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How the SC-WRES is helping lead with greater representation

We spoke with Dr. Carol Stewart, Interim Consultant – Workforce Strategy, Hackney Council and Deborah Barnett, Head of Service for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Hackney Council about how the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standards (SC-WRES) is supporting inclusive leadership in Hackney.

How did Hackney Council first get started with the SC-WRES?

Carol Stewart (CS): I knew about SC-WRES before joining Hackney as I was involved in evaluating the first pilot at King’s College. So, when I started at Hackney and I could see how much work had been done here around anti-racism I knew the SC-WRES would be a great fit. People were very enthusiastic to get involved; it enables the borough to look at the impact of the work that has gone on previously, and what more we need to do.

Deborah Barnett (DB): SC-WRES was something we’d had conversations around introducing, so having Carol come in and being able to drive that forward was excellent. The SC-WRES aligned with our ambitions and how we wanted to advance our work around anti-racist practice and race equity and so it was very fitting and timely for advancing this work.

What key insights have you gained from SC-WRES?

CS: The picture we’ve seen here mirrors the national picture. The data has
reinforced a lot of the things that we knew already, particularly around people's experiences of racism and discrimination from members of the public, colleagues and managers. Unfortunately, that's nothing new; Black and global majority staff experience that up and down the country.

It's also provided us with useful information to improve our recruitment practices, which links in with work we had already started around bias in recruitment.

As well as this it’s provided us with clear data around where disparities lie in senior management roles and pay bands, which will allow us to set a benchmark and we hope to see that needle shift in the next two to three years.

DB: Having the data in this way really solidified what we knew anecdotally and set out where we need to go to make improvements.

What are the biggest benefits to Hackney in having more diverse leadership?

DB: Diversity of views is key. We have a very diverse community in Hackney.
historically, and I think the importance of being relevant to the communities that we serve and having that level of understanding and purpose in terms of how we support our communities is massively important.

We aspire to be a fair organisation; we want to do justice; we want to be equitable.

CS: It’s important to be role modelling for the sector too. We ran a leadership programme for Black and global majority staff, this was evidence of the level of commitment from the directorate to provide an opportunity to help people progress to the next level. We're working with young people, and they need to see people that look like them at different levels, so they know that these roles are within their reach.

What are your measures for success?

CS: We’ve described what good looks like within our action plan. We want to see more trust and confidence in the systems and processes we have to deal with discrimination and harassment. We do want to see the needle shift in terms of the
demographic of our workforce as well.

DB: The data is massively important, but there are also softer indicators. For example, I want to hear colleagues say

“Hackney is truly a place where I feel I belong.”;

“Hackney is truly a place where I feel that I'm able to progress in my career.”;

“Hackney is the place where I feel that I'm really treated fairly and equally and my skin colour doesn't make a difference.”

Have you seen any early signs of progress?

CS: It’s prompted more open conversations across the whole council. We can’t quantitatively measure the impact until at least a year or so, as we recognise that seeing an impact takes time, but already it's enabled us to have a more coordinated approach to tackling racism across the whole system.

What’s your advice to other organisations about getting started with SC-WRES and focusing on diversity in general?

CS: I think sometimes people make diversity look like it's a huge ask and it's a big piece of work and it isn’t. We're not asking anything out of the ordinary; it's about having an equal platform for Black and global majority staff.

It’s about considering equality, equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging throughout everything rather than in a silo. Within our workforce strategy we’ve made sure EEDIB is integral to all the priorities.

The SC-WRES is a fantastic tool and shows a real commitment to Black and global majority staff.

DB: I would say do it. The benefit that it brings is so worth it – from the trust and confidence it builds with staff, to the gap in knowledge and understanding that it can bridge for leaders as well.

It can be a real lens to review your policies and we’re going to be looking at reviewing our policies as a result of the SC-WRES. We all need to know where we are, where we stand and what we need to do better. So, for me, it's been a real health check for our organisation that's enabled us to know what we've got to do to be even better as an organisation.

Find out more about SC-WRES on our webpage, and learn more about leading to support diversity and equality with our #EverydayLeadership campaign.

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