Corporate report

Inclusive Britain second update report – May 2024

Updated 24 May 2024

This was published under the 2022 to 2024 Sunak Conservative government

Ministerial foreword

Our United Kingdom is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-faith success story. 

That story is written and rewritten from generation to generation. 

The chapter we write together as a nation today is shaped by the rich plurality of perspectives and traditions comfortable and at home in modern Britain.

It is that range of perspectives, different ways of understanding the same problems, which will help us address many of the long-term challenges the UK faces.

I am unsurprised that polling shows that the vast majority of British people from ethnic minority backgrounds feel that the UK is a better place to live as a minority than many other major western democracies including the USA, Germany, and France. 

The patriotic instinct of ethnic minorities who say this is the best country to live in reveals that our national identity transcends difference without a painful memory of segregationist laws, an ethnic definition of citizenship, or constitutional battles over religious dress. 

This does not mean that ethnic minorities like me should be more ‘grateful’ to be in the UK than anyone else. 

It is also not to say that this is a society which has eliminated hate towards ethnic minorities. Demonstrations on our streets this year and last have seen the ugly spectre of antisemitism rear its head. 

Pride in our national identity rests on not only a past we can all relate to, and a culture we can celebrate today, but on the confidence that we share a future in which opportunity is open to all.

That’s what underpinned Inclusive Britain – our response to the work of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, chaired by the celebrated educationalist Lord Sewell CBE.

It is a cross-government plan which advances opportunity while tackling unfair ethnic disparities across education, employment, health and the justice system. Every action is based on targeting real-world problems with real-world solutions. 

We’ve made tangible progress since the first publication 2 years ago, completing 62 out of the 74 actions to date. 

Beyond the achievements we outlined in our update to Parliament last April, we’ve published findings from the independent Inclusion at Work Panel which address equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace, where ethnic minorities can often feel unheard or unfairly treated.

We’ve announced a package of support for ethnic minority mothers who, like me, have given birth using the NHS, because they have a higher risk of poor outcomes. We have deployed £50 million of funding for researchers to find new, evidence-based ways to tackle maternal health disparities, an issue I care passionately about and is often misunderstood. 

We’re seeing many of the stubborn, most entrenched disparities in our society narrowing. 

Entry into university has increased for every single ethnic group since 2010, with ethnic minority pupils achieving higher acceptance rates than their white peers. 

In our NHS, workforce diversity is higher than ever before, with nearly 25% of staff from an ethnic minority background.

In our justice system and our police forces, we now have the highest proportion of ethnic minority officers, judges, and magistrates since records began.       

The state can always learn from the individuals who work so hard to be less dependent on it. 

The work ethic and impatience of many of the new arrivals to the UK have resulted in better lives for immigrants and their children over the ages. 

That determination and hunger is something we in government must learn from. We should not use progress or a positive record to reduce our efforts to promote opportunity. 

That’s why we are committed to doubling down on our efforts to complete the remaining actions in Inclusive Britain, while embarking on a wider project to understand the role of trust in our public institutions and its effect on ethnic disparities, too. The events of the last year, especially the conflict in Gaza, have shown that we must do more to build community cohesion and nurture a sense of belonging and pride for everyone who calls the UK home. 

The Inclusive Britain action plan may be all but delivered. Our work, however, cannot end here. 

My own story, as someone who is, to all intents and purposes, a first-generation immigrant – and now the Government’s Minister for Women and Equalities – has instilled in me a deep commitment: to ensure that every community, in every corner of the UK, can be confident they have a fair shot at success and an equal opportunity to realise their full potential.

Kemi Badenoch  

Minister for Women and Equalities

Introduction

On 17 March 2022, we published Inclusive Britain, our response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (the Sewell Commission) which sets out a comprehensive action plan to tackle persistent, unfair ethnic disparities, promote unity and build a fairer Britain for all. It committed the government to 74 tailored actions to tackle long-standing disparities in education, health, criminal justice and in the workplace.

We undertook to report back to Parliament on our progress in delivering this action plan. In April 2023 we published our first update report to Parliament, at which point we had successfully delivered 32 of the 74 actions. 

One year on, we have now delivered 62 of the actions. We continue to strive to complete the remaining 12 actions, some of which are longer-term commitments. 

This report summarises the progress we have made since we published Inclusive Britain and gives examples of how that progress is making a real difference to people’s lives.

The report follows the structure of Inclusive Britain, and highlights progress made under the 3 main themes:

• trust and fairness - building confidence in our institutions and in British meritocracy

• opportunity and agency - promoting equality of opportunity, encouraging aspiration and empowering individuals 

• inclusion - encouraging and instilling a sense of belonging to a multi-ethnic UK which celebrates its differences while embracing the values which unite us all

Annex A summarises the progress we have made against all 74 actions.

1. Trust and fairness

Inclusive Britain concluded that too many people from ethnic minority backgrounds feel that the ‘system’ is not on their side. To build trust, it found that people must be confident they will be treated fairly and not discriminated against on the basis of their ethnicity.

The ‘Trust and Fairness’ chapter in Inclusive Britain includes a number of important commitments to tackle racism and discrimination and, in particular, harmful online abuse. It also includes actions to address concerns about use of police powers such as stop and search, to promote fairer pay and to tackle long-standing health disparities.

The first Inclusive Britain update report highlighted the substantive progress made in these areas. This included introducing our groundbreaking Online Safety Bill (now the Online Safety Act 2023), stopping use of the term ‘BAME’ in all government communications, developing a framework to measure online abuse, improving the stop and search process, and publishing new guidance to help employers rigorously measure and address any ethnicity pay gaps within their workforce. 

We have continued this progress in the last 12 months, with key activity summarised below.

Report responsibly on race

As Inclusive Britain made clear, reporting on news and issues around ethnic minorities needs to be done sensitively, accurately and responsibly in order to maintain trust of communities, as well as the rest of civil society and public institutions.

Inclusive Britain included a commitment to better understand the language and terminology with which people from different ethnic backgrounds identify in order to encourage responsible reporting of issues of race and ethnicity (action 7).  Last year, the Cabinet Office Equality Hub published alongside the update report qualitative research commissioned from Basis Social into the use of language and terminology relating to people’s ethnic identity. 

The Equality Hub also asked IFF Research to undertake a rapid review of the way race and ethnicity data is reported in the media in relation to particular ethnic disparities. IFF used the government’s Standards for Ethnicity Data, developed under action 6, to inform its work. Key findings include: 

• Most of the 32 media articles that were sampled reported race and ethnicity statistics correctly. In the instances that data was incorrect, this appeared to be a genuine error.

• These articles did not always provide the underlying detail of the data set, which could provide important context. 

• The articles frequently included links to the relevant research or published statistics, but did not usually provide detail on their methodology and limitations. 

• The articles often provided anecdotes, opinions and quotes interspersed with statistical data. This could lead to the impression that the data supported those statements, even when that was not the case.

• Instances of accurate reporting were found when the organisation publishing the data provided an accessible summary of research findings, methodology and limitations, for example in the accompanying press release. 

IFF Research expects to publish a summary of these findings in due course.

To improve the way government statistics are communicated to the public and help inform media reporting, the Equality Hub will build on the government’s Standards for Ethnicity Data to provide guidance for government departments and public bodies on communicating ethnicity data and analysis in press releases and media summaries. This will help improve consistency and accessibility when such findings are published, and facilitate the accurate reporting of complex statistics.  

Improve understanding of migration outcomes

The Sewell Commission highlighted that migration patterns may have shaped ethnic disparities by influencing the way in which different groups have integrated into communities, accessed jobs and where they reside in the UK among other things. In order to improve our understanding of the role of immigration in potentially driving disparities, Inclusive Britain committed us to launching a new, cross-government analytical programme to identify and fill gaps in our evidence and understanding in relation to social mobility, skill and role mismatching and health outcomes of immigrants (action 9). 

As part of the first update report, the Equality Hub published an analysis (in partnership with the University of Essex) of the outcomes in the labour market for ethnic minorities by immigrant generation status. The paper explored how being a first- or second-generation migrant impacts the likelihood of being unemployed or economically inactive across different ethnic groups.

Since then, our focus has been on 3 other areas of research:

• occupation and education mismatch

• social mobility

• reviewing the so-called ‘healthy migrant effect’ 

The combined findings of these areas of research demonstrate that it is highly likely that migration does interact with current ethnic disparities in this country. In particular, migrant outcomes appear to strongly link to ethnic disparities via the barriers faced by first-generation migrants, and where these barriers are subsequently passed on to second-generation migrants.

Following this report, the Equality Hub expects to publish a summary of the results from all 4 strands of analytical work under this action. We will also consider the findings and how they impact policy-making in these areas.

Strengthening bonds of trust between people and their police force

Inclusive Britain acknowledged the need to improve confidence in policing, particularly among the black ethnic group. It committed the Home Office and policing partners to develop a new national framework for how police powers, such as stop and search and use of force, can be scrutinised at a local level (action 10). 

In August, the Home Office published a draft of the framework (‘Community Scrutiny Framework: National Guidance for Community Scrutiny Panels’) for consultation. The framework recommends national guidance standards for the effective community scrutiny of local public-police interactions, by Community Scrutiny Panels (CSPs), so that communities and the police are better engaged in understanding each other. 

The draft framework also considers the sharing of body-worn video (BWV), a further commitment in Inclusive Britain (action 13). BWV is a further means of ensuring that police powers are used correctly and sharing footage with local scrutiny panels will help to improve communities’ understanding of legitimate police use of powers such as stop and search, while at the same time helping police forces to identify and address poor practice. 

The consultation on the framework concluded last October and the government’s response will be published in due course. The framework will also be amended in light of this exercise and will be published in due course.  

Improve stop and search

Inclusive Britain acknowledged the concerns that some ethnic minority groups are disproportionately subject to stop and search. In the year ending March 2023, people from a black ethnic group were searched at a rate 4.1 times higher than that of those from a white ethnic group across England and Wales. This is down from 4.8 times higher in the previous year, and down from 5.5 times higher in the year ending March 2021. People from the Asian or Asian British group were searched at a rate 1.4 times higher than their white peers, down from 1.8 times higher in the year ending March 2021.  

Inclusive Britain committed to further work to understand why these disparities persist. This includes improving the way stop and search data is reported (action 14). 

In the last update report we highlighted the additional stop and search data that the Home Office had published in September 2022, including an interactive tool that allows much clearer presentation of stop and search data and comparison between Police Force Areas (PFAs). For the latest annual bulletin (year ending March 2023), published in September, the Home Office included a range of new data including:

• stop and search outcomes by ethnicity by PFA

• better signposting to PFA data to enable users to compare data more easily - for example between stop and search rates and arrest rates after stop and searches

• ethnicity (and age, and sex) population data for PFAs to add further context to the stop and search rates

In March last year, the Home Office shared information packs with individual forces containing summaries of the rates and disparities at which each ethnic group is searched in each PFA, and showing where the force ranks compared with neighbouring forces, most similar forces and all other forces across England and Wales.

Future publications of stop and search statistics by the Home Office will continue to explore further ways to better contextualise data on ethnic disparity such as expanding the commentary to include analysis of object “find rate” by ethnic group. This data may provide greater understanding of the effectiveness and use of stop and search powers.

