Proposal for Organisational Review Guidelines for Alcohol and Drug Services Working with People from Visible Minorities Populations
We believe that in our Action Points for Change document as well as in the experience of piloting it in partnership with drug services in UK and across EU, we have already moved a long way towards creating the required organisational review guidelines for alcohol and drug services working with people from visible minorities' populations. Without this head start, any agency will find it very difficult to produce a high quality service. This preparatory work - which is not available from any other organisation we know of - will be facilitated by T3E UK, creating a unique opportunity to match the task of integrating the dimension of equality with quality, and within the resources available to interested agencies and institutions.
1. LEGISLATION
The Amsterdam Treaty (1 May 1999), which amended the Treaty establishing the European Community and the Treaty on European Union, has provided European institutions with considerable new powers to act on racial, ethnic and religious discrimination by:
a) inserting Article 13 in the EC Treaty, allowing the adoption of European legislation and other measures to combat discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin and religion or belief;
b) the new Title IV in the EC Treaty, providing a legal basis for the adoption of measures promoting equal treatment between EU citizens and third-country nationals;
c) the inclusion of Title IV extends the scope of the EC Treaty which may lead to a reinterpretation of Article 12 of the EC Treaty, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of nationality;
d) Article 137 provides a legal basis for action concerning employment conditions for third-country nationals legally residing in an EU Member State;
e) The Treaty on European Union was amended "to the effect that police and judicial co-operation on criminal matters (within the framework of the third pillar) now includes the prevention and combating of racism."[1]
As part of the acquis communautaire, the Accession States must also adopt anti-discrimination legislation.
This provides us with the opportunity to design a framework or guidelines for good anti-discriminatory/equalities practice in the field of drug demand and drug harm reduction that are
based on actively implementing the implications of anti-racist legislation rather than remaining passively within its bounds .
2. ACTION POINTS FOR CHANGE
a) During 1995 - 1997, the Race & Drugs Project, then based at The City University, London, was funded by the European Commission to carry out a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of drug care and treatment services in seven EU Member States in order to evaluate their capacity to address the needs of drug users from black and other visible minority populations. The findings and recommendations were submitted in report form to the European Commission.
b) In addition to the main reports and their recommendations, the Race & Drugs Project also produced a detailed framework within which:
§ race equality can be embedded in the organisation as an explicit, but mainstream responsibility;
§ Race equality is reflexively achieved, i.e., through the agency or organisation being able to learn and adjust positively; and is not simply a formulaic response.
c) This framework is the 'Action Points for Change' document[2]. This document substantially anticipates EU anti-discriminatory/equality legislation mentioned above. It is the product of considerable in-house knowledge and understanding of race and racism and the relevant legislation to counter such phenomena, as well as in the field of drug demand and drug harm reduction.
Using the enhanced race equality standards minimum framework identified above, an interrogative audit based review will be required to be undertaken. The core focus will be on the race equality dimension to the employment and service responsibilities as they unfold in the following:
¨ The policy, procedure and practice development infra-structure and processes in the organisation
¨ The implementation infra-structure and processes in the organisation
¨ The accountability infra-structure and processes in the organisation
¨ The monitoring, review, evaluation and re-programming infrastructure and processes in the organisation.
Running throughout this examination will be a key explicit strand of interrogation which focuses on the level of visible minorities' involvement in those structures and process. For example, how and when visible minorities are involved? Is it consultation, advisory or executive participation, etc. Key constituents will be employees (in particular visible minority employees), service users, relevant community groups, and other advisory sources.
This will require access to both secondary and primary sources of information from partner institutions. The former relates to relevant organisational documentary material. The latter will be achieved through a series of semi-structured questionnaire based interviews with a sample of relevant management committee members, senior managers, staff, service users, and community groups. Framing the information required from these two main sources would be an interim race equality standards and achievement evidence template based on the framework highlighted earlier.
