Equality & Diversity in Children & Young People S Services

Equality & Diversity in Children & Young People’s Services

It is because Every Child Matters to Devon County Council, that equality and diversity are important priorities for Children & Young People’s Services and our work across Devon Children’s Trust. We are committed to embedding equality and diversity in our workforce, and in our service design and delivery, and ensuring that the diverse needs of our children, families and communities are met.

Our work on equality and diversity focuses on six key priority areas for improvement to ensure better outcomes for all, taking into account race, ethnic origin, gender, age, disability and sexual orientation. These are:

 Ensuring fair access and better outcomes from inclusive services

 Effective engagement with individual and groups of children and young people from minority backgrounds

 Effective and inclusive commissioning and procurement

 Developing our workforce

 Ensuring safety and tackling harassment and bullying

 Effective data collection and monitoring

As a local authority we are committed to promoting equality and community cohesion for all of our children and families. Our key principles are that:

 We are all of equal value

 We seek to improve the access, participation, achievements and life chances of all children and young people living in Devon.

CYPS Workforce Diversity Data April-September 2008

Summary

Our workforce in CYPS is predominantly white, able bodied and female. There is a significant percentage of women in management roles within CYPS. There are more men working within integrated youth support settings than in early years, and men are over represented when it comes to senior roles in schools, ie head teachers.

Although Black & Minority Ethnic, disabled and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered staff are a small percentage of the workforce, good support mechanisms are in place to help staff make their views and needs heard by senior management. These groups include Excellence Not Excuses (BME network predominantly made up of workers from the children and young people’s sector), LGBT staff network and a network specifically for deaf staff. CYPS Specific Data Profiles

Gender

 79% of non-school staff are female, 21% are male  Of school staff, 71% of teachers are female and 29% are male, compared to support staff (most of whom are part time) where 90% are female and 10% are male  Retention of staff in and out of schools settings is high, and comparable between male and female staff, with an average of 70% of each having worked for three years or over.  Of those appointed at management level between April and September 2008, 54% were male and 46% were female (this was across DCC, no specific CYPS data available)

Ethnicity

 83.8% of all CYPS staff are White, 1.3% are BME, 14.9% are not known  Of teachers in schools, 73.2% are White, 0.7% are BME, 26.1% are unknown  Of support staff in schools, 58.0% are White, 0.3% are BME, 41.8% are unknown  Retention of BME staff is comparable with White staff in schools settings with over 80% of both having worked for three years or more.  This is less in non schools settings, with 65.3% of BME workers having stayed for three or more years, compared with 79.7% of White workers  Of those appointed at management level between April and September 2008, 96.0% were White and 4.0% were BME (this was across DCC, no specific CYPS data available)

Disability

 2.5% of all staff are disabled, 82.4% are not disabled and 15.1% are not known  Of teachers in schools, 0.9% are disabled, 68.9% are not disabled and 30.1% are not known  Of support staff in schools, 0.6% are disabled, 50.8% are not disabled and 48.6% are not known.  Retention of disabled staff in schools is comparable with non-disabled staff, and high at 87% for both working for three years or over.  This is slightly less in non-schools settings with 73.1% staying over three years compared with 79.9% of non-disabled staff  Of those appointed at management level between April and September 2008, 100% had no disability (this was across DCC, no specific CYPS data available) Age

 11% of CYPS staff are aged 16-29 years  22% are aged 30-39  28% are aged 40-49  29% are aged 50-59  10% are aged 60+

Of these, the highest percentage age range for teachers appointed between April and September 2008 was 16-29 (41%) Of appointed non-teaching posts in schools, the highest percentage age range was 40-49 (36%) Of appointed non-schools posts, the highest percentage age range was 40-49 (31%)

Retention of staff who have worked for three years or over by age grouping is highest between those aged 40-49 (74.0%) and 50-59 (86.1%)

Top Tier of Full Time Earners

 The total % of our Top 5 % of women FTE earners (excluding schools) is 39.50%  The total % of our Top 5 % of BME FTE earners (including schools) is 0.90%  The total % of our Top 5 % of disabled FTE earners (including schools) is 1.87% (These figures include the whole DCC workforce) Ensuring Inclusion – Targeted Services for Vulnerable Children & Young People

The vast majority of children and young people in Devon experience a high quality of life. For some children extra help is needed.

