Equalities Report 2022-23

You can read the report on this page. 

Or you can download our Equalities Report 2022-23 here (PDF) 

Annual Equalities Report 2022-23 

1. Introduction

Background

Achieving for Children (AfC) was created as a community interest company in 2014 and is now owned and commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to deliver children’s services.

We produce an equalities report each year to demonstrate our compliance with the public sector equality duty (PSED).

This report sets out:

• our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion
• what we know about equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to our workforce and to the children, young people and families we support
• what we have done about it in 2022-2023
• our equality objectives (what we plan to achieve by 2024)

The PSED came into force on 5 April 2011 with the aim of embedding equality considerations into the everyday work of public bodies to enable them to tackle inequality and discrimination more effectively. The PSED has three general duties that require public bodies to be aware of the need to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
• advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it

2. Our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion

Our approach to implementing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is set out in our equality, diversity and inclusion policy, which has been agreed by the Company Leadership Team. The policy sets out the following implementation steps.

• Ensuring the Achieving for Children Board of Directors and Company Leadership Team oversee and scrutinise our progress against the equality duty.
• Ensuring our staff are aware of the equality, diversity and inclusion policy and receive appropriate training.
• Supporting the EDI Board, which was established in 2021 to drive our equality and diversity change agenda in line with our organisational values. The purpose of the board is to lead cultural change across AfC so that as an organisation we embrace and celebrate diversity. Its aim is to support staff to understand differences and behave respectfully to each other so that people want to work and stay working in the company and that AfC can respond to the different needs of service users.
• Ensuring the aims and objectives of the EDI policy align with the AfC EDI Board and their associated action plans.
• Monitoring all areas of employment, including recruitment, promotion, training opportunities, pay, grievances and disciplinary action, to ensure there is equal treatment for all employees and that action is taken where any disparity is found.
• Establishing specific equality and diversity policies wherever necessary and linking to the overarching equality, diversity and inclusion policy.
• Supporting any equality and diversity groups established within Achieving for Children and linking them in with the annual equalities reporting process to highlight impact. This will include, for example, the AfC employee networks which have been established to represent different groups of staff.
• Ensuring that all contractors and organisations providing services on our behalf have rigorous and appropriate equality policies covering employment and service delivery which meet the requirements of the public sector equality duty.
• Linking with performance improvement plans, external and internal inspections, and reviews that cover equality performance in services areas as part of wider improvement measures.
• Ensuring that equality objectives are regularly set, monitored and reviewed as part of the business planning process, and that our progress is reported against the public sector duty in our annual equalities report.
• Ensuring that all service restructures or reorganisations and all new services, policies or functions are subject to an equality impact assessment (EIA) to consider any potential equalities impact, and all services delivered by Achieving for Children carry out EIAs as appropriate on regular basis.
• Working with children, young people and their families to help develop, monitor and review our policies, practices, functions and services.

Responsibility for equality, diversity and inclusion

While the AfC Board of Directors and Company Leadership Team have ultimate responsibility for equality, diversity and inclusion on an operational basis, the Chief Operating and Finance Officer takes the lead in this area. Support is provided by the AfC equalities lead, who is an officer in the Strategy, Policy and Programmes Team.

The EDI Board is responsible for implementing EDI work on an annual basis, in line with an action plan. They report into the AfC Board of Directors and Company Leadership Team. The EDI Board is made up of AfC staff members from key AfC services. All other staff at AfC can get involved in EDI by taking part in AfC Employee Networks (AENs), attending monthly EDI Forums or one-to-ones with the chair or vice chair of the EDI Board.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board

The EDI Board was established in 2019. Its purpose is to drive AfC’s EDI change agenda, in line with our organisational values. The EDI Board helps implement our action plan based on the E&D Action for Change pyramid which has been designed to promote, improve and sustain equality, diversity and inclusion across AfC. The action plan was created in response to a staff survey, who expressed their views of EDI at AfC.

The EDI Board is responsible to act on feedback from staff gathered via various channels such as the EDI Staff Forum, AENs and one-to-one drop-ins.

It is chaired by the Chief Operating and Finance Officer, with a staff member as vice chair. The EDI Board includes officers from our two operational areas and Business Services, including senior management representatives.

Challenge to our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion

The EDI Board provides challenge to AfC’s equality, diversity and inclusion practice. In addition, the equalities lead attends EDI meetings within each council as required. Achieving for Children attends the Richmond External Stakeholders Scrutiny Group (ESSG) twice a year to receive external challenge. ESSG is an independent equalities group made up of a range of people from across the protected characteristic groups

and from the community and voluntary sector. It also includes four local residents who act as critical friends and who have professional backgrounds in the public sector and considerable experience of EDI.

Equality impact assessments

AfC requires managers to complete equality impact assessments (EIAs) to demonstrate that we are considering the equality implications of the decisions we are making. Actions from EIAs are monitored through team plans by service managers.

An EIA schedule is compiled annually as part of the business planning process.

It includes key projects from our business plan (the completion of an EIA is mandatory for all key projects) and any ad hoc areas of work that require an assessment of the equality implications. Key EIAs are published on our website to demonstrate how we meet our public sector equality duties. We have also made the EIA process accessible in line with government requirements.

Reporting and monitoring

AfC produces this annual equalities report in the summer of each year in keeping with the business planning cycle to enable us to demonstrate how we are meeting the PSED. Other equality reports are produced as and when requested by the owning councils.

From 2022-23, the Annual Equalities Report also includes an update on the workforce race equality standard (WRES) report that we opt in to collating with the aim to identify and address any areas that will improve the workplace experience and representation at all levels for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff. An update to our 2021 WRES report and its action plan is now included in Section 9.

Language and terminology

In 2021, we carried out an equality and diversity staff survey, for which 30% of the workforce responded. Generally, staff members identified with the protected characteristic categories set out in the survey. However, there were some categories which staff felt did not represent them well enough. In particular:

• some respondents commented that the gender categories were not inclusive and representative enough. Non-binary and intersex were missing for instance
• some respondents commented that the sexual orientation categories were not inclusive and representative enough. Respondents wanted the ‘plus’ category to be broken down into individual and stand alone categories
• there is an ongoing debate about the acronym BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and its inclusiveness across AfC. Some staff have raised concerns about different ethnicities being grouped together into one acronym

In response to the points around gender categories and sexual orientation categories, we did research to find best practice for collecting data on protected characteristics. Based on this research and on the feedback the equality and diversity staff survey, we changed the categories we included in our annual staff survey, specifically for both gender and sexual orientation categories.

We included more inclusive and representative terms for both categories and added the option for staff to prefer not to say or self-describe.

Regarding point 3 above, around race and ethnicity categories and the use of the term BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic), in March 2021, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities recommended that the government stop using the term BAME for the reasons that it excluded other minority groups and that the term was not widely recognised.

In response to this and the feedback from our equality and diversity staff survey, we sent out a poll to our workforce in October 2021 to establish an alternative to the term BAME. The poll was anonymous and did not capture any personally identifiable information.

The results of the poll proved to be inconclusive, as no respondent expressed the wish to keep using the acronym BAME and there was no consensus over which alternative to use. We followed up with an EDI Forum to analyse the poll results further and openly discuss what this meant to individuals.

At the EDI forum, colleagues discussed at length that they did not want to be categorised. However, they also recognised the importance of data collection to reduce discrimination.

For the purpose of this report, as there was no clear consensus on which term to replace BAME with, we will use the term Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, rather than the BAME acronym.

3. What do we know about equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to our workforce?

As of April 2023, Achieving for Children has 1,793 employees (equating to 1,127 full time equivalent employees), excluding agency workers. Our employees come from a broad range of professional disciplines including social work, teaching, health services and public sector management.

Please note that the following information covers a snapshot of workforce data as of April 2023. Figures include all permanent and temporary staff, but excludes casual and agency workers.

Percentages show the proportion of employees for which equalities data is known and recorded and therefore, percentages reflect the known numbers. The unknown numbers are excluded when calculating percentages. (Unknown = no information is held about an employee’s protected characteristics and no assumptions have been made. This includes those who prefer not to say.)

Age:

The majority of employees are aged between 30 and 59. The smallest percentage of employees are aged 16 to 19.

• 11.5% are aged 60 and over
• 23.2% are aged 50 to 59
• 22.3% are aged 40 to 49
• 22.6% are aged 30 to 39
• 17.9% are aged 20 to 29
• 2.5% are aged 16 to 19

Locally, our workforce is largely representative of the general population. We have a number of apprenticeships and traineeships in place across the organisation to attract young people to work for Achieving for Children so we can increase the number of employees amongst the lower age brackets.

Disability:

7% of our employees reported that they had a disability, the same percentage as the previous year.

Although there are no directly comparable statistics available across the local government workforce regarding disability, it is thought that 19% of working age adults have a disability (Scope: Disability facts and figures). This suggests as an organisation we are not sufficiently representative of those with a disability. It should be noted however, not all employees have stated their disability status in the three boroughs, so the actual figure may be higher.

As an employer, we make reasonable adjustments for staff with disabilities and enable them to access flexible working arrangements as necessary. To strengthen the support we provide to staff members with a disability, we have created guidance for managers to provide advice on making reasonable adjustments.

Ethnicity:

25% of our employees are from ethnically diverse communities.

Our workforce has a slightly higher Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority representation than the general population in Richmond (16.2%) and Windsor and Maidenhead (13.9%), but is less representative than the general population in Kingston (33.1%). As our workforce is not fully representative of the local communities, we need to ensure they are trained and equipped to be knowledgeable and informed about the different ethnic backgrounds of the children, young people and families that we support. We are making efforts to improve this through our work on the workforce race equality standard.

Gender:

80.6% of our employees are female.

The percentage of our workforce which is female is not representative of the general population, as national and local data indicates a male to female gender split which is approximately 50/50. However, this is in line with the workforce across local government and children’s social care. A 2017 report by the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), ‘Does local government work for women’, found that 78% of local government officers are female. Similarly, a Department for Education report in 2018, ‘Children and family social work workforce in England’, found that 85% of children and family social workers are female.

The high number of women in the workforce has an impact: for example, in terms of maternity leave and women being more likely to have caring responsibilities.

AfC implements a flexible working policy and a menopause policy, which are reviewed every three years to support our female workforce and those with caring responsibilities.

Gender reassignment:

We currently do not report on this and do not ask staff whether they are transitioning or have transitioned.

Religion or belief:

The largest faith group within our workforce is Christian (27.5%). Employees with no faith or religion or who did not declare their religion account for 64% of the workforce. The religious status of our workforce is reflected locally.

Marital status: 30.2% of our employees are married or in a civil partnership, 25.8% are single and 6.6% have a partner.

