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London Borough of Hillingdon: Annual Workforce and Equalities Monitoring Report
Equality Works and the London Borough of Hillingdon have been working in partnership for the last six years to develop and produce the council’s Annual Workforce and Equalities Monitoring Report.
The report is based on our analysis of the raw quantitative data on the council’s workforce, as well as data on training, recruitment and promotion, employment tribunals, grievances and disciplinary cases and performance management. We supplement this with evidence drawn from a range of sources, including staff survey findings, inspection reports and equality impact assessments.
The executive summary of the report includes a performance summary table, which covers: Business Drivers, Compliance, Direction of Travel, Good Practice, Leadership and Management of Equalities and Recommendations from Equality Works. The summary also highlights progress against the previous year’s report, actions taken to promote equalities in employment and relevant achievements. The main body of the report provides detailed analysis which can be used to inform service planning and workforce development.
We have worked in close partnership with the council to develop an accessible format and style for the report, which is published on their website, in line with equalities legislation and local government best practice. The annual report aims to present our statistical analysis in a combination of plain English and clear charts, tables and diagrams. Through both the report recommendations and the process of producing the report, Equality Works has made suggestions which the council has used to develop the way in which it collects and uses data to improve its performance around Equality and Diversity.
Over the last couple of years we have developed both the scope and content of the report, which now includes analysis of data from agency workers and schools. It is also broad in its coverage of equality strands, encompassing age and working pattern as well as the current statutory areas of gender, ethnicity and disability.
This year the report also included a benchmarking exercise to assess LB Hillingdon’s performance against relevant organisations. We analysed data from a range of sources in order to ensure a solid basis for comparison. This showed that the council compares favourably to the public sector and local government organisations, across all strands except disability. The council performed particularly well in terms of BAME representation. We also discovered that, by producing and publishing a comprehensive monitoring report on an annual basis, LB Hillingdon is performing ahead of neighbouring London boroughs.
The council has made distinct progress in equalities in recent years and this has been noted by organisations such as London Councils and the Audit Commission. The council’s workforce is stable, with many employees having been in post for a number of years, and the quality of monitoring data is high. The annual equalities and workforce monitoring report has provided an important foundation stone in this achievement.