of share options should have to wait "for an appropriate period of time" before selling them.

• Guaranteed bonuses should be avoided and, for "significant" payments, there should be a claw back mechanism, so that bankers do not receive their money if deals go wrong.

• Directors should be not sheltered from the risks incurred by their employees.

Promote diversity in financial services, promote mutuals and create competitive banking industry

We welcome the proposal to create a diverse financial sector but request an urgent clarification on what the government means by creating a ‘competitive banking industry.’ We are seeking tighter regulation of the banking sector and a higher capital reserves policy. We are also calling for the establishment of credit unions in the most deprived wards of the UK to ensure that deprived communities have access to banking services.

Improved credit flow through loan guarantee scheme and net lending targets for nationalised banks

We welcome this initiative broadly as we are concerned that the current credit squeeze is affecting the viability of many BME businesses, many of whom employ BME staff. We strongly recommend that the government support the implementation of a Lending Equalities Monitoring Framework, in accordance with practices adopted by US Banks to fulfil the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA),

Independent commission to separate retail and investment banking

We welcome this initiative and call for these moves to be expedited.

Bank of England to be given control of micro and macro-management regulations

We welcome this initiative broadly. We call for the financial services regulatory authorities

Bank of England to be given control of micro and macro-management regulations

We welcome this initiative broadly. We call for the financial services regulatory authorities and the Bank of England to regulate for transparency so that data is available publicly on lending practices, use of banking and financial services etc. They should also set out a clear race / equality monitoring framework.

Free national financial advisory service We welcome this initiative broadly and call for a strategy to locate these centres in inner-city wards where BME communities are disproportionately represented. Citizens Advice Bureaux could be a good vehicle, however research has shown that they need capacity development to deal with equalities and discrimination. We call for an Equalities monitoring framework to be instituted from the start to monitor take-up of services and an evaluation framework that tracks the service’s effectiveness.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures We call for an urgent halt to the cosy revolving door arrangement between government and the banking sector as it constrains scrutiny and monitoring arrangements. We believe that this should also be observed in relation to big business. We therefore call for a 2-year bar on MPS, Ministers and senior civil servants who have left government from taking jobs within the banking and big business sector. Likewise we consider that the establishment of any scrutiny arrangements must be genuinely independent and cross-sectoral drawing on membership from the private, public, voluntary and community sectors. We call for an urgent review of the extent to which the City of London and big business has influence on government decisions through lobbying. We also consider the Conservative government’s reliance on big private donors to be corrosive and we call for a halt to political parties accepting private donations for their campaigns. Instead we call on a funding cap that is funded by public monies.

Business

Review employment and workplace laws to ensure employers and employees maximise flexibility for both parties while protecting fairness and providing competitive environment required for enterprises to thrive

We would like a mechanism to be introduced to ensure that this is fully compliant with the Equality Act.

25% government contracts to small and medium sized businesses

We welcome this initiative broadly. We call for an Equalities monitoring framework, as there is clear evidence that BME communities are traditionally excluded from an equitable share of government contracts.

Support creation of Local Enterprise Partnerships and enhance local authorities’ role in promoting local economic development replacing RDAs.

We welcome this initiative broadly. in view of the poor track record of existing RDAs in responding to BME needs we call for an Equalities monitoring framework especially in those areas of the UK that have large BME populations.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures The largest mapping exercise in the UK by Experian of nearly half a million entrepreneurs, highlights the significant over-representation of BME people in the entrepreneurial field. Despite the huge impact of UK’s immigrant communities, the banking sector, business services and regional development agencies, continue to fail BME businesses. We are therefore calling for a review of current support for the BME business sector and a targeted support and intervention strategy to optimise their contribution to the UK economy.

Civil Liberties Introduce Freedom Bill We welcome this initiative and support Liberty’s statement

that the Freedom Bill must include: • Scrapping the control order regime • Restrictions on the use of intensive surveillance

techniques • Amendments to section 44 of the Terrorism Act

2000 that has been declared unlawful by the Court of Human Rights

• Inserting greater safeguards into our extradition arrangements

• Amendments and scaling back the use of civil orders in the criminal justice context

• Scaling back the ‘vetting and barring’ schemes

• Abandoning secret inquests Scrap ID card scheme, National Identity register, ContactPoint database and halt next generation of biometric passports

We welcome these initiatives and additionally call for ID cards for foreign nationals to be scrapped as the same considerations of liberty and freedom should apply to ALL regardless of their citizenship status.

Outlaw finger-printing of children at school without parental permission

We welcome this initiative and call for existing finger prints on the database to be erased.

Extend scope of Freedom of Information Act We welcome this initiative. DNA database - protection of Scottish model We broadly welcome this initiative. We are seeking

clarification the coalition government’s position on the retention of DNA profiles within the current database. We are calling for stronger safeguards, including ethnic monitoring to ensure that the collection of DNA data information does not perpetuate the racial profiling of BME communities. We call for an annual publication of this data that includes the ethnic breakdown of those on the register.

Defence of trial by jury We welcome this initiative and call for a repeal of the 2003 legislation which threatens this principle.

Restoration of rights to non-violent protest We broadly welcome this initiative. We are however concerned that the right to hold static protests being currently used by far-right organisations to promote their message of religious and racial hate across the UK has a deleterious impact on community relations and community cohesion. We are therefore calling for those rights to be circumscribed where they are explicitly targeted against protected groups identified under the Equality legislation.

Review libel laws to protect freedom of speech We welcome this initiative and support Liberty’s position calling for a strengthening of the public interest defence and ensuring proper access to justice.

Introduce safeguards against misuse of anti-terror legislation

We broadly welcome this initiative. We however urgently call for the control orders to be repealed. We support Liberty’s call to review the following abuses of the anti-terror legislation:

• ‘Lower order’ terror offences that are open to misuse

• Extended pre-charge detention • The ban on the use of intercept evidence in

criminal proceedings

• Terror Asset Freezing orders • The detention of foreign nationals without suspicion

Regulate CCTV We call for clarity about the scope of the regulation and the introduction of an independent regulatory impact framework. We call for a policy that leads to the reduction in the current proliferation of CCTV cameras. We are particularly concerned about the misuse of ANPR cameras to spy on Muslim communities recently authorised by the West Midlands police counter-terrorism unit in Washwood Heath and Sparkbrook (Project Champion). We call for the cameras to be removed and any future plans to extend its use to other areas halted. We consider that 24-7 surveillance practices racially and religiously profiles Muslims/Asians and is akin to a ‘virtual tagging’ of whole-communities. These measures are racist, anti-libertarian and against the freedom principles being espoused by the Coalition government. We call for any similar plans to include the following:

• A race/equality impact assessment • A clear consultation process with local communities

and elected representatives • Publication of annual data to demonstrate that

impact of APNR and other covert and overt surveillance methods in reducing terrorism on the basis of clear criteria and benchmarks

• The immediate revocation of the sub-section of the Local Government Act that was used by the local authority and West Midlands counter-terrorism unit to exclude members of the public from discussions on issues that have an impact on whole-communities

• An urgent review of public service functions leading to the de-coupling of local authorities and the NHS from surveillance and intelligence operations

• A repeal of National Indicator sets under the Local Area agreements pertaining to extremism and terrorism

More generally we call on the Coalition government to • set up an independent review of the use of the

Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) fund • introduce clear accountability frameworks and

principles in the operation of the counter-terrorism units

• in an era of austerity measures, review the monies allocated to the ‘war on terror’ against best value measures

• convene a roundtable meeting with civil liberties and human rights organisations to develop best practice guidelines in relation to such measures

End storage of internet and email records without good reason

We welcome this initiative broadly. However we seek urgent clarity around the term ‘without good reason.’

Prevent proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences

We welcome this initiative but seek a clarification of what ‘unnecessary’ means as the terminology lacks clarity.

Commission to investigate creation of British Bill of Rights that incorporates and builds on all our obligations under the ECHR, ensure that these rights continue to be enshrined in British law, and protects and extends British liberties. We will seek to promote a better understanding of the true scope of these obligations and liberties

We reject proposals to create a British Bill of Rights as we consider the Human Rights Act to be sacrosanct. The Act asserts our moral stature as the defenders of the principles of freedom, liberty and civil rights on the European and world stage. Any proposal to develop a Bill of Rights should be a free-standing framework that enhances the rights enshrined under the HRA framework. We also advice against subsuming Race or the Equalities framework under any proposed Bill of Rights as the duties enshrined in them enable individuals/communities to hold public bodies to account. We support the incorporation of a free-standing right of non-discrimination and we will be lobbying for at the EU level. We call on the Coalition government to join us by taking leadership on this issue.