Under action 15, we also committed to working with policing partners to consider a range of metrics for stop and search rates at PFA level in order to identify and, where necessary, challenge disparities at a local level. Our view is that the best way of ensuring this is for local scrutiny panels to consider the annual stop and search data for their particular force and, where necessary, challenge any disparities at a PFA-level. This will be reflected in the draft national framework for how policing powers can be scrutinised at a local level (see action 10 above).  

Taken together, these measures will allow for much more meaningful interrogation of the stop and search data - both at a national and local level - and ensure that police forces are held to account for their use of stop and search powers and for any ethnic disparities in their usage.

Identify and tackle health disparities

The government is committed to delivering its levelling up mission to narrow the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy by 2030 and increase Healthy Life Expectancy by 5 years by 2035. In January 2023, we announced plans to develop and publish a new Major Conditions Strategy which will explore how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England (action 19). 

The DHSC published its initial report, Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework, in August 2023 which set out what it has learned so far, and shared what it plans to focus on next during the development of the final strategy. 

The report acknowledged that whilst overall life expectancy was higher among ethnic minority groups than white and mixed groups, there remain significant other health differences between ethnic groups. For instance, diabetes prevalence is 3 to 5 times higher in ethnic minority groups compared to the white British population. The initial report states that the Major Conditions Strategy will consider disparities from multiple angles including ethnicity, geography, deprivation and sex to improve health outcomes. 

Inclusive Britain also highlighted the role of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in leading cross-government work to address the causes of health disparities (action 21) which often disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups.  We know that factors such as eating healthier foods, drinking alcohol in moderation and quitting smoking are some of the best ways to tackle health disparities. 

To address this, the DHSC has taken a number of measures including restricting the placement of less healthy food in shops, provided the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding in England, and are now investing an additional £70 million per year in local Stop Smoking Services to help people to quit smoking.

Another major initiative is our 10-year plan, ‘From Harm to Hope’, to cut crime and save lives by reducing the supply and demand for drugs and delivering a high-quality treatment and recovery system. As part of this we are investing an additional £780 million over 3 years to produce a world-class treatment and recovery system to reduce drug and alcohol-related harms.

Review potential racial bias in medical devices 

In February 2022, the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care appointed Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead, professor of public health at the University of Liverpool, and a panel of experts to conduct a review into the extent and impact of potential ethnic and other unfair biases in the design and use of medical devices. This followed concerns raised about the way medical devices and technologies are designed and used, and the impact of ethnic background on a patient’s diagnosis and treatment. For example, the review considered concerns about the use of pulse oximeters, and in particular the accuracy of readings for those with darker skin tones or different skin pigmentation. 

The review examined 3 types of medical devices that may be particularly prone to bias:  

• optical medical devices, including pulse oximeters

• artificial intelligence-assisted medical devices 

• polygenic risk scores

The panel reported in March 2024 concluding that there is a risk for bias across the medical device lifecycle - from conception and development all the way through to deployment and use of devices in the NHS and the home - and made a number of recommendations. They concluded that such bias often arose from misguided but well-intentioned reasons, rather than being intentionally discriminatory.

The government response to the review, which was published simultaneously, welcomes the report and endorses its main argument that, unless appropriate actions are taken, biases can occur throughout the entire medical device life cycle. The response outlines what is being done to address each of the report’s 18 recommendations.

Many of the report’s recommendations align with or build upon ongoing or planned work across government, including improving data in the NHS through the Data saves lives: reshaping health and social care with data policy, and improving participation of ethnic minorities in clinical research studies (see below). The report also aligns with recommendations made in the ‘First do no harm’ report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review and the resulting government work. 

The first ever Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, sets out a range of actions to make sure the health and care system can reliably access safe, effective and innovative medical technologies to deliver the best outcomes for patients. This includes action to ensure medical devices are safe and clinically effective for all, regardless of ethnicity, sex, or any other attribute.

Identify the cause of maternal health disparities

One of the more significant health disparities is the poorer outcomes for mothers and babies from black, Asian and mixed ethnic groups and those living in the most deprived areas of the country. The latest data shows that black women are 2.8 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women and we recognise that more needs to be done to address these disparities. The Maternity Disparities Taskforce, co-chaired by the Minister for Women, Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy and NHS England’s National Maternity Lead for Equality, continues to bring together experts from across the health service, government and the voluntary sector. The Taskforce explores and considers evidence-based interventions to tackle maternal disparities and are producing a pre-pregnancy resource for ethnic minority women and those living in the most deprived areas. The resource will support women to make informed choices about their health and wellbeing prior to pregnancy. 

The Taskforce met again in September 2023 and January 2024 to discuss ongoing work to tackle negative disparities and the successful implementation of the guidance for local maternity systems,^{[footnote 1]} which has now been implemented in every NHS England Local Maternity and Neonatal System.

Alongside this, the Secretary of State for Health and Social care announced in January that improving care before, during and after pregnancy is one of the government’s top priorities for implementing the Women’s Health Strategy in 2024. She announced the first NIHR challenge, backed by £50 million in funding, which will task researchers and policymakers with finding new ways to tackle maternity disparities. This funding call will bring together a diverse consortium, funding research and capacity building. The aim is to increase the evidence base to address maternity disparities, facilitating a multidisciplinary whole systems approach to address uncertainties across research, innovation and implementation.

In addition, the NIHR Policy Research Programme has invited applications for a single research project to assess whether the medical devices used during the pregnancy and neonatal period are contributing to the disparities in maternal and neonatal outcomes, and to understand how such devices might be adapted.

One of the criticisms of the government’s approach is that we are not listening to ethnic minority mothers about their experience of maternity services in England. This year, the Equality Hub has delivered a series of events with ethnic minority mothers and health care practitioners to better understand the barriers and drivers of confidence in maternal care services. The findings of this exercise will be used to seek ways to improve the experience for mothers in the future and ensure that the voices of mothers and practitioners are heard alongside policy development.

Encourage greater ethnic minority participation in clinical research and trials

Inclusive Britain committed to increasing ethnic minority representation in research projects and clinical trials as a way of building trust in specific health interventions, such as vaccination programmes, and to ensure the research’s integrity and relevance to the UK’s diverse population. The clinical research system, which is embedded across the NHS, can also help life science companies connect with broader and more diverse patient groups, attracting more research to the UK and ensuring new health interventions benefit everyone. 

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), whose mission is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. NIHR is committed to widening access and participation of under-represented groups both in its own research and in the wider research landscape.

The NIHR Clinical Research Network supports patients, the public and health and care organisations across England to participate in high-quality research. In the 2023/24 financial year it allocated £6.4m minimum spend of its annual funding to Local Clinical Research Networks (LCRNs) to expand clinical and applied research to under-served communities with major health needs. As part of this work, 32 projects are focussed on improving accessibility to research for ethnic minority groups. 

Supporting the South Asian Biobank

The NIHR funded work with community groups ‘The Peel Project’ and ‘Women Accede’ to support community champions who have co-produced activities and events to raise awareness of health and care research opportunities at local mosque outreach events and community health fairs. 

The Peel Project was set up to provide support services to the community in Hull with an emphasis on youth and ethnic minority groups. Women Accede are a local community group focussing on women’s issues, especially those from ethnic minority backgrounds. These groups helped promote studies such as the ‘LOLIPOP 100k’ study, linked to the South Asian Biobank, which is recruiting a cohort of participants to investigate the mechanisms underlying heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and other major medical problems over time. Thames Valley and South Midlands LCRN has been working with the Wycombe Islamic Society, the Karima Foundation and community champions to assist the LOLIPOP research in designing bespoke awareness materials to increase participation in the study amongst the Muslim community.

NIHR is also committed to improving the diversity of research volunteer registries. Research registries of public volunteers enable researchers to identify potential participants to invite to join their clinical trials and wider research. Activities were undertaken at a national and a community level to boost registration of people from ethnic minority groups onto the Vaccine Research Registry and the ‘Join Dementia Research’ registry. NIHR is planning to undertake targeted work to drive registration of under-served communities into ‘Be Part of Research’ when this service is publicly launched - expected by the autumn. As part of the launch campaign, NIHR will identify ethnically diverse areas for the placement of advertising, send texts from GPs, work with community engagement groups and ensure diverse case studies.

NIHR has continued to promote the INCLUDE Framework, a tool that helps researchers take action to consider which ethnic groups should be included in their research studies and what challenges there may be to making this possible. In addition, the NIHR has developed a number of learning resources directed towards researchers and research participants to encourage ethnic minority participation and is developing a Research Inclusion Learning Framework.

2. Opportunity and agency 

This theme in Inclusive Britain is about giving people equal access to opportunity and the chance to fulfil their potential. It is based on the commitment that no-one’s destiny should be determined by their race or background.

The Opportunity and Agency chapter included a number of actions aimed at giving children the best possible start in life, throughout their schooling and into higher education. It also included commitments to improve career choices, improve progression out of low pay, help ethnic minority entrepreneurs and tackle disparities in the criminal justice system.

The first Inclusive Britain update report highlighted a number of important actions that were delivered in the first year including publishing the Children’s Commissioner for England’s review into how public services can better understand the needs of children and families, measures to increase the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted, publishing an ambitious schools white paper to raise attainment levels, and sharing the findings of a pilot scheme designed to equip the next generation of ethnic minority entrepreneurs with the skills they need to succeed. 

Our progress over the last 12 months is summarised below.

Improve adoption rates for disadvantaged children

We are committed to increasing the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted (action 26). The percentage of harder to place children, such as those from ethnic minorities, waiting 18 months or more to be adopted has decreased from 86% in March 2021 to 80% in December 2023.^{[footnote 2]} Since 2019, the DfE has funded a national recruitment campaign to find more adoptive parents. In the latest national adoption week (October 2023) the campaign included a particular focus on recruiting more ethnic minority adopters. 

The Black Adoption Project is a partnership between 4 Regional Adoption Agencies (RAAs) covering 24 London boroughs and a consultancy (Laurelle Brown) to improve opportunities and outcomes for black children. The project is progressing well with strong links being made to a range of organisations and community groups. RAAs are now starting to see more enquiries from prospective black adopters because of this work. 

RAA leaders have developed a strategy to influence all aspects of their work and the services they provide to adopters and children. The first phase of work will focus on: the experiences of black children who need adoption; the experiences of black families who wish to adopt; and the representation of black workers across RAAs. In the next phase of the project, Adopt London will pilot ways to improve the adoption system for black children and families, evaluate the impact of these changes and undertake more research into this issue.

DfE is also taking steps to improve the availability of ethnicity data about adoptions. For the first time, it will publish more detailed adoption data with ethnicity breakdowns as part of the headline statistics this summer. 

Enable better quality learning

Inclusive Britain committed the DfE and the RDU to investigate the strategies used by those multi-academy trusts who are most successful at bridging achievement gaps for different ethnic groups and raising overall life chances (action 30). 

This research was published in November. It sought to answer 3 main questions:

• Where schools and trusts have closed attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups, has this been the result of a deliberate strategy?

