Special FEATURE Subscribe for free here: Edition LAUNCH OF THE quarterly.blog.gov.uk CIVIL SERVICE DIVERSITY #CSQuarterly AND INCLUSION STRATEGY IMPROVING DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS RACE DISPARITY AUDIT 2 CIVIL SERVICE QUARTERLY Special Edition – November 2017 CONTENTS DIVERSITY + INCLUSION = A BRILLIANT Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service 4 CIVIL SERVICE WHY INCLUSION IS FOR EVERYONE – AND Jazz Bhogal, Deputy Director, Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion 10 WHY I WANT YOU TO PUT ME OUT OF A JOB DIGITISING THE GOVERNMENT’S ETHNICITY Zamila Bunglawala, Deputy Director, and Marcus Bell, Director, 16 DATA: THE RACE DISPARITY AUDIT Race Disparity Unit, Cabinet Office DIVERSITY IN PUBLIC APPOINTMENTS Chris Skidmore MP, Minister for the Constitution 18 INTERVIEW: SELVIN BROWN Selvin Brown, MBE, Director, Engagement and Policy, Health and 20 Safety Executive DIVERSITY CASE STUDIES: Rosie Melville / Andrew Wright / Zebedee Nartey / Katherine Toomey 23 Civil Service Quarterly opens up the CONTACT US EDITORIAL BOARD Civil Service to greater collaboration [email protected] Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary, and challenge, showcases Room 317, 70 Whitehall, Department of Health (chair) excellence and invites discussion. If London, SW1A 2AS the Civil Service is to be truly world- Chris Skidmore, Minister for the Constitution leading, it needs to collaborate Read the magazine online Alex Aiken, Executive Director, more, learn from experts outside and subscribe for free – Government Communications quarterly.blog.gov.uk the Civil Service, listen more to David Halpern, Chief Executive, the public and front-line staff and EDITORIAL TEAM Behavioural Insights Team respond to new challenges with Clare Moriarty, Permanent Secretary, Adam Thorndike, Cabinet Office innovation and boldness. Department for Environment, Food [email protected] Any civil servant can write for and Rural Affairs Civil Service Quarterly – contact Simon Holder, Cabinet Office Sir Richard Lambert, Chairman, [email protected] [email protected] Board of Trustees, British Museum Bethan Godwin, Cabinet Office Cover: DESIGN102 John Pullinger, National Statistician [email protected] and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Fiona Richards, Cabinet Office, Authority [email protected] Sam Beckett, Acting Head, Government Economic Service Sheena Craig, Cabinet Office, [email protected] Charles Roxburgh, Director General, Financial Services, HM Treasury Thanks to Lily Clayton, Department of Health Jill Rutter, Programme Director, The GCS Design Centre Institute for Government DESIGN BY DESIGN102 Philip Rycroft, Permanent Secretary, Contact us at: Sanita Bajwa, Creative Designer Department for Exiting the European Union, [email protected] and Second Permanent Secretary, Head of www.design102.co.uk UK Governance Group, Cabinet Office CIVIL SERVICE QUARTERLY 3 Special Edition – November 2017 EDITORIAL Sue Owen, Permanent Secretary, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Champion As Civil Service Diversity & This autumn we launched a new, Inclusion Champion and straight more ambitious, Civil Service ally of our LGBTI community, I’m Diversity and Inclusion strategy, delighted to welcome you to this which recognises that a truly special Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) inclusive culture is essential for edition of Civil Service Quarterly. diversity initiatives to succeed. I In the Civil Service we are guarantee you that these issues aiming to be the UK’s most generate the most passionate inclusive employer by 2020, so discussions among my Permanent that everyone who works here Secretary colleagues. But we feels valued, supported and need civil servants at all levels able to be themselves, and in to commit to this strategy: we turn bring their best to their know from the People Survey role. I know I speak not only for that behaviours that leave myself but on behalf of all our people feeling excluded are Permanent Secretary Diversity often demonstrated by their line Champions when I say I’m really managers or a colleague. proud of the progress to date, If you only do one thing as a particularly in becoming more result of reading this edition of representative of the population Civil Service Quarterly, I would we serve. Equally, we can’t ask you to read the new D&I underestimate the importance of strategy. Then, ask yourselves embedding diversity and inclusion what is it that you can do to in everything we do. A diverse create an inclusive culture where workforce is unarguably a good you work, and what changes – thing, but only when combined even apparently small ones – with an inclusive culture will it could make the big differences enable our people to achieve their in your daily working lives. full potential and deliver better services and outcomes for those we serve. Sue Owen, Permanent Secretary, Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Let us know what you think by email ([email protected]) or on Twitter #CSQuarterly 4 CIVIL