We are calling for an extensive consultation period with civil liberties and human rights organisations prior to tabling any measures in Parliament. Additionally we are asking that the Commission that will be investigating the creation of the British Bill of Rights must take evidence from civil liberties and human rights organisations as an integral part of its work.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures Further to the Recommendations of the Select Committee Inquiry into the PREVENT programme we call on the government to withdraw PREVENT as it unfairly criminalises and targets Muslim communities. We also call for clear checks and balances to be established in the implementation of the CONTEST 2 policy particularly relating to the Protect, Pursue and Prepare strands of the policy. We call on the Coalition government to halt the installation of full body scanners at British airports as it is an illiberal measure and particularly targets BME and Muslim communities. In the event that the Coalition government supports its implementation we call for rigorous ethnic monitoring.

Communities and local government

To fundamentally shift power from Westminster to people through promoting decentralisation and democratic engagement and ending the era of top-down government by giving new powers to local councils, communities, neighbourhoods and individuals

While we welcome this initiative broadly we need to know what this means in practice and how it will be resourced. In particular, how to ensure proper representation of ethnic minorities, especially women and their voices at a local level. Under proposals for a 5% threshold that gives communities power to call a referendum, our concern is that this could unfairly disadvantage minority groups. For instance if 5% of the local population in a local authority area sign up to evict asylum seekers, gypsies and travellers or ban the hijab, a resulting referendum is likely

to have an inherent bias against BME communities. We call for rigorous ethnic monitoring of devolved formal and informal structures and decision making processes to ensure that BME communities are not unwittingly disadvantaged.

Abolish regional spatial strategies and return decision making powers on housing and planning to local councils

We call for an equality monitoring framework to be implemented in relation to local authority powers in housing and planning decisions and the establishment of an independent scrutiny body to ensure that decisions are fair and equitable. We are gravely concerned with the government’s decision to scrap regional house building targets without replacing it with an alternative system. Furthermore, its plans to cut £100 million from the National Affordable Housing Programme and its proposed changes to the planning system will inevitably lead to severe shortages that will affect the most vulnerable. This would leave councils effectively free to reject all new social housing developments in an era of austerity cuts. We call on the Coalition government to halt measures to cut social housing urgently as as there is a real risk that it will exacerbate inter-community tension and cohesion.

Bring empty houses into use, shared ownership schemes, help social tenants to part-own their home

We support the initiative and look forward to concrete proposals to achieve this.

Elected mayors in 12 largest English cities following referendum and scrutiny by councillors

We are concerned about the implications of this strategy. Firstly it undermines democracy by locating power in an individual. The example of Doncaster has demonstrated the dire consequences for race relations when a far right party takes the helm. We are seeking evidence from the Coalition government on the checks and balances it intends to put in place in response to our concerns.

Ban use of RIPA powers by councils unless singed off by magistrate and required for stopping serious crime

We support this initiative broadly but are requesting clarity in the definition of what constitutes ‘serious crime.’ Where these powers pertain to surveillance related to terrorism, we consider that they should be removed from

the purview of local authorities and located within the intelligence and security services. In accordance with the government’s commitment to freedom of information, we call for a public register that require councils to log the scope of the use of their powers on an annual basis.

Abolish local govt inspection and CAA While we recognise that the inspection process was bureaucratically onerous, we remain concerned that dispensing with it completely would have a potentially damaging impact on race and gender equality as the inspection regime prevents unacceptable variations in service entitlement, and inspection is one of the key mechanisms to ensure equality of outcomes.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures Further to the above, we call for a wide consultation on the specific duties to be attached to the Equality Act to ensure there is no regression on both the general and specific duties of the Race Relations Amendment Act. We are particularly concerned with Baroness Warsi’s recent statement on Race and we call on the Coalition government to withdraw from its proposals to scrap the Tory A-list aimed at boosting female and Black MPs. While we support the introduction of other schemes, such as student internships we believe that the predominance of a predominantly white male educated elite within the Cabinet and Parliament does not reflect Britain’s diversity and should be urgently reversed. We call for a clarification from the Coalition government on concerns that they intend to slash the public budgets of organisations representing ethnic and religious minorities as they deem such groups to be specific interest groups (statements by Baroness Warsi). We would strongly advice against such retrogressive measures as BME communities are not only disproportionately represented in poverty, disadvantage and poverty statistics but critically suffer from structural, systemic and institutional racism and discrimination. The generic Third sector have

been poor advocates for BME communities and BME Third sector organisations offer considerable value for money in tackling poverty and disadvantage and promoting community cohesion. We think there is a strong case for Third sector organisations working with the 7 protected groups under the Equality Bill to be given proactive support. We believe that Baroness Warsi’s statement specifically targets ethnic and religious minorities, and in so doing the Coalition government appears to be singling out Race over the other protected groups within the Equality strand. We are concerned over the withdrawal of funding from local authorities and housing associations to support the development of Gypsy and Traveller sites. We call for a clear policy framework which supports the rights of gypsies and travellers to retain their lifestyle and for the Minister to resist contributing to the mood of anti-gypsism. His letter to Local Authority Chief Planners to turn down planning applications before the bank holiday and his use of ‘incendiary’ language masks the real problem of a lack of designated sites for gypsies and travellers.

Consumer Protection

Ban excessive interest rates on store cards and credit cards

We welcome this initiative. We also call on the government to regulate the unofficial loan market and introduce a responsible credit cap to fix an upper legal limit for the amount of interest that can be charged for a loan.

End unfair bank and financial transaction charges

We welcome this initiative.

Crime and Policing Reduce time-wasting bureaucracy and

introduce better technology to make policing more effective while saving taxpayers’ money

We are concerned that the proposal will lead to an increase in stop and search, which already disproportionately targets BME communities. We also believe that it does not safeguard the rights of the person who is repeatedly stopped, to have a record so that disproportionate action can be challenged. We therefore call for current practice to be maintained to safeguard

against ethnic profiling in stop and search operations. We consider Section 44 stops to be ineffective and costly. We therefore call for Stop and search under Section 44 (Terrorism Act 2000) to be abolished and clear race targets to be set to reduce the numbers of PACE and Section 60 (Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994) stops and searches, until there is no racial disparity in the numbers being stopped.

Increase political accountability through oversight by a directly elected individual subject to strict checks and balances by locally elected representatives

We would like to see the detailed plans for these proposals and strongly call for any proposed measures to be decided following consultation with the Black Police Association.

Police to publish detailed local crime data statistics every month, so public can get information about crime in their neighbourhoods and hold the police to account for their performance

We are unclear how this marks a departure from current practice. We understand that this is currently operational and is the responsibility of the local Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

Regular beat meetings so public can hold police to account

We understand that this is current via the Safer Neighbourhoods office and local Ward Panels. However we would welcome more rigorous accountability frameworks and look forward to receiving further information on these proposals.

Make hospitals share non-confidential information with the police so they know where gun and knife crime is happening and can target stop-and-search in gun and knife crime hot spots

We understand that this is currently the practice in places like London and there is evidence to suggest that stop and search has not been successful in terms of reducing gun crime. We are therefore calling for a review of current procedures to identify current gaps and its impact on individual civil liberties.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures Furthermore we call on the government to: 1. Invest monies recovered from criminal activity in

community sector anti-crime projects working in the poorest neighbourhoods

2. Implement affirmative action legislation that would allow the setting of national recruitment quotas in an effort to expedite and increase the number of Black recruits entering the police service and other areas of the Criminal Justice System where the

workforce is not reflective of the general population.

3. Ascertain allegations of racism and employment discrimination against BME officers within the police forces

4. Institute a public inquiry into the causes of racial disproportionality across every aspect of the CJS, from stop and search through to arrest, cautions, sentencing, incarceration, employment and representation.

We support the call by the National Black Police Association and the Metropolitan Black Police Association for

• A more strategic approach to the issues of Crime and Policing

• Prioritising a more joined-up approach to gun and knife crime amongst young people across government addressing the causes of violent crime, housing, deprivation, education etc.

Culture/Olympics/ Media and Sport

The Government believes that a vibrant cultural, media and sporting sector is crucial for our well-being and quality of life. We need to promote excellence in these fields, with government funding used where appropriate to encourage philanthropic and corporate investment.