• What practices have schools and trusts used to close attainment gaps and foster a sense of belonging for all pupils, including those from different ethnic groups?

• Can we draw practical lessons about closing attainment gaps between pupils from different ethnic groups from the work of schools and trusts?

On the first question, the researchers found:

• The trust and school leaders that participated in this research stated consistently that they did not use ethnicity as a factor to identify pupils who needed intervention to close attainment gaps, basing interventions instead on the educational needs of individual pupils.

• Trust and school leaders described a range of practices, broader than focusing on attainment gaps, which related to building the ethos of a school and fostering a sense of belonging among its pupils. This included a deliberate focus on pupils’ ethnicity, as well as on their culture, religion, nationality, language and broader experiences linked to socio-economic status, immigration and mobility.

• Trust and school leaders attributed the narrowing and closing of attainment gaps between ethnic groups to whole-school approaches and targeted, pupil-level interventions.

Trust and school leaders described 2 broad sets of practices to close attainment gaps. 

The first related specifically to initiatives such as:

• having an ethos of high expectations for all pupils, coupled with swift identification of need and intervention to address barriers to learning;

• strong systems for capturing and analysing pupil-level data, which they saw as vital to identifying and addressing gaps in and barriers to learning;

• having agreed age-related expectations and a common assessment process to track the progress of individual pupils and identify who might need additional support; and

• specific intervention programmes targeted at the educational needs of individual pupils, such as literacy and reading, oracy, and raising aspirations for life beyond school.

The second set of practices related to promoting a culture of inclusion and a sense of belonging between pupils and their schools. Examples of these practices included:

• supportive leadership and staff – trust and school leaders described how they had sought to build leadership and staff teams that pupils from different cultures could relate to and feel supported by

• celebrating cultural diversity – trust and school leaders described how they celebrated the cultural identities of staff and pupils and made these a core part of the life of the school

• community engagement – trust and school leaders described proactive approaches to building strong relationships with parents and the wider community

• pupil voice – trust and school leaders described approaches to strengthening pupil voice overall, identifying shared goals and experiences.

On the final question about practical lessons to close attainment gaps, the research found 3 broad points: 

• There are practical lessons about how to narrow and close attainment gaps. These lessons are not specific to different ethnic groups, but rather they relate to the “basics” of effective school improvement.

• There is not a universal, one-size-fits-all approach to these practices. Instead, trust and school leaders emphasised the importance of adapting these approaches to reflect the local context and the community served by a school. This requires engagement with pupils, parents/carers, staff and the wider community, and sensitivity in, for example, community engagement, pupil voice, and the celebration of cultural events and practices within school.

• However, trust and school leaders suggested that using broad labels to describe pupil groups can be helpful when looking at the macro level and identifying potential disparities. They considered that a more nuanced and individual approach is needed when identifying and seeking to overcome pupils’ barriers to learning. They considered that this was important in making a reality of the ethos of high expectations for all pupils, and in avoiding negative stereotyping of pupils based on their ethnicity.

Building strong relationships with parents and local leaders to improve pupil outcomes

Trust and school leaders described the importance of building strong relationships with parents and the local community to understand pupil’s needs. For example, one of the schools noticed a drop-off in the performance of a group of Somali boys, which contrasted with the high performance of Somali girls in their school. Following conversations with religious and community leaders, the school was able to identify that boys were often given more freedom to go out than girls, potentially leading to poorer attendance and concentration at school, and to apply a more targeted programme of intervention and support to address their under-performance. 

School leaders also used similar approaches to building on parents’ aspirations for their children. This included conversations to avoid their expectations placing a limit on pupils’ aspirations (for example, where parents may have lower expectations of young women) and events to help parents to understand different pathways to further and higher education.

Improve advice for young people in police custody

At present, an individual in police custody has to ‘opt in’ and ask for the independent legal advice to which they are entitled. Inclusive Britain committed the Ministry of Justice to working with police forces that are rolling out an automatic ‘opt-in’ for children to receive free independent legal advice in police custody (action 40). 

In February 2022 the Presumption of Legal Advice (POLA) scheme was first rolled out by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), starting in Brixton and Wembley police stations. Since then, the scheme has been rolled out to all custody suites in London. Other police forces in England and Wales have since adopted the scheme, including Northumbria, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley.  

Work is ongoing to understand the impact of the scheme, particularly on uptake of legal advice and time spent in police custody, as well as the potential for national roll-out. 

In May 2023, the Nuffield Foundation also published new research examining the impact of legislation on detention and questioning of young suspects. This showed the number of children receiving legal advice has increased from 45% in 2009 to 80% across 2019 to 2021.^{[footnote 3]}

Presumption of Legal Advice in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)

The MPS has rolled out POLA across all its custody suites in London and is continuing to engage with the scheme as part of its ‘Child First’ approach.

The uptake of legal advice across MPS custody suites remains at almost 100%. For Brixton and Wembley, this is an increase from 65% prior to POLA being first introduced in these police stations in February 2022.

To create opportunities for improved outcomes and to build upon this approach, MPS will now include an intervention by a police Inspector within the first hour of a child’s detention in custody. Currently this does not take place until 6 hours following the initial detention.

The intention of this intervention is to ensure that effective progress is made on a child’s case from the outset. The MPS hopes this will lead to more accurate and time sensitive investigations, and increased transparency and efficiency.

Increase the number of young ethnic minorities in apprenticeships

Inclusive Britain committed to increasing the number of people from an ethnic minority background participating in apprenticeship schemes (action 48). Over the past year, we have seen the number and proportion of apprenticeships started by people from an ethnic minority background increase. For the academic year 2022 to 2023, there were 51,110 ethnic minority starts (15.2% of total starts), compared to 50,400 (14.4%) in 2021 to 2022.

This academic year, we have also increased the number of schools the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge (ASK) programme engages with that have high proportions of students from an ethnic minority background. The ASK programme, which is funded by the Department for Education (DfE), aims to support schools and colleges to increase awareness of apprenticeships, traineeships and technical qualifications. Since September 2023, the programme has funded 288 activities attended by more than 9,000 students in over 50 schools with a high proportion of ethnic minority pupils.  

The DfE has also published additional breakdowns on attainment by ethnicity and other characteristics. This increases transparency within our education system and will allow individuals to monitor trends over time.

Between January and March 2024, the Office for Students made over 80 funding awards to universities and colleges from the first 2 waves of the Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund. These training providers will use the funding to grow the overall number of degree apprenticeships as well as the range of apprenticeships available, and to widen participation to under-represented and disadvantaged groups, including through engagement with ethnic minority students.

Potential future earnings for students in higher and further education

Employment opportunities and earnings potential play an important role in enabling social mobility. In February 2023, the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) published research on the Labour market value of higher and further education qualifications. It found that:

• Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are disproportionately less likely to attend universities or study subjects associated with higher earnings when compared to their wealthier peers with similar grades.

• Students with lower socio-economic status have less access to information about the earnings outcomes associated with specific courses.

• Information about who is enrolling in a degree - where they’re from and their background - is important to accurately understand prospective student’s future earnings.  

Building on this work, the SMC will publish an accessible version of its Labour market value of higher and further education qualifications research in due course. The accessible report will set out insights into the potential earnings associated with various higher and further education qualifications, categorised by subject and institution. In 2025, the SMC will also publish a new set of benchmarks that looks at the extent to which universities are supporting social mobility. This will use recent data and take into account the differing academic requirements of more selective universities.

Building on the SMC’s research,^{[footnote 4]} the Department for Education has commissioned the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) to develop a new way to accurately and fairly measure the impact that different higher education courses and providers have upon graduates’ future earnings. The IFS will develop options for how this earnings metric could be used in the Office for Students’ regulatory approach to incentivise providers to improve or withdraw courses that offer poor salary outcomes. Crucially, it will control for students’ backgrounds to avoid unfairly penalising providers that admit students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may achieve poorer salary outcomes in the future for reasons beyond a provider’s control, which may include geographic, financial and cultural factors.

3. Inclusion

Inclusive Britain acknowledged that not everyone shares a strong sense of belonging to the UK. Fostering a stronger sense of inclusion is therefore at the heart of the Inclusive Britain strategy. This means striving for a society based on shared values and a shared history.

The ‘Inclusion’ chapter in Inclusive Britain set out a number of commitments to foster this sense of inclusion, including policies to make schools more inclusive, improving diversity among the judiciary, making police forces more representative of the communities they serve, and promoting inclusion in the workplace.

The first Inclusive Britain update report revealed considerable progress in implementing these actions. This included working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on guidance for schools on how to ensure hair or hairstyle policies are not unlawfully discriminatory, issuing new guidance for employers on how to use positive action in the workplace and publishing our Artificial Intelligence regulation white paper that addresses concerns about the potential for bias and discrimination in algorithmic decision-making.

We have continued to make excellent progress on the remaining actions over the last 12 months. This is summarised below.

Create a more inclusive history curriculum

A key part of the Inclusive Britain strategy is that all children should grow up feeling a strong sense of belonging to this country. They need to see themselves as integral parts of the rich, diverse mosaic of traditions, faiths and ethnicities which make up the UK today. We recognise there is good teaching in schools in this area, but also know more can be done to support the teaching of a high-quality, knowledge-rich and diverse history curriculum. 

To address this, the DfE appointed a model history curriculum expert panel in July 2022 to lead work on a new model history curriculum for Key Stages 1 to 3 (action 57). The Panel, chaired by Dr Michael Kandiah (Lecturer in Contemporary British History at King’s College London), has been working to develop a new model curriculum that will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history, and will cover the major contributions made by different groups that have made this country what it is today. Work on the model history curriculum continues to progress and it is due to be published in 2024.

The Government has also established Oak National Academy as an Arm’s Length Body which is strategically aligned but operationally independent from the Department for Education. Oak works with teachers across the country, giving them and their pupils access to high-quality digital curriculum resources which are free, optional and adaptable. As part of this, Oak has developed a history curriculum for primary and secondary history (Key Stages 1 to 4). Oak’s full curriculum packages and lesson resources for history will be available by autumn 2024. 

Reinforce impartiality in the public sector

Inclusive Britain committed to new guidance to civil servants promoting the values of tolerance and equality, particularly when engaging on issues relating to diversity and inclusion (action 62).

On 15 May we issued Guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants. The guidance reminds civil servants of their obligations under the Civil Service Code, and is designed to ensure that they retain the confidence of ministers and the public by upholding the Code’s values while carrying out their duties. It does so through helping civil servants to consider whether impartiality may be impacted in the delivery of diversity and inclusion activity and the steps they need to follow to maintain impartiality.

The guidance will help civil servants to ensure that all perspectives are discussed in an objective way and to avoid the promotion of partisan political views or presenting contested theories as fact. The guidance also sets out how civil servants can ensure impartiality in use of language and communications.

Alongside this, we announced the outcome of our comprehensive review on equality, diversion and inclusion (EDI) spend across the Civil Service. This included new guidance to enact greater control over EDI spend and activity across the Civil Service, providing assurance and alignment with government priorities. 