As a concrete example a race equality template for a level 3 audit developed for a department in a municipal authority and covering one aspect of human resources is included as an appendix.[3]
The following will be achieved:
¨ A revised and enhanced level of race equality standards necessary to meet the requirements of the EU anti-discriminatory legislation mentioned above
¨ A programme of action to achieve those standards, inclusive of a more explicit and structured programme of action involving visible minorities
¨ Stand alone guidelines for involving visible minorities
¨ Stand alone guidelines for a race equality audit of voluntary sector organisations
¨ Identification of the limits to a standards approach and the achievement of race equality
T3E UK is a limited not-for-profit company in the process of registering as a charity and based at Middlesex University with whom it works in partnership. It incorporates the Race & Drugs Project on which further details below. The main relevant experience is the piloting in six drug services across Europe including two in the UK of the Action Points for Change on enhancing quality standards by adding the dimension of race equality. These are an organisational review template.
Race & Drugs Project
The Race and Drugs Project exists to provide research, training, development, consultancy, evaluation, and general technical support for public and private sector agencies, community based organisations and individuals on issues of drug use and abuse affecting 'visible minority' populations.
The Race & Drugs Project offers a distinctive approach on issues of race and culture in comparison/contrast with most approaches on offer in UK or elsewhere. As stated earlier, this approach, is based upon the rigorous and pioneering theoretical work of RCPRU during the 1980s. The thinking of the Race & Drugs Unit has developed since to carry theory and practice further, especially on the research, policy and training front. To put it succinctly, the view of the Project is that for race equality in policy and practice to be effective, the issues it seeks to raise need to become an integral part of the thinking of researchers, policy makers, practitioners and government alike. Race equality has been perceived and presented for far too long as a militancy, forever standing outside mainstream discussion. For the Race & Drugs Unit, race equality is simply good organisational management and practice reflecting the on-going demographic changes due to the migration and settlement of populations into EU countries. These changes designate a necessary and commensurate shift in the focus of research, planning, funding and management of 'traditional approaches' that are all too frequently monocultural, in order for the latter to come into alignment with a changed and changing reality.
The Unit was first established as the Race & Drugs Project in 1995 in response to the fact that the provision of prevention, care and treatment services for black and other visible minorities had been a very under-investigated area, a fact confirmed by a thorough literature survey and by previous research and development work in the field. Therefore, it originates from a number of concerns and considerations:
· the considerable in-house experience and expertise in the area of drug abuse, public sector services and race equality, based upon previous in-depth knowledge of the field of drugs misuse through research and work experience, combined with a distinctive approach to issues of 'race' and culture resulting from the work of RCPRU
· the realisation, based also on previous work and experience, that specialist drug services in UK and in other European countries had a long way to go in effectively and adequately meeting the needs of visible minority drug users, the majority of whom continue to remain either a part of the hidden population of drug users, who are not in touch with services, or who are misdiagnosed and directed disproportionately towards the criminal justice system, or towards psychiatric care in comparison with their white counterparts
· the needs of the population groups such drug users and their families belong to were not being appropriately and adequately met with regard to drug use awareness, education and prevention
· the growing awareness, facilitated through the work of the Race and Culture Policy Research Unit (RCPRU), of which the Race and Drugs Unit was a part, that initiatives on race and public services have to, from the outset, be an integral part of a comprehensive and integrated approach, rather than the bolted on adjuncts they, for the most part, at present would appear to be
· the expectation that whilst the primary focus of the Project is on specialist drug services there will also be general race-equality spin-offs for public and independent sector agencies, purchasers, policy makers and other decision making fora
· the desire to contribute to the construction of a socially cohesive and pluralist Europe, within and across EU member states through alliances, networks and partnerships
The Race and Drugs Project has developed as a pan-European resource, information and consultancy centre in the specialist area of race, culture, visible minorities and drug dependence. It receives researchers, practitioners, students and other visitors from UK and abroad. It is frequently approached to provide consultancy (offered free to those just starting up in this area of work), evaluation and training, as well as trainers, speakers and workshop facilitators. In response to increasing demands on limited resources the Race and Drugs Project has now a developing network of Associates with relevant expertise and skills.