We welcome all initiatives in this section but call on the government to ensure that the promises for the 2012 Olympics are fulfilled, i.e. regeneration in the East End of London; equality and diversity as central to every aspect of the Olympics and a celebration of Britain’s diversity and youth. We call for an interim report on these matters which details how these elements have been addressed. In addition we call for a clear strategy and programme to support arts and cultural diversity that is reflective of a multi-cultural Britain. We consider that the unique links that UK’s BME

communities have with the Commonwealth nation of countries ought to be ‘exploited’ to create a lucrative cultural industry that is international and outward looking. Positive action in the arts and the cultural sector for BME practitioners and leaders should be supported as funding and decision making continues to be Euro-centric.

Deficit Reduction Deficit reduction through reducing spending

rather than increasing taxes We call on the government to review its current approach as we believe that the projections by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development will mean that on the basis of an 80% spending cut and 20% tax increase ratio, ¾ million public sector workers will be thrown onto the dole queue and unemployment will be pushed close to 3 million by 2012. This is likely to lead to a higher benefits bill and will therefore be counterproductive.

The anticipated slash in public sector job cuts by around 15% is likely to exacerbate the disadvantage experienced by BME communities who live in the most deprived inner-city wards and already face poor public service outcomes. It is also widely anticipated that the majority of staff likely to lose their jobs will women in part-time work or on low wages who make up a large proportion of the public sector workforce. We believe that the Coalition government has underestimated the nexus between the public and private sector, as the latter is a significant beneficiary of public service contracts. There is a real risk that the cuts will choke off the private sector and exacerbate the recession.

In economic terms, the cuts are likely to further polarise the North-South divide as the public sector is a significant employer in the North. In the absence of a robust private sector and a recessionary climate the Coalition government’s policy carries with a real risk of social unrest and the likelihood of a double-dip recession.

The squeeze on allocations to public bodies will result in

an even further constriction of the BME 3rd sector that offers real value for money for the vital work it undertakes with deprived communities in inner-city wards. We therefore call for assurances that that cuts are not disproportionate for equality protected groups and we call on the government to ensure that clear guidance is given to public bodies that any cuts in public services must be contingent on carrying out an Equalities Impact assessment.

Arrangements to protect those on low incomes from effect of public sector pay constraint

We would welcome greater clarity on the proposed arrangements. We consider that the benchmark should be set at 60% of the median salary level.

Protect jobs by stopping proposed jobs tax It is our view that the proposed public service cuts are more regressive in terms of leading to job cuts than labour’s proposed 1% increases in National Insurance contributions next year in the context of an anticipated economic upturn. Calculations based on the evidence from the Progressive Economics Panel suggests that the targeted £6 billion cut will accrue the equivalent of 75,000 job losses. We would caution against VAT increases as it is a regressive tax that will hurt the poor more than the rich.

Emergency budget and independent Office for Budget Responsibility to make new forecasts of growth and borrowing for the emergency budget.

We welcome the setting up of the OBR and seek assurances that it will have teeth so that any fiscal ‘misdemeanours’ results in parliamentary scrutiny at an early stage.

Energy and Climate Change

And Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Government believes that climate change is one of the gravest threats we face, and that urgent action at home and abroad is required. We need to use a wide range of levers to cut carbon emissions, decarbonise the economy and support the creation of new green jobs and technologies. We will implement a full programme of measures to fulfil our joint

While we broadly welcome the proposals here, we also await the detailed plans. We would request that the proposals from the Black Manifesto are incorporated. The Black Manifesto called for the Government to:

1. Commit to improving evidence based environmental policy interventions that are inclusive and specific to BME people in relation to

ambitions for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy

cause, effect and remedies and ensure such policy includes a review of impacts on BME communities.

2. Work with BME organisations to take forward the ‘agreements’ of the Copenhagen Accord on Climate Change noting that it is not a legally binding document and very little work has been undertaken to assess the impact on BME people in the UK and around the world.

3. Improve and develop green job and low carbon community opportunities for BME communities.

4. Ensure that there are research councils and major research institutions providing funding streams for specific research on potential impacts of environmental inequalities on BME communities.

5. Support strategic partnerships between mainstream environmental organisations and BME organisations/communities.

6. Work with and support Local Authorities to improve quality of green spaces and ensure that all local authorities have completed impact assessments in relation to their climate change policy.

7. Call on private funders and foundations to support environmental projects and initiatives led by BME groups and communities.

8. Call a public research inquiry into the effects of climate change on migration and race relations

Equalities Promote equal pay and take a range of

measures to end discrimination in the workplace.

While the Equalities initiatives are welcome we would ask that the Government looks closely at equal pay and all equality issues to see how they affect BME communities. For example significant differences remain in employment rates and relative pay between men and women and between ethnic groups.1 A recent report complied by Business in the Community, says that ethnic minority Britons feel prestige jobs in the law, banking, media and

politics are closed to them. It finds that “blatant racism” is still closing doors and calls on “government and businesses to take tougher action.” We believe that the Department of Communities and Local government which paid for the report and the Ethnic Minority Employment Task Force are currently studying the findings. We call for a robust response from the Coalition government setting out clear measures for tackling institutional discrimination in employment using the framework of the equalities legislation. Likewise we are aware of the pay differentials and employment prospects of BME women and we are calling for a strong statement on how the government proposes to eliminate the gender and ethnicity pay gap and enforce public sector gender and ethnicity pay audits.

Extend the right to request flexible working to all employees, consulting with business on how best to do so.

This is welcome but this may not benefit poor people from ethnic minority communities, or women – who don’t necessarily do the work in which they can claim such rights – e.g. part time, casual, informal work. We therefore ask that the scope of the consultation be extended beyond businesses and include CoRE UK and other relevant stakeholders.

Undertake a fair pay review in the public sector to implement our proposed ‘20 times’ pay multiple.

We welcome this initiative but call for the fair pay review to include the private sector where the stark differentials creates massive inequalities and pay norms that transpose to the public sector.

Look to promote gender equality on the boards of listed companies

We welcome this proposal but also ask that this apply to promoting and ensuring BME diversity on boards of listed companies. We also consider it equally important to monitor and promote BME and gender equality on sectors funded by the public purse.

Promote improved community relations and opportunities for BME through internships in every Whitehall department and funding a targeted national enterprise mentoring scheme for BME people who want to start a business

We welcome this initiative. Previously it has tended to be London-centric and we would wish to ensure geographical equity in opportunities and an open and transparent process for selection. This type of initiative should not only be at a Whitehall level but also offer shadowing opportunities at a regional level.

Promote improved community relations and opportunities for BME through internships in every Whitehall department and funding a targeted national enterprise mentoring scheme for BME people who want to start a business

We welcome this initiative. Previously it has tended to be London-centric and we would wish to ensure geographical equity in opportunities and an open and transparent process for selection. This type of initiative should not only be at a Whitehall level but also offer shadowing opportunities at a regional level. We ask that steps be taken to ensure that potential BME candidates do not opt out from these opportunities due to experiences of racism and/or tokenism. We would like to see the government support the ongoing development of BME staff networks and professional development into senior leadership roles in the civil service and the NHS. There should also be a recognition that relations between communities are often damaged by competition for resources, and by poverty. Transparency and fair processes are therefore required. We call for an on-going audit to ensure that these schemes have delivered real opportunities to BME people. We support these schemes but hold firm to our call to ensure that the Conservative policy of an A list for women and ethnic minority candidates is not reversed.

Stop the deportation of asylum seekers who have had to leave particular countries because their sexual orientation or gender identification puts them at proven risk of imprisonment, torture or execution.

We welcome these measures but call for a halt to ALL deportation of anyone who may be subject to torture or execution. We call on the Coalition government to positively respond to the call by the Refugee Council calling for a halt to the return of Afghan unaccompanied minors to reception centres. We also call on the Coalition government to respond positively to the advice of UNHCR calling on the UK government to comply with the 1951 Refugee Convention and offer protection to asylum applicants Baghdad, Diyala, Ninewa, Salah-al-Din and Kirkuk province because of ‘the volatile security situation and the still high

Use our relationships with other countries to push for unequivocal support for gay rights and for UK civil partnerships to be recognised internationally.

We welcome this initiative but we call for any deportations of failed asylum seekers to countries with a poor human rights record be closely monitored.

Europe Ensure that the British Government is a

positive participant in the European Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners, with the goal of ensuring that all the nations of Europe are equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century: global competitiveness, global warming and global poverty.