In particular, the guidance includes measures to support departments to: 

• cease all external EDI spend in the Civil Service unless signed off and cleared by Ministers 

• ensure overall EDI spend is commensurate with agreed organisational priorities 

• ensure robust evaluation of any EDI activity undertaken 

Make police forces more representative of local communities

It remains important that police forces across England and Wales are representative of the local communities that they serve (actions 64 and 65). A key opportunity to deliver improvements to representation was provided by the Police Uplift Programme (PUP), which concluded in March 2023. The PUP was an opportunity to attract the best talent into our police forces, from all ethnic backgrounds, as part of this unprecedented recruitment drive.

From the outset, PUP communications were designed to show policing as an inclusive career that is open to people from all backgrounds. The Home Office included real officers in the campaign who represented local forces from across England and Wales giving a local focus to the national recruitment drive.

Police forces across England and Wales recruited 20,947 additional officers under the PUP and there are now more than 149,000 police officers in total in England and Wales, more than the previous peak before the PUP, in 2010. As a result of this recruitment drive, as at 31 March 2023 there were more ethnic minority officers (12,086, excluding white minorities) than ever before. This figure represents 8.3% of all officers, also a record figure, up from 6.9% in March 2019. 

Now that the PUP has concluded, the lessons learned and insights around effective activity to recruit a locally representative workforce, with an understanding of local areas and people, have been embedded in business as usual products and processes. This includes the Police Uplift Hub, a valuable online resource for all forces that contains learning, insights and best practice from the PUP recruitment campaign which is now being used by forces to support ongoing recruitment and retention activity.  

In 2023, a new Online Assessment Process (OAP) was also made permanent by the College of Policing, replacing previous assessment process for new recruits. This has led to an improvement in outcomes for ethnic minority candidates. 

Improve judicial diversity

Inclusive Britain included actions to increase diversity among the judiciary and the magistracy. These commitments included working with the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF)^{[footnote 5]} to increase the pool of applicants and ensure the very best talent is promoted through the professions and on to the bench (action 67) and launching a revised, more streamlined recruitment process for magistrates (action 68).

The latest judicial diversity statistics, published in July 2023,^{[footnote 6]} showed the proportion of judges who identified as being from an ethnic minority background had increased from 7% in 2014 to 11% in 2023. 18% of new entrants to the judiciary in 2022 to 2023 were from an ethnic minority background, and ethnic minority candidates were recommended for appointment in Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) legal selection exercises in 2022 to 2023 in line with their representation in the eligible pool.^{[footnote 7]}

The MoJ leads and coordinates the Pre-Application Judicial Educational (PAJE) programme, in collaboration with JDF partners, which supports lawyers from under-represented groups, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are considering applying for a judicial appointment. Since the launch of PAJE in April 2019, it has supported 877 participants, 59% of which have been from an ethnic minority background. Overall, for all lawyer types, Asian and black PAJE participants have been shortlisted and appointed for judicial roles at higher rates than those who had not completed PAJE over the last 3 years.

The Targeted Outreach programme was re-launched in April 2023 to support improved outcomes for JAC target groups, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Of the 449 candidates on the programme, 60% are from an ethnic minority background (of which black candidates make up 17% of candidates overall). As of March 2024, 31% of candidates that have been on the programme for at least 12 months and have made at least one application have been successfully recommended for appointment, resulting in a total of 104 recommendations reached by 86 candidates. 

The proportion of ethnic minority judges in the senior courts remains low and this will take longer to address.The Judicial Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is reviewed annually and commitments clarified for the year ahead.  Work on the following is planned or underway: 

• targeted outreach to lawyers from sectors known to have greater diversity, such as the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, Crown Prosecution Service and Government Legal Departments

• hosting interns from diverse backgrounds who have access to High Court and Court of Appeal judges in collaboration with Bridging the Bar

• evaluation of all outreach activity to enable gaps and opportunities to be identified

The judicial diversity statistics show that as of 1 April 2023, 13% of all magistrates were from an ethnic minority background, a 5 percentage-point increase from 2014. In total, 24% of all magistrate applications submitted in 2022 to 2023 were from ethnic minority individuals.

Promote inclusion in the workplace

Action 69 in Inclusive Britain committed the government to establishing an independent Inclusion at Work Panel with a remit to develop and disseminate resources to help employers drive fairness in the workplace. Action 71 committed the government to using evidence from the Panel’s work to develop a new, voluntary ‘inclusion confident scheme’ to improve diversity and inclusion (‘D&I’) practice and progression in the workplace.

The Panel was appointed in June 2023, convening experts from the private, public, and third sectors and met a range of people with knowledge and interest in this topic. Drawing on gathered insights, and their existing expertise, the panellists established consensus around a set of shared principles, designed a high-level framework, and recommended an evidence tool. 

The Panel reported on 20 March and recommended that:

• The government endorses a new framework which sets out criteria employers might apply to their D&I practice, for effectiveness and value for money

• The government funds, and works with, a research partner to develop a digital tool similar to the Education Endowment Foundation’s ‘Teaching and Learning Toolkit’. This will allow all leaders and managers, in every sector, to assess the rigour, efficacy, and value for money of a range of D&I practices. It will also ‘nudge’ commercial or activist providers of interventions to evaluate and prove impact

• The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) explains and clarifies the legal status for employers in relation to D&I practice, with particular focus on the implication of recent rulings for HR policies and staff networks

The Panel did not recommend introducing a new Inclusion Confident Scheme at this stage for 2 reasons: 

• The Panel assessed the range of existing similar or directly relevant schemes, and their efficacy. Many already cover the concept of inclusivity in some way. The Panel felt that introducing another accreditation or compliance scheme risks duplication and perverse incentives.

• The Panel felt that the very broad and subjective definitions of ‘inclusion’ make a precise and useful scheme near impossible. This is because definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion are contested and can even be – legitimately – mutually exclusive. 

The government is considering the most effective way to take the recommendations forward and will provide an official response in due course. We will also draw on relevant findings in this report as part of the HM Treasury review of EDI spending across government. 

4. Next steps 

We remain committed to an Inclusive Britain, one where everyone can reach their full potential, no matter where they come from or what they look like. 

This work does not stop here. We will continue to deliver the remaining Inclusive Britain actions including:

• launching the new, national framework for how the use of police powers – including stop and search and use of force – are scrutinised at a local level

• publishing our Major Conditions Strategy setting out how we can tackle the key drivers of ill-health in England

• continuing our work to address the causes of maternal health disparities for ethnic minority women

• developing a new set of benchmarks for measuring social mobility at universities

• launching our model history curriculum that will set out a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history, and will cover the major contributions made by different groups that have made this country what it is today

• developing a digital tool to allow all leaders and managers, in every sector, to assess the rigour, efficacy, and value for money of a range of D&I practices

Alongside this, we will continue our work to improve the collection and publication of data on ethnicity, to tackle entrenched ethnic disparities and deliver on the overarching aims of Inclusive Britain. This includes our ongoing research to understand why certain ethnic minority groups have lower levels of trust in key UK institutions.

Annex A: Progress by action 

Action 1

To enable EHRC to increase its vital work in tackling race discrimination and disadvantage, the Cabinet Office will invest in EHRC enforcement activity to challenge race discrimination through investigations and supporting individual cases.

To improve good practice in equality law across Britain, EHRC will also support a wider range of organisations to comply with equality law and develop policies and processes that support equality of opportunity for all. 

Progress update

The Cabinet Office continues to fund the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC’s) statutorily independent work through its annual budget.

The EHRC launched a landmark Race Legal Support Fund designed to tackle race discrimination and help victims seek justice. Since they opened the fund in November 2021, the EHRC have supported 45 cases covering a wide variety of race discrimination issues across a range of private and public sector organisations. 

Action 2

To clamp down on racist abuse online, DCMS and the Home Office will introduce the world-leading Online Safety Bill as soon as possible. Companies that fail to comply with their legal duties in the Bill could face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of their qualifying annual global turnover, or business disruption measures. 

Progress update

The Online Safety Act received Royal Assent in October 2023. Our aim is to have the regime operational as soon as possible and we are working closely with Ofcom to ensure this.    

Under the Act, platforms will have to put in place systems and processes to reduce the likelihood of exposing users to illegal content or activity and will have to quickly remove illegal content once alerted to its presence. They will not be allowed to promote such content in their algorithms. The Act also protects children from harmful or inappropriate content.

Ofcom will be taking a phased approach to implementation of the duties under the Act, and this is already underway. Ofcom have consulted on their draft Codes for illegal harms and the government expects these to be finalised by the end of 2024. Draft Codes for children’s safety duties will follow in Spring. These Codes will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil their duties.

Action 3

To improve our understanding of online harms, RDU will engage with service providers, international organisations and experts to better measure and monitor online abuse. This programme of work will also consider how specific events, such as high-profile football matches, can act as instigators for online abuse. 

Progress update

The Equality Hub led a programme of engagement with other government departments and external bodies and conducted a literature review on online abuse. These findings enabled RDU to develop a framework for measuring online abuse for use within government which was shared across government.

Action 4

To improve online transparency, RDU will lead a review into online misinformation to better understand how different groups are accessing and interpreting information online. The review will provide a series of data and policy recommendations to strengthen the government’s understanding and ability to tackle online abuse. 

Progress update

The Equality Hub undertook a literature review of misinformation to better understand how different groups are accessing and interpreting information online. The review found that:

• ethnic minorities are more likely to use social media to receive information that their white peers, putting them at greater risk of misinformation

• establishing clear messaging through trusted voices and via social media can help dispel misinformation

• improving online media literacy can empower individuals to recognise misinformation and trusted online media sources

Our findings, alongside our recommendations, will be published in due course.

Action 5

To communicate more effectively on racial issues and to avoid lumping together different ethnic minority groups, the government has stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in its own communications and will encourage other public sector bodies to do the same. 

Progress update

We have stopped using the term ‘BAME’ in government communications and have taken a number of steps to embed this across the public sector.

Action 6

To ensure more responsible and accurate reporting on race and ethnicity, the RDU will by the end of 2022 consult on new standards for government departments and other public bodies on how to record, understand and communicate ethnicity data. 

Progress update

The Equality Hub consulted on a draft set of standards in summer 2022 and subsequently published the standards for ethnicity data in April 2023. The standards describe best practice when collecting, analysing and reporting ethnicity data.

Since publication, Equality Hub analysts have promoted the standards across government, receiving positive feedback. The Hub is also working with the Office for Statistics Regulation to review the use and impact of the new standards.

Action 7

The RDU will lead work to:

• engage with people from different ethnic groups to better understand the language and terminology that they identify with

• review how media coverage of race and ethnicity issues impact the communities being covered

• develop recommendations which will encourage responsible and accurate reporting on race issues by June 2023

Progress update

Last year, alongside our update report, the Equality Hub published qualitative research commissioned from Basis Social into the use of language and terminology relating to people’s ethnic identity. 

We also commissioned IFF to undertake a rapid review to consider how race and ethnicity data is reported in the media.

Action 8

To improve the presentation and to assist the interpretation of data on ethnic disparities, the RDU will consult by summer 2022 on a set of proposals to reform the Ethnicity facts and figures website, with a view to maintaining a smaller range of the most useful data sets. 

