The UK government has this week launched its Inclusive Britain strategy, which sets out 70 actions to crackdown on racial disparities, boost opportunities for ethnic minorities and promote fairness in society.
Upon publishing the strategy, the government said that its purpose was to tackle racial and ethnic disparities, ensure fairness and build on the Levelling Up White Paper which set out government plans for the even distribution of opportunities across the UK.
The Inclusive Britain strategy comes as the ministerial response to the independent report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. That report set out 24 recommendations to tackle ethnic disparities, which the government says its strategy meets and even surpasses.
Indeed, within the Inclusive Britain strategy is a new action plan to build what ministers say will be a “fairer and more inclusive society”.
Equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, commented: “The Inclusive Britain Action Plan sets out how we are going to tackle the racial and ethnic disparities that persist in the UK. We have laid out more than 70 concrete actions which will practically improve people’s lives. I strongly believe that Britain is the fairest and most open-minded country in the world, but there is more we can do to foster inclusion and enable everyone to reach their full potential.
“We are building trust through improving police scrutiny, promoting fairness in the workplace with new evidence-based resources that work, tackling serious youth violence which disproportionately affects certain communities, and fostering inclusion by designing a new Model History Curriculum telling the story of the making of modern Britain.
“The causes behind racial disparities are complex and often misunderstood. Our new strategy is about action, not rhetoric and will help create a country where a person’s race, social or ethnic background is no barrier to achieving their ambitions.”
Tony Sewell, the chair of the Commission for Race and Ethnic Disparities, added: “When the Commission began its work in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, we set out to examine the evidence and root causes for the disparities faced particularly by ethnic minorities and offer solutions to the government to address them. The government’s response, Inclusive Britain, does just that.
“This is a major step towards a fairer, more open and more inclusive society and, importantly, focuses on the practical actions that will improve people’s lives. We all should throw our weight behind this strategy so we can build a better society for all.”
Levelling Up secretary, Michael Gove, also said that the Inclusive Britain Action Plan was “fundamental” to the government’s ambitions and would address the “root causes of racial disparities and ensure equality of opportunity for all”.
Among the 70 actions in the Inclusive Britain Action Plan are the following:
Establish a diverse panel of historians to develop a new Model History Curriculum by 2024;
Work with a new panel of academics and businesspeople to promote fairness in the workplace;
Form a new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities which is now working to improve health for everyone following the disparities exposed during Covid;
Develop a new, national framework for how the use of police powers are scrutinised at a local level in order to enhance trust and strengthen relations between police forces and the communities they serve;
Pilot an automatic ‘opt-in’ to help ethnic minorities and others receive the legal advice they need when in police custody;
Issue guidance to employers on how to measure and report on differences in pay between people of different ethnicities so businesses can identify and address disparities;
Publish a new White Paper on tackling health disparities to ensure government has a plan in place to help everyone live longer, healthier and happier lives;
Set out a plan for boosting literacy and numeracy standards for the most disadvantaged pupils in school;
Develop regulatory standards and guidance to address potential racial bias in artificial intelligence [AI] so that everyone is able to benefit from the new AI economy;
Deploy a new in-work support offer to every Jobcentre from April 2022 with 37 new specialist progression champions to support working claimants to climb the career ladder, addressing ethnic pay disparities;
Work with industry to collect data on ethnicity of business owners applying for finance, plus a new HSBC scheme to support more ethnic minorities to become entrepreneurs;
Improve adoption matching for children of ethnic minority backgrounds with a new approach to data sharing and collection, and a children’s commissioner led review into support for families;
Empower more grassroots, ethnic minority-led and specialist, voluntary or community sector organisations to provide rehabilitative services;
Reform public sector training on diversity and inclusion to ensure it is more evidence-based, impartial and inclusive;
Prevent young people entering a cycle of crime by using more out of court disposals to deal with first-time drug users and therefore freeing up more police time to pursue criminal gangs supplying drugs;
Introduce new legislation with the Online Safety Bill to tackle racist abuse online.
The government has said that many of the pledges outlined in the Inclusive Britain Action Plan are already being addressed, including the formation of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and several trialling schemes to help divert youngsters from ethnic minority communities away from criminality.
Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