Ensuring that the needs of diverse groups are met is integral to our work, and to do this we seek the views of children, young people and families to help design, develop and deliver our services.

Black & Minority Ethnic Children & Young People/Children of Mixed Heritage

In Devon the highest number of BME children accessing early years provision are from Eastern Europe and of mixed heritage. In total BME children make up just under 2% of all of those accessing services. The largest group of children referred to the English as an Additional Language Service in 2008 were Polish.

Our English as an Additional Language service regularly gathers service user feedback on the impact that their projects and services provide. This information is then used to develop further projects, eg the Youth Cultural Champions project.

Planet Rainbow is a project for children of mixed heritage and their families. It has worked with families across Devon and is currently undertaking a research project on mixed heritage and rurality. It has worked with our English as an Additional Language Team to produce a training resource called ‘Skin Deep’ for use in schools and other settings, where children and families talk about their experiences of living in Devon.

(See Appendix 1)

Racist Bullying in Schools

The number of reports of racist bullying in schools is low. Of those incidents that we know about, the majority of children who experience racist bullying in school are male. Almost a fifth of racist bullying incidents involve physical violence.

However, despite this BME children and young people in Devon do not show significant disadvantage in levels of school attainment, exclusions from school, or representation in the criminal justice system. Some schools take a pro-active approach to dealing with racist bullying, such as developing the Youth Cultural Champions programme, which is a peer education and support project working in schools to teach children about different religions and cultural backgrounds Gypsy Roma Travellers

Just over half of all Traveller children attending school in Devon are of Gypsy Roma descent. 300 new pitches must be allocated in Devon for Traveller families in the next year.

GRT and other traveller groups are accessed through our Traveller Achievement Service and through Devon Racial Equality Council. Recent work has included a DVD training package for schools, developed and delivered by GRT mothers in classroom settings, enabling children to explore prejudice and stereotypes and the impact these can have on children’s health and well being.

Children with Disabilities/Additional Needs

Person centred planning is used as the key means of ensuring that the voice of young people with disabilities and additional needs are heard in all areas of their lives, including the development of school strategies, and wider service design and delivery. While this is currently focused on young people in transition (year 9/age 14 upwards) the aim is for all young people with additional needs to have person centred plans (including children in care). This is especially important for those young people who are undergoing a transition if any sort e.g from primary to secondary school or in and out of hospital, and in future person centred plans will underpin the Stepping Stones inclusive education model. Ellen Tinkham School have worked to develop a ‘Core Promise’ of person centred schools which are designed to ensure that the voice of even the most complex young people is heard.

Deaf Children & Young People & Devon Music Service

We have a project that is working to establish an orchestra for deaf children in Devon. This is ongoing and activity days have been held in various schools. Feedback from participants has been very positive, and the project has culminating in a Celebration Concert for the children involved. The service has been described as ‘good with outstanding features’ in a recent evaluation.

(See Appendix 2)

Children with Additional Needs – Support & Advisory Teacher Service

Children have reported 97% satisfaction with the whole Support and Advisory Teacher Service. Young deaf people from Devon recently took part in a national British Sign Language conference in Bristol. Young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered People

Nationally, 6 out of 10 lesbian and gay schoolchildren experience homophobic bullying and 50% of those contemplate killing themselves as a result of this.

Through our integrated youth support service we offer support to young lbgt people via the ‘X-Plore’ youth group. This group meets on a Thursday evening and has just been awarded funding to provide a peer education programme for schools on dealing with homophobic bullying.

We also support telephone advocacy and support for children and adults via the Intercom Trust helpline.

Young LGBT people who are in care are actively supported through our participation service to take part in the CiC Council. One young man recently spoke about his experience of being gay at the launch of the Devon Sexual Health Policy for Children in Care.

