Race Equality Foundation - Research
Exploring the development needs of senior black and minority ethnic workers in social services
Background
The REU and Office for Public Management (OPM) were funded by the Social Services Inspectorate to produce a development programme for senior black managers within social services departments.
The need for such work arose from recent reports by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Local Government Management Board (LGMB) and OPM, which identified the low representation of black staff in senior management positions and barriers to their career progression. Additionally, an event organised by the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS), REU, CRE and LGMB, pooled together senior black managers to discuss this situation and set in motion the focus for further work addressing the career development of black managers.
We aimed to devise a top black managers programme to run in parallel to existing top manager development programmes.
What we did
We gathered information on what senior black managers development needs are, and how a development programme could best meet these.
We carried out a questionnaire based survey to UK Social Services Departments; focus group discussions with black and minority ethnic managers and some desk research.
The questionnaire was based on the Local Government Management Board survey (1998). It focused on several issues; individuals personal details, current employment status, education history prior to entering local government, extent of local government service, career development opportunities and ideas for the design of a development programme aimed at black managers.
99 questionnaires were sent out to black and minority ethnic senior managers in social services departments throughout England in mid March 1999. 66 were returned by late April 1999, a response rate of 70 per cent.
Six focus group sessions were carried out in North West of England, West Midlands, East Midlands, East London, South London and West London. The focus group sessions further explored issues from the questionnaire and contributed to the content of a development programme.
Outputs
- A report to the Social Services Inspectorate (SSI)
- A Social Care Futures Leadership programme for senior black and minority ethnic managers run by the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DEA) www.idea.gov.uk
For further information, contact Jabeer Butt on 020 7619 6229 or email jabeer@racefound.org.uk
Useful Race Equality Foundation publications
- Meeting the challenge by Vernon Harris and Ratna Dutt
Click here to see all Race Equality Foundation publications.