Race equality document launched

Inclusivity must be at the centre of workforce planning, supporting
and developing staff and service delivery if social care
organisations are to deliver culturally appropriate services that
are fit for the 21st century, Daphne Obang told a policy session
this week, writes Alison Miller in
Newcastle.

The director of social services and housing at Bracknell Forest
and the Association of Directors of Social Services policy
committee lead on inclusivity, was speaking in advance of the
launch tomorrow of Race Equality Through Leadership in Social
Care.

The document produced by the ADSS, the Commission for Social
Care Inspection and the Social Care Institute for Excellence, is to
help social services directors achieve race equality within their
organisations and enable service users to have equality of access
to services.

“The social care workforce doesn’t exist for itself, it
exists to deliver effective services and excellent services for its
customers,” Obang said. “Research shows that organisations with
black and ethnic minority staff who feel disenchanted are more
likely to have staff from other groups who feel disaffected. They
are therefore not delivering well.”

Really inclusive organisations, she said, use the term valuing
staff as an organisational tool – not just rhetoric –
and their staff and service users benefit as a result.