Jeanie Lynch – Lead Officer – Equality & Diversity

Children & Young People’s Services Appendix 1

English as an Additional Language Service/Planet Rainbow

“SKIN DEEP” – A Unique New Resource Exploring Racist Bullying and Issues For Mixed Heritage Families

Performance indicators . To improve race equality, reduce bullying and prejudice/racism affecting BME and EAL students and families in early years settings and schools. . To increase the number of schools with a suitable environment for the learning needs of BME and EAL CYP and improved community cohesion. . To ensure integration of children from asylum seeker/refugee families or unaccompanied children.

Quality and Improvement How often do teachers feel uneasy addressing racist bullying in schools? How often do they need support within the classroom to approach, professionally, this essential area of learning for all pupils?

Teachers realise how difficult it often is to give students the right opportunities to explore racist stereo-typical views and reflect on and address these sensitive issues within their own lives and experiences. But teachers also realise how essential it is to provide those opportunities to promote Community Cohesion!

Devon’s English as an Additional Language Service, in collaboration with Professor Chris Gaine and Planet Rainbow Project, has recently devised resources to provide just such support to late KS2 and early KS3 teachers - a resource to help address issues of racist bullying and stereotyping with pupils and to help them understand some of the issues for Black and Mixed Heritage families in the UK today. This resource provides support to ensure positive attitude change to all class pupils thus providing value for money.

“Skin Deep” is a collection of eleven dialogues, based on real-life issues highlighted during parent and child consultations in Devon. The dialogues use the up-to-date language and contexts students are familiar with. Some dialogues occur in the characters’ bedrooms, their school playground or even on a computer chat room They give the teacher a structure to help engage and inspire the students to examine their feelings and actions and consider larger issues and values:-

“The play (dialogue) is about how people feel and that people can get hurt by what you say. It was also about do not judge people by how they look on the outside” This comment was made by a Devon KS2 pupil during the school trialling of the resource and further comments included:- “I felt upset because I don’t like bullying – I was bullied once” The beautifully illustrated student booklet can be used for Literacy work as a guided reader or each dialogue can be used as a stand alone text- small enough to discuss in the safety of a tutor group perhaps - to help students to a deeper understanding of what racist bullying is, how to prevent it and what to do when it happens. A website – www.skin-deep.org – also introduces the characters in their settings and some dialogues are reproduced on the site. The extensive teachers’ notes begin with an introduction by Professor Gaine and look closely at each dialogue. They acknowledge their themes, context and key outcomes while also supplying the teacher with prompt questions to encourage discussion in the classroom. Each dialogue has a selection of follow-up activities, many that are closely aligned with Primary SEAL material and talk of specific activities within eg. “It’s Good To Be Me” or “Say No To Bullying”

Professor Chris Gaine sums up the challenge for schools and teachers when he says:-

“… it helps to discuss it (race and ethnicity) frankly, not recite clichés from newspapers nor retain an anxious silence. Courage is undoubtedly needed, not least the courage to make mistakes, but the challenge of diversity will not be met in schools who hide in cultural and racial blindness as a solution” Gaine C. (2006) “We’re All White, Thanks” Trentham Books

No longer can teachers shy away from discussing these sensitive issues in their classrooms. The curriculum at both KS2 and KS3 encourages responsible citizenship and schools and Governors are duty bound to promote Community Cohesion. The DCSF guidance on this duty declares that:- “schools build community cohesion by promoting equality of opportunity and inclusion for different groups of pupils within a school. But alongside this focus on inequalities and a strong respect for diversity, they also have a role in promoting shared values and encouraging their pupils to actively engage with others to understand what they hold in common.”

“Skin Deep” attempts to support teachers in this work but also endeavours to engage all students in a creative and appealing way.

USER INVOLVEMENT AND VIEWS  Consultation was held with parents of Planet Rainbow, a Mixed Heritage support group in Exeter, around Mixed Heritage issues - Mums and Dads came along and gave their views  Consultation with the children of the Planet Rainbow Project was carried out through the medium of Art. Several boys attended and illustrated the difficulties that were present in their lives  Further work was done in a Secondary School where one Mixed Heritage Dad was Head of the RE Department. His personal experiences of racism, told in an interview, are to be included in the planned DVD along with classroom discussions with a predominantly male Year 10 group.