Contact points
To discuss further contact Mr. Kazim Khan, Coordinator, T3E (UK) Ltd, School of Health & Social Sciences, University of Middlesex, Queensway, Enfield EN3 4S, phone/fax: + 44 (0) 20 8411 2460, e-mail k.khan@mdx.ac.uk
Evidence Supporting Race Equality Changes in Human Resources– Level Three Plus: action points on race equality objectives pioneered in the London Borough of Lewisham by Neville Adams
|
Equality Objective |
Evidence and Evidence Sources |
|
Race equality Targets |
Acceptance and understanding at key managerial levels that targets are the numerical expression of outcomes reflecting fundamental equality changes in the core of the organisation’s employment policies, procedures and processes (Interviews with managers, management meeting minutes, element of relevant training component) |
|
Defining problem – sub-objective |
Equality action plan approved at senior management and member levels which includes (Relevant senior management meeting minutes, committee agenda and minutes): ¨ Equality change objectives set for way in which equality objectives identified, programmed, implemented, monitored, reviewed and evaluated, re-programmed (Equality action plan, publicity material, agenda, minutes of consultative meetings with visible minorities groups and employees, interviews with said) Specifically then for employment the following: ¨ Human Resources (HR) policy and strategy approved at senior management and member levels with explicit equality component (HR Strategy and Policy, minutes from senior management meeting, committee agenda and minutes, interviews with said) ¨ Relevant organisational changes to reflect this which include commitment to and/or work on ensuring that there is a structural communicative interface with visible minorities groups (Report on organisational changes, union negotiation meeting minutes, HR Policy and Strategy, minutes from meetings with visible minorities, interviews with visible minorities) ¨ Consultation and participation objectives and work to reflect this (HR Policy and Strategy) Equality targets policy approved at member level based on under representation as defined in relation to the proportion of economically active visible minorities in the borough (municipality) and as outcome of following action (Equality Targets’ Policy, committee agenda, minutes of committee meeting) |
|
Entering employment – sub-objective |
Equality based, disaggregated recruitment and selection procedure approved at senior management and/or member level specifying key managerial action recruitment and selection (R and S) procedure/manual, minutes of management meeting, committee agenda and minutes) In particular: ¨ Recruitment sources which uses under-representation to target visible minorities (Recruitment and Selection procedure, manual, local press, visible minorities' press, vacancy flyers on notice boards of visible minorities' groups, relevant interviews) ¨ Requirement for job descriptions with clear equality responsibilities; person specifications with same, but also minimum acceptable criteria; and advertisements to reflect this and organisation’s equality commitments (Sample job descriptions and person specifications) ¨ Scrutiny mechanism of above before job(s) advertised (Relevant section, i.e. Human Resources, objective, individual employees’ work programmes, supervision and appraisal notes of said employees) ¨ Mandatory requirement for all managers with recruitment responsibilities to be trained in Recruitment and Selection procedures (Training objectives, senior management meeting minutes, pm, s and appraisal objectives and notes for managers) ¨ As a minimum, equality monitoring of the following elements of Recruitment and Selection: ¨ Recruitment sources (Explicit categories on relevant forms) ¨ Interview and appointment selection processes (explicit categories on relevant forms) |
[1] Chopin I and Niessen J (eds.), The Starting Line and the Incorporation of The Racial Directive into the National Laws Of the EU Member States, CRE / Migration Policy Group, Brussels/London, March 2001.
[2] Race & Drugs Project, Action Points for Change, (1999), T3E [UK]/Middlesex University. This document is available by electronic mail from T3E [UK] on request. Copies may be available in Italian and German from our pilot partners. These partners can also be contacted for assistance. Contact addresses can be provided on request.
[3] This appendix refers to the pioneering work initiated in the London Borough of Lewisham by our Associate, Neville Adams, who has also helped to draft the Action Points document.