'Mainstreaming Ethnic Minorities into the Government's Policy and Practice'

Mainstreaming can be defined as the integration of equalities principles, strategies and practices into the everyday decision making processes of Government and other public bodies. It leads to better-informed policy making and it helps to tackle the democratic deficit by encouraging wider participation in the policy process through effective consultation mechanisms.

Race Equality Audit

NICEM has developed a 'Race Equality Audit' as a first step for standard setting on race equality in Northern Ireland. It is also a process for mainstreaming ethnic minorities into government's policy and planning processes. With financial support from the Race Equality Directorate of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland we will further develop the audit in the following areas:

1. Revise the Audit; and
2. Develop the Performance Indicators in six functional areas, namely Policy and Planning; Service Delivery and Development; Community Participation; Positive Action Initiatives; Diversity of Workforce; and Communication and Marketing of the Audit.

We have also set up a national working group to use the Audit as the base-line national standard with representation from 1990 Trust, Runnymede Trust, Commission for Racial Equality, Race Equality Directorate of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and the Race Advisor of the Greater London Authority.

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Race Directive and Single Equality Bill for Northern Ireland

NICEM has been active in the Starting Line Group, which is a pan-European network of legal experts, academics and NGOs. The group has been a key force in lobbying in relation to the EU Race Directive and the experience gained from working at that level has stood NICEM in good stead to ensure that local legislation reflects EU requirements.

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Promotion of Social Inclusion Working Group (PSI Working Group)

As part of the Government's programme on Targeting Social Needs, a PSI Working Group on Ethnic Minority People (an inter-departmental working group) was established. NICEM represents the black and ethnic minority sector on the working group. NICEM was successful in convincing the working group of the need for core funding for the sector and of the need to establish a Race Equality Unit within the OFMDFM (the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister). The Working Group also agreed to set up a long-term inter-departmental working group for ethnic minorities with ethnic minority representation. Its purpose is to review the policies of each core department.

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Section 75 Support Programme for the sector

The workload of Section 75 is gradually increasing as the result of the beginning process of impact assessment. NICEM established the support programme for the sector to enable our member organisations and other minority ethnic groups to participate in all the processes involved in implementing the Equality Duty. We have carried out work in the following areas:

Training and briefing: We have organised the following training programmes for the black and minority ethnic sector in Northern Ireland:

1. Two training sessions on draft Equality Schemes;
2. Three training sessions on Screening Policies;
3. Three training sessions on Impact Assessments

Developing consultation mechanism with public authorities: NICEM has developed a paper on how to consult with the black and ethnic minority sector, which was addressed at the OFMDFM Training seminar on Consultation in December 2000. Based on these consultation principles, we have worked with a number of public authorities on developing effective mechanisms for consulting of the sector, including:

• Direct work with public authorities jointly setting up consultation
  events;
• Attending and arranging meetings with public authorities on the
  Consultation process;
• General discussions and advice both in person and on telephone;
• Raising issue of effective consultation at consultation meetings and
  conferences;
• Assisting public authorities with the running of consultation
  meetings, including as Rapporteur and facilitator, in order to promote
  more effective consultation;
• Making NICEM available to discuss the subject of effective
  consultation and
• Participating in focus groups on effective consultation.

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Challenges/the way ahead:

Much work has been done on s. 75, and it is clear that awareness within the sector has increased in the time the project has been running. However, it is also clear that this is a long process, and involvement is a long-term strategy. Therefore much work still needs to be done. In our last annual report we predicted that the "exhausting and painful exercise" of consultation would hinder and deter the participation of the black and ethnic minority sector. This concern has been borne out. Therefore our work in this area must be on two fronts. Firstly we must work with the public authorities to make the consultation process more effective, in particular making it more accessible and easier to participate in and continue to work with our member organisations to further build on the skills which they have developed in this area.

We need to

• Continue the awareness raising within the sector
• Continue and further develop support for the sector to remain/become more involved in the process
• Further promote collective action on s. 75
• Further disseminate the Equality Duty Resource Pack
• Work with member groups to translate the Resource Pack as part of the further support for the sector
• Identify training needs within the sector and carryout training and/or information sessions.
• Continue the work with the public authorities to promote effective consultation and the implementation of s. 75, particularly those most recently designated under s.75
• Further promote the effective mainstreaming of s.75 in the broader policy context.

Publications: We have produced the following publication to assist the sector to understand Section 75 process:

• A general leaflet on Statutory Duty on Equality;
• A general Flow Chart on the Statutory Equality Duty;
• A specific pamphlet on Equality Schemes and Consultation;
• A specific pamphlet on screening and impact assessment;
• A specific pamphlet on complaints;
  A "Jargon buster", identifying and explaining key terms and concepts used in dealing with Equality Duty;
• Paper on consultation with black and ethnic minority sector;
• A list of useful publications; and
• An up-dated list of black and ethnic minority groups in Northern Ireland

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Ethnic Minority Research Advisory Group

The Research Department of the Equality Unit of the OFMDFM asked NICEM to chair a strategic research advisory group for ethnic minorities. The key function is to advise the government on conducting strategic research on ethnic minority issues. It will include both base-line monitoring data and strategic research on crosscutting themes such as poverty, social exclusion, etc.

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Research Steering Group on Education

NICEM represents the sector in the Education Research Steering Group of the OFMDFM. The research is to identify the educational needs of various age grouping.

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Department of Work and Pension External Steering Group on PAT 15 Research and Development Projects

NICEM represents Northern Ireland in this national Steering Group that is to identify the IT training needs and the barriers to get access to IT training of the minority ethnic community in UK, & Northern Ireland. This is the follow-up work of the Cabinet Office PAT 15 Report in which highlights the issues on the disadvantage position of minority ethnic groups get access to IT training and their needs. The Steering Group has finished the tendering process on three major research projects, namely: 1.The use of and attitudes towards ICTs by people from minority ethnic groups; 2. Supporting access to ICT for black and minority ethnic groups in deprived areas; and 3. Scoping the availability of software in ethnic minority languages.

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RAXAN National Focal Point

The Commission for Racial Equality co-ordinated a joint bidding for the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) RAXAN National Focal Point Project and also acts as secretariat. The joint consortium is made up of the Commission for Racial Equality, Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, Runnymede Trust, 1990 Trust, Council for Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisation (CEMVO) and NICEM. The role of the consortium is to provide information and research data in relation to race issues through a mapping out exercise across UK on who is holding what information.

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