Integration and Benefits  Teachers have spoken of the benefits of using this resource as a starting point for discussion with their pupils  The resource boosts confidence and allows pupils to ask the questions that adults often don't want to  It gives a framework and consistency of language / terminology that supports teachers when tackling sensitive subjects

Youth Cultural Champions Programme

The Programme

The Youth Cultural Champions Programme was an innovative programme led by Devon’s English as an Additional Language Service, in collaboration with Devon Development Education and supported by Sue Clarke, Strategic Lead for Achievement through Collaboration

Performance Indicators

(i) To increase the number of schools with a suitable environment for the learning needs of BME and EAL CYP and improved Community Cohesion (ii) To improve access to curriculum through increased language skills for EAL pupils and greater alignment with the National Strategy (iii) To ensure integration of children from asylum seeker / refugee families or unaccompanied children

Value For Money

The Programme has been received enthusiastically by schools and efforts are continuing to make it sustainable. A further workshop was held recently at St. James School Exeter where the older YCCs trained ten new recruits to take their places when exam curriculum began to impinge on their time. Also a DVD is in the process of being developed –to outline the processes and benefits so schools can construct a programme to suit individual needs

Quality and Improvement

The Programme is important as it’s purpose is to train young minority ethnic students to become ambassadors for their cultures. The programme provides opportunities:-  For the Youth Cultural Champions (YCC) to talk about their language, home country, religion and customs with a variety of audiences – their peers, students in feeder primary schools, new students at transition days, parents and interested adults, staff from other schools and British Council representatives, County Councillors and Learning Community clusters, all in a variety of venues  To roll out the format to other schools and become a valuable part of KS3 work in schools.  To raise awareness of the variety of backgrounds and cultures of Devon pupils and help schools fulfil their duty to promote Community Cohesion, by celebrating cultural differences

 To raise the profile of all minority ethnic pupils and particularly to raise the confidence, self-esteem and achievement of the Youth Cultural Champions themselves, through curriculum-embedded activities - the presentation skills gained fitted closely with their KS3 curriculum - eg Oral elements of GCSE - English syllabus / Social & Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) / Geography / Citizenship / ICT research skills

Background

 Thirteen Black Minority Ethnic, Mixed Heritage and young people with English as an Additional Language (EAL), from two Central Devon schools, St. James Exeter and Coombeshead Community College, came together in February 2008 for 2 whole - day workshops at the Global Education Centre in Exeter.  Another round of workshops was carried out in the Spring Term in North Devon, involving Pilton Community School, Park School and Bideford College. Here seven more students became Youth Cultural Champions. All schools were originally selected as they were feeder schools to Primaries involved with Devon’s participation in the National Strategies “Black Children’s Achievement Programme”  The selection criteria, so the students would gain as much as possible from the course, included – the need to have a mixture of genders, cultures and linguistic backgrounds from Years 8&9; a desire and commitment from the students to take part ; a measure of fluency in English (L3 Speaking & Listening EAL Assessment)  The selected students were all from Years 8 & 9, except one who was particularly keen to take part and fulfilled the other selection criteria. They came from diverse backgrounds including the Turkish, Sudanese, Philippines, Pakistani, Polish, Ukrainian, Malaysian, Lithuanian, Mixed Heritage, British Chinese, and British Indian communities  After the workshops the students took their presentations into feeder primary schools as well as a variety of other venues.  Celebratory Certificate Ceremonies at County Hall and Barnstaple Civic Centre were held. Two students provided short presentations for the audience and all attending at County Hall were presented with their certificates by Anne Whitely, Director of Children and Young People’s Services. Those unable to attend received their certificates in their own schools.

Workshops

The aims of the 2 day workshops were to enable the YCC to research, plan and deliver a five minute session within the group. Also they were an opportunity to socialise with the other students and feel comfortable and confident enough to share experiences. The content included practical sessions on presentation planning / games and activities from a variety of cultures / language teaching strategies and work about Equality and Diversity and how to deal with difficult questions.

