Independent report

Summary of recommendations

Updated 28 April 2021

This report makes 24 recommendations. These are grouped into 4 broad themes:

• build trust
• promote fairness
• create agency
• achieve inclusivity

They cover the aspects of change that the Commission believes will catalyse the most effective way to meaningfully address disparities and inequalities for all those affected.

Build trust

Recommendation 1: Challenge racist and discriminatory actions

Fund the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to use its compliance, enforcement and litigation enforcement powers to challenge policies or practices that either cause significant and unjust racial disadvantage, or arise from racial discrimination.

Separately, the government should consider the complex issue of online abuse as a public policy priority.

Recommendation 2: Review the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) inspection process

Review the CQC’s approach to including disparities in the experiences, progression and disciplinary actions taken against ethnic minority staff in their inspections of healthcare providers.

Recommendation 3: Improve the transparency and use of artificial intelligence

Issue guidance that clarifies how to apply the Equality Act to algorithmic decision-making and require transparency for public sector bodies when such is applied to decision making concerning individuals.

Recommendation 4: Bridge divides and create partnerships between the police and communities

Develop a minimum standard framework for independently-chaired community ‘Safeguarding Trust’ groups that scrutinise and problem-solve alongside policing, and independently inspect forces against this minimum standard.

Recommendation 5: Improve training to provide police officers with practical skills to interact with communities

Develop a strategy to improve the efficacy and implementation of stop and search, and de-escalation training ensuring a consistent approach is taken by all police force areas.

Promote fairness

Recommendation 6: Replicate the factors of educational success for all communities

Invest in meaningful and substantial research to understand and replicate the underlying factors that drive success of high performing groups.

Recommendation 7: Invest in proven interventions through better targeted funding

Systematically target disparities in education outcomes between disadvantaged pupils and their peers through funding, considering geographical variation, ethnicity, gender and socio-eonomic status.

Recommendation 8: Advance fairness in the workplace

Develop resources and evidence-based approaches of what works to advance fairness in the workplace, and which are readily available to employers.

Recommendation 9: Investigate what causes existing ethnic pay disparities

Require publication of a diagnosis and action plan for organisations who choose to publish ethnicity pay figures. These should set out the reasons why any disparities exist and what will be done to address them.

Recommendation 10: Improve understanding of the ethnicity pay gap in NHS England

Undertake a strategic review of the causes of disparate pay across NHS England and spell out the measures that might meaningfully address any disparities.

Recommendation 11: Establish an Office for Health Disparities

Establish a new office to properly target health disparities in the UK, focusing on research, communications and expertise to reduce health inequalities across all groups

Recommendation 12: Prevent harm, reduce crime and divert young people away from the criminal justice system

Develop an evidence-based pilot that diverts offences of low-level Class B drug possession into public health services.

Recommendation 13: Build social and cultural capital – enrichment for all

Phase in an extended school day prioritising disadvantaged areas to provide pupils with the opportunity to engage in physical and cultural activities that enrich lives and build social and cultural capital.

Recommendation 14: Increase legitimacy and accountability of stop and search through body-worn video

Increased scrutiny of body-worn video footage of stop and search encounters, with senior officer involvement required in cases where interactions are of concern and need improvement.

Create agency

Recommendation 15: Empower pupils to make more informed choices to fulfil their future potential

Issue guidance to higher education institutions to help reduce disparities in applications at an earlier stage and monitored for effectiveness.

Recommendation 16: Open up access to apprenticeships

Create a targeted apprenticeships campaign to inform young people facing discrimination or disadvantage of the full range of career pathways open to them and encourage them to take up apprenticeships in growth sectors.

Recommendation 17: Encourage innovation

Pilot a new enterprise programme to nurture talent and encourage innovation, targeted at aspiring entrepreneurs from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds across the UK.

Recommendation 18: Improve safety and support for children at risk

Develop a digital solution to signpost and refer children and young people at risk of, or already experiencing criminal exploitation, to local organisations who can provide support.

Recommendation 19: Undertake a ‘support for families’ review

Undertake a review to investigate and take action to address the underlying issues facing families. This Commission has identified this as a significant contributing factor to the experience of disparities.

Achieve inclusivity

Recommendation 20: Making of modern Britain: teaching an inclusive curriculum

Produce high-quality teaching resources, through independent experts, to tell the multiple, nuanced stories of the contributions made by different groups that have made this country the one it is today.

Recommendation 21: Create police workforces that represent the communities they serve

Introduce a local residency requirement for recruitment to each police force area, with the College of Policing developing guidance to support implementation.

Recommendation 22: Equip the police service to serve the needs of their local communities

Design and evaluate recruitment pilots that match candidates’ life skills with the needs of the communities they serve in their local areas.

Recommendation 23: Use data in a responsible and informed way

Develop and publish a set of ethnicity data standards to improve understanding and information gathering, reducing the opportunity for misunderstanding and misuse.

Recommendation 24: Disaggregate the term ‘BAME’

Stop using aggregated and unhelpful terms such as ‘BAME’, to better focus on understanding disparities and outcomes for specific ethnic groups.