SCIE Race equality discussion paper 03: Are we there yet? Identifying the characteristics of social care organisations that successfully promote diversity

By Jabeer Butt

An integral part of the white paper 'Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services', is the commitment to promote diversity by developing a work force that is able to challenge discrimination, by making direct payments more available and by making greater use of the voluntary and community sector. This discussion paper considers the characteristics of social care organisations that successfully promote diversity, and explores research on the barriers to promoting diversity and how they can be overcome.

Key messages

Barriers to promoting diversity within organisations:

lack of knowledge among black and minority ethnic communities about available support
lack of appropriate services
poor quality services
lack of choice
workers without effective communication skills
workers without the skills and experience to work with racially and culturally diverse communities
direct and institutional discrimination.

Promoting diversity within organisations:

implement a needs-led approach
implement a policy and monitoring framework to promote diversity
implement an ethnic record
plan for the delivery of services that promote diversity
build processes and a workforce that can implement effective engagement
recruit, retain and develop a workforce that can promote diversity
organisations demonstrate better frontline practice.

Context

An integral part of the white paper Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services is the commitment to promote diversity by developing a workforce that is able to challenge discrimination, by making direct payments more available and by making greater use of the voluntary and community sector.

To start to explore and debate some of the future challenges for social care, SCIE has commissioned three discussion papers looking at direct payments, refugees and asylum seekers, and the characteristics of social care organisations that successfully promote diversity. Originally published in June 2005 to form the basis of a race equality seminar, the papers have been re-published having first been revised following discussions at the seminar.

Purpose

This discussion paper considers the characteristics of social care organisations that successfully promote diversity, and explores research on the barriers to promoting diversity and how they can be overcome.