Integration and Benefits With User Involvement and Views

Impact of Course On Students:- Two of the male students were chosen by their school because of their Mixed Heritage and the fact that they had issues around Identity. They found it difficult to talk about the Heritage of their fathers and the YCC Programme was a means for them to explore their cultural heritage and that of their own fathers. The boys, when asked “what they had learnt from the 2 sessions that they didn’t already know” replied “I’ve learnt about myself and others.” And “ Finding out about my own heritage” One Welsh student was chosen as he had experienced significant racial bullying at school. The Programme highlighted work with boys and Dads.

Consultation questionnaires were completed and returned from all the students who took part and their accompanying members of staff. Here are results from the 13 students in the first round

Qualitative Results

*When asked what “they had learnt from the 2 sessions” comments included:- “I learnt a lot about other people’s cultures and it is special to be different” “About different countries, there religion and there personalities” “Doing presentation, different culture” “About different cultures, and Racism help”

“I made lots of new friends, I found confident and also I learnt about other peoples culture / customs and also some different languages (actually there are lots of them) really really brilliant” “How to do a successful presentation” “I learned to be confident I met new friends. I lernd different countries” “I know a lot of things about other people’s cultures and how to support them and not to laugh about their culture and I have made new friends”

*When asked how to explain being a Youth Cultural Champion before the sessions, the students gave no explanations and obviously had no idea what it meant. After the sessions explanations included:- “I would say it was a very fun experience” “That I am a student that came from another country, have 2 culturals” “A cultural champion is some-one who can explain their culture” “Whel I love to tell about my countri And I love the faces of the people when they tried are food” “It was great making presentations and to learn to respect other cultures”

*When asked to describe the 2 day sessions to someone at school, comments included:- “I love to present my own country” “We were taught how to be more confident and we got new friends” “We was talking about our contries, culturas, languages. We played games, made presentations” “I would describe it as very fun when you miss 2 days at school at the same time you make new friends” “That it was great and wonderful learn new things and meet new friend” “Is amazing and great experience and you’ll meet new friends (Oh and you’ll miss a day off school)”

*When asked if there was anything they would change about the 2 sessions, comments included:-

“No – it was really interesting” “Learn more about making presentations” “Have more fun” “There should be more schools and people there and more about adult cultural champion, show we can learn from them” “More games and group work to meet others” “Well I would like if we could have more then 5 minutes to talk” (during a presentation) “Make it more fun and come more than 2 sessions”

Quantitive Results

*When asked “how much did you enjoy the sessions” (using a continuum from 1 to 6 where 1 meant “very much” and 6 meant “not at all”)

6 students chose “1 very much” 4 students chose “2” 1 student chose “3”

*When asked about their preferred activities during the course :

7 students chose “making new friends” as their first choice 1 student chose “giving my own presentation” as first choice 1 student chose “self – portrait making” as first choice 2 students did not complete the form

* When asked about how confident they felt about doing their presentations in front of pupils in other schools (using a continuum from 1 to 6 where 1 meant “very confident” and 6 meant “not at all confident”

2 students chose “1 – very confident” 6 students chose “2 or 3” 3 students chose “4 or 5”

No students chose “6 - not at all confident” and 1 of the least confident students was the second to actually volunteer to do their presentation in a school

General Interpretations Of the Consultation

 All the students enjoyed the course and made positive comments  The students gained confidence and generally felt able to attempt their presentations  Changes for the future included the need to extend the length of the course and open it up to more schools

Impact of Presentations:-

*When asked “how interesting, for your pupils, was the presentation” (using a continuum from 1 to 6 where 1 was “very interesting” and 6 was “not at all interesting” ) 1 school chose “ 2 – good having visual aids” (Russia & Ukraine at Bearnes School) 1 school chose “1 – very interesting subject – especially from ex- pupils point of view” (Islam at All Saints Marsh School)

*When asked about “what advice you would give to improve the presentations” comments included:- “Only to speak louder, I was aware they were nervous but I was very impressed”

“I thought she did very well and was extremely brave!”

