Welsh Government funds post to promote anti-racist social work practice

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Singeta Kalhan-Gregory has been appointed to the role of consultant social work – race, which will be based within the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) Cymru.

The post was committed to in last year’s update of the government’s anti-racist Wales action plan, which is designed to help make the country an “anti-racist nation” by 2030.

The plan said that the role would advise on developing social work practice with those at risk of disadvantage because of their ethnicity. This was part of a wider goal to ensure social care leaders “model and champion anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion and deliver an anti-racist social care sector for both people who are receiving care and support and for the social care workforce”.

Kalhan-Gregory qualified as a social worker in 1995 and has subsequently held roles across the statutory, voluntary and university sectors, in areas including fostering, adoption, mental health, youth justice and social work education, both in England and Wales.

‘Dedication to inclusion and equity’

She said she was “deeply honoured” by her appointment, adding: “I am dedicated to fostering inclusion and passionate about ensuring equitable services for everyone.”

Chief social care officer for Wales Albert Heaney said: “I look forward to working closely with Singeta to support social workers from minority ethnic backgrounds by helping to break down the barriers they face.”

For BASW Cymru, national director Sam Baron added: “Singeta brings a wealth of experience and expertise that will significantly influence BASW Cymru and the social work profession right across Wales.”

Other commitments in the anti-racist action plan included the establishment of a workforce race equality standard (WRES) to track and tackle racial inequalities among social care staff in Wales.

Report on workforce race inequalities

The first WRES report was published in April by Social Care Wales, based on data on the 56,475 social care staff who were registered in Wales as of September 2024, as well as a survey of just over 4,000 workers carried out in early 2024.

The regulator found that:

• Black, Asian and mixed/other minority ethnic staff made up 21.2% of the workforce, proportionately greater than their representation in the population (18.3% as of the 2021 Census).
• However, they were significantly under-represented in managerial positions, occupying just 7.2% of these.
• They were over-represented in fitness to practise concerns, accounting for 27.9% of cases raised in the previous 12 months where ethnicity was recorded.
• When compared with white staff, greater proportions of minority ethnic staff reported discrimination from managers (11.9% versus 6.1%), colleagues (9.6% compared with 3.1%) or clients and families (11.5% as against 2.9%).
• However, white staff were more likely to report bullying from managers (9% versus 4.9%) or colleagues (7.9% compared with 5%).
• A higher proportion of black, Asian and minority ethnic staff (96.2%) agreed that they had the right training to do their job compared to white colleagues (84.7%).
• But black, Asian and minority ethnic staff were less likely to report that they had sufficient training to be promoted (83.5% compared with 35.9% for white staff).

Regulator seeks to improve data on race in workforce

On the back of the report, Social Care Wales said there was a need to improve the data on which future WRES reports were based, including through increasing responses to the staff survey and sourcing information on job applications, appointments from shortlists and promotions.

The regulator added that the disproportionate representation of minority ethnic staff in fitness to practise concerns needed to be explored in greater detail “to understand the causes for referral, whether there is appropriate and equal access to training, and what is learned by the organisation on its responsibilities for staff who are referred”.