Progress update

Work has continued on making the changes to Ethnicity facts and figures and streamlining the datasets in response to our consultation. The changes should improve the impact and utility of the website, help its users to understand the drivers and factors behind disparities, and minimise the risk of misinterpretation and incorrect conclusions being drawn. Main changes include:  

• more timely updates without compromising the quality of the datasets

• adding useful information and wider research relevant to the website pages that are considered of high interest by users

• updating over 60 pages to provide a more holistic picture of each subject and allow users to identify patterns and similarities across these measures more efficiently

Action 9

To identify and fill evidence gaps about the social mobility, skill and role mismatching and health outcomes of immigrants, the RDU will lead a new, cross-government analytical work programme with input from external experts in 2022. This will include analysis of the structural issues that immigrants may face in the UK, and understanding the lessons that the government has learned about policy making in this area. 

Progress update

As part of the first update report, the Equality Hub published analysis (in partnership with the University of Essex) on the outcomes in the labour market for ethnic minorities by immigrant generation status.  Since then, our focus has been on 3 other areas of research:

• occupation and education mismatch

• social mobility

• testing the so-called ‘healthy migrant effect’

Following this report, the Equality Hub expects to publish a summary of the results from all 4 strands of analytical work under this action. We will also consider the findings and how they impact policy-making in these areas.

Action 10

The police need the powers to tackle crime – but there also needs to be effective local scrutiny of these powers in order to enhance trust and strengthen relations between police and communities. The Home Office, with policing partners including Police and Crime Commissioners, will develop by summer 2023 a new, national framework for how the use of police powers – including stop and search and use of force – are scrutinised at a local level. This framework will ensure that local scrutiny panels are independently-led, reflect the diversity of the areas they represent and give police officers the confidence to use their powers with the backing of local communities.

Progress update

In August 2023 the Home Office launched a consultation seeking views on the new Community Scrutiny Framework, developed jointly with policing partners and civil society stakeholders. The consultation closed in October 2023 and we will publish our response in due course.

Action 11

To tackle serious violent crime, which disproportionately affects some ethnic minority groups, the Home Office is bringing into force the Serious Violence Duty which will require local authorities, the police, criminal justice agencies, health authorities and others to work together to understand why violent crime is taking place in their area, and then to formulate and implement a strategy for tackling these drivers of serious violence. 

Progress update

Since the Serious Violence Duty came into force on 31 January 2023, local partners have completed and submitted their strategies for reducing and preventing violence to the Home Office, who are reviewing how the new duty has been working in practice. Based on the findings of this review, the Home Office will publish updated statutory guidance later this year.

Action 12

To protect the public and police officers and to give communities confidence that they are being policed fairly, the Home Office will support the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council by autumn 2024 to review and deliver any necessary improvements to police officer training in de-escalation skills and conflict management in everyday police-citizen encounters, such as use of stop and search and use of force powers. 

Progress update

The new College of Policing Public and Personal Safety Training Curriculum, including de-escalation and communication skills and associated training products, has been made available to all forces since 1 April 2023 and is providing nationally consistent standards of training and delivery.

Action 13

To improve transparency and promote uptake, the Home Office will identify and seek to remove unnecessary barriers that prevent increased use of Body Worn Video (BWV) and will encourage policing bodies to share guidance and best practice on the use of BWV.

The Home Office, with policing partners, will also explore how best to facilitate the sharing of BWV footage with local scrutiny panels, in order to improve the scrutiny of police decision-making and improve the understanding of legitimate police use of powers such as stop and search. This will feed in to the new framework for scrutinising use of police powers that will be developed by summer 2023.

Progress update

The National Police Chiefs’ Council updated guidance on the use of Body Worn Video in October 2022. 

In autumn 2023 the Home Office consulted on a  draft Community Scrutiny Framework which included guidance on how scrutiny panels can use BWV for examining use and increasing understanding of police powers. The Home Office will publish the government’s response to the consultation in due course. 

Action 14

To give greater clarity and context to stop and search data, and reassure the public about its use, the RDU will work with the Home Office, Office for Statistics Regulation and ONS to improve the way this data is reported and to enable more accurate comparisons to be made between different police force areas. 

Progress update

The last 2 annual bulletins on police stop and search data in England and Wales (published in October 2022 and September 2023) have included a significant amount of new data and an interactive data tool that gives much clearer presentation of stop and search data and allows easier comparison between police force areas.

Since the year ending March 2021, new data collected by the Home Office includes detailed location information and the collection of the age and sex of persons searched. Subsequent publications have therefore included additional analysis of stop and search hotspot areas and further analysis of stop and search by protected characteristics, compared with population distributions.

Action 15

The Home Office and RDU will work with policing partners and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to consider a range of metrics for stop and search rates in order to identify and, where necessary, challenge disparities at police force area level. To be clear, a higher rate should not automatically be regarded as a problem, but the reasons should be transparent and explicable to local communities. 

Progress update

Home Office (HO) will continue to explore further ad-hoc analysis to help contextualise stop and search. 

In autumn 2023 the Home Office consulted on a draft Community Scrutiny Framework which included additional guidance on how panels can use data, such as stop and search rates, to challenge disparities at police force area level. The Home Office will publish their response in due course.

Action 16

We will address the challenges with ethnicity pay gap reporting to support employers who want to demonstrate and drive greater fairness in the workplace.

The Department for Business, Energy  and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) will publish guidance to employers on voluntary ethnicity pay reporting in summer 2022. This guidance, which will include case studies of those companies who are already reporting, will give employers the tools to understand and tackle pay gaps within their organisations and build trust with employees. 

Progress update

In April 2023 the Equality Hub published new guidance for employers to help them collect their employees’ ethnicity data, make ethnicity pay calculations, analyse and understand the results and consider evidence-based actions to address any identified disparities.

Action 17

To close the gap in pay between different ethnic groups working within NHS England, we will commission a new Ethnicity Pay Gap research project. The project will consider the scale and causes of the ethnicity pay gap across the NHS and produce actionable recommendations on how to reduce it.

Progress update

The NHS is committed to eliminating pay gaps relating to race, disability and sex. 

In June 2023, NHS England published its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion improvement plan for the NHS workforce. This requires employers across the NHS to take action to ensure year on year reductions in pay gaps. 

NHS boards have been asked to track, monitor and put in place improvement plans to tackle pay gaps. Reflecting the maturity of current data sets, plans should be in place for sex and race in 2024, disability by 2025 and other protected characteristics by 2026.

Action 18 

As part of its new assessment framework, and to ensure that healthcare providers are held to account for why ethnic disparities exist in their workforce, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be assessing how providers are addressing the experiences, progression and disciplinary actions in respect of ethnic minority staff in their workforce. Once the CQC has evaluated how this new framework has been implemented over 2022 to 2023, the Department  of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will carefully consider whether the concerns raised in the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ report have been addressed.

Progress update

The CQC continues to make good progress in developing its approach to workforce race equality in NHS Trusts.

The CQC have received the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) data from NHS England and are currently establishing how they can make the data available on their regulatory platform.  

In November 2023, the CQC completed its new workforce experience framework. Work has begun to create guidance and tools to support the operationalisation of the framework in NHS trusts. The interim evaluation for the new framework is expected in summer 2024.

Action 19 

To reduce the gap in health outcomes and tackle current health disparities, DHSC will publish a new strategy in a health disparities white paper for England later in 2022. 

Progress update

The DHSC published its initial report Major Conditions Strategy: Case for change and our strategic framework in August 2023 which set out what it has learned so far, and shared what it plans to focus on next during the development of the final strategy. The report identified the importance of tackling disparities to improve health outcomes.

Action 20

To address concerns about the way medical devices and technologies are designed and used, and their impact on ethnic minority patients’ diagnosis and treatment, the Department for Health and Social Care will consider carefully the findings of Professor Dame Margaret Whitehead’s review when this reports in 2023.

Progress update

In March 2024, the independent review into Equity in Medical Devices was published, making 18 recommendations. The government’s response was published alongside the independent review.

Action 21

To improve life expectancy across all groups and to reduce health inequalities, DHSC established the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in October 2021. The OHID is leading cross-government work to address the causes of health inequalities (such as deprivation, tobacco, alcohol, diet and physical inactivity) which often disproportionately affect certain ethnic groups, and on the health disparities white paper. OHID’s mission is to improve and level up the health of the nation.

Progress update

OHID continues to focus on supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities. Initiatives over the last year include:

• the largest ever single increase in drug and alcohol treatment and recovery funding in England

• rolling out targeted lung cancer screening to those who are at high risk of developing the disease

• investing around £300m into the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme in 75 local authorities in England with high levels of deprivation

• investing £50 million in research to tackle health disparities in local areas and improve health outcomes across the country.

Action 22

To improve maternal health outcomes for ethnic minority women, DHSC, the new Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and NHS England and NHS Improvement will consider and support evidence-based interventions to address the current disparities in outcomes through the Maternity Disparities Taskforce. 

Progress update

In January 2024, DHSC announced that National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) will invest £50 million to help researchers and policymakers to find new ways to tackle maternity disparities.

In January, NIHR also invited applications for new research to explore whether there are disparities in the medical devices used during pregnancy and the neonatal period, and to understand how any disparities could be addressed.

The Maternity Disparities Taskforce continues to coordinate work to improve maternal health outcomes for ethnic minority women, including developing a pre-pregnancy toolkit of resources targeted for ethnic minority women and those living in the most deprived areas.

Action 23

To reduce the health disparities we have seen during the pandemic, the government will implement the package of recommendations from the Minister for Equalities’ final COVID-19 disparities report, published on 3 December 2021. 

Progress update

The 17 recommendations from the final COVID-19 disparities report have been implemented or are ongoing commitments. This includes:

• in December 2023, NHS England published the NHS Vaccination strategy that brings together all vaccination programmes, and builds on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 vaccination programme

• in July 2023, we published the independent research and evaluation reports of the Community Champions and Community Vaccine Champions schemes, which outlines what worked in terms of building trust with local communities and boosting vaccine uptake among ethnic minority and other under-served groups

• applying the lessons learned from the Covid-19 vaccination programme to promote uptake of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine among certain ethnic minority groups

Action 24

To build confidence in future vaccination schemes and other health interventions, the National Institute for Health Research and the NHS Race and Health Observatory will seek to increase ethnic minority participation in clinical trials and research through methods such as promoting the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework. 

Progress update

In July 2023 the NIHR and NHS Race and Health Observatory published their statement of intent to work together on the shared ambition to reduce race and ethnic disparities in health and care research to help support the delivery of government and NHS commitments. 

Work within this partnership is identifying new ways to support researchers to take an inclusive approach to research design and delivery. Planned work includes mandating and financing inclusion strategies for all NIHR’s research programmes and infrastructure. This will ensure and monitor that research participants reflect the full diversity of the British populations to tackle health disparities. NIHR Clinical Research Network has also allocated £6.4m to expand clinical and applied research to under-served communities with major health needs in the 2023 to 2024 financial year. As part of this work, 32 projects are focused on improving accessibility to research for ethnic minority groups.

Action 25

The Children’s Commissioner for England will commence a review in April 2022 to improve the way public services understand the needs of children and families, so every child has the best start in life and the opportunity to reach their full potential. 