The figures relating to relationship status largely reflect local data. More work is required to increase the number of respondents so the figure for ‘not known’ reduces.

Pregnancy and maternity: We currently do not report on this, but data is collected at a team level when staff take maternity or paternity leave. Our policies on maternity and paternity have been reviewed and updated in the last year.

Sexuality:

For the data we hold, over 2% of our employees identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or other.

Local statistics on sexual orientation are not available. Nationally however, in 2016, a report from the Office of National Statistics suggested that 2% of the UK population aged over 16 are lesbian, gay or bisexual. This would suggest our workforce is largely representative.

4. What have we done for our workforce?

Our EDI Board, which is described earlier in the report, has created a 12 month action plan. This plan is based on the EDI staff survey which we carried out in 2021 and the subsequent E&D Action for Change Pyramid which came out of the survey, to drive AfC’s EDI agenda forward.

The 12 month action plan’s focus is to improve EDI for AfC’s workforce. The EDI Board will then create a longer term vision of three years, which will have a stronger focus on improving EDI for children, young people and families.

Below, we outline the different areas of activity from the EDI Board’s 12 month action plan and what we achieved so far. The different areas are as follows.

• Governance and communication
• EDI training
• Raising awareness
• Recruitment, retention and development
• Children, young people and families
• Performance

Governance and communication

We have established the EDI Board’s governance by creating terms of reference created, scheduling monthly EDI Board meetings and embedding reporting processes. Two members of the AfC Board of Directors have joined the EDI Board to provide greater oversight of EDI activity at a strategic level.

The EDI Board has carried on the work started in the E&D Action for Change pyramid by creating a 12 month action plan.

EDI training

Continual work is taking place to promote and champion EDI within the workplace, encourage discussions and raise staff awareness on issues and topics.

In 2022-2023, 117 staff members, of which 45 were managers, attended 1,449 hours of EDI training. An additional 282 members of staff completed our equality and diversity e-learning.

There follows the list of EDI training courses we provided for staff in 2022-2023.

• Advanced skills in dyslexia
• Autism and anxiety (Emotional Health Service)
• Autism, special interests and family dynamics-presented (Emotional Health Service)
• Creating autism friendly classrooms
• Deaf awareness
• Developing a racial justice strategy for your school
• Developing EAL pupils’ proficiency in English within mainstream lessons
• Developing mainstream quality teaching for Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) pupils
• ERSA and gender diversity (Emotional Health Service)
• Exploring intersectionality (LGBTQ+, race and ethnicity) (Richmond)
• Focus on PPG: Cost of living crisis and post COVID recovery (Governors)
• Focus on racial justice and multilingualism (Governors)
• Introduction to ADHD - Level 1
• Introduction to autistic spectrum conditions - Level 1
• Working with ADHD - Level 2
• Working with autistic spectrum conditions - Level 2
• KRSCP: Cultural awareness and cultural competency
• KRSCP: Safeguarding children with disabilities
• Managing racism in the workplace
• Mixed, unclear and unstable (MUU) ideology and extremism
• New to leading on PPG
• New to PPG responsibilities (Governors)
• Prevent duty training
• Relationships, sex education and puberty for carers of young people with learning disabilities
• SPARK Pupil Premium network meetings
• SPARK Racial justice and multilingual network meeting
• Talking with schools about race and racism (AfC Only)
• Welcoming EAL pupils - Supporting new arrivals to the UK

Analysis of the attendance data and feedback shows that:

• the overall attendance at the core learning events by AfC employees increased by 23% in the last quarter, while attendance from external partners increased by 32%. However, this is not reflected in attendance of our EDI courses, where attendance by AfC decreased by 5.6% over the same period and external partners by 15.8%
• attendance from schools in Kingston and Richmond remains high, having run two successful racial justice programmes and regular SPARK networks
• 96% of delegates rated our racial justice conference as outstanding
• all AfC staff are required to complete the equality and diversity e-learning as part of their induction
• EDI workshops are an integral part of all conferences. For example, the early years conference included the following sessions - ‘Let’s talk about race’ and ‘Unconscious bias in the early years’
• quarterly early help and social care whole service events have included themes around identity, gender awareness, social graces, young carers, unconscious bias and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The attendance figures of these events have successfully grown over the last year ensuring that the majority of staff are receiving training in this area regularly disability awareness has had to be rescheduled twice in the last year due to low take up, with one session being cancelled
• attendance by managers in Windsor and Maidenhead has increased to 14% from 10% last year, but still remains a focus area to improve
• feedback from delegates attending the ‘Managing racism’ course is outstanding
• Training needs are under constant review and various courses are commissioned as and when required. The EDI Board gives feedback and guidance on all EDI training.

Raising awareness

To better understand our workforce and their needs, the EDI Board runs lunchtime EDI forums. EDI forums are held once a month with the day changing to give the opportunity for all staff members to attend, covering a wide range of topics focused on protected characteristics.

To raise awareness, we have successfully celebrated a number of cultural events, such as Black History Month (BHM), LBGTQI+ and Pride Month, and International Women’s Day. We put on an extensive programme for BHM in 2022. This included special guest speakers, spotlights on staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, blogs from senior leaders relating to BHM topics, and a considerable bank of BHM resources for staff to consider. To build on this, the EDI Board has created an EDI calendar of events, which includes key celebrations for all protected characteristics.

The EDI Board has launched AfC employee networks, which are employee-led groups aiming to create a more inclusive workplace. AfC employee networks can focus on a protected characteristic such as, gender, ethnicity, religion etc, but can also focus on shared lifestyle or interests.

AENs help create a sense of community and belonging for AfC staff by connecting people in a social and professional way and encouraging interaction between individuals and groups of colleagues.

The purpose of AENs is to:

• create open staff groups for employees who share a common identity to meet and support one another in building their community and sense of belonging
• empower staff groups by offering them organisational support and access to decision-makers
• facilitate a clear line of communication to leadership to voice concerns and solve problems
• provide a resource for leadership regarding employee and community issues, needs and policies
• seek to advance a respectful and inclusive company culture and reinforce the importance of inclusion

Recruitment, retention and development

The EDI Board has researched best practice in recruitment, retention and development and added actions in its 12 month action plan. Key highlights from 2022-23 included the following.

• Advertising, and recruiting to, a funded part-time EDI lead role who will become the vice chair of the EDI Board. There was a significant level of interest in this post and interviews were held with eight excellent candidates. Taz Mudali, Events and Continued Professional Development (CPD) Consultant for the Social Work Teaching Partnership, was appointed and started in her role in August and will lead on refreshing the action plan for the Board.
• Launching a reverse mentoring programme designed for staff in non-management posts and from underrepresented groups (such as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, staff with disabilities, LGBTQI+ staff). Three of our senior leaders nominated themselves to be mentored by staff members who had put themselves forward to be part of the programme.
  Mentors received training prior to the programme starting and are meeting monthly with the senior leader that they were matched to to provide guidance, insight and challenge. Feedback from those taking part so far has been positive and senior leaders are reviewing the programme to decide whether to roll it out more widely.
• Further researching the potential for implementing blind recruitment and for increasing the diversity of our recruitment panels. In relation to blind recruitment, this includes reviewing our recruitment systems to identify if this is possible and undertaking research to better understand how this can be rolled out effectively.
  For more diverse recruitment panels we are liaising with other local authorities, including our owning councils, to better understand how it can be implemented effectively without becoming tokenistic. These actions will be carried over to 2023-24.

Equality impact assessments

We recently added a screening tool to our EIA process to ensure we are effectively able to identify when we need to complete a full EIA. Key EIAs are published on our website to demonstrate how we meet our public sector equality duties and key policies are subject to the EIA screening process.

An EIA workshop was organised and facilitated for AfC staff to make sure they know how to write an EIA when commencing a new project, developing a new policy or strategy, or making changes to an existing service.

Performance

We undertook our annual staff survey, having undertaken research into best practice in equalities data monitoring which informed changes to the questions we ask. We are currently analysing the findings and these will be reported to the EDI Board, with responses broken down by protected characteristic groups where possible. This will inform the development of the new EDI Board action plan.

We have signed up to the workforce race equality standard and developed and published our WRES action plan (see Section 9 for more information).

We conducted an unacceptable behaviour poll and ran an EDI Forum on the same topic, in order to collect more data for the WRES. As a result, we have reviewed and amended our unacceptable behaviour policy, in consultation with staff, and have now published the latest version on our intranet.

We report on our gender pay gap on a yearly basis (see below for more information).

Gender pay gap

Under the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, public sector employers with 250 or more employees are required to publish a snapshot of their workforce data.

The following paragraphs summarise the latest findings from the 2021 published report.

• 79% of our workforce are women
• 80% of the top quartile of earners are women
• The average hourly pay for women is -2.82% lower than for men. This means women have a higher average hourly pay
• The median hourly pay for women is -2.49% lower than for men. This means women have a higher median hourly rate of pay

The gender pay gap is not about equal pay for men and women. It is the difference between the average and median pay of men and women. It does not measure equal pay, which relates to what women and men are paid for the same jobs or work of equal value. In Achieving for Children equal pay is addressed through our job evaluation scheme.

The data required by the government is a fairly simplistic indicator of a complex set of issues. Our ambition is to ensure equality of opportunity for women.

5. What do we know about equality, diversity and inclusion in relation to the children, young people and families we support?

We collect and collate a range of information about the children and young people that we work with and support. This includes equalities information which is reported to Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead councils as part of our contract arrangements and to the corporate parenting groups in all three boroughs.

To provide context to our work and to show an understanding of the children and young people we work with, we have included a range of equalities data relating to groups such as children subject to a child protection plan, looked-after children and the school population. This information is used by services to ensure that we are effectively meeting the differing needs of our children and young people. This allows us to highlight any key issues or trends as they arise and take action to address them.

The data included below comes from a range of sources including: School Census Spring 2023, Kingston: Children and young people needs assessments 2017, Richmond: Children and young people’s needs assessment 2019, ONS Census 2011, Department for Work and Pensions - Children in low income families: local area statistics report 2022, Windsor and Maidenhead data from 2021-22, South London CCIS Service, Kingston and Richmond SEND dataset - June 2023, UK population estimates 2021-22.

