Asked by: Lord Woolley of Woodford (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reference race equality in the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
In line with the government’s legal duties and its commitment to equalities, care has been taken to ensure that our proposed legislation is informed by assessments of their impacts for those from protected characteristics. The Impact Assessment of the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill was published on 18 May 2021 and includes an assessment of the impacts of its measures on those who share protected characteristics, including in reference to race. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skills-and-post-16-education-bill-impact-assessment-and-jchr-memorandum.
Asked by: Lord Woolley of Woodford (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the (1) guidance, and (2) duty being placed on colleges, to review local skills provision includes guidance on advancing race equality in further education.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Draft statutory guidance makes clear that in carrying their reviews, the governing bodies of colleges will need to ensure that they comply with their existing statutory obligations, including those related to equality law, under the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Lord Woolley of Woodford (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the (1) guidance, and (2) duty being placed on colleges, to review local skills provision, to include an explicit reference to ethnicity.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
Draft statutory guidance makes clear that in carrying their reviews, the governing bodies of colleges will need to ensure that they comply with their existing statutory obligations, including those related to equality law, under the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Lord Woolley of Woodford (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support schools which seek to create (1) equal, (2) racially diverse, and (3) inclusive, environments for their pupils.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
All schools must offer a balanced and broadly based curriculum, which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.
In November 2018, the department published Respectful School Communities, a self-review and signposting tool to support schools to develop a whole-school approach which promotes respect and discipline: https://educateagainsthate.com/school-leaders/?filter=guidance-and-training-school-leaders. This can combat bullying, harassment and prejudice of any kind. It will help schools to identify the various elements that make up a whole school approach, consider gaps in their current practice, and get further support.
Citizenship education also plays an essential role in developing knowledge and understanding about the world today through teaching politics, democracy, power, the law, human rights, justice and the economy, as well as the changing nature of communities, identities, diversity in the UK and the UK’s relations with the wider world.
From September 2020, relationships education became compulsory for all primary school pupils, relationships and sex education compulsory for all secondary school pupils, and health education compulsory for pupils in all state-funded schools: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. These subjects are designed to give pupils the knowledge they need to lead happy, safe and healthy lives and to foster respect for other people and for difference.
The teaching workforce has become steadily more racially and ethnically diverse over the last decade, which is the period for which we have comparable data, although we know there is further to go to attract and retain diverse teachers who are representative of the communities they serve: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england. Our recruitment campaigns are targeted at audiences of students/recent graduates and potential career changers of all ethnicities and characteristics.
Finally, it is important all children and young people are treated fairly and there is no place for discrimination in our education system. The Equality Act 2010 ensures that schools cannot unlawfully discriminate against pupils or staff because of their sex, race, age, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief. The department has published guidance on the Equality Act 2010 for schools, which includes advice on how they can meet their duties under the act: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315587/Equality_Act_Advice_Final.pdf.