Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) progression of its BAME staff.

The Department is committed to the Civil Service ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer and increasing the representation of under-represented groups to make DWP more diverse.

We are undertaking work to better understand the lived experiences of BAME colleagues and the career progression barriers they face. For example, we have implemented Listening Circles and held Let’s Talk About Race conversations throughout our organisation and are using the insight and feedback captured to help inform our departmental Race Priorities and Plan.

We have strengthened our commitment to Sponsorship and have extended this to all of our Senior Civil Servants with the expectation that their personal intervention will support BAME colleagues to move into new roles/projects to further develop their skills, or move to a role on promotion.

To further support career progression we also continue to actively promote Civil Service development opportunities which include: Future/Senior Leaders Scheme; the Civil Service Ethnic Diversity Programme; and access to the Civil Service Race to the Top staff networks.

We have introduced a departmental Catalyst programme which provides under-represented colleagues at Grades 6 and 7 with access to development opportunities, inspirational speakers and senior sponsorship to support their career and leadership journeys.

We have implemented a number of improvements to our recruitment and selection methods which include: improved marketing of DWP as a diverse and inclusive employer of choice; mandated ethnic minority representation for our senior recruitment panels; implemented anonymised recruitment to minimise bias; and introduced a new strengths based approach to our recruitment.