General information about our children and young people

• Total number of children and young people aged 0 to 19 years old: 124,326: Kingston: 40,013 (32.1%); Richmond: 47,435 (38.1%); and RBWM: 36,878 (29.6%)
• The gender breakdown of males and females aged 0 to 19 is almost 50/50 in all three boroughs, with a slightly higher proportion of males across all three
• 4,628 children and young people with an education, health and care plan (EHCP)
• 30.2% of children and young people are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (including White other) background
• 9.3% of children living in poverty
• 3.8% of young people not in education, employment or training (or not known)

School population

• Total number of pupils: 79,163
  • Kingston: 27,332 (34.5%)
  • Richmond: 28,983 (36.6%)
  • RBWM: 22,848 (28.8%)
• Of all pupils, 49.3% are female and 50.7% are male 
• 177 schools (not including independent settings) Kingston (51), Richmond (60), RBWM (66)
• 15.0% of pupils have a disability (with an EHCP or receiving SEN support)
• Kingston (EHCP - 1,300 , SEN - 2,901 ) Richmond (EHCP 1,254, SEN - 2,866) RBWM (EHCP - 994, SEN - 2,571)
• 50.4% of pupils are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (including White other) background
• 13.0% of pupils are eligible for free school meals:, Kingston: 3,837, Richmond: 3,787, RBWM: 2,762

Children in need (CiN), including those aged 18+ receiving a leaving care service

• Total number of children and young people supported by children’s social care: 2,859: Kingston: 1,091 (38.1%), Richmond: 1,000 (34.9%), and RBWM: 768 (26.8%)
• 14.7% of CiN who are supported have an EHCP: Kingston: 168 (5.8%), Richmond: 172 (6.0%), and RBWM: 83 (2.9%)
• 57.0% of CiN are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (including White other) background: Kingston: 689 (24%),Richmond: 576 (20%), and RBWM: 366 (12.8%)
• 5 years old to 9 years old is the most common age group amongst the CiN cohort for RBWM and 16+ for Kingston and Richmond
• The most common belief in the CiN cohort is no religion

Children subject to a child protection plan (CPP)

• Total number of children subject to a CPP: 390: Kingston: 149 (38.2%), Richmond: 132 (33.8%), and RBWM: 109 (27.9%)
• Of the children subject to a CPP, 47.6% are female and 50.2% are male (2% are unborn)
• 5 years old to 9 years old is the most common age group for the CP cohort.
• 49.7% of children subject to a CPP are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (including White other) background

Children looked after (CLA) or children in care

• Total of children looked after or children in care: 385: Kingston: 115 (29.8%), Richmond: 126 (32.7%); and RBWM: 151 (39.2%)
• Of the RBWM (66) cohort, 37.8% are female, 60.6% are male and 0.6% are neither genders
• The most common age group for children looked after is 16 years old plus
• 20.7% of the children looked after cohort have a disability (with an EHCP)
• 53% of children looked after are from a Black Asian and Minority (including White other) background

Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Most common age group for children and young people with SEND

• Kingston: 12 to 14 years
• Richmond: 9 to 11 years
• RBWM: 12 to 14 years
• Of those with SEND 36.4% are female and 63.5% are male (total SEND - 8,338) 
• Kingston (Female: 1,023, Male: 1,878), Richmond (Female: 1,052, Male: 1,814), RBWM (Female: 964, Male: 1,607)
• 4.4% of children and young people have a disability (with an EHCP)
• Kingston (EHCP: 1,673), Richmond (EHCP: 1,752), RBWM (EHCP: 1,203)

6. What have we done for the children, young people and families we support?

This section sets out our key achievements in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion and demonstrates how we are implementing the PSED and working towards our equality objectives (set out in the following section). Furthermore, our impact report sets out the impact that we have had on the lives of children, young people and families during 2022-23 that does not directly relate to the protected characteristics. 

Age

• Our children’s centres and family hubs, which primarily provide support for children aged 0 to 5, are a central element of our early help offer. Attendance at our children’s centres in Kingston and Richmond has increased over the past 12 months. We delivered over 6,000 sessions for families either in person or online, saw over 17,000 individuals either online or in person, had over 80,000 interactions with families, and we now have over 3,000 members on our Facebook page. One of the highlights of the year was our events for National Play Day which saw almost 2,500 people come together for the first time since COVID to celebrate play. 
• Our children’s centres have worked closely with our local partners - we supported health colleagues to deliver polio and flu vaccination clinics over the weekends in the autumn, we worked with local businesses to provide families with 75 hampers and over 100 presents at Christmas, and throughout the year we have delivered rhyme time sessions for families in our libraries. As part of our response to the cost of living crisis, our children’s centres have provided warm spaces twice a week as part of an eight week pilot, with activities, quiet space for homework and support for families with children aged 0  to 11 years. We also ran a Warm Coats and Shoes project during winter and recycled and distributed 184 coats and 54 pairs of shoes to families. 
• In Windsor and Maidenhead, in recent years we have established our family hubs approach, which brings together children’s centres, youth centres and parenting services. Our family hubs are now fully staffed and fully functioning and demand for services has been high - we have provided one-to-one support to 823 children. 3,400 children and young people have attended group sessions on topics such as digital safety, drug and alcohol awareness, and esteem. 
  
  We also provide a full menu of interventions to improve parents’ skills and knowledge. This includes Incredible Years, which is for parents of children who are neurodiverse, the Freedom Programme for mothers who are experiencing domestic abuse, Supporting Parents and Carers Emotions (SPACE) for parents who need support with their own emotional wellbeing, the Positive Parenting Programme for parents to manage the behaviour of their children in a non-punitive and positive way, specific parenting groups, for parents within the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community, and our baby massage group, which supports parents to improve communication with their babies through touch and eye contact. 
• School standards in Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead are amongst the highest in the country and 95% of our schools across all three boroughs are judged ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’. In terms of attainment, Kingston and Richmond are now both in the top 20 performing local authorities nationally, from early years to key stage 4, while Windsor and Maidenhead are in the top performing 50 local authorities. This is an exceptional achievement, particularly in light of the challenges posed by COVID. 
• Over the past 12 months, we have provided a range of support to our most vulnerable families. In Kingston and Richmond, through the local and household support grant, we have given out approximately 8,500 food vouchers, valued at £15 a week per eligible child, for each school holiday period for families with children who are receiving free school meals, 3 or 4 year olds who are accessing pupil premium grant or disadvantaged 2 year olds. 
• To support our families during school holidays, we successfully delivered the FUEL (Feed Ur Everyday Lives) programme in Kingston, Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead in response to the Department for Education funding for the holiday activities and food programme. 
  
  This was our third year delivering the programme, which took place over the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays and offered a range of fun and enjoyable activities and food to children and young people aged 5 to 16 years who are eligible for free school meals. In Kingston and Richmond, the programme grew throughout each holiday period with increasing numbers of providers, locations and spaces on offer. 
  
  In total, over 25 different partners worked with us to deliver the programme with over 2,700 children and young people attending a range of fun and exciting activities. Of these, over 200 of the children and young people had additional needs. In Windsor and Maidenhead, 832 children attended the programme with almost 6,500 attendances at different activities over the course of the holidays, and we delivered our own provision through our family hubs with over 130 children attending. We were particularly pleased to offer free travel for any attendees at SEND sessions and minibus pick ups for children for offsite activities. 
• Way2Work (W2W) is Achieving for Children’s approved apprenticeship training provider listed on the Register of Approved Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP). It offers high quality apprenticeships and traineeships, and works with employers to provide relevant and meaningful training to anyone aged 16 plus. It offers apprenticeships in a range of sectors including early years, business support, customer services, and teaching, and as well as working with local businesses and schools to provide opportunities, it provides apprenticeships within Achieving for Children. 
  
  Throughout their apprenticeships, learners receive information, advice and guidance, including CV development, interview skills, and assistance with their job search. W2W is a specialist in supporting the most vulnerable learners, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, children who are looked after, and care leavers. At the end 2022-23, W2W was supporting 58 apprentices. Of these, 20 are directly employed by Achieving for Children, 26 are aged 16 to 24 years old, 28% are from a Black, Asian, or Minority Ethnic background, and 12% have special educational needs or disabilities, are children looked after, or are care leavers. We know that this is having a positive impact. 
  • 93% of our learners progress into a higher apprenticeship, employment, or further training
  • 87% of our Way2Work apprentices rate the quality of teaching and learning as good or better
  • 87% would refer Way2Work to a friend 
  • we are particularly proud that 100% of apprentices that complete their apprenticeships in Achieving for Children remain with the organisation

Disability

• We have delivered a range of high quality SEND provision at our children’s centres in Kingston and Richmond during the year including: 
  • Chat and Play sessions for our families who have concerns around their children’s development, 
  • Let’s Nurture sessions for children showing early signs of autistic spectrum condition or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 
  • well-attended parenting wellbeing courses for parents for SEND children and 
  • 74 families who have also benefited from the development of a new ‘Little Stars’ course for children with emerging speech and language needs. 
  • delivering English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses for families from Ukraine as part of our parent offer. 
  • along with colleagues from the Emotional Health Service, we established nurture groups for parents and carers who have experienced trauma through bereavement or domestic abuse.
• We have made good progress towards our written statement of action (WSOA) in Richmond, and Windsor and Maidenhead. The WSOAs are plans that have been created to address areas for improvement that have been identified by Ofsted in the delivery of our services to children and young people with SEND. 
  
  In Richmond, in collaboration with our schools, we have amended our annual review template to ensure it reflects a more-person centred approach and supports the promotion of preparing for adulthood outcomes. We have also mapped out our continuing health pathways, making it easier for our young people aged 16 to 25 who have a disability, to access support with health needs. 
  
  In early March 2023, we had our Windsor and Maidenhead WSOA monitoring visit. We are awaiting feedback, but we expect the outcome to be positive, given the progress we have made. 
• Meanwhile, in Kingston in October 2022, we received a SEND reinspection to identify progress against previously identified four areas for improvement. The revisit confirmed we had made sufficient progress in addressing all four areas and the inspector noted improvements in the relationships with families in the local area, the quality of education, health and care plans (EHCPs), and our quality assurance processes. 
• In Kingston and Richmond, we held the SEND Futures conference in October 2022. It was attended by over 350 people, including around 55 parents and carers, and practitioners from 135 different organisations, who came together to share ideas and best practice in SEND. Speakers included two of the highest profile people in the SEND system nationally who discussed matters highlighted in the recent SEND green paper, and there were also a range of workshops delivered by local parents and practitioners. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and attendees have already been in contact to tell us about changes they have made to their practice as a result of feedback at the conference. 
• In Windsor and Maidenhead, we held our Inclusion Summit, with over 140 attendees including a mixture of parents and carers, schools and market place representatives. Attendees were introduced to the new SEND Strategy and were part of the official launch of the new parent carer forum. Feedback from the event was great as stakeholders valued the opportunity to network and share learning, with 90% of the attendees stating they would recommend the event to colleagues. 
  
