WIREDGOV

Leaders within the Further Education and Skills sector are being reminded to make use of an equality and diversity report.

The Summary Workforce Diversity Report 2011 is available on the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) website and is designed to advance equality and diversity in the workplace.

The summary report, provides analysis of the diversity profile of the sector. It can be used by senior managers to help improve diversity in the workforce, and support the sector in meeting its public sector equality duties. The information in the report is drawn primarily from analysis of the Staff Individualised Record (SIR) 2009-2010, which is an annual workforce data collection from FE colleges, gathering statistics on fields such as age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

The latest annual SIR report, which analyses data from 2010-2011 was published in June 2012 and includes discussions on the diversity profile of the FE college workforce as well their qualifications.

However, the SIR isn’t the only source of data as information gathered through sector staff surveys and research reports is also included in the Summary Workforce Diversity Report 2011. These additional details add a qualitative element to provide depth to the understanding of the diversity issues facing the sector in light of legislative changes introduced by the Equality Act 2010 and other factors affecting the sector.

Sector organisations can use the report, along with other population and learner profile data, to contextualise their own workforce data. This can help monitor progress and demonstrate the impact of their work, particularly in terms of assessing how an organisation’s policies and practices affects equality; benchmarking their diversity profile with that of the sector; and reporting to stakeholders.

The report is relevant to the whole sector, covering staff in general further education colleges (including tertiary education); national specialist colleges; sixth form colleges; special colleges; specialist designated colleges; independent training providers and adult and community learning organisations.

Margaret Adjaye, Head of Improvement Services, Quality and Equality at LSIS said: “Driving strong leadership across the sector is one of LSIS’s strategic priorities; this is something which is supported by the report.”


“It can be used to assist the strategic planning, monitoring and assessments required to address the workforce-related priorities and themes of the Workforce Strategy for the Further Education Sector in England, the Equality Framework Further Education, and the monitoring and reporting requirements of the public sector equality duty.”