Progress update

The Children’s Commissioner’s findings were set out in Family and its protective effect: Part 1 of the Independent Family Review, published in September 2022, and A positive approach to parenting: Part 2 of the Independent Family Review, published in December 2022. 

An annex entitled Family contact in youth custody was published in March 2023.

Action 26

To increase the number of ethnic minority children who are adopted, and to reduce the time they have to wait to be adopted, the DfE, together with regional adoption agencies, will work to launch a new drive to match children with adoptive families. DfE will work to ensure that potential adopters are not discouraged to apply because of their ethnicity. 

Progress update

Regional adoption agencies (RAAs) leaders have developed a Diversity and Equity strategy to influence all aspects of the work and services they provide to adopters and children. The first phase of work will focus on: 

• the experiences of black children who need adoption

• the experiences of black families who wish to adopt

• the representation of black workers across RAAs 

The DfE has continued to fund a national recruitment campaign to find more adoptive parents, with a particular focus on prospective ethnic minority parents.

Action 27

In line with commitments in the adoption strategy, the DfE will start to modernise data collection and information sharing so that regional adoption agency leaders have access to data which can be used to speed up matching of ethnic minority children with new adoptive families. 

Progress update

The DfE continues to work with Coram-I to analyse and publish data to improve performance across regional adoption agencies (RAAs). For example, following a detailed analysis of data on ethnic minority children waiting to be matched with new adoptive families, the DfE has agreed with RAA leaders to do a deep dive in Spring 2024 to look at their decision-making. This will explore why some ethnic minority children have been waiting a long time to be matched and what changes can be made to RAA matching processes to improve this.

From January to March 2024, the published quarterly adoption performance data will include specific data on ethnic minority adopters and children in the headline measures. This will help focus attention on performance for these children and help drive improvement.

The DfE funded matching projects in London are making good progress and will be evaluated to help extend these approaches nationally. The DfE expects an interim evaluation in April 2024 with a fuller review available in May 2025.

Action 28

To improve the existing evidence base, the RDU will work with the DfE and other stakeholders to develop and publish, in 2022, a strategy to improve the quality and availability of ethnicity data and evidence about looked after children and their routes out of care. 

Progress update

The looked-after children data strategy was published in April 2023 and sets out what data is available, areas more data is required and the priority pieces of work that DfE will lead.

Action 29

To drive up levels of attainment for under-performing ethnic groups, the DfE will carry out a programme of analysis in early 2022 to understand pupil attainment and investigate whether there are any specific findings and implications for different ethnic groups to tackle disparities.

Progress update

In 2022, the DfE published 2 evidence notes on outcomes by ethnicity both in schools and after leaving school:

• Outcomes by ethnicity in schools in England 

• Post-16 education outcomes by ethnicity in England

Action 30

The DfE and the RDU will investigate the strategies used by the multi-academy trusts who are most successful at bridging achievement gaps for different ethnic groups and raising overall life chances. The lessons learnt will be published in 2022 and will help drive up standards for all pupils.

Progress update

In November 2023 we published the research on how schools narrow attainment gaps between ethnic groups. The study explored whether schools closing the ethnicity achievement gap have done so by focussing on ethnicity, or as a result of other approaches.

Action 31

The DfE will investigate the publication of additional data on the academic performance of ethnic groups alongside other critical factors relating to social mobility and progress at school level, in post-18 education and employment after education by the end of 2022.

Progress update

DfE continues to improve the available data on academic performance. Since October 2023, the DfE have published ethnic minority breakdowns:

• at local authority level for Key Stage 4 and 16-18 destination measures 

• for Key Stage 1 and phonics screening check published at local authority and regional level 

• for multiplication tables check published at local authority and regional level 

• at local authority level for Higher Education or training destination measures published 

• for Key Stage 4 performance published at local authority level 

In July 2023, DfE also added ethnicity breakdowns at local authority level to the longer-term destinations measures, which show the success of schools and colleges in helping young people continue in education, apprenticeships or employment.

Action 32

The DfE will bring forward an ambitious schools white paper in spring 2022 which will set out a long-term vision for a stronger school’s system. There will be a focus on improving the literacy and numeracy outcomes of those not meeting expected standards because this is one of the most important factors for children’s life chances. Disadvantaged pupils are overrepresented in the cohort not meeting expected standards; a core pillar of the white paper will be providing targeted support for those who need it most, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. We will also look at ways we can target interventions in areas and schools of entrenched underperformance. 

Progress update

The DfE published the schools white paper: Opportunity for all in March 2022.

Action 33

In order to tackle disparities in educational outcomes for disadvantaged groups and to ensure that funding streams sufficiently address pupil needs, from September 2021 the DfE has required all schools to publish their strategies for spending money allocated for disadvantaged pupils through the pupil premium and the recovery premium. The funding grant conditions require these strategies to be built around well-evidenced approaches, such as classroom practice that has consistently demonstrated accelerated pupil progress. DfE will not have ethnicity-based funding streams unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Progress update

Schools whose allocation for pupil premium is based on more than 5 eligible pupils are now required to publish an annual pupil premium strategy statement using a DfE template. The statement should explain how schools plan to spend the pupil premium, and demonstrate that their approach is informed by research evidence, including the Education Endowment Foundation’s guidance.

To support schools to populate the template, DfE has developed examples for primary, secondary and special schools, last updated in October 2023.

Action 34

To maximise the benefits of the pupil premium for disadvantaged pupils, DfE amended the pupil premium conditions of grant for the 2021 to 2022 academic year to require all schools to use their funding on evidence-based approaches. To the extent possible, DfE will investigate the scale of these benefits. 

Progress update

From academic year 2022 to 2023, schools are required to use their pupil premium in line with the ’menu of approaches’ set by DfE to ensure that pupil premium and recovery premium are focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils. 

The menu of approaches can be found in the pupil premium guidance, published in February 2024. DfE continues to monitor and review the impact of the menu and other reforms.

Action 35

The DfE will take action to improve the quality of education outside mainstream schools. These proposals are part of the forthcoming schools white paper and the SEND review and measures will be announced in 2022 to deliver significantly improved outcomes for children and young people at risk of being excluded from school or who are in Alternative Provision.

Progress update

The government’s SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan was published in March 2023 and sets out how the DfE is taking forward reforms to improve alternative provision.

The DfE is currently working with 32 local authorities to test reforms of alternative provision, as part of our SEND and Alternative Provision Change Programme. Improvements made through these reforms will reach children and young people at risk of exclusion as well as those in alternative provision.

Action 36

The DfE will consult on and publish new and improved guidance on behaviour in schools and on suspensions and permanent exclusions in 2022. Both sets of guidance will help local leaders identify and address any disparities that might exist within suspension and permanent exclusion rates.

Progress update

In July 2022, the DfE published updated guidance on Behaviour in Schools and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion statutory guidance. These documents provide further clarity and support to head teachers on how to manage behaviour well so they can provide calm, safe and supportive environments which children and young people want to attend.

Action 37

The DfE will launch a £30 million, 3-year programme to set up new SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil and Exceed) taskforces led by mainstream schools to deliver evidence-based interventions for those most at risk of becoming involved in serious violent crime. These will run in 10 serious violence hotspots from early 2022 targeted at young people at risk of dropping out of school: reducing truancy, improving behaviour and reducing the risk of NEET. 

Progress update

School-led SAFE taskforces continue to be delivered in 10 areas most affected by serious youth violence, reaching over 2,100 children in the academic year 2022 to 2023. There are over 30 ongoing intervention projects covering mentoring, social skills, cognitive behavioural therapy.

Funded until March 2025, taskforces have invested in evidence-based interventions (such as mentoring and social skills training) that reach children early on, to re-engage them in their education and reduce their involvement in serious violence. 

The programme is being independently evaluated and a final report is due in 2026. 

In November 2023, the DfE published a guidance document for tackling serious youth violence through school-based interventions.

Action 38  

DfE will invest £15 million in a 2 year-programme to pilot the impact of co-locating full-time specialists in Alternative Provision in the top 22 serious violence hotspots. 

Progress update

The Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces (APST) programme has been extended until March 2025, testing the co-location of a diverse specialist workforce in pilot alternative-provision schools. All 22 APSTs have continued reaching children at risk of serious violence in areas most affected by serious youth violence. Over 4,000 children have been supported since the start of the programme, 79% of whom have Special Educational Needs. 

The programme is being independently evaluated and a final report is likely to be published in summer 2025.

Action 39

To enable more grassroots, ethnic minority-led and specialist, voluntary or community sector organisations to provide rehabilitative services, the MoJ launched a new Stewardship Fund for 2021 to 2022. We will also provide advice and support to help these organisations bid for funding and following an evaluation of the impact of the stewardship fund we will assess if funding provision can be made on a longer-term basis. 

Progress update

An evaluation of the Stewardship Fund concluded that rather than run a separate fund, His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) should ensure that ethnic minority-led and specialist voluntary and community groups be supported through mainstream funding for more resilient provision.

In August 2023, HMPPS also launched the Innovations Grant Programme for the 2023 to 2025 period which will award around £500,00 to ethnic minority-specific projects.

Action 40

To ensure that ethnic minorities and others receive the legal advice they need when in police custody, the MoJ will support a number of police forces to trial the effect of an automatic ‘opt-in’ to receive independent advice over 2022 and to build trust to see if this reduces disparities. This will assess whether better advice could lead to improved outcomes following arrest, such as better protection of vulnerable individuals, and increased take up of OOCDs.

Progress update

The Presumption of Legal Advice (POLA) scheme automatically opts children into receiving the free independent legal advice in police custody to which they are entitled. 

The POLA scheme was first trialled by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), starting in Brixton and Wembley police stations in February 2022, and has now been rolled out to all custody suites in London. Other police forces in England and Wales have since adopted the scheme, including Northumbria, Surrey, Sussex, and Thames Valley.

Work is ongoing to understand the impact of the scheme, particularly on uptake of legal advice and time spent in police custody, as well as the potential for national roll-out.

The MoJ continues to support the POLA scheme and is collaborating closely with the forces outlined above to analyse any data being gathered.

Action 41

To tackle the disproportionate criminalisation of young adults, who are often from ethnic minority and/or deprived backgrounds, we have begun to pilot a number of drug diversion schemes through Project ADDER which have the long-term potential to transform the way we tackle drug-related crime and engagement with youth at risk. We have extended Project ADDER to 8 additional local authority areas, as announced in July 2021. We will also explore ongoing current drug diversion schemes and share what works with other areas.

Progress update

All 13 sites are continuing to deliver Project ADDER, including increased diversionary activity where appropriate. Between January 2021 and December 2023, Project ADDER enabled over 5,000 Organised Crime Group disruptions, over 35,000 arrests and over 5,000 drug trafficking charges to crack down on illegal drug supply and possession. Project ADDER has also supported almost 13,500 community resolutions for drug possession offences. This allows police officers to deal quickly and proportionately with certain lower-level and first-time offending, as part of an escalatory approach to sanctions. Up until March 2023, 4,966 people in drug treatment benefited from Project ADDER.