  In February 2023, our ‘Ambitious about inclusion’ conference brought together almost 90 senior leaders and SEND and inclusion coordinators to listen to a number of nationally recognised keynote speakers and to come together to share information and celebrate developments in SEND across the borough. We are particularly proud that the event was co-produced between Achieving for Children, the Independent Advice and Support Service, Children and Young People’s Integrated Therapy Service and schools, and supported by RBWM SEND voices.
• During the year, 27 learners with EHCPs in Kingston and Richmond completed supported internships, delivered in partnership with Mencap and Project Search, with a variety of host employers including Hounslow Council, GSK, West Middlesex Hospital and the FairShot Cafe. We have supported other young people to access specialised internship schemes - one young person is completing an internship in the hospitality sector and one is completing a theatre based programme. 
  
  One of these learners has already been offered employment at West Middlesex Hospital once he completes his internship, and the other is expecting to be offered an apprenticeship within the NHS. We have also supported 12 learners with EHCPs to undertake apprenticeships within a variety of sectors including hospitality, education, administration and horticulture. 
• We have been responsible for delivering The Mayor of London’s European Social Fund employability programmes focusing on young people aged 16 to 25 who are not in education, employment or training in Kingston and Richmond. This past year we supported over 50 young people through the programme. Thirty five of these young people had EHCPs, and of these, 14 have now progressed into employment or education. 
• In Windsor and Maidenhead, the social emotional and mental health (SEMH) intervention project, which was established in 2019 to reduce the risk of permanent exclusion in schools, has continued to thrive. Since it began, the project has worked in 42 schools and supported 91 individual children. Of those children, just three have been permanently excluded and they have been supported in their transition to alternative provision. 
  
  As part of the project, we trained 873 school staff to help them to support children with challenging behaviours linked to SEMH difficulties, as well as delivering updated training to 140 staff and bespoke training to 115 staff. At the same time, we established 140 SEMH leads in schools and held three SEMH network meetings a year where leads can be signposted to early help services and share learning and feedback. 
  
  We have also purchased a subscription to the Online Boxall Profile which enables schools to assess the needs of their children quickly, set targets, and monitor progress. Sixty one of our schools are actively using this assessment and tracking tool which will enable us to analyse data to support transitions and target areas of need. 
• The expansion of additional school places for children and young people with SEND to meet rising demand continues to be a priority. 
• In Kingston, the following 28 specialist resource provision (SRP) places were created in September 2022: Malden Oaks, a further eight, Robin Hood Primary, 14, and Surbiton Hill Nursery, six. Good progress continues to be made towards establishing Spring School, the new 90-place autism-specific special free school, in September 2023. Work continues regarding the feasibility of creating a post-16 SEND campus in the borough, which would include 50 new special school sixth form and college places. 
• In Richmond, 16 specialist places were created in September 2022: a small Strathmore centre at Darell Primary, six, and a new social and emotional and mental health (SEMH) SRP at Teddington, 10. Progress towards establishing London River Academy, the 90-place SEMH special school for children and young people with SEMH needs continues. Proposals to create additional centres for Clarendon and Strathmore special schools, to provide 80 places in Petersham and 24 places in Hampton respectively, are advanced and planning applications are due to be made for both. 
• In Windsor and Maidenhead, we successfully submitted a bid for a 100 place new special free school for children and young people aged seven to 16, with EHCPs for SEMH needs. The new school will be located in a new development planned on the western edge of Windsor and we will now move forward to the next stage of planning. In addition, in September 2023, a new SEND provision is opening at South Ascot Village School, for 10 pupils with autistic spectrum condition. 
  
  We are also planning to open an early years readiness hub in September 2024, which will provide interventions to support children who are unable to self-regulate and so are not yet ready to learn in a mainstream school setting. 
• The emotionally related school avoidance (ERSA) project has been established to support those children who experience difficulties attending school, due to a range of factors. Through the project, which operates in Windsor and Maidenhead, 28 schools have received training, support and consultation on ERSA, have been given access to a newly created toolkit, and have been provided with additional strategies to help them to effectively support these children. A further 16 schools will be trained during Spring 2023. A multi-agency steering group oversees the project, including the development, dissemination, training and implementation of the ERSA toolkit and further refining the ERSA multi-agency graduated pathway. Feedback from pupils, parents and the schools has been extremely good. 
• In Kingston and Richmond, our Emotional Health Service (EHS) received over 1,400 referrals during the year, with 352 referrals received on the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway in relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum disorder. This is an increase of 7% from the previous year. 
  
  The EHS delivered a range of online groups including low mood groups for young people aged 15 to 18 years, attended by 22 young people, anxiety groups for young people aged 12 to 18 years, attended by 29 young people, and groups for parents of anxious primary aged children, with 43 parents in attendance. We also collaborated with Art and Soul to run two art therapy groups which were accessed successfully by 12 children. We launched our sixth mental health support team (MHST) in schools, which has meant that every school in both Kingston and Richmond now has access to an MHST. Over 1,400 children accessed the MHSTs in 2022-23 for individual or group therapy, which is a 55% increase from the previous year.
• We have successfully recommissioned both our short breaks service and our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Advocacy Service (SENDIASS) in Kingston and Richmond. 
  
  For short breaks, a successful tender exercise was completed in the summer of 2022 and the new offer came into effect 1 September 2022. We have contracted five providers to deliver our provision, both from partners we have previously worked with but also some new organisations. 
  
  For SENDIASS, we recently completed a successful procurement exercise and the new contact has now been awarded and will be implemented from April 2023. This was a real team effort from colleagues across AfC and our partners, especially Kingston and Richmond parent carer forums. 
• In January 2023, we launched our brand new company website which has already had over 7,000 views. The website has a fresh new look and makes it easier to find information such as fostering and apprenticeships or links to access services by council area. We continually work hard to ensure our websites are accessible and aim to ensure all visitors to the site are able to access our information easily and have the ability to use a range of digital accessibility tools such as language translators, text mode, audio readers, and changeable colour themes and fonts. 

Gender (sex)

• We run a youth club ‘Good4Girls’ for young women aged 10+ at Ham Youth Centre on a weekly basis. The aim is to offer a space for young women only, to try new activities, make friends and have fun. They engage in art, sports, cooking, discussions, fashion, media, trips and lots more. The project also offers emotional wellbeing support.
• Following the success of the sexual harassment survey for girls, which had over 800 respondents, a working group of our Youth Council in Kingston and Richmond has continued working in partnership with professionals from the Safer Kingston Partnership and Community Safety Service for Richmond, to develop a boys and young males sexual harassment survey. 
  
  The objective of the survey was to give boys and young males the opportunity to share their views and feelings around sexual harassment. The survey has also been used as a way of exploring boys and males understanding of sexual harassment in their schools and local communities. The survey had over 300 participants, aged from 11 to 19 years. Respondents were from 22 local schools across Kingston and Richmond with diverse participation in terms of gender identity and ethnicity. The working group presented their findings to headteachers and at the cross-borough South West London Safer Streets Conference. 

Sexual orientation

• We welcomed almost 100 young people to our No Straight Answer (NSA) youth club for young people aged 11 to 25 who are, or feel they may be, a part of the LGBTQ+ community, held at Heatham House in Twickenham. Over the last 12 months the session has provided its members with full access to all of Heatham’s activities, including sport, music, cooking, and art and crafts. Each term, members are given the opportunity to devise their own termly plan meaning the sessions are tailor-made to meet the needs and wishes of their members. 
  
  Young people have engaged in a variety of fun and interesting activities ranging from garden parties and tote-bag making to upcycling fashion shows. Young people are given the opportunity to explore their understanding of LGBTQ+ identity (including trans and non-binary), relationships and mental health through activities, discussions and informative workshops led by staff and guest speakers. In addition, we provide access to a qualified counsellor who can speak to the young people.
  
  In July, the group hosted Richmond's first-ever cross-school LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration event for young people in key stages 3, 4 & 5, aged 11 to 19 and in August, we held a three day residential trip. A young person aged 14 who attended said, "It's a safe space for me. I feel like I can be myself. I can talk about my sexuality freely as much as I want. There are many activities so it doesn't feel boring. I don't feel out of place. Everyone is accepting and caring”. 
• During the past 12 months, the Windsor and Maidenhead Educational Psychology and Wellbeing service provided ongoing assistance to secondary schools in terms of evidence-based good practice about how best to support and include pupils who are LGBTQIA+. 

Gender reassignment

• We have developed guidance for managers supporting staff who identify as trans that includes practical advice and resources. Although this guidance is to support AfC staff, it reinforces a culture of inclusion at AfC for people choosing gender reassignment, which will also benefit the children, young people and families we work with. Work is currently underway to finalise guidance on supporting service users who identify as trans.

Marriage and civil partnership

• We have continued to provide training to raise awareness on forced marriage through the Safeguarding Children Partnership in Kingston and Richmond, and through the Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), run by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Home Office, for our Windsor and Maidenhead staff. The course is designed to enable participants to recognise and know how to respond to children and adults who are at risk of, or experiencing harmful practices. Staff have access to the Forced Marriage Unit’s public helpline that provides advice and support to victims and potential victims of forced marriage, and to professionals dealing with cases.

Pregnancy and maternity

• In Windsor and Maidenhead, our health visiting service, which offers all families with a new baby a health assessment within two weeks of birth, received a ‘good’ Ofsted rating when inspected this year. Our universal offer to all families with a new baby includes an invitation to a nurture group which are held weekly in three venues across the borough. The sessions are an opportunity for parents to access health and parenting advice. Average monthly attendance at these sessions is 136 and feedback from parents is overwhelmingly positive.
• We have continued to work closely with the Growbaby project in Kingston and run a long established life-skills session for young parents up to the age of 25 in the Kingston area, in collaboration with midwives and health visitors. The group helps young parents to access support and establish long lasting friendships with other parents, where they have felt isolated from traditional parent groups.
• In partnership with the Children in Care Council, we have continued with our highly successful Baby Packs project for care leavers who are new mums and dads. They include quilts from the Linus Project, self-care items, baby grows, and a book on parenthood. Feedback from new parents has been extremely positive. 

