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As a Faculty we are actively working towards promoting race equality. While we have made some progress, we recognise that we must go further and have a responsibility to listen and to act.
Here we outline some of the practical steps we are taking to combat racism and other forms of discrimination and structural inequity within the Faculty.
Dean's Race Equality Pledges 2020
The latest Dean's pledges for the Faculty are:
- To update and expand FPHS race equity action plan; include specific initiatives for each Institute.
- To promote and co-ordinate Faculty-wide race allies training.
- To commit to using the Accelerate to Leadership scheme for all 9 and 10 PSS posts.
- To work with central EDI/HR to expand the Accelerate to Leadership scheme to include grade 8 PSS staff, pilot this within the Faculty and monitor over time to ensure representation at PS 8 mirrors that of lower grades and the pipeline to PSS G9/10 is strengthened.
- Fair Recruitment Specialists have been utilised across several Institutes. To allow us to further expand their use, and to ensure FRS are being used most efficiently (i.e. cross-Institute, throughout the whole recruitment process), we will commit to training at least 10 new FRS within the Faculty.
Inclusive Advocacy
The Faculty is actively promoting and participating in UCL’s Inclusive Advocates initiative. Inclusive Advocacy is a new sponsorship programme designed to ensure high-performing, under-represented groups reach their full potential at UCL. Following a targeted campaign, the Faculty has recruited 17 advocates, the highest number from a single Faculty within UCL.
Fair Recruitment Specialist Initiative
UCL’s Fair Recruitment Specialist Initiative is firmly embedded as part of the Faculty’s recruitment processes. All interview panels have to ensure representation in terms of gender and ethnicity.
As part of our commitment to address bias and inequity, it is Faculty policy that everyone chairing an interview panel will have attended in person Unconscious Bias training; and everyone on an interview panel will have undertaken the online training as a minimum. Newly promoted staff to grade 7 and 8 will also be invited to attend the Unconscious Bias training.
Appraisal and Promotion
Each year the Faculty provides Institutes with promotions data highlighting staff eligibility for the various promotions within UCL. As of 2019/20 the data includes each Institute’s ethnicity profile, as well as previous year’s success in promotions broken down by gender and ethnicity. The expectation is that cases put forward are gender and ethnicity balanced.
We believe that a constructive and robust appraisal process is essential to providing equitable access to promotion, mentoring and training for all staff. To this end, we instigated an annual appraisal survey to monitor staff experiences and to ensure consistency of practice across Institutes. Results for the 2019 season can be found here; 2020 results are currently being collated. The opportunity to include a second appraiser has also been introduced to encourage best practice and accurately reflect the varied nature of some job roles.
Emerging Leaders
Following the launch of UCL’s flagship leadership development programme for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff, Emerging Leaders, the Faculty sponsored 3 places on the course to remove potential barriers for staff being put forward due to Institute budget limitations.
Addressing Micro-inequalities
A session on Micro-inequalities in Higher Education was presented at the Faculty's Professional Services Staff Conference in 2019. The session explored what is meant by micro-inequalities and aggressions along with their impact on individuals and working environment. It focussed on how all members of UCL can play a role in addressing micro-inequalities.
Encouraging open discussion
The Faculty has shared Guidance for Managers – Supporting Black Staff at Work with Directors and Institute Managers to assist line managers on how to support Black staff in their teams in the context of current events. It can additionally be used as a starting point to improve your ability to have discussions with all staff on the topic of racism.
The Faculty Town Hall meeting – Ensuring equity for black and minority ethnic staff in Population Health Sciences in February 2019 was organised to openly discuss the challenges faced in relation to BAME representation and career development within the Faculty.