We call on the government to reject its current alignment with far right racist and homophobic parties and develop a progressive alliance committed to the principles of equality and diversity. We call on the government to give safeguards against the potential danger that a hands-off approach to Europe might downgrade the importance of European law and policy for example on gender and other forms of discrimination including employment which have been drivers for change in UK

Families and Children

New approach to helping families with multiple problems

We would like to see the detailed plans for this before we can comment further and ask for clarification of ‘multiple problems’. We call for a supportive rather than punitive approach.

Maintain the goal of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.

We would like to see the detailed plans for this before we can comment further but wish to draw attention to the fact that BME child poverty rates are extremely high and therefore the child poverty strategy needs specific attention to BME children. We are seeking clarification on what resources will the government be making available to end child poverty.

Bring forward plans to reduce the couple penalty in the tax credit system as we make savings from our welfare reform plans.

We would caution against anything which undermines the principles of independent taxation which is important for women’s autonomy in the household and it has the potential to stigmatise single parents – the vast majority of whom are women, including BME women.

Support the provision of free nursery care for pre-school children, and we want that support to be provided by a diverse range of providers, with a greater gender balance in the early

We welcome these measures but ask for consideration to be paid to levels of pay as on current rates it is unlikely to achieve its desired objectives.

Support the provision of free nursery care for pre-school children, and we want that support to be provided by a diverse range of providers, with a greater gender balance in the early years workforce.

We welcome these measures but ask for consideration to be paid to levels of pay as on current rates it is unlikely to achieve its desired objectives.

Take Sure Start back to its original purpose of early intervention, increase its focus on the neediest families, and better involve organisations with a track record of supporting families. We will investigate ways of ensuring that providers are paid in part by the results they achieve.

Refocus funding from Sure Start peripatetic outreach services, and from the Department of Health budget, to pay for 4,200 extra Sure Start health visitors.

We welcome the focus on the neediest families, but there is a danger of downgrading the service by taking its universality away.

Publish serious case reviews, with identifying details removed.

We welcome this initiative

Review the criminal records and vetting and barring regime and scale it back to common sense levels.


Crack down on irresponsible advertising and marketing, especially to children. We will also take steps to tackle the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood.


Encourage shared parenting from the earliest stages of pregnancy – including the promotion of a system of flexible parental leave.


Put funding for relationship support on a stable, long-term footing, and make sure that couples are given greater encouragement to use existing relationship support.

We welcome this initiative and ask that any initiative also target same-sex couples and civil partners.

Conduct a comprehensive review of family law in order to increase the use of mediation when couples do break up, and to look at how best to provide greater access rights to non-resident parents and grandparents.

We welcome this initiative and ask for the above considerations to also be applied.

All council to publish meeting minutes and local service and performance data

We call for equality monitoring to ensure equity in relation to performance related to protected groups under the Equalities legislation.

All councils to publish items of spending above £500 and to publish contracts and tender


All data published by public bodies is published in an open and standardised format, so that it can be used easily and with minimal cost by 3rd parties


CORE UK’s call for additional measures We call for all the above measures relating to children to comply with the obligations set out under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and consideration be given to bring these rights into legislation. We also support The Children’s Rights Alliance for England’s call to the Munro Review of child protection to

• consider whether the laws and systems in place to protect children complies with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

• take evidence from children directly and enquire the extent to which social workers are complying with the duties in the Children Act 2004 requiring that due consideration be given to children’s wishes and feelings

• not limit its scope to child protection within families and look at other settings where children are at risk

• not differentiate between children who are harmed within families or within institutions (children in custody)

Immigration Annual limit on the number of non-EU

economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work.

We caution against an arbitrary cap on non-EU migrants when recent migration has predominantly been from the EU. This may send a signal that it is BME/non-White migration that is the problem. The NHS has clearly signalled that the limits are having a detrimental impact on the ability of the NHS to deliver its services. We are therefore calling for an Equalities Impact Assessment to track the impact of this measure on service delivery. We would also like to know if there are precise figures decided upon yet and how will family life be protected.

End detention of children for immigration purposes

We very much welcome this initiative and call for all measures related to children regardless of their citizenship status comply with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Act.

New measures to minimise abuse of immigration system, e.g. via student routes, and will tackle human trafficking as a priority

We welcome the initiatives to tackle human trafficking and would also request that trafficked people are not criminalised in the process, especially women who tend to be victims.

Speed up processing of asylum applications We call on the government to allow Asylum seekers to work. Asylum-seekers currently receive just over 50% of income support and since 2002 they have been prohibited from working.2 And although there are no official figures on destitution among refugees and asylum seekers in England and Wales, estimates range from 300,000 to 500,0003.

We would also request that there is support for asylum seekers whilst they are in the process of getting a decision.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures We would also wish to point out that no recourse to public funds means that many women are left destitute when they have immigrated into the UK and have had problems with spouses or other family members. The asylum process should protect the most vulnerable of these women and not put speed over effectiveness and the safety of these vulnerable women.

Jobs and Welfare End all existing welfare to work programmes

and create a single welfare work programme to help all unemployed people get back into work

While we welcome initiatives to help unemployed people back to work, there is targeted help needed with regard to BME communities and employment. Consider: the National Audit Office (2008)4 and the Business Commission Report (2007)5 of the National Employment Panel put the employment gap between BME communities and the rest of the population at approximately 15% only 1.3% lower than in 1987. The DWP October 2009 report6 of a ‘sting’ operation where candidates from different ethnicities applied in

similar terms for the same jobs clearly shows that employers’ discrimination is still rife, but that legislation can help: ‘A significant factor was that public sector employers had a discrimination level of 4% while private sector employers had a discrimination level of 35%.’ The Black Manifesto asks the new government to:

1. Enable affirmative action in employment (modelled on the Northern Ireland Fair Employment Act), to overcome low BME pay, inherent discrimination and the persistent and tenacious employment gap.

2. Ensure that legislation and practices to prevent discrimination in employment are applied and enforced in the public, voluntary and private sectors and ensure effective action where equality is absent.

3. Ensure that the minimum wage continues to increase over time in real terms and abolish age differentials in the minimum wage.

4. Require all employment/small business support agencies and Jobcentre Plus district managers to produce and publish local action plans to close the employment gap.

5. Strengthen the specific duties of the Equality Act to require detailed employment monitoring across the public, private and third sector

Reducing the number of benefits and simplifying the system is a good intention, as no one understands fully how benefits work and people in poverty spend a lot of time negotiating their way through the benefits maze and consequently do not take up their full entitlements. Ultimately we believe that the barriers to work are a consequence of low wages, prohibitive costs of caring and potential loss of key sources of income e.g. housing benefit. We caution against linking the benefits system purely to

employment as it will lead to the loss of vital social protection that is critical to those living in poverty. .

JSA claimants to be referred to new welfare to work programme immediately, not after 12 months as is currently the case. JSA claimants under 25 are referred to the programme after a maximum of 6 months.

It is to be welcomed that people do not languish on benefits for long, but there is a danger of conditionality and there is already evidence of pressure on those who are sick, to take work when they are unable to do so. We therefore call for a more humane and measured approach to JSA claimants.

Receipt of benefits conditional on their willingness to work

There are dangers of conditionality – undue pressure does not alter the basic facts of life on a low income or the impossibility of coming off benefits – see the response above. Furthermore as the austerity measures begin to bite it is clear that jobs will be scarce and any measures need to take account of the structural barriers faced by the unemployed in this recessionary climate.

Reassessment of current claimants of Incapacity Benefit for their readiness to work. Those fit to work will be moved to JSA.

Recent evidence from CAB Scotland highlighted that large numbers of people taken off incapacity benefits by medical judgements, are reinstated on appeal, thus demonstrating undue pressure or inappropriate judgements. The outsourcing of benefits payment to private contractors is a potentially retrogressive measure as it is likely to subsume the needs of vulnerable individuals to the needs of shareholders and the profit motive.

Work for Yourself scheme – will give unemployed access to business mentors and start-up loans

This is good in theory, but in practice the poorest people have least access to collateral or capital, and are least able to survive without a regular income from benefits or paid work. We therefore call on the coalition government to look at the Bangladeshi Grameen Bank model that facilitates enterprise through small low interest loans to poor communities.

Investigate simplification of benefit system to improve incentives to work

See our response above.

Justice Rehabilitation revolution - independent

providers to be paid to reduce re-offending We are concerned about the measures will lead to the ‘privatisation’ of rehabilitation as it is likely to result in the pursuit of short-term outputs for pecuniary gain rather than investment in long-term approaches that are

relatively more expensive but ultimately transformative. Full sentencing review to ensure effectiveness

in deterring crime, protecting public, punishing offenders and cutting re-offending.