Race and ethnicity

• We worked with Kingston and Richmond councils to establish two satellite centres of the St Mary’s Ukraine Supplementary School. The schools run on Sundays in term time and provide Ukrainian education and extracurricular activities for 50 pupils in each school, as well as signposting to external support. This is a key step forward in our work to support Ukrainian families to adjust to life in the UK and to support their children’s education.
• We continue to support schools in their work on racial justice. Professor Paul Miller gave our keynote speech for the decolonising the curriculum course to leads from 24 schools and key members of our school improvement team. We then developed this work, enabling schools to implement their learning, share their progress and ideas. This will lead on to a new course for a further group of schools next year and the advisory team are working closely together to ensure that racial justice and multilingualism are key themes in all networks held with schools. We have had a particular focus on this in networks for leaders who focus on disadvantage this year, advising staff on how to meet the needs of pupils who are multilingual, refugees, and from racially minoritised communities effectively through their Pupil Premium Grant strategies.
• Our second racial justice conference was attended by 55 delegates from across our boroughs. 96% of those who attended rated the conference as outstanding. Keynote speeches were given by Viv Grant and Dr Neville Lawrence. The workshops engaged delegates in both reflective and practical ideas, including a significant focus on the importance of multilingual approaches to learning. 
• The second run of our racial justice course which was delivered over the year was attended by 20 schools. We trained 35 schools through this course, and continue to support all schools through our school improvement team’s work, including the launch of our anti racist pledge in September 2023 and our self reflection tool for schools, both of which have been written in collaboration with our schools.
• We secured funding from the Greater London Authority to develop our work on Welcoming Hong Kongers in liaison with Kingston and Richmond councils. The first bid enabled us to provide a comprehensive online course for school leaders on how to welcome Hong Kong pupils and their families effectively. The course was delivered in partnership with Kingston BEATS, a new community led initiative which supports Hong Kongers in Kingston and surrounding areas. This work was designed using antiracist, multilingual approaches which dovetailed with the wider ongoing work with schools. 
  
  We also were able to give funding to a number of schools for Cantonese and bilingual books, translation and interpreting services. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and led to bespoke support for parents and pupils, parent and whole school initiatives and ongoing partnerships with schools. In this year’s round of funding, we are focusing on supporting parents to understand the school system, with online workshops on transition and SEND attended by 80 parents, a guide on Cantonese GCSE and A level, guidance on PSHE and RSE and online video advice ‘shorts’ on five main aspects of the education system. We are also developing cultural specific advice for schools on PSHE as emotional wellbeing is a key aspect that has been identified for this group.
• The Educational Psychology Service in Windsor and Maidenhead hosted three workshops for Hong Kongers and met with Hong Kong community leaders for a community building project. The workshops explored how the local authority could support Hong Kong families better in their transitions to life, work, local community, leisure, English language and education in Windsor and Maidenhead. Through funding by the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration, we also developed a web page specifically to welcome Hong Kongers, alongside a welcome for Ukrainian refugees. 
• In Kingston, the arrival of new communities has increased our need to focus on guiding schools in how to effectively provide for those who arrive as refugees, including those who arrive post 14. We have developed guidance in collaboration with schools and local organisations such as Refugee Action Kingston (RAK) which will be disseminated next year. Supporting RAK with their successful bid for funding for the Bright Futures project, has been significant in terms of ensuring that schools can access wrap-around services for all refugee pupils who experience significant inequalities. Our Admissions Team has also worked closely with RAK to ensure that refugee pupils and their families gain support as soon as they arrive.
• We are part of the newly established Richmond Sanctuary Partnership which brings together council teams, local services and voluntary sector organisations to work together collaboratively to strengthen services for refugees who come to the borough. In December, 2022 Richmond Council declared its intentions to become a Borough of Sanctuary, which is a formal accreditation gained from the charitable organisation, City of Sanctuary. The Borough of Sanctuary status will show that Richmond is providing a comprehensive package of support to refugees and that they feel welcome, safe and respected. We will be working closely with the council and partners to develop a strategy that clearly sets out what we intend on doing to further improve the experience of refugees in the borough. 
• The Kingston and Richmond Youth Council has undertaken accredited racial literacy training with the aim of using their new found knowledge and awareness to develop, in partnership with Safer Kingston Partnership, an online questionnaire which explores young people’s experiences of racism. 1,000 young people completed the online survey. The information we gather will be used to update how we record racist incidents at schools and youth clubs.
• In Windsor and Maidenhead, we produced and disseminated guidance for schools and colleagues on supporting young people who experience war, conflict and crisis. The guidance sets out how to notice signs of trauma and signposts to available support as well as providing hints for strengthening the cohesion within schools. 
• The SEND service and Educational Psychology and Wellbeing Service in Windsor and Maidenhead have established English as an Additional Language cluster peer group meetings twice every term to bring SEN coordinators and school staff together to share learning and discuss inclusive practice. 

Religion and belief

• Our staff have attended the Kingston and Richmond Safeguarding Children Partnership training around the impact of culture, faith and belief systems on safeguarding children. The course enables participants to increase their understanding of the influences of their own and their families race, culture, faith or beliefs on the parenting of children, gain confidence in talking about attitudes and beliefs and how these might affect judgement, and improve knowledge of practice skills in relation to culture, faith and beliefs systems when completing assessments or offering services.
• To celebrate cultural diversity at AfC, we have created an annual EDI calendar of events that includes key religious festivals and celebrations. Communications go out on our intranet from our directors, associate directors and staff who want to speak about their religion.
• Jabed Hussain, our Associate Director for Business Efficiency and SEND Transport invited colleagues to take part in the Ramadan Challenge at the end of March 2023. Twelve staff members took part and fasted for a day alongside their Muslim colleagues with the aim of promoting understanding and awareness of the difficulties and rewards of observing Ramadan. After the event, those that took part shared their experiences with other colleagues including the challenges they faced during the day, what they learned about Ramadan, and any personal insights gained from the experience. 
  
  Jabed said: “Overall, the Ramadan Challenge provided participants with a greater understanding of the significance of fasting in Ramadan, fostered a sense of community, and encouraged dialogue and empathy among colleagues with different beliefs and backgrounds. I'm very proud of the organisation and my colleagues for supporting and taking part in this with me, hopefully we will get even more participation next year”.

Other vulnerabilities: families affected by domestic abuse, mental health, or substance misuse; care leavers

Families affected by domestic abuse, mental health, or substance misuse

• The Families First service commenced on 1 April 2022 as a two year project in Kingston and Richmond aiming to support social workers and the families they work with who present with a trio of vulnerabilities (domestic abuse, mental health, substance misuse) through the key principles of colocation, joint working and group supervision. Over 140 families have been supported and the feedback received from families has been excellent. The project has shown that proportionally, for child protection and child in need cases, where there is a Families First intervention, they are more likely to step down at the nine month review. We will continue to monitor the impact of the project during 2023-24 and are confident it will continue to benefit our families going forward. 
• Based on the success of this programme, we have begun to develop a similar service in Windsor and Maidenhead. The newly formed Families First team supports families in crisis who are at imminent risk of having the child(ren) taken into care. Families are fast-tracked to receive support, and are ultimately supported to keep their children at home or find a family network in order to care for their children. The team also supports children to return home (if appropriate) from care. Additional funding has recently been approved by the council to expand the team further so it can be responsive to a range of needs pre care, during care and after care, and so evening and weekend support can be given where needed. So far, 11 families have been supported and in all cases the children have remained in the family home. 

Care leavers

• During 2022-23, we established the Kingston and Richmond Targeted Support Service as a pilot to provide high quality and affordable in-house outreach services to children, young people and families who require additional one to one staffing support for a time-limited period. The aim of the pilot was to see how successful the service could be in terms of reducing the number of care leavers at risk of losing their placements, reducing the number of young people on the edge of care by helping them to stay at home for longer, supporting carers with respite and providing AfC with the ability to achieve cost savings and work more flexibly to meet changing demands. During the year, we recruited two full time specialist targeted support workers which enabled us to accept more complex referrals and support children and young people with higher needs in the home. The two workers received 73 new referrals and provided 4,540 hours of outreach hours. Feedback from practitioners and parents and carers has been exceptional, and one of the workers received the AfC Rising Star award in recognition of impact. Findings are now being collated but as a result of the successful pilot, a business case is now in the process of being developed to request additional funding for the service to make it permanent. 

7. Intersectionality

We understand that our workforce and the children, young people and families that we support, may be impacted by their experiences across a number of the protected characteristic groups. For example, a member of staff may be from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background and may also have a disability. Both these characteristics may impact on their life experience. 

Our work has highlighted some areas of intersectionality, particularly where children and young people from more than one protected characteristic group are impacted or may be affected by disproportionality.

Children and young people in care

Research and data shows that nationally and locally, children and young people in care

are more likely to:

• be male
• be of secondary school age
• have a disability
• be from ethnically diverse communities

Progress in this area: 

• In Kingston and Richmond, we carried out a review of our Leaving Care Service with the aim of ensuring it is better able to meet increasing demand and so that it is more sustainable moving forward. Care leavers were consulted as part of the review and their feedback helped shape the recommendations. 
• We have worked with our children in care councils to support their peers who are being looked after by our social care services. Over the last year, they have been incredibly busy and have contributed to the development of the care leavers’ enhanced local offer, assisted in the launch of the HaveMySay app, which enables children in care to provide feedback whenever they want to and created baby packs for care leavers who become parents for the first time. They also established their own initiatives, such as GetConnected, which includes a summer fun day and football camp, and organised the celebration of achievement awards and the annual residential. 
• AfC’s Virtual School and Virtual College, which operates across all three boroughs, has provided invaluable support to the educational attainment of our looked after children. In the most recent 2022 examinations, results for key stage 4 improved again. They are now significantly above national averages for looked after children, and our looked after young people with SEND outperformed their national peers at the same level.
  
  At the request of our looked after children, we have been focusing on educational stability, and held a well-received multi-agency ‘Stability Symposium’ to bring together a range of stakeholders, including keynote speakers from the Department for Education and Oxford University. As a result of the event, our children and young people have launched their education stability charter which sets out clearly what they expect from the organisations that support them. Similarly, during the year, we were delighted that a number of local businesses signed up to our Care Leavers’ Covenant and our Attachment Aware Community Charter at our Better Futures Business Event, which was organised in collaboration with John Lewis. 
• With the expansion of virtual schools nationally to support all children with a social worker, we have grown our Attachment Aware Schools Award. This involves a year-long programme of training and support for schools so they are better able to meet the specific needs of these children and young people. We are now working with 69 schools as part of the award and as a result of this work, we have seen a reduction in the number of exclusions. 
  
  To further strengthen our support for children with a social worker, we have extended the work of the AfC Virtual School Transition Hub which provides direct support for the children, their families and their school. 
  
  In addition, we have developed a new data collection system for capturing absence and exclusion data for 847 of our children in need daily. The data is shared with social workers, who have been attending our Virtual School clinics to receive advice and guidance, to help them provide the best possible support to the children and young people they work with. We have also been able to use the data to identify and then visit a number of targeted schools who have benefited from strategic support. 
• In September 2022, we bid to the Department for Education's Capital Fund for match funding for a new children’s home in Kingston. We were delighted to find out in early 2023 that we had been successful and the project has now been approved by the council. The intention is to build a children’s home to accommodate between 3 and 5 children and young people at any time who may be difficult to place elsewhere due to their complex needs. The home will be a safe and welcoming space for them where they can be supported to grow and develop into adulthood. The home will give us more affordable and higher quality placements for young people in Richmond and Kingston. We expect the project to take between 18 and 24 months to complete. 

Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities 

National data shows that young people with SEND are more likely to be male.

There is a complex relationship between ethnicity and SEND with many other variables such as socio-economic status, language and cultural barriers influencing children’s outcomes. At an aggregate level, the national school census shows that Black pupils are slightly more likely to have education health and care plans and Asian pupils are slightly less likely, on average. However, there is more variation within some of these ethnic groups than between them, so meaningful conclusions cannot be drawn at this aggregate level.

There is an established link between disability and poverty, with national research in 2016 indicating that half of people in poverty are disabled or live with a disabled person.

Progress in this area: 

For progress in this area, please see the achievements section in relation to disability earlier in this document.

Young offenders

Research and data nationally show there are a number of specific characteristics of the young people who may be involved with the Youth Offending Service (YOS) which shows they are more likely to: 

• be aged 16 to 17 years
• have SEND than the general population
• be male
• be from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background than the general population
• have been a child in need, looked after child or on a child protection plan than the general population
• have substance misuse issues than the general population
• be NEET than the general 0 to 19 population

Available local data shows that the youth offending cohort is more diverse than the 0 to 19 population and the overall population. This is in line with national data which shows that young people from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background are disproportionately represented throughout the youth justice system. For example, minority ethnic children make up a growing proportion of those offending for the first time, reoffending, and serving custodial sentences. Today 41% of under-18s in custody are from minority backgrounds, compared with 25% a decade ago. Young Black people are now nine times more likely to be in youth custody than young white people.

The Lammy Review, chaired by David Lammy MP, was an independent review of the treatment of, and outcomes for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). It was published in September 2017. The review identified no single explanation for the disproportionate representation of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups and summarised that so many of the causes of, and answers to, the problem lie outside the criminal justice system: poverty, lone-parent families, school exclusions, and growing up in the care system. The report stated that a third of young people in custody have spent time in the care system, and a similar proportion have mental health issues. Nearly half arrive with substance misuse problems, but these problems are not being picked up as often for minority ethnic children as White children.

Black Asian and Minority Ethnic children in custody are less likely to be recorded as having substance misuse concerns, to be at risk of self-harm, to have learning difficulties, to have mental health concerns, to be disengaged from education, and to have problematic family relationships. Lammy concluded, ‘the pattern is too consistent to ignore. It is hard not to conclude that minority youngsters face bias in our criminal justice system.’

Progress to date: 

• In Kingston and Richmond, we continued to deliver our highly successful Project X which is funded through the Violence Reduction Unit and has a focus on reducing serious youth violence and knife crime. This includes working with young people at risk of criminal exploitation as well as victims of serious youth violence and robberies. In July 2022, Project X’s mixed martial arts fitness project received a commended award in the best charity and social enterprise category. The project is used as an exploitation and youth violence prevention, early intervention and diversion tool. It is a group-work term-time provision, which offers three separate age group sessions: Years 5 to 6, Years 7 to 12, ages 18 to 25.
• As part of Project X, the Emotional Health Service has been training staff to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) within current best practice in violence-reduction and related partnership approaches to effectively supporting children affected by extra-familial violence and related harms. This programme is called ‘Your Choice’ and is for 11 to 17 year olds who are assessed as medium or high risk of harm or vulnerability as a result of extra-familial harm and have been considered by a multi-agency panel. The aim of Your Choice is to help children to better understand themselves and to take better care of themselves by equipping them with tried and tested coping strategies. 
• In partnership with Thames Valley Police, the Windsor and Maidenhead Family Hub Service have developed a project aimed at engaging with 11 to 18 year olds who are believed to be in some way connected to knife crime or carrying a knife. The project, which launched in January 2023, predominantly works with the young people and their families and carers on, a one-to-one basis or as part of a group, to safeguard them and prevent criminal activity in the future. 
  
  The programme is intelligence led to provide the earliest intervention possible with a public health approach as opposed to waiting for a young person to be arrested for using a knife. The main criteria is where there is insufficient evidence to pursue a knife related criminal investigation. Nine young people have been supported to date, with three closed to service having completed the intervention. In addition, five youth violence workshops have been delivered to 141 young people in local schools.

8. What are our equality objectives and what progress have we made to date progress to date?

In line with national guidance, and to enable us to demonstrate how we meet the PSED, in 2021-22 we identified five key equality objectives that we want to focus on over the next four years. Details of these objectives, and progress so far, is set out below. 

Equality objective 1: providing support to the increasing number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC)

Why did we choose this objective? 

National data shows that the number of UASC entering the UK has seen a 15% increase on the number prior to the COVID pandemic. In the last year, there were 5,242 applications from UASC, compared to 3,553 in the year ending March 2020. Increasing numbers of UASC has been attributed to the ongoing refugee crisis. In Kingston and Richmond, there are at least four new UASC coming into our looked after children and leaving care services each month. In Windsor and Maidenhead, we were not accommodating UASC as part of the voluntary transfer scheme unless we were sure that we could support them in the borough. The government’s shift from a voluntary to a mandatory scheme last year has seen our UASC scheme increase dramatically in the last six months. 

Progress to date

We provide dedicated support to our UASC to help them to grow and develop. Our Leaving Care and UASC Team hold regular healthy relationship workshops, delivered by the teenage sexual health nurse, child sexual exploitation worker and AfC gangs worker that are tailored to meet the needs of our UASC. Topics include: trafficking, grooming, sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation, positive relationships, sexual health, British culture, female genital mutilation (FGM) and honour-based violence.

In Kingston and Richmond, our Leaving Care and UASC team is a multicultural team. Where possible, we match the UASC to a social worker and personal adviser who are from the same country or who speak the same language. UASC are supported to integrate into British society, by attending ESOL lessons. Our team provides interpreters to all appointments as necessary. We also support UASC in understanding the complex immigration process, including ensuring they understand all their options such as voluntary return home if they are considered ‘appeal rights exhausted’, meaning that their asylum support is stopped. The team has a rolling contract with Refugee Action Kingston to offer up to 10 sessions of counselling, focusing on loss and bereavement as well as supporting them with the uncertainty of their future in the UK.

In Windsor and Maidenhead, historically our number of UASC has been lower compared to other local authorities, however we have always provided a high standard when considering educational and employment opportunities.

In October 2022, the Children in Care Council organised a celebration of achievement awards ceremony where every UASC received a gold certificate highlighting one of their main achievements. One of our UASC was also supported to attend the Home Office Young People's Board to discuss and give their view on how issues related to them could be improved. 

We have successfully been running Culture4Keeps, an arts and leisure programme for children looked after and unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Young people get free access to art and leisure centres (swimming and sports classes) in Richmond. They can bring a supportive buddy as part of the scheme. Activities include free ice skating, theatre tickets at Christmas and regular arts opportunities at local historical venues like Hampton Court Palace and Kew Gardens. Culture4Keeps provides opportunities for young people to meet and socially engage with their local community, including artists and experts. 

UASC have access to AfC Virtual School's Transition Hub which provides intensive support for new into care. Impact data demonstrates raised percentages of young people achieving age related expectations and improved attendance on leaving the programme. AfC Virtual College has established a 'welcome programme' to support UASC which is being trialled in Windsor and Maidenhead. The programme offers two hours a day, four days a week of English tuition from a qualified ESOL teacher who works in AfC Virtual College. This is supported by a programme of cultural capital educational visits such as to Windsor Castle.

During 2022-23, we established the Kingston and Richmond Targeted Support Service as a pilot to provide high quality and affordable in-house outreach services to children, young people and families who require additional one to one staffing support for a time-limited period. The aim of the pilot was to see how successful the service could be in terms of reducing the number of care leavers at risk of losing their placements, reducing the number of young people on the edge of care by helping them to stay at home for longer, supporting carers with respite, and providing AfC with the ability to achieve cost savings and work more flexibly to meet changing demands. 

During the year, we recruited two full time specialist targeted support workers which enabled us to accept more complex referrals and support children and young people with higher needs in the home. The two workers received 73 new referrals and provided 4,540 hours of outreach hours. Feedback from practitioners and parents and carers has been exceptional, and one of the workers received the AfC Rising Star award in recognition of impact. Findings are now being collated but as a result of the successful pilot, a business case is now in the process of being developed to request additional funding for the service to make it permanent. 

Equality objective 2: Integrating care and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities within their local communities, ensuring SEND provision is high quality, and supporting young people to transition to adulthood

Why did we choose this objective? 

The number of children and young people with an education, health and care plan is growing nationally and locally. This has been accompanied by an increase in the number of children with severe and complex needs.

In addition, there is a recognition that the support we provide to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities is an area for improvement.

We know that we must make improvements to SEND provision, not just in AfC, but also in our schools, colleges, health services and social care. This is a partnership issue and we are working collectively (including with parents, carers and young people) to improve our local offer and the quality of services. To do this, we have put in place transformation plans, committed considerable resources, and we are working with parents to better learn from their experiences. Continuing to develop and improve provision in this area will continue to be a priority in the coming year. 

Progress to date

A strategic plan is in place to ensure the quality of provision is improving across Kingston and Richmond - the SEND Futures Plan 2020-2026. 

In Windsor and Maidenhead, we have developed our new SEND strategy, which was drafted based on feedback from key stakeholders including young people and parents and carers. The strategy sets the direction for our SEND activity over the next five years.

Progress with the implementation of these plans is set out previously in this document under achievements in relation to disability. 

Equality objective 3: Improving our mental health support for children and young people so it more effectively meets their needs

Why did we choose this objective? 

A large and growing body of research shows that good mental health is essential for individual wellbeing, for a happy, healthy society, and for a prosperous economy. Unfortunately, child mental health problems are on the increase nationally and locally, with a rising demand on services and increasing complexity of need. Research shows that:

• at least one in 10 children has a diagnosable mental health condition. This figure is likely to be higher and growing
• over half of all mental ill health starts before the age of 14, and 75% has developed by the age of 24
• demand is going up – over three years there has been a 14% rise in children admitted to hospital after harming themselves; specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) are on average turning away 23% of the young people referred to them for treatment
• children from low income families are four times more likely to experience mental health problems than children from well off families
• amongst LGBTQI+ young people, seven out of ten girls and six out of 10 boys described experiencing suicidal thoughts

Concerns have also been raised about the quality of mental health services and the availability of access to this support, with unclear pathways and thresholds that are not understood by families.