*When asked “How could Youth Cultural Champions be useful in liaising between Primary and Secondary Schools in the future?” comments include:- “As today, to raise awareness of other cultures. Children were impressed that there were children talking about their own countries but they were at their local school”

“Nice to see willing ex-pupil!!”

* At the Bideford Learning Community meeting, the Heads and Deputies identified the main area that they considered needed to be addressed by the YCCs “ taking it to KS1 while they are young” – this fitted in with the schools’ work on Diversity

Impact of Certificate Ceremony on Audience:-

E- mail comments included:-

“I thought the “Youth Cultural Champions” were awesome….The start of a successful program in promoting positive diversity in schools through peer delivery” (Adult Cultural Champion)

“I enjoyed the evening immensely and felt it testimony to both the vision and enormous commitment of all concerned, especially the young people of course” (Devon Curriculum Services – Geography / International Status Adviser)

“Just wanted to say fantastic and well done for last night. It is this sort of work that makes it all worth while” (Devon County Council Lead Officer – Achievement Through Collaboration)

Wider Impact:-

*The impact of this work has been to open up opportunities to discuss the course’ benefits with a wider audience including:-  British Council Conference – international work in schools  Transition work in Learning Communities  A variety of conferences on Citizenship and Inclusion  YCCs were invited and attended a conference to discuss their views for the future of Devon and feedback to County Councillors  Some YCCs presented to an EAL parent evening in their school  Some YCCs are to present at a workshop at Exeter University

*The Youth Cultural Champions were also recently Group Finalists in the Devon Young People’s Achievement Awards of 2008 and 1 student was given an “Excellence In Exeter “award

APPENDIX 2

Programme for the Deaf Youth Orchestra in Devon (Overview)

STAGE ONE

Possible schools to involve:-

Instrument Day 1 @ Bideford College, Bideford Bideford College, Bideford (yr 7 / 8) East-The-Water Community Primary School, Bideford (yr 3 - 6)

Instrument Day 2 @ Royal Acedemy for the Deaf, Exeter Clyst Vale Community College, Broadclyst (yr 7 / 8) Royal Academy for the Deaf, Exeter (yr 3 – 6) / (yr 7 / 8) Countess Wear Community Primary School, Exeter (yr 3 – 6) Honiton Primary School, Honiton (yr 3 – 6)

The instrument days will give the participants a chance to explore a range of instruments and choose which ones they would like to learn in their one to one instrumental lessons.

STAGE TWO

Following the instrument days, one to one instrumental lessons with the peripatetic teachers from the music service will need to be set up for the participants in their schools.

Orchestra rehearsals will need to be organised for the players to learn new pieces and take part in an orchestra. The rehearsals will give the players an opportunity to meet and make new friends as well as share their experiences of music making. The running of the rehearsals will depend on the resources available at the Music Service and the needs of the players. In a typical rehearsal with the West Yorkshire DYO, all the players take part in drumming exercises which is an effective way of learning how to layer numerous parts, to keep in time with one another and to experience playing “as a group”. Following this, the players take part in sectional rehearsals led by instrumental tutors and join together to form the orchestra. MatD has 6 x 2 hour rehearsals per year on Saturdays for the West Yorkshire Deaf Youth Orchestra.

MatD would be delighted to loan “Gods, Goddesses and Magical Creatures” by David Bedford to the Devon Music Service. This was commissioned piece written specifically for the West Yorkshire Deaf Youth Orchestra in 2006. STAGE THREE

A Celebration Concert is a wonderful opportunity for the players to perform in front of friends, teachers and relatives. A concert will also raise public awareness that deaf people do and can enjoy music. Gods, Goddesses and Magical Creatures would be an excellent choice for the premiere performance of the Deaf Youth Orchestra.

Quotes re Devon Youth Service

"Thank you so much - what you would not know is how you all managed to engage some students who have very complex needs" - session @ Exeter Deaf Academy.

"We've had an absolute ball - every child in my class has mentioned how much they enjoyed it in their pupil comment for their report home." "Thank you so much - many of our students do not get the opportunity of playing orchestral instruments and they so loved the experience."