Agenda item

To consider the achievements to date, including:

-          Set up of central HR May 2018

-          Diversity Policy Statement in HR Policies

-          COLAT Recruitment & Selection Policy – Equality of Opportunity for roles, ability to positively discriminate based on gender and ethnicity

-          In the past 12 months HR have managed seven grievances/complaints regarding racism

-          Principal/Headteacher presentation regarding Equality Act

-          Staffing ethnicity data collated on SIMs and EPM data bases

-          Leadership ethnicity data collated

-          Publish Gender Pay Gap report, no requirement yet to publish ethnicity pay gap data

-          Key HR Policies still to develop: Protection from Harassment at Work, and Equality & Diversity Policy

Trustees considered the achievements of the City of London Academies Trust in the areas of people, equalities and inclusion to date and the following points were noted:

• The CoLAT Central Team had a well-established Human Resources function which had embedded best practice people, equalities and inclusion processes across the Trust.  This included the annual publishing of a gender pay gap report which was a legal requirement, and the development of policies and statements which supported equality of opportunity and the building of a diverse workforce across the Trust.  Future areas of development included improved data collection of leadership and staff information to support the Trust in achieving its people, equalities and inclusion aspirations.  It was also planned to develop further HR policies in a number of key strands including Protection from Harassment at Work and an Equality and Diversity Policy.

• In considering the achievements to date, the Chair observed that the Public Sector Equalities Duty was very broad.  It was likely that the initial focus of the People, Equalities and Inclusion Committee would be the Trust’s duty to its staff, but going forward, it may be the Committee would review how individual academies were meeting the requirements of the Public Sector Equalities Duty to their students with a view to ensuring a consistent approach was being taken by academies across the Trust.  A Trustee noted that over the past three years, the Trust had expanded in size by 25%; however, HR resourcing remained the same and additional resources might need to be agreed to drive necessary change.

RESOLVED, that the achievements of the City of London Academies Trust in the areas of people, equalities and inclusion to date be noted.