Please note that the title of this objective has changed so that it better reflects the ongoing work to improve mental health services across AfC.

Progress to date

• The emotionally related school avoidance (ERSA) project has been established to support those children who experience difficulties attending school, due to a range of factors. Through the project, which operates in Windsor and Maidenhead, 28 schools have received training, support and consultation on ERSA, have been given access to a newly created toolkit, and have been provided with additional strategies to help them to effectively support these children. A further 16 schools will be trained during Spring 2023. A multi-agency steering group oversees the project, including the development, dissemination, training and implementation of the ERSA toolkit and further refining the ERSA multi-agency graduated pathway. Feedback from pupils, parents and the schools has been extremely good. 
• In Kingston and Richmond, our Emotional Health Service (EHS) received over 1,400 referrals during the year, with 352 referrals received on the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway in relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autistic spectrum disorder. This is an increase of 7% from the previous year. The EHS delivered a range of online groups including low mood groups for young people aged 15 to 18 years, attended by 22 young people, anxiety groups for young people aged 12 to 18 years, attended by 29 young people, and groups for parents of anxious primary aged children, with 43 parents in attendance. We also collaborated with ‘Art and Soul’ to run two art therapy groups which were accessed successfully by 12 children. We launched our sixth Mental Health Support Team (MHST) in schools, which has meant that every school inKingston and Richmond now has access to an MHST. Over 1,400 children accessed the MHSTs in 2022-23 for individual or group therapy, which is a 55% increase from the previous year.

Equality objective 4: Ensuring Achieving for Children is an inclusive and diverse organisation that celebrates differences and that represents the local communities it serves

Why did we choose this objective? 

Research shows that promoting and supporting diversity in the workplace is an important aspect of good people management. It is about valuing everyone in the organisation as an individual. However, to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce it is vital to have an inclusive environment where everyone feels able to participate and achieve their potential.

Diversity is about recognising differences. It is acknowledging the benefit of having a range of perspectives in decision-making and the workforce being representative of who the organisation serves.

Inclusion is where people’s differences are valued and used to enable everyone to thrive at work. An inclusive working environment is one in which everyone feels that they belong without having to conform, that their contribution matters and they are able to perform to their full potential, no matter their background, identity or circumstances. An inclusive workplace has fair policies and practices in place and enables a diverse range of people to work together effectively.

Greater inclusivity and diversity brings a number of benefits, including:

• recruiting from a diverse pool of candidates means a more qualified workforce
• a diverse and inclusive workforce helps avoid employee turnover costs
• diversity fostering a more creative and innovative workforce
• diversity and inclusion brings us all opportunities to learn from others and grow

Progress to date 

We are proud that our EDI Board is driving forward our EDI work. We want to become an even more diverse and inclusive organisation and we are committed to listening to our staff and children and families that we support to better understand their experiences and shape our activity based on this feedback. 

See key EDI achievements for our workforce for more information on what our EDI Board has achieved to date.

Equality objective 5: tackling racial inequality

Why did we choose this objective? 

In October 2020, the London Innovation and Improvement Alliance (LIIA), commissioned a data analysis of disproportionality across children’s outcomes in London for education, social care, health and justice. This data included that of Kingston and Richmond. A summary of analysis concludes that across all key datasets, pupils of Black heritage are disproportionately represented. In Kingston and Richmond, this is particularly notable and above London and England averages in:

• children looked after data
• fixed term exclusion in Kingston - mixed heritage is also above average more than one fixed term exclusion
• permanent exclusion in Richmond (no data for Kingston)
• reading, writing and maths at key stage 2. There are concerns overall for Black and Mixed Heritage (White and Black) pupils
• percentage difference in Attainment 8 scores
• Attainment 8 scores in Richmond - this is also lower for Asian and mixed heritage pupils
• strong pass in English and maths GCSE in Richmond - this also lower for Asian and mixed heritage pupils
• SEND without an education, health and care plan and in Richmond it is also high for mixed heritage pupils
• SEND with an ECHP but in line with London, there is an over representation of Black and mixed heritage pupils in Kingston and Black and Asian pupils in Richmond 
• there being no data for youth offending but Black, mixed and other ethnicity groups are overrepresented in London and England

As a result of the findings, in 2020 we identified tackling racial inequality as a new objective across all three boroughs. 

Progress to date

• We are focusing on universally improving the approach to being inclusive through our Inclusion Charter and Toolkit. We also have education representatives on the disproportionality sub group for the Youth Offending Service and we have also established a racial justice working group.
• In March to April 2022, the Kingston and Richmond Youth Council elections took place in secondary schools and youth clubs. 5,500 voted in the elections. As part of the voting system all young people took part in an online poll to identify the key issues for young people and racism was identified as an issue for young people in both boroughs. Our current youth council has made tackling racism as one of their top priorities for their two year term of office. 
• Our data shows us that we have a greater than national average proportion of Black African, Black Caribbean and mixed White and Black Caribbean pupils who are disadvantaged in the school system. Using an anti-racist lens in our school improvement work around disadvantage has helped to identify for schools where racial justice approaches are key for these pupils, looking at how they are positioned as learners and how they are included in the curriculum. 
• Further achievements are set out in relation to race and ethnicity earlier in this document. 

9. Workforce race equality standard

The social care workforce race equality standard (WRES) launched in 2021, with a pilot scheme involving 18 local authorities across England. In line with our business plan and equality and diversity strategy, AfC committed to participate in the WRES pilot and publish our WRES findings with the aim to identify and address any areas that will improve the workplace experience and representation at all levels for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff.

This report provides a summary of the key findings and outlines progress with the action plan for the 2022-23 AfC WRES. The findings reported last year as part of the pilot were mostly based on just permanent Richmond staff. The findings this year for all metrics include all staff across AfC, including those in casual roles. We have made comparisons between the data where possible although this is just for illustrative purposes as the differences between the data used means that it cannot be directly compared. It should also be noted that 60% of our total workforce (including casual staff) have not disclosed their ethnicity, so the figures included in this report are only based on those who have declared. Work is ongoing to improve the disclosure rate amongst staff but it does mean the actual figures may be different from what it reported below. 

Background to the WRES

National context

The social care workforce race equality standard pilot was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to ensure that employees from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds gain equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace. 

A similar WRES was introduced into the NHS in July 2015 and reporting now takes place annually providing an opportunity to continually review data and reflect on workplace practices. The purpose of the social care WRES is to agree and establish standards to support and strengthen the efforts of local authorities to create processes around fairness and equality at work, with a focus on improving data collection and analysis. The WRES consists of calculating data across nine metrics of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation in the workforce at all levels of seniority, and other workforce matters, such as promotions pathways, movement into leadership roles and access to non-mandatory training, experiences of bullying and harassment, and experiences of racism at work. 

Local context

AfC was part of the initial WRES pilot alongside colleagues from Richmond and Wandsworth to provide a picture of workforce practices across both adults’ and children’s social care. Participation in the WRES pilot has provided an opportunity for us to reflect on what data we collect from our staff and how, as a result, we have implemented some new ways of gathering information. We will build on these tools in order to provide a meaningful WRES return across the whole of AfC in future years.

WRES metrics

To help organisations to identify and improve Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff experiences and opportunities, they are required to collate data and self-assess against nine indicators. The indicators are based on those used in the NHS WRES and focus on the following themes.

• Leadership (Metric 1 and 9)
• Recruitment and retention (Metric 2 and 8)
• Learning and career development (Metric 5)
• Culture and staff experience (Metric 3, 4, 6 and 7)
• Health and wellbeing ​
• Employee voice

Summary of findings for 2022-23

Overall summary

Overall, the WRES findings show that: 

• a significant proportion of our total workforce (including casual staff) do not declare their ethnicity. This makes it more difficult for us to determine with certainty the findings from the data
• staff from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are not well represented in the higher pay bands 
• our senior leadership team is not as diverse as our workforce as a whole. 
• there are some differences between the experiences of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff particularly in terms of disciplinary action and those leaving the organisation, which need to be further explored 
• there do not appear to be differences in the experiences of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and White staff in relation to fitness to practise, those experiencing harassment or bullying from the public or from managers and colleagues, and those accessing non-mandatory CPD

The information below sets out the key findings in relation to each of the WRES metrics: 

Metric 1: Percentage of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in each of the council pay bands compared with the percentage of staff in the rest of the workforce

Pay band	%White	% BAME and White other
1	66.67	33.33
2	69.57	30.43
3	71.21	28.79
4	67.06	32.94
5	78.13	21.88
6	68.33	31.67
7	68.25	31.75
8	77.78	22.22
9	77.42	22.58
10	86.49	13.51
11	82.86	17.14
12	87.50	12.50
13	84.00	16.00
14	87.50	12.50
15	81.82	18.18

 

Generally the percentage of staff from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background reduces from pay band 10 onwards (those earning £42,000+), indicating less Black Asian and Minority Ethnic employees in leadership or management positions, with less Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff represented within the top few pay bands.

It should be noted that the number of staff in the top pay bands decreases, therefore it is more difficult to draw any firm conclusions. 

Metric 2: Comparative rate of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff being appointed from shortlisting

• In 2022-23, of those who applied for roles within AfC, 43.0% of applicants were from a Black Asian or Minority Ethnic background, 50.0% were White, and the ethnicity of 7.0% is not known. 
• For those applicants who were shortlisted, 30.0% were from a Black Asian or Minority Ethnic background, 63.0% were White, and the ethnicity of 7.0% is not known. The proportion of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants who were then offered a role was 36.0%, with 54.0% being White and the ethnicity of 10.0% not being known. This indicates there is a positive correlation between those being shortlisted and then offered a role in terms of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic applicants. It also indicates that the overall workforce should, in time, become more diverse as the percentage of new staff being appointed who are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic, is higher than the current workforce total. 

Metric 3: Comparative rate of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff entering the formal disciplinary process  

• During 2022-23, of those who entered the disciplinary process (20), 35% (7) were Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and 65% were White (13). 
• Given that the total proportion of the workforce who are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic is 25% this suggests that this area needs further review to better understand why there is a difference. 
• In 2021-22, only five staff entered the formal disciplinary process. Due to the low numbers and the risk of staff becoming identifiable, we were not able to break this information down further by race and ethnicity. 

Metric 4: Comparative rate of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staf entering the fitness to practise process

During 2022-23, no Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and just one White member of staff entered the fitness to practise process. This indicates equitable practice and is similar to last year. 