Project ADDER provides a range of tools for police and local authorities to help break cycles of addiction and related offending. Drug possession is illegal and for repeat offenders or those that refuse treatment, escalating sanctions including ultimately prosecution remains the right course of action.

An independent evaluation of Project ADDER’s first 2 years of activity has been undertaken and the Home Office will consider lessons learned. Building on programme impacts and learning, the Home Office is focusing on the legacy of Project ADDER, including via Combating Drugs Partnerships, part of the Government’s 10-year drugs strategy “From Harm to Hope”.

Action 42

To ensure that more people using illegal drugs receive a relevant and proportionate consequence, the Home Office will support a number of police forces with £9 million in funding to introduce, or expand, out of court disposal schemes from summer 2022. 

Progress update

The Out of Court Disposal (OOCD) expansion project ran between November 2023 and March 2024 in 5 police forces. The project aimed to broaden and bolster existing OOCD use by promoting increased enforcement and diversionary interventions for lower level drug possession offences. 

Drug misuse is illegal and we expect police to take a zero-tolerance approach to drug possession. Police have a range of powers to deal with these offences, including diversion which can include direction to treatment where most appropriate, but also sanctions for those who do not have a dependency. While we support diversion for initial offences, the police should use escalatory sanctions where people refuse to change their behaviour, and of course prosecution remains an option.

Progress update

Action 43

To empower pupils to make more informed choices about their studies, the DfE will ensure that Higher Education Institutions support disadvantaged students before they apply for university places. 

Progress update

All higher education providers who want to charge students over the basic amount are required to rewrite their access and participation plans (APPs) to include greater focus on prior attainment and raising aspirations. Higher education providers will also have to work meaningfully with students before entry to higher education. All providers will have their revised plans in place for September 2025.

Action 44

The DfE will work with UCAS and other sector groups to make available both advertised and actual entry requirements for courses, including historic entry grades so that disadvantaged students have the information they need to apply to university on a fair playing field.

Progress update

In May UCAS launched the student-facing version of the Historic Entry Grades tool for the 2025 entry cycle. Following extensive feedback from education partners in 2023, the tool will help students understand the range of grades accepted by universities and colleges. The tool can be accessed on the UCAS website. In October 2023 UCAS also launched a new service to show apprenticeship opportunities listed alongside higher education courses, which means applicants are now able to discover and decide between their options all in one place for the first time.

UCAS also launched the Outreach Connection Service in 2024, a tool to match targeted outreach opportunities with disadvantaged students. This tool will help students explore the pathways available to them and better understand how to access outreach opportunities.

Action 45

Higher education providers will help schools drive up standards so that disadvantaged students obtain better qualifications, have more options, and can choose an ambitious path that is right for them.

Progress update

Following the refresh of the access and participation regime announced by the DfE in November 2021, work continues to ensure all higher education providers have their revised plans in place for September 2025. 

In September 2023, OfS also announced a funding competition worth £40m to boost the capacity and equality of opportunity within degree apprenticeship provision in higher education. Funding will be available for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years. As part of the bids for the funding, universities and colleges will need to show how their projects will create more opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Action 46

Higher education providers will revise and resubmit their Access and Participation plans with a new focus on delivering real social mobility, ensuring students are able to make the right choices, accessing and succeeding on high quality courses, which are valued by employers and lead to good graduate employment.

Progress update

Higher education providers drafted variations to their APPs  in May to July 2022 to be in place for September 2023.

Action 47

To improve careers guidance for all pupils in state-funded secondary education, the Department for Education will extend the current statutory duty on schools to secure independent careers guidance to pupils throughout their secondary education.

Progress update

Through the Education (Careers Guidance in Schools) Act 2022, DfE extended the legal requirement on state-funded secondary schools to secure independent careers guidance to all pupils throughout their secondary education. This legislation came into force in September 2022.

DfE careers statutory guidance for schools, last updated in January 2023, sets out what is required of schools. DfE has committed to further update the statutory guidance in spring 2024.

Action 48

To increase the numbers of young ethnic minorities in apprenticeships, the DfE is, since November 2021, working with DWP and partner bodies and employers to engage directly with young people across the country to promote apprenticeships. This will use a range of mechanisms to attract more ethnic minority starts identified in the Commission’s report, such as events in schools with strong minority representation, relatable role models, employer testimonies, data on potential earnings and career progression. It will also explore the impact of factors that influence a young persons’ career choices.

Progress update

DfE has continued to work with employers and partner bodies to engage directly with young people across the country to promote apprenticeships. This academic year, DfE has increased the number of schools the Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme engages with that have high proportions of students from an ethnic minority background. Since September 2023, DfE has funded 288 activities attended by more than 9,000 students in over 50 schools with a high proportion of pupils from an ethnic minority background. 

Between January and March 2024 the Office for Students made 83 funding awards  to universities and colleges from the Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund.

Action 49

In January DfE launched a major communications campaign Get the Jump: Skills for Life, a new integrated communication and engagement campaign that will target young people aged 14-19 about the full range of options available to them post 16 and post 18. It will help to tackle disparities by featuring a diverse range of young people in the campaign imagery, through case studies, influencers and through media targeting. The DfE will measure and publish participation levels of people from ethnic minorities, including a breakdown by age. This will allow us to track the progress of apprenticeship uptake by ethnic minorities and other under-represented groups in particular sectors.

Progress update

The volume and proportion of apprenticeship starts by ethnic minority students has increased. For the academic year 2022 to 2023, there were 51,110 ethnic minority starts (15.2% of total starts), compared with 50,400 (14.4%) in 2021 to 2022. In March 2024, DfE published more detailed data on achievement rates for different types of apprenticeships broken down by ethnic groups. 

The Get the Jump campaign ended in December 2023. In January 2024, DfE launched the new ‘Skills for Life’ campaign to inspire more employers, adults and young people (aged 14 to 19) to take their first steps towards taking up government skills and technical education offers. The campaign features the success stories of a diverse range of young people through case studies, influencers and partnerships.

Action 50

To help high-achieving, disadvantaged students to reach their full potential while studying in higher education, including degree courses or apprenticeships, the DfE will invest up to £75 million to deliver a state scholarship programme.

Progress update

It is vitally important to support talented, disadvantaged students to succeed in higher education. We want to do this in the way that impacts those who will benefit most and achieve value for money. For example, DfE has made £276 million of student premium funding available for the 2023 to 2024 academic year to support successful outcomes for disadvantaged students. DfE will consider whether a scholarship scheme or other form of support will add significant value.

Action 51

To clamp down on low quality courses, the Office for Students will set minimum acceptable standards for student outcomes and work to ensure universities rewrite their Access and Participation Plans to include more focused and transparent targets.

Progress update

The OfS introduced revised conditions of registration for quality in 2022, ensuring that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

The OfS has implemented new minimum thresholds on student outcomes, covering course continuation and completion rates, and progression to graduate employment or further study. Depending on the context, the OfS may conduct quality assessments where these thresholds have not been met.

Action 52

The government is consulting on means to incentivise high quality provision and ensure all students enter pathways on which they can excel and achieve the best possible outcomes, including exploring the case for low-level minimum eligibility requirements to access higher education student finance and the possible case for proportionate student number controls.

Progress update

Our higher education policy statement and reform consultation, published in 2022, sought views on a range of issues including the case for low-level minimum eligibility requirements to access higher education student finance and proportionate student number controls. In July 2023, we published our government consultation response. It set out:

• student number controls – the government wants to prioritise provision which offers the best outcomes for students, society and the economy – where the OfS identifies courses which are failing to deliver positive outcomes for students it can impose a range of sanctions, including recruitment limits 

• minimum eligibility requirements – we will consider whether minimum eligibility requirements are needed if pockets of poor quality provision exist

Action 53

To help disadvantaged students to choose the right courses for them and to boost their employment prospects, the Social Mobility Commission will seek to improve the information available to students about the labour market value of qualifications and, where possible, the impact of those qualifications on social mobility. 

Progress update

As more people than ever proceed onto higher and further education, and are given more choices than before on which qualifications to study, it is crucial that prospective students are equipped with useful, candid information. For these reasons, the Social Mobility Commission (SMC) will  launch an accessible report to improve the information available to young people and those that influence them (teachers, parents, career advisers) on the labour market value of qualifications. 

To build our  understanding of how accessible universities are for people from all socio-economic backgrounds, SMC will also develop a new set of benchmarks for measuring social mobility at universities. The benchmarks will be published in 2025.

Action 54

To unleash people’s potential, DWP will roll out a new in-work support offer to every Jobcentre from April 2022. The new programme will appoint 37 new specialist Progression Champions to deliver specialist support to Jobcentres and develop tailored progression plans to support working claimants to climb the career ladder.

Progress update

This action was completed as part of the Inclusive Britain progress update in April 2023. 

The Government has introduced a voluntary In-Work progression offer for low paid Universal Credit claimants. This is being provided by work coaches and focuses on removing barriers to progression and providing advice, such as considering skills gaps and identifying training opportunities. This support is available for people looking for progression opportunities in their current role or support them to move into a new role. 

To deliver effective progression support to working claimants, Jobcentres are being supported by a network of 37 District Progression Leads across Great Britain. Progression Leads work with key partners, including local government, employers, and skills providers to identify and develop local progression opportunities. They also work with partners to address local barriers that limit progression such as childcare and transport.

Action 55

BEIS will work with Code signatories and their trade associations to pilot data collection on the ethnicity of entrepreneurs applying for finance. This pilot will inform future options for data collection and follow-up actions designed to improve access to finance for ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

Progress update

The Code partners – British Business Bank, UK Business Angels Association and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association – successfully completed the first pilot study. The pilot showed a willingness of the industry to engage and provide ethnicity data on a voluntary basis.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) published the Investing in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs report in November 2023. The report aims to help to begin addressing the gap in comprehensive data on ethnic minority-led business. Using voluntary data from Code signatories, the report provides a baseline to measure progress and spark industry dialogue to promote increased representation and financing for ethnic minority entrepreneurs in the UK.  

DBT organised an Investing in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs roundtable in November 2023 to discuss the findings of the report, which was hosted by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethnic Minority Business Owners, in partnership with UKBAA and the BBB. The group discussed the findings of the report and considered what further steps could be taken to improve data collection on ethnicity.

Action 56

To equip entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds with the skills they need to build successful businesses, BEIS is supporting HSBC to develop and launch its pilot for a competition-based, entrepreneur support programme in spring 2022. The programme, which will be run in partnership with UK universities, will equip entrepreneurs with the skills they need for years to come.

Progress update

This action was completed as part of the Inclusive Britain progress update in April 2023.

The findings of the pilot were shared with the DBT’s Ethnic Minority Business Group in summer 2023, to showcase the opportunities this pilot programme could provide for other institutions.

Action 57

To help pupils understand the intertwined nature of British and global history, and their own place within it, DfE will work with history curriculum experts, historians and school leaders to develop a Model History curriculum by 2024 that will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history.

The Model History Curriculum will support high-quality teaching and help teachers and schools to develop their own school curriculum fully using the flexibility and freedom of the history national curriculum and the breadth and depth of content it includes. The development of model knowledge-rich curriculums continues the path of reform the government started in 2010.