We call for the sentencing review to be practitioner-led and draw on best international practice where re-offending interventions have produced positive results.

Explore alternative forms of secure, treatment-based accommodation for mentally ill and drugs offenders.

We agree with the proposal but given the disproportionate prevalence of mental illness among BME, asylum and refugee communities we call for treatment-based accommodation to take into account the cultural needs and ensure that interventions are not Euro-centric.

Deduction from prisoners’ earning into Victims’ Fund

We disagree with these proposals as we feel that monetary disincentives will not achieve the desired results. Rather we would prefer to see more transformative and restorative justice processes.

Fundamental review of Legal Aid to make it work more efficiently

The Justice proposals are broadly welcomed, however we are calling for legal aid to be applicable for race discrimination cases and for the sentencing review to have an in-built equalities review.

Measures to tackle anti-social behaviour and low-level crime, including restorative justice such as Neighbourhood Justice Panels

We are concerned about the introduction of Neighbourhood Justice Panels, as we believe it could encourage ‘vigilantism.’ We would want to ensure that there are rigorous checks and balances and these initiatives should be piloted in the first instance to test their efficacy.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures The government should also set national targets to reduce the number of young BME people entering the Criminal Justice System. This should be cross- departmental to include the Police Service, Ministry Of Justice, Home Office, Department of Communities and Local Government, Department for Children Schools and Families, the Youth Justice Board. This recommendation is seen as complementing the existing Government response to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

NHS Guarantee that health spending increases in

real terms in each year of the Parliament, while recognising the impact this decision will have

We welcome the support for the NHS system which is unrivalled in the world and to which BME communities have contributed in large part. Forty percent of doctors,

on other departments. dentists and nurses in London are from a BME background and BME people were a crucial labour force in the NHS in the post-war period.

Stop the top-down reorganisations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care. We are committed to reducing duplication and the resources spent on administration, and diverting these resources back to front-line care.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to carry out an equalities impact assessment to determine the effectiveness of this new bureaucracy in delivering better outcomes for BME patients and local communities. There needs to be a major cultural shift in how BME health needs are mainstreamed especially in those areas where there is a disproportionate prevalence of diseases among ethnic minority communities..

Cut the cost of NHS administration by a third and transfer resources to support doctors and nurses on the front line.

We call for close monitoring to ensure that any re- structuring of the health service does not have a negative impact on BME staff that makes up over 10% of the workforce.

Stop the centrally dictated closure of A&E and maternity wards, so that people have better access to local services

We support the proposal.

Strengthen the power of GPs as patients’ expert guides through the health system by enabling them to commission care on their behalf.

To enable this to happen GPs need to be aware of the needs of diverse communities, especially in inner city areas where BME patients suffer poor health outcomes. GPs will need to be accountable to patients, service users and carers’ needs when commissioning care.

Ensure that there is a stronger voice for patients locally through directly elected individuals on the boards of their local primary care trust (PCT). The remainder of the PCT’s board will be appointed by the relevant local authority or authorities, and the Chief Executive and principal officers will be appointed by the Secretary of State on the advice of the new independent NHS board. This will ensure the right balance between locally accountable individuals and technical expertise

While this is potentially a positive initiative it is important that local boards and elected individuals are culturally diverse and reflect the local demographics of communities. The NHS has one of the worst records for appointing BME senior staff at Chief Executive level. The Secretary of State needs to ensure transparent process and equality of opportunity for BME staff.

The local PCT will act as a champion for patients and commission those residual services that are best undertaken at a wider

We welcome this initiative and call on the Government to encourage PCTS to deliver effective and transparent race equality schemes. They need to support and fund in

level, rather than directly by GPs. It will also take responsibility for improving public health for people in their area, working closely with the local authority and other local organisations.

partnership with local authorities, local BME health and social care networks which can support and call to account the delivery of health service and public health programmes.

If a local authority has concerns about a significant proposed closure of local services, for example an A&E department, it will have the right to challenge health organisations, and refer the case to the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. The Panel would then provide advice to the Secretary of State for Health.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to ensure that the Independent Reconfiguration Panel undertakes an equality impact assessment of all decisions made and for direct representation from BME communities, especially in areas that have significant BME populations

Give every patient the right to choose to register with the GP they want, without being restricted by where they live.

We support the initiative however we would ask for safeguards to ensure that patients are not rejected on racial grounds or on account of their asylum and refugee status because they are deemed to be a drain on GP practice budgets.

Develop a 24/7 urgent care service in every area of England, including GP out-of- hours services, and ensure every patient can access a local GP. We will make care more accessible by introducing a single number for every kind of urgent care and by using technology to help people communicate with their doctors.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to ensure that services have bilingual staff and materials are translated in to community languages. Where this is not to possible to have access to provision for interpretation and translation. Patient groups should be involved in the monitoring of local services.

Renegotiate the GP contract and incentivise ways of improving access to primary care in disadvantaged areas.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to monitor the impact of surgeries on meeting the local needs of BME communities particularly around mental health and long term conditions where ethnic minorities suffer poor outcomes.

Make the NHS work better by extending best practice on improving discharge from hospital, maximising the number of day care operations, reducing delays prior to operations, and where possible enabling community access to care and treatments.

We call on the government to facilitate the involvement of BME voluntary organisations in delivering community services, especially where there is a need for delivering culturally-appropriate services.

Help elderly people live at home for longer through solutions such as home adaptations

We call on the Government to ensure that community programmes are culturally inclusive and encourage the

and community support programmes role of BME private and voluntary organisations to deliver local services.

Prioritise dementia research within the health research and development budget.

We call on the Government to develop robust equalities impact assessments and target BME communities as their needs are little understood and there is little infrastructure support for BME community organisations.

Seek to stop foreign healthcare professionals working in the NHS unless they have passed robust language and competence tests.

We caution the government against setting a prohibitively high bar to foreign nationals who are critical to ensuring a world class health service. We call on the Government to recognise the diversity and contribution of BME staff particularly foreign nationals who have supported the development of the NHS and continue to do so a time when the service is under immense pressure.

Doctors and nurses need to be able to use their professional judgement about what is right for patients and we will support this by giving front-line staff more control of their working environment

We call on the Government to support the role of BME front line staff and encourage the importance of BME staff networks and personal development programmes.

Strengthen the role of the Care Quality Commission so it becomes an effective quality inspectorate. We will develop Monitor into an economic regulator that will oversee aspects of access, competition and price-setting in the NHS.

We call on the Government to require the Care Quality Commission to have a clear sanctions framework against NHS organisations who fail to deliver on their race equality schemes and tackling racism.

Establish an independent NHS board to allocate resources and provide commissioning guidelines.

We call on the Government to ensure that there is an equalities impact assessment around resource allocation. Proactive efforts should be made to ensure that the NHS Board also has representation from BME health professionals.

Enable patients to rate hospitals and doctors according to the quality of care they received, and require hospitals to be open about mistakes and always tell patients if something has gone wrong.

We call on the Government to support the development of effective and non-judgmental processes to encourage BME patients, service users and carers to raise issues of poor service delivery and racism.

Measure our success on the health results that really matter – such as improving cancer and stroke survival rates or reducing hospital infections.

We call on the Government to recognise that the prevalence of stroke among African Caribbean and South Asian men is 70% higher than the national average. South Asian and Black women above the age of 65 have a higher incidence of cervical cancer. It is thus important

to monitor outcomes and ensure effective social marketing campaigns are delivered

Publish detailed data about the performance of healthcare providers online, so everyone will know who is providing a good service and who is falling behind.

We call on the Government to ensure all health providers publish details of their race equality schemes and action plans in tackling health inequalities and access to health care for BME communities.

Put patients in charge of making decisions about their care, including control of their health records.

We call on the Government to establish clear accountability structures for BME communities to challenge the performance of PCTs, Local Authorities and mental health and secondary and primary care providers.

Reform NICE and move to a system of value-based pricing, so that all patients can access the drugs and treatments their doctors think they need.

We are not clear what the implications of ‘value based pricing’ means and seek a clarification on the matter. We would strongly reject any plans to restrict the availability of life-saving drugs purely on the basis of price. We also strongly reject any attempts to establish a pricing scheme that would require patients to partially meet the cost of ‘expensive’ drugs. We call on the Government to ensure robust equalities impact assessments on all NICE decisions on the access of drugs and treatment.