Metric 5: Comparative rate of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic employees leaving the organisation during the last year

• The percentage of staff leaving who are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic is slightly higher than we would expect to see based on the workforce as a whole. Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff make up 26% of the total workforce, but 29% of leavers (as a percentage of those who have chosen to disclose ethnicity). This is relatively similar to the figure that was reported last year. 
• This data does not provide us with the reason for leaving AfC and therefore we have limited knowledge of the factors that may contribute to staff leaving. 
• Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff could be leaving for opportunities for professional development which would be a positive for the individual, however this could be a missed opportunity for AfC to retain and develop staff who are leaving if they feel they have a lack of developmental opportunities within AfC. Similarly if Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff are leaving due to unfair working practices, there is a missed opportunity here for AfC to drill down to understand these issues.

Metric 6: Percentage of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse from patients, relatives (service users) or the public in last 12 months 

• 66.3% of staff agree or strongly agree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from service users or members of the public in the last 12 months.
• This is a slight reduction when compared to last year’s survey where 69.0% registered one of these responses. 
• Of these 17.4% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and 76.7% are White staff. Like last year, this is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey, indicating that the majority of staff have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from service users or members of the public and there is no discrepancy between Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and White staff. 
• 9.9% neither agreed or disagreed, which is similar to last year. 
• 22.8% of staff disagree or strongly disagree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from service users or members of the public in the last 12 months. Of these 17.1% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff, compared with 79.3% for White staff. Again this is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey indicating that there is no discrepancy between Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and White staff. It also reflects the findings from last year. 
• In addition, we asked staff if they felt confident that any unacceptable behaviour from service users or a member of the public would be dealt with effectively by AfC. 70.9% agreed or strongly agreed - of these 16.5% of staff are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic and 77.9% are White. This aligns with findings from last year and is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey.

Metric 7: Percentage of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff experiencing harassment, bullying or abuse in the last 12 months from: 

a) a colleague 

• 77% of staff agree or strongly agree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a colleague in the last 12 months. This is 6% lower than last year (83%) indicating more staff have experienced unacceptable behaviour from colleagues in the last 12 months. 
• Of these 17% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and 79% are White staff. Again, like last year this is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey, indicating that the majority of staff have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a colleague and there is no discrepancy between BAME and White staff.
• 9% neither agreed or disagreed, this is a 3% increase from last year.
• Similar to last year, 13% of staff disagree or strongly disagree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a colleague in the last 12 months. This is a slight increase from 11% last year. Of these, 17% are BAME staff, compared with 79% for White staff. This aligns with findings from last year. 

b) a manager

• 87% of staff agree or strongly agree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a manager in the last 12 months, this has decreased 5% when compared to last year’s data. Of these 17% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and 78% are White staff. Like last year, this is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey, indicating that the majority of staff have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a manager and there is no discrepancy between different staff groups. 
• 7% neither agreed or disagreed which is similar to last year.
• 5% of staff disagree or strongly disagree that they have not experienced any unacceptable behaviour from a manager in the last 12 months, which is similar to the data from last year. 

Metric 8: Comparative rate of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff accessing funded non mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) as compared to White staff

• At present we are unable to report on the number of staff accessing non-mandatory CPD, therefore staff were asked to respond to the following statement in our staff survey: 'I am supported to access non-mandatory continuing professional development opportunities'. 
• 68% of staff agree or strongly agree that they are supported to access non-mandatory CPD opportunities and this is similar to last year’s data. Of these 19% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and 76% are White staff. Like last year, this is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the staff survey, indicating that the majority of staff feel able to and supported to access non-mandatory CPD and there is no discrepancy between different staff groups. 
• 22% neither agree or disagree, which is similar to last year.
• 9% of staff disagree or strongly disagree that they are supported to access non-mandatory CPD opportunities, which again, is similar to last year.
• Of these 15% are Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff compared with 74% who are White staff. This is proportional to the number and breakdown of staff responding to the survey, indicating that amongst staff who disagree or strongly disagree they are supported to access non-mandatory CPD opportunities, there is no discrepancy between different staff groups. 
• The data from la
• st year showed a higher proportion of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff felt unsupported to access non-mandatory CPD in comparison with White staff. Last year, mechanisms to promote CPD opportunities for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff were included in the WRES action plan and the data suggests that this may have had a positive impact.

Metric 9: Percentage difference between organisations’ senior management membership and its overall workforce

• SLT is not as representative as the workforce as a whole, with a much higher proportion of staff from White backgrounds. 
• 76.9% of SLT are White and 23.1% are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background. This compares to the workforce which is 75% White and 26% who are from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background.
• The number of BAME staff at Senior Leadership Team level would need to rise by approximately 3.9% in order to fall in line to represent the total workforce.

WRES action plan

Our action plan has been developed in collaboration with the AfC EDI Board, and peer review with colleagues from the Richmond and Wandsworth WRES project group. It has been informed by the data from the WRES submission, workforce data already collected by AfC, and data from a recent staff survey completed within AfC. The plan is monitored and reviewed by the AfC EDI Board. 

The information below sets out the progress we have made with the implementation of our action plan during 2022-23. There is significant crossover between the WRES action plan and our equality objectives and equalities achievements - this has been flagged in the table. 

Leadership (Metric 1 and 9)

Objective 1: To embed the WRES in AfC and Objective 2: To establish leadership and ownership of the equality, diversity and inclusion programme of work via the EDI Board

 

Progress to date: 

• As set out in section 2 above in relation to our approach to EDI in AfC, our reporting mechanisms and governance structures ensure that EDI and the WRES is fully embedded and progress is regularly reported. For example, WRES metrics are now included in the annual staff survey as a matter of course.
• Furthermore, as part of the approval of the annual equalities report for 2022-23, the EDI Board will review this document including the data and information relation to WRES. 
• The annual equalities report for 2022-23 will be published and shared with staff so they can better understand our progress with EDI and with the WRES in particular. 
• Our EDI Board is now well-established and operating successfully, with agreed terms of reference, a clear plan of action and a clear means of measuring progress and impact. Our chief finance and operating officer now chairs our EDI Board, ensuring a direct line of communication to our Senior Leadership Team, and we have recently appointed a paid, part-time EDI lead as vice chair. The board includes representatives from the AfC Board of Directors, senior leaders, and representatives from across both operational areas and Business Services. Our EDI Board action plan guides the activity of the board and will shortly be reviewed and refreshed. 

Culture and staff experience (Metric 3, 4, 6 and 7), and learning and career development (Metric 5 and 8)

 

Objective 3: To develop equality, diversity and inclusion training and resources for staff

Progress to date: 

• As set out in the training section in section two of this document, we have a comprehensive EDI training offer. This includes courses relating to cultural awareness, mental health, SEND, and racial justice. Our EDI e-learning is now a mandatory course for all new members of staff and the Managing Racism in the Workplace training that we have commissioned has received outstanding feedback from attendees. The various conferences we have held, for example Early Years and for schools, and our whole service events have had focused sessions relating to EDI and these have been well-attended with positive feedback received. 
• Recent attendance data does show that we need to ensure staff from across the organisation, and external partners, are taking part in EDI training as there has been a drop in those attending over the past 12 months. 

Culture and staff experience (Metric 3, 4, 6 and 7)

Objective 4: To raise awareness of equality diversity and inclusion issues in AfC, particularly in relation to staff from a Black Asian and Minority Ethnic background

Progress to date:

• The profile of EDI has grown over the past 12 months. As set out previously, our chief operating and finance officer is now the chair of our EDI Board which includes representatives from the AfC Board of Directors and senior leaders from across the organisation, and we have representation from across both operational areas and Business Services. 
• We have strengthened our EDI presence on Connect (our staff intranet), and through our regular EDI forums and campaigns such as Black History Month, provided a stronger spotlight on EDI activity. Our AENs are now well-established and regularly meeting and regularly communicating to colleagues about their activities. 
• Our new professional development scheme and supervision framework places a greater emphasis on health and wellbeing, including prompts for contextual conversations around issues such as race and diversity. 
• With the new part-time EDI lead post in place, we will be undertaking a review of the EDI Board action plan and will be using staff feedback captured throughout the year as well as data about our workforce and findings from the WRES to inform our plans for the next 12 months. 

Recruitment and retention (Metric 2, 5 and 8)

Objective 5: To improve the recruitment, retention and development of staff from more diverse backgrounds including roles within senior management

Progress to date:

• Section 2 in this document sets out the range of activity that has taken place in relation to recruitment and retention. This includes establishing a paid, part-time EDI lead post to be the vice chair of our EDI Board, trialling a reverse mentoring pilot, and reviewing the potential for other initiatives such as blind recruitment and more diverse interview panels. 
• We have reviewed and updated our job adverts to ensure they are welcoming to underrepresented sections of the community, and our recent recruitment campaign, Alive, featured staff from diverse backgrounds. 
• Job adverts have been updated to include new wording around equalities and they welcome applications from underrepresented sections of the community.
• We held EDI Forum sessions to discuss the experiences of staff from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, including in relation to unacceptable behaviour. Based on feedback from this session, and the findings from the WRES last year, we reviewed our unacceptable behaviour policy, in consultation with staff, to ensure it is sufficiently robust. We are currently developing an animation, which will be published on our website, to explain to parents, carers and families what we consider unacceptable behaviour and the actions that will be taken should they behave in this way when in contact with AfC staff. 
• Our WRES findings for this year will inform the refresh of the EDI Board action plan moving forward.

Moving forward

Participation in the WRES, in the pilot year and in 2022-23, has highlighted some interesting information on the experiences of BAME staff in comparison to White staff across AfC. It has also highlighted gaps in our data collection methods and a reluctance in some areas for staff to come forward and share their experiences of working at AfC with us.

Over the next year, we will continue to refine our data collection tools and the way we engage with staff in order to ensure we capture meaningful information for our next WRES return and encourage staff to provide full details around their experiences of working at AfC.

In 2023-24, we will report again on all operational areas of AfC, so we have a fuller and more transparent reflection of the experience of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in relation to the WRES metrics. We will also be in a position to properly compare findings between 2022-23 and 2023-24 so we can better understand our progression. 

We will use the lessons learnt from the WRES this year and the year before, and the accompanying action plan to improve our working practices and implement race equality standards as per the aims of the WRES.

 

Ethnic grouping	%
Asian or Asian British	12.90
Asian/Asian British - Any Other	3.23
Asian/Asian British - Indian	4.84
Asian/Asian British - Pakistan	4.84
Black or Black British	11.29
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British - African	9.68
Black/African/Caribbean/Black British - Caribbean	1.61
Mixed	3.23
Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups - White and Black African	3.23
Other ethnic groups	1.61
Other ethnic group - Arab	1.61
White	70.97
White - any other	8.06
White - English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British	61.29
White - Irish	1.6