SERVICE QUARTERLY Special Edition – November 2017 DIVERSITY + INCLUSION = A BRILLIANT CIVIL SERVICE Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, on how the the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy will help us reach our ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020. diverse and inclusive organisations perform better1 and have happier people. As an example, such organisations deliver better outcomes in customer-facing roles, in Jobcentres and on our borders, for example, where they are serving people from a wide variety of different backgrounds. Joanna Parry’s work (as an Entry Clearance Officer in Pretoria, South Africa) on the RESPECT programme for increasing understanding of different ethnicities, as well as collaborating to achieve a common goal, won her the 2016 Civil Service Championing Inclusion Award. RESPECT has already been rolled out across the UK visa network in Africa. Welcome to this special edition of why we civil servants should CSQ. I am delighted to contribute, be a diverse group. A national Diversity is because delivery of real and institution like the Civil Service, measurable improvement in which aspires to serve the whole being invited diversity and inclusion (D&I) is one country, must look like the country of my top priorities as Head of the it serves. Society should see in its to the party; Civil Service. public servants a faithful reflection As an organisation we have the of itself, in all its diversity. We inclusion is – unashamedly – ambitious aim of should always be looking to hire making the Civil Service the UK’s and to give opportunities to the being asked to most inclusive employer by 2020. best, most hard-working, most Elsewhere in this edition you will dedicated people we can attract, dance. find detailed accounts of some irrespective of background, and to of the practical steps the Civil ensure that all feel accepted and Diversity and inclusion is not Service is taking – and some of the valued in their workplace. There just about external factors, but challenges we face – in realising is a moral imperative here. about differences in thought and this ambition, including our new Second, it’s clear that diversity outlook. We artificially narrow our Diversity & Inclusion Strategy. I by itself is not enough. It’s not vision and our understanding of want to take this opportunity to just that we need to recruit more the world if we surround ourselves examine why diverse and inclusive people from underrepresented only with people who look and workplaces are so important – groups. We also have to ensure think like us. This will tend to particularly for the Civil Service. that everyone who works in the produce ‘Groupthink’: conclusions Civil Service feels supported, that reflect a shared, closed A FAITHFUL REFLECTION respected and able to contribute to outlook. The evidence shows that their best. Elsewhere in this edition, diversity – of background, of life We need to be more comfortable Jazz Bhogal quotes an American experience – creates challenge, talking about diversity and inclusion diversity advocate: “Diversity is provokes thought and encourages and recognise that greater diversity being invited to the party; inclusion change and innovation if it is benefits us all. is being asked to dance.” free to flourish in an inclusive First, there is an existential reason There is plenty of evidence that environment. This is because CIVIL SERVICE QUARTERLY 5 Special Edition – November 2017 it allows different insights – that shows diversity making a tell us that our employees can have especially valuable in tackling positive difference to a team’s very different lived experiences the sort of complex, ambiguous performance, other findings show in their work environments. For problems that government faces that it makes no difference, and example, civil servants with a every day. And it produces better other evidence again that it can disability are less likely to say advice to ministers and better actually be detrimental, when it is they are treated fairly at work, decisions – better because they not coupled with inclusion or an compared to those without a are more attuned to the needs and inclusive culture. disability; and those who are both interests of all groups. A government that works from an ethnic minority and LGBO Quite simply, we are cutting for everyone, should be a (lesbian, gay, bisexual or other)2 ourselves off from a rich source of government (and a Civil Service) say they have experienced a higher talented people if we don’t appeal where anyone, whatever their level of discrimination in the last to, attract, retain and engage staff background, can expect to feel year compared to heterosexual from all corners of society. I want valued and respected, and go as staff. These are unacceptable the Civil Service to be a true engine far as their ability will take them. differences and highlight that of social mobility in Britain. We are This means from top to bottom of increasing diversity needs to addressing this in a variety of ways, the organisation.