Introduce a new dentistry contract that will focus on achieving good dental health and increasing access to NHS dentistry, with an additional focus on the oral health of schoolchildren

We support this initiative and call on the Government to enable effective targeting of BME communities in deprived neighbourhoods and support for community based services.

Provide £10 million a year beyond 2011 from within the budget of the Department of Health to support children’s hospices in their vital work. And so that proper support for the most sick children and adults can continue in the setting of their choice, we will introduce a new per-patient funding system for all hospices and providers of palliative care.

We call on the Government to ensure equalities impact assessment and to develop culturally specific ‘End of Life’ services for supporting BME Communities.

Encourage NHS organisations to work better with their local police forces to clamp down on anyone who is aggressive and abusive to staff.

We call on the Government to integrate robust policy and procedures on anti discrimination, Islamophobia, and racial hatred.

Committed to the continuous improvement of the quality of services to patients, and to achieving this through much greater involvement of independent and voluntary

We call on the Government to enable effective support and development for BME led providers from the voluntary and independent sector. We call for a review to assess the effectiveness of World Class Commissioning

providers. in supporting existing and new BME providers for the NHS.

Give every patient the power to choose any healthcare provider that meets NHS standards, within NHS prices. This includes independent, voluntary and community sector providers.

We call on the Government to enable service users and carers to play an active role in evaluating and reviewing services to assess the quality of service delivery and cultural sensitivity in giving choice to BME communities in their locality.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures We ask for attention to be paid to the gross inequities in the experience and treatment of illnesses experienced by BME communities and asylum seekers and refugees. We call on the government to respond positively to the recommendation in the Black Manifesto that the Government should:

• Call an independent inquiry with guidance from the EHRC and the Care Quality Commission into the racial disparities in health services and outcomes and the failures of the Delivering Race Equality programme for Mental Health. It should then produce an action plan with targets to eliminate inequalities and to bring health experiences of minority communities on a par with the general population.

• Ensure that World Class Commissioning competencies build in race equality explicitly setting targets and delivering solutions through its partnership between the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health regarding how they will improve delivering race equality programmes to improve the mental well being of BME offenders in criminal institutions.

Furthermore we are concerned that current provision within the NHS has not sufficiently accounted for a rapidly ageing BME population for whom existing services are culturally inappropriate. We call a review of the efficacy of current NHS provision to meet the needs of BME Elders, including provision within care homes and hospices.

Pensions and Older

People Restore the earnings link for the basic state

pension from April 2011, with a ‘triple guarantee’ that pensions are raised by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%.

We welcome these proposals, however we wish to see focused attention on pensions and BME communities. Half of White men and 40 per cent of White women are accruing some form of non-state pension rights, the figure falls to 31 per cent for Asian/Asian British men, 30 per cent for Black/Black British men and 21 per cent for Asian/Asian British women. (From the January 2010 report “An Anatomy of Economic Equality in the UK’, LSE) This is particularly important for women, many of whom have no private pension, and for whom value of state pension will be crucial in their old age.

Commit to establishing an independent commission to review the long- term affordability of public sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights.

We call on the Government to ensure BME representation on the commission and an equalities impact assessment is undertaken in determining the various option appraisals.

Political reform Establish five-year fixed-term Parliaments.

Legislate to make provision for fixed-term Parliaments of five years. This legislation will also provide for dissolution if 55% or more of the House votes in favour.

We are disappointed with the 55% majority suggestion as this would represent a constitutional change and we are concerned about the precedent it would set for future governments who are at liberty to interpret the term majority for political expediency. We therefore call for a return to the 51% threshold.

Bring forward a Referendum Bill on electoral reform, which includes provision for the introduction of the Alternative Vote in the event of a positive result in the referendum, as well as for the creation of fewer and more equal sized constituencies.

While we welcome electoral reform we are concerned that the AV system is a regression from the proportional voting system advocated by the Liberal Democrats in their Manifesto. We call on the coalition government to make a commitment to proportional representation as it is a progressive measure. We call on the Coalition government to hand over the boundary review to an independent commission. We call on the Coalition government to respond positively to the Black Manifesto call to:

1. Institute automatic voter registration for all citizens and compulsory voting (with a drivers licence or passport). This would include allowing voters to vote for “None of the Above”.

2. Introduce a proportional voting system. 3. Establish BME only shortlists for Parliament and

local councillors until the under representation is eliminated - as recommended by the All-Party Speakers Conference in late 2009.

4. Ban all extremist parties in the UK and clarify the position on extremist representation in the political process – for instance, why is the extreme far right allowed to have a political party in the UK while extremists from other persuasions e.g. Al Qaeda, cannot.

5. Work towards a fully elected upper chamber. 6. Work on radical reform of political parties to recruit,

retain and promote new BME members. 7. Continue to challenge the legality of the BNP and

any other right wing or fanatical party.

Establish a committee to bring forward proposals for a wholly or mainly elected upper chamber on the basis of proportional representation. In the interim, Lords appointments will be made with the objective of creating a second chamber that is reflective of the share of the vote secured by the political parties in the last general election.

We believe that there is a double-speak with regards to endorsing the proportional voting of the Upper Chamber on the basis of the outcome of the 2010 elections but a preference for an AV system for the Parliament. Appointments made now on the basis of reflection of share of secured votes will mitigate against the checks and balances that the Lords have hitherto exercised against ‘unpopular’ measures by the executive branch of government. We’re calling for a stop on all appointments until there are agreements on the proposals for a wholly elected upper chamber.

Ensure that any petition that secures 100,000 signatures will be eligible for formal debate in Parliament. The petition with the most

This is welcome – but we would like to propose a threshold of 50,000 so that it gives minority groups a better chance of getting initiating a petition.

signatures will enable members of the public to table a bill eligible to be voted on in Parliament.

Introduce a new ‘public reading stage’ for bills to give the public an opportunity to comment on proposed legislation online, and a dedicated ‘public reading day’ within a bill’s committee stage where those comments will be debated by the committee scrutinising the bill.


Introduce extra support for people with disabilities who want to become MPs, councillors or other elected officials.

We welcome this initiative. Additionally we call on the Government to review the mental health legislation to ensure that mental health service users/survivors are not discriminated against in seeking public office.

Open up Whitehall recruitment by publishing central government job vacancies online.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to publish vacancies in BME media and 2nd tier BME led organisations.

Publish details of every UK project that receives over £25,000 of EU funds.


Give residents the power to instigate local referendums on any local issue.

We seek clarification on the proposed 5% threshold that gives communities power to call a referendum. Our concern is that this could unfairly disadvantage minority groups. For instance if 5% of the local population in a local authority area sign up to evict asylum seekers, gypsies and travellers or ban the hijab, a resulting referendum for have an inherent bias against BME groups. Under current proposals to downgrade inspection regimes, we are seeking clarification from the government on how minority communities can address structural and institutional discrimination and racism given poor public service outcomes for BME communities as the referendum approach is likely to mean that the 5% threshold would be difficult to achieve.

Public Health Give local communities greater control over

public health budgets with payment by the outcomes they achieve in improving the health of local residents.

This in principle is a good idea however there needs to be safeguards to the extent of public control because potentially a majority population could choose to cut spending on programmes directed at eradicating health inequalities for minority groups.

Give local communities greater control over public health budgets with payment by the outcomes they achieve in improving the health of local residents.

This in principle is a good idea however there needs to be safeguards to the extent of public control because potentially a majority population could choose to cut spending on programmes directed at eradicating health inequalities for minority groups. We therefore call for ring-fenced budgets that enable:

• support for community-led campaigns to address stigma within BME communities (e.g. Mental Health, Cancer, HIV /Aids)

• support for BME-led public health projects • the commissioning of annual independent reports

on race inequalities in public health to ensure public health budgets are tackling health inequalities

• the establishment of clear accountability structures for BME communities to challenge the performance of PCTs, Local Authorities and mental health and secondary and primary care provision.

Give GPs greater incentives to tackle public health problems.

We welcome this initiative but call on government to set performance targets on BME health inequalities.

Investigate ways of improving access to preventative healthcare for those in disadvantaged areas to help tackle health inequalities.

We welcome this initiative and call on the Government: • to establish a national advisory board on BME

communities and health inequalities, which reports directly to the Secretary of State for Health and the Chief Medical Officer

• to establish national and regional milestones to end racial inequalities in health outcomes especially in deprived inner city wards.

Ensure greater access to talking therapies to reduce long-term costs for the NHS.

