The Equality & Human Rights Commission [EHRC] estimates that the average rate of employment for BME people across the public sector is 8%.Scotland's NHS Boards recently published workforce profiling reports. These are required in order to meet new specific equality duties, with the aim being that the Boards learn from analysing the data they gather and work out how to eliminate discrimination and improve employment chances for people who are recognised as being discriminated against - disabled people, black minority ethnic [BME] people, lesbian, gay & bisexual [LGB] people, and a number of other groups of people sharing what the law describes as 'protected characteristics'.
Research shows that 19 of Scotland's 22 NHS Boards published profiling reports. The other 3 apparently decided to ignore the law. No doubt the EHRC will be on their case.
From the reports which were published, we know that the NHS in Scotland employs 158,326 workers. We also know that 4,164 of them identify themselves as BME - just 2.63% of the workforce. Over 5% short of the average public sector employment rate for BME people.
On the basis of these figures, there appears to be something like 8,500+ BME people missing from the payroll of Scotland's NHS.
When an analysis of performance on race equality reveals that a town the size of Haddington would be needed to
house all the BME people missing from the payroll of the NHS in Scotland, it is
possible to conclude that institutional discrimination in the NHS on the grounds of race contributes
significantly to the scale of those estimated to be missing.
I'm no fan of Salmond but there are some pretty basic errors here. The ethnic minority population of Scotland is 3.7%, England & Wales 12.1%. So comparing the 8% average public sector figure is meaningless. There is a gap in all countries and the gap between population/public sector employment is actually higher in England/Wales.
ReplyDeleteA reading of the report will reveal that most of the NHS Boards make the same mistake - using census data as a benchmark. Few if any NHS Boards will recruit only from within the local geographic boundaries of their areas. Most if not all will attract workers from across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. All of this renders census data of no value in estimating what the proportion of the BME workforce should be if discrimination is eliminated.
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