Progress update

The new Model History Curriculum, which is on track for publication in 2024, will stand as an exemplar for a knowledge-rich, coherent approach to the teaching of history, and will cover the major contributions made by different groups to this country. 

DFE has worked with the experts, such as the lead drafter and expert panel, to ensure that the Model History Curriculum will support high-quality teaching of history, and demonstrate strong curriculum design.

Action 58

DfE will actively seek out and signpost to schools suggested high-quality resources to support teaching all-year round on black history in readiness for Black History Month October 2022. This will help support schools to share the multiple, nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today.  

DfE signposted resources to schools through a blog post on the Education Hub.

Action 59

To equip teachers to make ethical decisions and deliver high-quality education, the DfE will embed new reforms to transform the training and support teachers and school leaders receive at every stage of their career. These measures include national roll-out of the new Early Career Framework and reformed National Professional Qualifications from September 2021.

Progress update

This action was delivered through the Early Career Framework, introduced in September 2021, supplemented by a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications.

Action 60

The DfE will, in collaboration with the Equality Hub, work with leading schools to help them create a resource on pupil hairstyles and uniform policy. This will showcase best practice in uniform policy specific to the diversity of acceptable hairstyles in school to avoid unfair treatment of ethnic minority children whose hair type may not be like the majority. 

Progress update

In October 2022, the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued guidance for schools on preventing hair discrimination.

This resource, which includes case studies, a decision-making tool, and a video explainer, is available on the EHRC website. DfE is using its regular engagement with schools to monitor how the guidance has been received and will develop additional support if needed in this area.

Action 61

To help all pupils, but especially the most disadvantaged who are more likely to have fallen further behind in their studies during the pandemic, DfE will invest almost £5 billion to support recovery for children and young people, with extra help for those who need it most. We are investing over £800 million across the next 3 academic years to fund 40 additional learning hours for 16 to 19 year olds – the equivalent of one extra hour per week in school or college. 

Progress update

To help all pupils, but especially the most disadvantaged who are more likely to have fallen further behind in their studies during the pandemic, almost £5 billion was made available for education recovery. 

As this additional funding enters the final period of delivery, there are clear long-term benefits for our workforce and students through our extra teacher and staff training, tutoring revolution and extra time in school and colleges. This investment includes:

• over £1 billion through the National Tutoring Programme (NTP), with nearly 5 million courses started on the programme since it began

• £400 million on teacher training opportunities

• nearly £2 billion of direct funding to schools so they can deliver evidence-based interventions based on pupil needs

• over £800 million for additional hours in 16 to19 education 

From the academic year 2022 to 2023, students in 16 to19 education have been benefiting from an average 40 additional hours teaching and learning. DfE estimates this will recover around 1 month’s learning per annum. This funding continues until the end of the academic year 2024 to 2025.

Action 62

We will develop refreshed guidance on Civil Service diversity and inclusion, with clear advice on impartiality in language and practice.

The UK Civil Service supports the UK Government, Scottish Government and Welsh Government. We will work closely with the Northern Ireland Civil Service in delivering this action.

Progress update

On 15 May we issued Guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants. The guidance reminds civil servants of their obligations under the Civil Service Code, and is designed to ensure that they retain the confidence of ministers and the public by upholding the Code’s values while carrying out their duties. It does so through helping civil servants to consider whether impartiality may be impacted in the delivery of diversity and inclusion activity and the steps they need to follow to maintain impartiality.

Action 63

DfE will encourage governing bodies to be more reflective of the school communities they serve and will recommend that schools collect and publish board diversity data at a local level. DfE will also update the Further Education Governance Guide in spring 2022 to include how to remove barriers to representation, widen the pool of potential volunteers and promote inclusivity. 

Progress update

DfE published governance guidance for further education (FE) and sixth-form college corporations in June 2022. The guidance reinforces our advice on how best to recruit governors and senior leaders, the importance of diversity and inclusion, and reflects recent changes to statutory and funding requirements.

In April 2023, DfE also issued guidance to encourage schools to collect and publish online diversity data for governing board members.

Action 64

To help police forces become more representative of their local communities, and benefit from local knowledge and experience, the Home Office, working with the College of Policing, will consider with individual forces measures to ensure that new recruits have a better understanding of the areas and the people they serve, including the feasibility of a local residency requirement where appropriate.

Progress update

The Police Uplift Programme concluded in March 2023 with the recruitment of an additional 20,947 police officers attributed to the uplift programme.

The recently launched Police Constable Entry Programme (PCEP) training curriculum, published by the College of Policing, is helping to improve new recruits’ understanding of the needs of local communities. The curriculum includes detailed modules on community policing, effective communications, historical community context, relationships with specific communities and community values and policing.

Action 65

To ensure that the recruitment processes identify and select officers who are reflective of the needs of local communities, the Metropolitan Police Service, working with the College of Policing, is considering additional methods for assessing candidates’ understanding of those needs and will announce its plans later in 2022. Changes would be delivered via a pilot that will be evaluated by the College, with a view to applying learning to its ongoing development of the assessment process. 

Progress update

A new Online Assessment Process was made permanent from 2023 and is now the standard assessment process used by all 43 forces in England and Wales. This process includes a selection of exercises used to assess candidates’ suitability for policing, such as competencies and values that are important for effective police constables.

Action 66

To protect police officers and others when exercising their functions, we will double the maximum penalty for common assault or battery committed against an emergency worker from 12 months to 2 years’ imprisonment. 

Progress update

The relevant provision in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (section 156) came into force in summer 2022.

Action 67

To broaden the diversity of the judiciary, we will work with the Judicial Diversity Forum to increase the pool of applicants as well as continuing to scrutinise recruitment processes to ensure the very best talent is promoted through the professions and on to the bench. This includes delivering MoJ’s commitments set out in the 2022 action plan. 

Progress update

The 2024 Judicial Diversity Forum Action Plan was published in January 2024 committing the Ministry of Justice to:

• continuing to lead the Pre-Application Judicial Education programme (PAJE)

• publishing comprehensive data in the annual Diversity of the Judiciary statistics

• work to remove barriers for employed lawyers considering fee-paid judicial office

• work to remove barriers for Crown servant lawyers considering a fee-paid judicial office

• work to review the barriers faced by professional groups, such as legal academics and those regulated legal professions who are not currently eligible for judicial office.

The PAJE programme supports lawyers from under-represented groups who are considering applying for a judicial role. Evaluation of the PAJE programme showed that for all lawyer types, Asian and black PAJE participants were shortlisted and appointed for judicial roles at higher rates than those who had not completed PAJE over the last 3 years.

Black PAJE participants continue to be appointed for judicial roles at a rate more than double in comparison to the wider pool of black candidates who have not completed PAJE and have applied in the last 3 years.

Action 68

To broaden the diversity of the magistracy, the MoJ is investing over £1 million this financial year to support the recruitment of new and diverse magistrates, and launched a revised, streamlined recruitment process and inclusive recruitment campaign earlier this year. The new process will enable MoJ to better monitor recruitment information, understand any differences in attraction and success rates between ethnic groups and to identify action to address any issues highlighted by this data. An evaluation of this process will be conducted in 2022. 

Progress update

To broaden the diversity of the magistracy, the MoJ invested £1 million to support the recruitment of new and diverse magistrates, with a focus on attracting those from under-represented groups. 

The 2023 judicial diversity statistics included data on the diversity of applications and appointments to help identify challenges and target future improvements. In total, 24% of all magistrate applications submitted in 2022 to 2023 were from ethnic minority individuals, and 56% were from women.

An evaluation of the recruitment process has now been concluded and the MoJ is in the process of making further improvements to it, taking action to address issues identified in the data. The MoJ will continue to run marketing campaigns to raise the profile of the magistracy and encourage a broader range of people to apply.

Action 69

To tackle bias and ensure fairness in the workplace, by spring 2023 the Equality Hub will create an ‘Inclusion at Work Panel’. Made up of a panel of academics and practitioners in business it will develop and disseminate effective resources to help employers drive fairness across organisations. This will go beyond just race and ethnicity to identify actions to promote fairness for all in the workplace and will include a programme of research and workplace trials to provide a robust evidence base and root out poor quality training.

The panel will be supported by the Government Campus, specifically the new Leadership College for Government, to ensure the Government Curriculum defines effective leadership and management standards and products. The UK Civil Service and public sector employers will lead by example in adopting evidence-based practices and trialling new approaches.

Progress update

In March 2024, the Inclusion at Work Panel published its recommendations to improve diversity and inclusion practice in the workplace.  

The government is considering how it can most effectively take the recommendations of the report forward and will provide an official response in due course. The government will also draw on relevant findings in the report as part of its own review of EDI spending across government.

Action 70

To support employers and industry sectors to create opportunity for groups that are underrepresented in their workforce, the Government Equalities Office will create new updated guidance on positive action by December 2022 

Progress update

The Equality Hub published new guidance for employers on positive action in the workplace in April 2023.

Action 71

Using evidence from the Inclusion at work Panel, and building on the curriculum standards underpinning the Government Campus, and Leadership College within it, the government will develop a new scheme for employers, working with stakeholders in business, civil society and academia, to provide an evidenced framework for improving race equality and progression in the workplace. Organisations will be able to sign-up to the scheme voluntarily, to be live by autumn 2023. 

Progress update

The Inclusion at Work Panel did not recommend introducing an Inclusion Confident Scheme at this stage. Instead, it recommended an inclusion evidence toolkit - similar to the Education Endowment Foundation teaching and learning toolkit -  to bring together the latest diversity and inclusion (D&I) evidence in a business-friendly format so that  employers can assess the rigour, efficacy, and value for money of a range of D&I practices.

Action 72

To address the potential risks and opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, the Office for AI will develop our national position on governing and regulating AI, and set this out in a white paper in 2022. This will include how to address potential racial bias in algorithmic decision-making 

Progress update

The AI white paper was published in March 2023.

Action 73

To ensure technological advances do not have a disproportionate impact on ethnic minority groups, the EHRC will advise on the safeguards needed and issue guidance that explains how to apply the Equality Act to algorithmic decision-making. 

Progress update

EHRC published new guidance in September 2022 guidance on how the Public Sector Equality Duty applies when a public body uses AI.

Action 74

To enhance transparency and trust, the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation published an algorithmic transparency standard for the public sector. This will be piloted by several public sector organisations before formal endorsement in 2023. The move makes the UK one of the first countries in the world to develop a national algorithmic transparency standard. 

Progress update

The Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard was piloted with public sector organisations through summer 2022, and an updated version was launched in October 2022 on GitHub.

1. https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/equity-and-equality-guidance-for-local-maternity-systems ↩

2. https://coram-i.org.uk/resource/asg-q3-2023-2024-headline-measures/ ↩

3. https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Kemp-Examining-the-impact-of-PACE-on-the-detention-and-questioning-of-child-suspects.pdf  ↩

4. Labour market value of higher and further education qualifications: a summary report (Social Mobility Commission, updated 9 February 2023) ↩

5. https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/equality-and-diversity/diversity-and-equality-measures/judicial-diversity-forum/ ↩

6. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2023-statistics ↩

7. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64fae71b1886eb000d976fe6/2023_JDS_tables.ods) ↩