We welcome this initiative and we call on the Government to establish a new race equality programme to tackle racism and inequalities in mental health services. The programme builds on the support of Community Development Workers and also the dash board indicators. Focus on support targeting cultural sensitive talking therapies to BME service users particularly from African/Caribbean and South East Asian and refugee communities.

Schools Fund a significant premium for disadvantaged

pupils from outside the schools budget by reductions in spending elsewhere.

This is welcome and the Black Manifesto calls for the government to introduce new legislation to end the growing segregation in the British education system, including schools, colleges and the Russell Group of Universities and to ensure a proportionate intake of low-

Give parents, teachers, charities and local communities the chance to set up new schools, as part of our plans to allow new providers to enter the state school system in response to parental demand.

There is no conclusive evidence that academies and free schools achieve better education standards. We support the call by the Swedish Education Minister, Bertil Ostberg, against introducing academies, citing falling standards, economic divisions and profit-making by free school administrators. We believe the move by the Education Minister is ideologically driven and we call for a halt to the academies programme on the following grounds: 1. We are extremely concerned that by disallowing

teachers and parents to oppose plans to turn schools into academies, the government is locating disproportionate power in the hands of the Education secretary and school governors who have the sole right to stop the process. We do not consider this to be an objective or inclusive process and call for the decision making process to include other key stakeholders, including the local education authority.

2. The government’s call to ‘outstanding’ comprehensives to enter a fast track conversion process to academy status will benefit the most socially exclusive. The analysis undertaken by the Observer (6 June, 2010) highlighted that schools on the education secretary’s fast track take 40% fewer pupils from deprived families. The Coalition government proposals will inevitably lead to a 2-tier education system as resources are siphoned from limited educational budgets to the academies.

3. We believe it represents a worrying turn towards the privatisation of British schooling that introduces a clear profit motive into education. Despite the rhetoric of giving back control to teachers and parents, there is little in the Academies Bill to ensure that this will actually happen. Instead the Bill provides clear conditions for authority to be devolved to managers, business entrepreneurs and corporations whose primary interest will be to ensure returns on their investment.

4. With proposed cuts to LEA’s and the downgrading of inspection regimes and the Curriculum Standards Authority, we are concerned that essential support services and equality standards will be compromised alongside a fragmentation of a national curricula approach that provides effective benchmarks that track pupil progress. Under current plans to invest money directly into the academies programme, the siphoning of money away from the LEAs will undoubtedly restrict the resources available for schools most in need. Critically it will be extremely hard for the government to enforce the admission code without local authority checks.

5. We are particularly concerned about the creeping in of an ultra-religious agenda and consider the example of the Trinity Academy, sponsored by the evangelical Christian, Peter Vardy and the Harris Federation, sponsored by Lord Harris of Peckham who is a Conservative party donor and a known opponent of gay rights, to be retrogressive as it enables wealthy individuals and corporations to pursue dual agendas of ideology and profit.

6. The creation of a market economy within the education system has a detrimental impact on school services. The evidence from current PFI projects highlights the real risk of price increases and sub-par services that offer limited redress during the duration of the contract period. The decision by Leeds and Bradford Council to bring their education departments in-house following the end of their contract with a private company, highlights that privatisation is not a panacea for quality in education.

7. The dismantling of a collective bargaining framework for teachers’ salaries with academies being accorded freedom to set staff and pay conditions as they see fit, will exacerbate the disparity between wealthy and well funded high-

performing institutions and under-resourced struggling schools. The rewards system is likely to divert resources away from those most in need and will increase the pressure on teachers to achieve measurable results rather than respond to pupil needs. Current figures highlight that academies exclude pupils 10 times more than LEA run-schools and the tendency to ‘problematise’ young people rather than invest in more expensive remedial measures is likely to be exacerbated.

It is our view that resources would be better invested in making targeted improvements to existing schools. We call for an urgent clarification of the checks and balances that are in place to ensure that the education policy does not unwittingly create a 2-tier system, that is likely to exacerbate the disadvantage in educational outcomes that BME communities living in inner-city areas already experience.

Support Teach First, create Teach Now to build on the Graduate Teacher Programme, and seek other ways to improve the quality of the teaching profession.

The government should ensure that efforts to recruit and retain BME and minority ethnic staff and leaders in schools are well supported.

Reform the existing rigid national pay and conditions rules to give schools greater freedoms to pay good teachers more and deal with poor performance.

We believe this is a retrogressive move as it creates an internal market place for wages that will reward teachers from less deprived areas that are able to draw on a middle class cohort. There is also a real danger that entrepreneurs with deep pockets will be able to skew the wage ‘market’ and draw staff away from more ‘challenging’ neighbourhoods.

Help schools tackle bullying in schools, especially homophobic bullying.

This welcome these proposals but also wish to see that schools continue to pay attention to racist bullying and act to stop far right promotional activities anywhere near schools. The EHRC and OFSTED should scrutinise the implementation of the requirements of race equality legislation.

We also call for the government to act on the disproportionate exclusions of Black pupils and institute

the collection of data (locally and nationally) on the use of in-school exclusion units and the efficiency of reintegration into mainstream schooling. This should then be an area for OFSTED inspections to monitor.

Simplify the regulation of standards in education and target inspection on areas of failure.

We would like OFSTED inspections to be more focused than at present on equalities.

Give anonymity to teachers accused by pupils and take other measures to protect against false accusations.

We welcome this initiative and await details before we comment further.

Seek to attract more top science and maths graduates to be teachers.

We welcome this initiative and call on the government to encourage more BME and women science and maths teachers.

Publish performance data on educational providers, as well as past exam papers.


Create more flexibility in the exams systems so that state schools can offer qualifications like the IGCSE.

We welcome this initiative but it must be adequately resourced as schools and teachers are already very stretched.

Reform league tables so that schools are able to focus on, and demonstrate, the progress of children of all abilities.


Give heads and teachers the powers they need to ensure discipline in the classroom and promote good behaviour.

We would need further detail here before we can comment further as current evidence suggests that exclusions in academies are 10 times those of LEA run-schools. Likewise we are also aware that exclusion rates are disproportionately high among African Caribbean pupils. We are concerned that in an attempt to enhance their position on league tables, teachers and heads could exclude ‘low-achieving’ or ‘challenging’ children. We are therefore calling for school exclusions to be independently monitored to prevent any potential ‘abuse.’

The most vulnerable children deserve the very highest quality of care. We will improve diagnostic assessment for schoolchildren, prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools, and remove the bias towards inclusion.

We agree and we call on the government to: • maintain relentless focus on standards to ensure

that young people from all backgrounds can achieve their full potential. Efforts in this vein should include continued reform in curriculum development, careers guidance, teacher training, professional development and governance.

• develop an admissions system that enables all

parents/carers to make positive and non-discriminatory decisions about the school which their child attends

• develop and support children and adolescent mental health services for BME children,

Improve the quality of vocational education, including increasing flexibility for 14–19 year olds and creating new Technical Academies as part of our plans to diversify schools provision.

We would like to see the detailed plans for this before we can comment further.

Keep external assessment, but will review how Key Stage 2 tests operate in future.


Ensure that all new Academies follow an inclusive admissions policy. We will work with faith groups to enable more faith schools and facilitate inclusive admissions policies in as many of these schools as possible.

While we support the establishment of a diverse educational sector, we would be concerned if the establishment of faith schools is prioritised over the establishment of secular schools that have hitherto done tremendous work in building cohesive communities.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures We believe that the measures outlined above should be impact assessed in relation to its compliance on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Social Action

Support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and enable these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of public services.

While we support the initiative we would caution against using the 3rd sector as a ‘cut price’ service provider. We are calling for a clear framework for public service delivery that builds on mutuality rather than competition. We are especially keen to see support for BME mutuals and social enterprises delivering culturally appropriate services to BME communities, especially in inner-city wards. We are however concerned that these measures are rhetorical rather than real as the recession and public service cuts have squeezed the Third sector, effectively constraining its ability to capitalise on future opportunities. Likewise the announcement by Baroness Warsi that the coalition government expects Race to be mainstreamed, is tantamount to sounding the death knell of the BME sector that has hitherto delivered exceptional value for money in terms of reaching those pockets of

disadvantage, poverty and deprivation that generic third sector and statutory services have historically either neglected or failed to reach. We are therefore calling on the government to put in place enabling measures that allow Third sector organisations and especially those with expertise of working with protected groups under the Equalities framework to be equitable stakeholders in the running of public services.

Give public sector workers a new right to form employee-owned co-operatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. This will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them to deliver better services.

