Budget equalities submission to the Greater London Authority

Report: 10
Date: 16 October 2003
By: Commissioner

Summary

Each year the Mayor requires that each functional body develop a separate budget submission outlining the rationale and budget to meet their equalities responsibilities. Members are asked to agree the budget submission, which proposes the further development and implementation of those activities that will form the core policy objectives of this Board for the forthcoming year.

A. Recommendations

Members are asked to:

1. Comment on and agree the proposed equalities and diversity policy objectives and associated budget at Appendix 2.
2. Agree the draft equalities and budget submission and refer it to the full Authority at its meeting on 30 October 2003.

B. Supporting information

1. The budget proposed for 2004/05 is £339,000. This includes a growth item of £50,000 proposed to meet the commitment previously agreed by the Board and the Authority to achieve the Local Government Equality Standards. The budget also proposes that there should be some strategic objectives that will direct the work of the Board for the next 2-3 years. This is outlined in Appendix 1a.

2. This committee agreed a work plan in the sum of £289,000 for 2003/04 at its September 2003 meeting. The total budget allocation represents 0.2% of the overall MPS diversity budget and 0.5% of the overall MPA secretariat budget. Appendix 1b . The appendices are attached for members only. They have also been placed on the website and copies are available from the MPA Secretariat (020 7202 0181).

3. Members are asked to consider and agree the proposals outlined in the attached equalities budget. The work areas outlined in the budget submission reflects the strategic equalities objectives discussed in agenda item 6a.

Strategic equalities objectives and proposed budget

4. The proposed strategic objectives and priorities are:

1. Priority One: Race Equality Scheme – to achieve progress against all the arrangements and measures outlined in the Scheme, and to review and update for publication by May 2005.
2. Priority Two: Best Value of Equalities Service Improvement Plan – to progress and continually monitor the achievement of each of the recommendations, and to establish those structures and processes necessary to deliver on the Service Improvement Plan.
3. Priority Three: Equalities budget and performance monitoring –to overview and monitor the equalities budget spend and performance of the MPA and the MPS.
4. Priority Four: MPA/MPS internal Diversity Application and Monitoring to monitor all aspects of the Internal Audit report and progress against each recommendation.
5. Priority Five: The Equality Standard for Local Government – to achieve Level 5 of the Equalities Standard by 2005. In July 2003, members confirmed this commitment and set an initial target to achieve Level 3 of the Standard by 2004.
6. Priority Six: MPS Diversity Strategy and Key Strategic - to monitor the MPS performance and practices as set out in the Diversity Strategy, and the supporting action plans, including the local diversity plans.

Proposed Budget Expenditure

Recommendation 61 – Rollout

5. Over the period of this budget report, the MPA will be taking decisions on the boroughs in which Recommendation 61 will be rolled out, following the Home Secretary’s decision that full implementation will take place by 2005. This will lead to an increased responsibility for the MPA to meet the requirements of Recommendation 63.

6. In 2003/04, £10,000 was allocated to this activity, however to date £32,000 has been spent for 380,000 of the ‘know your rights’ leaflets and information cards. This included the printing of about 130,000 of the MPA leaflets and cards in different community languages. The level of interests in these cards remains high and phased roll-out of Recommendation 61 will increase the Authority’s responsibility to get this information in the public domain. There will also be the need to get posters and other types of information to those groups that are more likely to be impacted by the Recommendation. The current indicative combined budget of £50,000 (shown in Appendix 1a, item 4 and 5) should be able to meet the basic public information requirements in 2004/05.

7. The need for extra of resources for this work has been raised with the Home Secretary’s Lawrence Steering Stop and Search Sub group and representations will be made through that group for Home Office funding to support the implementation of Recommendation 61. The outcome of any decision may not be known until the new year. However, if this is successful, the Authority and the MPS may be able to access additional funding for this area of work.

Local Government Equalities Standard

8. The decision to work towards achieving level 5 of the Equality Standard by 2005 will place a heavy demand on the staffing resource in the CDO Unit, and it is almost certain that we will incur expenditure for contracting consultants to progress aspects of the work. This is likely to be in the region of £500-£750 per day. Assuming a need for up to 60 days work to enable the Authority to undertake the basic work that will be needed in preparation for achieving Level 3 of the standard by the end of 2003, the likely cost will be around £50,000 (Appendix 2, para 8).

9. The indicative budget of £50,000, which represents a growth item, will not be able to be funded within the budget provision for 2004/05. Arrangements have however, been made for this budget to be found within the MPA secretariat budget by re-assessing the categorisation of spend within the consultation budget.

Local Race Equality Scheme Monitoring and Partnership

10. The local RES budget for 2002/03 was £80,000 of which approximately £40,000 was actually spent due to the late implementation of the agreements with Race Equality Councils and other partners. The level of partnership is likely to increase in the coming year. Many of these partners are voluntary and community organisations, who expect the MPA to provide a small amount of funding to increase and support their capacity to undertake work on its behalf. The current indicative budget is a small reduction on 2003/04 and represents the actual spend that is anticipated in this area in support of local scrutiny.

Race Hate Crime Forum

11. Recent research carried out by the Home Office on the MPS and the Race Hate Forum has indicated that the performance on the monitoring of Race Hate Crime varies considerably.

12. The BME Cracking Crime Project, which was funded by the Government Office for London has similarly identified that CDRPs are relatively ineffective in monitoring race and equal opportunities and in engaging with BME communities and groups. The MPA is aware that almost 50% of the racial incident panels that have assumed the responsibility for some monitoring of local racial incidents do not have an established reporting relationship with the local CDRP.

13. The RHC forum which is represented by the key statutory voluntary and criminal justice agencies is the only co-ordinating forum in London that has the responsibility to progress the important area of work and research to establish how other RIP is funded is underway by forum.

14. The budget allocated for 2004/5 of £30k (Appendix 1a, column 2) is a slight increase on the previous year’s budget and reflects the increased work which the forum will undertake. The budget does not reflect the contribution from the other partner agencies which will not be known until 2004. This will be presented to the Board once confirmation has been received.

Gender issues

15. An increased allocation, within the overall budget envelope has been allocated to gender issues. This is to reflect a specific requirement of the GLA and the implementation of the level 5 standard that will require the MPA to progress this as well as the other equality areas.

Budget management

16. It is difficult to envisage that the EODB will have the capacity to take on any new work other than that specified. Should such new work arise, the Board will need to carefully consider which aspect of the work programme will not be progressed so that this can be accommodated. The Lead Policy Officer, in consultation with the Clerk and the Chair of the EODB will continually review the budget expenditure to keep the Board informed and updated.

C. Equality and diversity implications

The essence of this paper is on equalities and diversity implications for the MPA and MPS.

D. Financial implications

The budget proposal for 2004/05 is £339,00 inclusive of the growth budget of £50,000 to fund the work to achieve the Local Government Equality Standards. It Is anticipated that this sum will be contained within existing overall MPA budget.

E. Background papers

• Race Equality Scheme
• Local Government Equality Standard
• MPA Service Improvement Plan
• Internal Audit recommendations
• Mayor’s office recommendations arising from 2002/03-budget equalities submission

F. Contact details

Report author: Julia Smith, MPA.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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