Tackling race inequality in education and employment: a Lib Dem perspective

In 2012, Nick Clegg appointed a taskforce charged with identifying effective measures to tackle inequality, discrimination and under-representation affecting black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and individuals. The taskforce, chaired by Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece and including Baroness Floella Benjamin, launched its report last week, focusing in particular on education and employment. They also call for Liberal Democrats to “oppose all attempts to weaken the Equality Act, and further to demand full implementation of the act,” which is what has grabbed the headlines. However, there is much more in the report which deserves equal attention and I would hope could provide the basis for some cross-party consensus. The full report can be found here.

Personally I was particularly struck by the stark statistic that while 4 per cent of public-sector employers were likely to have discriminated on the basis of race, this compared with 35 per cent of private-sector employers. At a time when the government is hell bent on putting as much as possible of the public sector into private hands this is deeply disturbing.

The report makes 30 recommendations including taking particular account of the discrimination faced by Gypsy Roma and Traveller children; ensuring that the school curriculum reflects the cultural diversity of the country; reviewing the use of exclusion, and requiring all universities to be transparent about selection criteria. In terms of employment it calls for more ethnic monitoring of apprenticeships, the creation of a national mentoring scheme, for the government as the UK’s major purchaser to use its leverage to motivate the private sector to promote race equality.

The conference to launch the report, jointly organised by Ethnic Minority Lib Dems and the Social Liberal Forum, heard from Vince Cable, Professor Gus John, ex-Charlton Athletic player Paul Mortimer from Show Racism the Red Card, Dr Rob Berkeley director of the Runnymede Trust, and senior police officer Leroy Logan. For a more detailed report on the day read Lester Holloway’s account.