We are extremely concerned that this laissez-faire approach to delivering public services through a proliferation of SME’s seriously risks undermining the quality of services that vulnerable individuals and communities rely on. We are asking for an urgent clarification on the regulatory framework the government intends to introduce to ensure a rigorous quality threshold especially in areas of service provision that targets vulnerable groups.

Train a new generation of community organisers and support the creation of neighbourhood groups across the UK, especially in the most deprived areas.

We are unclear why this is presented as an innovation as BME voluntary sector and community groups already do this vital work in deprived neighbourhoods. The constriction of funding to the BME sector has led to the decimation of this vital interface between communities and public service providers. We look forward to the restoration of funding to support the development of community organisers using community development, capacity building and skills development approaches and a clear investment strategy that develops a vital grassroots infrastructure.

Take a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy.

While we welcome charitable giving we would not want it to replace statutory grants which the BME Third sector relies on for their survival. We also consider that the government has over-estimated the extent of charitable giving in a recessionary climate. We believe that the measures we propose under the Banking section (also see section on Big Society Bank below) and in our Manifesto document are likely to yield real returns for the sector.

We are also concerned that charitable giving and philanthropy will benefit popular causes and Race, asylum and refugee groups/causes could potentially find themselves getting a miniscule size of the charitable cake. There is also a risk that smaller charities will be disadvantaged because of lack of capacity, resources, skills and experience to ‘market’ themselves to potential donors. We are therefore calling for the establishment of a mechanism that would ensure equity in the allocation of monies donated through charitable giving and philanthropy.

Introduce National Citizen Service. The initial flagship project will provide a programme for 16 year olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens, mix with people from different backgrounds, and start getting involved in their communities.


Use funds from dormant bank accounts to establish a ‘Big Society Bank’, which will provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies.

We welcome this proposal as it mirrors a similar call we have made in The Black Manifesto calling on the government to:

1. Invest 1% of bank profits and 10% of the dormant accounts in poor communities and in programmes for civic engagement through the voluntary and community sector.

2. Conduct a national consultation and review of the BME Voluntary and Community Sector focusing on a comprehensive review of existing funding streams and processes and how charitable giving in terms of public sector capital assets, private sector corporate social responsibility monies and public donations can be further incentivised.

3. Recognise and publicly support the importance of the BME Community and Voluntary sector in promoting civic participation, social and economic

inclusion. 4. Ensure scrutiny of the use of the dormant accounts

fund for investment in charities and the community sector.

We would like to work with the government to develop this initiative. Our key recommendations in relation to the Big Society bank are to ensure:

• BME representation on the Board of the Big Society Bank

• funding from the Big Society Bank to develop a vital BME Third sector

• implementation of an equality impact assessment framework to assess funding decisions

• an open and transparent funding process

Take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action, including launching a national day to celebrate and encourage social action, and make regular community service an element of civil service staff appraisals.


CORE UK’s call for additional measures Further to the above measures we are calling on the coalition government to include the original BME Code along with further guidance to funders to prioritise on the basis of need in the Refreshed Compact.

Social care and disability

Establish a commission on long-term care, to report within a year. The commission will consider a range of ideas, including both a voluntary insurance scheme to protect the assets of those who go into residential care, and a partnership scheme as proposed by Derek Wanless.

We call upon the Government to: 1. Set up a national BME health and social care

advisory group - to ensure a focus on race equality which reports directly to the Secretary of State for Health and the Chief Medical Officer.

2. Develop a clear strategy for more effective consultation on policy development and public sector reform with BME organisations, service

users and carers. 3. Establish a mandatory duty on health and social

care services to report on outcomes to service user organisations, BME health forums at local, regional and national levels.

4. Prioritise cross-sectoral working on health inequalities and racial equalities.

5. Enable an equality and race focus on the Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies programme new equalities emphasis in the New Horizons policy and that young people of school age in particular are targeted to ensure that they can gain access to appropriate services at an early stage and avoid contact with secondary services in later life.

6. Ensure BME representation on the Commission and pro active engagement with BME carers and local communities in the development of proposals.

Break down barriers between health and social care funding to incentivise preventative action.

We call upon the Government to review the role of World Class Commissioning and the transformation of adult services to ensure effective engagement and delivery by BME voluntary and social enterprise providers.

Extend the greater roll-out of personal budgets to give people and their carers more control and purchasing power.

We call upon the Government to establish a BME-led national advocacy and information support service to support BME communities to access direct payment.

Use direct payments to carers and better community-based provision to improve access to respite care.

We call upon the Government to support the development of BME led and culturally-sensitive, community-based service.

Reform Access to Work, so disabled people can apply for jobs with funding already secured for any adaptations and equipment they will need.

We support this proposal.

Universities and Higher education

Seek ways to support the creation of apprenticeships, internships, work pairings, and college and workplace training places as

We support the proposals and look forward to the details of these schemes.

part of our wider programme to get Britain working.

Set colleges free from direct state control and abolish many of the further education quangos. Public funding should be fair and follow the choices of students.

As with the government’s proposals on schools, we believe that the government has yet to make a strong case on the benefits that accrue from deregulation. The break-neck speed at which the state sector is being dismantled and private enterprise encouraged into the education sector has long-term implications for society and the quality of young people’s education. We call on the government to present clear evidence of the merits of a deregulatory approach. Until this is forthcoming we call for a halt to the privatisation of Britain’s education system.

Await Lord Browne’s final report into higher education funding, and will judge its proposals against the need to: – increase social mobility; – take into account the impact on student debt; – ensure a properly funded university sector; – improve the quality of teaching; – advance scholarship; and – attract a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

We await the final report before we can comment further

Review support for part-time students in terms of loans and fees.

We await the detail of this before we can comment further. We however urge the government not to set a prohibitive bar as the part-time option is often pursued by those least able to meet the costs of full-time education. Its value should also be set against the acquisition of new skills that older people rely on to increase their competitiveness in the market place.

Publish more information about the costs, graduate earnings and student satisfaction of different university courses.

We await the detail of what will be added to already available information.

Ensure that public funding mechanisms for university research safeguard its academic integrity.

This is welcome.

CORE UK’s call for additional measures We understand that the cap for undergraduate fees will rise next year by 100%. Thereafter the cap will be removed altogether resulting in a free market on fees. There has been no equivalent rise in the number of

scholarship available. This means that BME and working class students will find it much more difficult to enter university. This will undoubtedly have a knock-on effect on families with the added burden of saving up for children’s’ university fees. Higher education is also a key factor in social mobility. Without affordable higher education, society becomes more stratified than it already is along economic lines. A recent study ‘The Spirit Level’ (http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resource/the-spirit-level) shows that highly stratified societies are the ones that exhibit the greatest health and social problems. The proposal to limit non-EU immigration will also have an adverse effect on current non-EU students being able to do professional practice experience after their degrees. A large percentage of teaching staff are also non-EU. This broad-brush approach to immigration policy does not address the actual needs of the higher education sector. Academic expertise crosses EU boundaries. UK universities rank among the top of the world but they have to stay competitive at an international level and need to be able to easily recruit top academics from outside the EU. In addition the Black Manifesto called for:

1. Abolish student fees and loans for the poorest students.

2. Enable affirmative action in higher education

institutions, where there is under-representation of Black students and staff. This should start with the Russell Group of Universities.

3. Increase investment in access to Graduate Education at least equal to what has been spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

4. Require the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure that institutions of Further Education and Higher Education are enforcing compliance with Race Legislation in Higher

CONSENT STATEMENT Organisations I, …………….. (name) representing …………………. (name of organisation) am a partner of the Coalition for Race Equality UK. I support/do not support the responses set out in the above document. (please underline) I am / am not happy for my organisation’s name to be included in the response document. Individuals I ……………… (name) am an individual partner of the Coalition for Race Equality UK and am/am not happy for my name to be included in the response document. (please underline) Date: ________________________________

Education. 5. Abolish fees for all families with incomes of less

than the median income, funded via a dedicated fund from the Dormant Accounts fund or the Social Investment Wholesale Bank (see BME third sector chapter) or a progressive system of taxation in which those individuals and companies with the highest incomes contribute most.

6. Institute targeted graduate support schemes for BME students to help with overcoming the differentials in finding jobs.

Contact number: ________________________________________ Email address: ________________________________________

draft response to the coalition government's programme

Documents

coalition response

core uk website

behalf of core uk

equanomics uk coalition

race equality uk response

names of core uk partners

coalition government

coalition members