Why we need more leaders from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds in social care

Munira Thobani one of Skills for Care’s board members shares her insights on the importance of encouraging diversity at senior levels in social care.

Black History Month affords us the opportunity to reflect on what we've done in the last year to tackle racism and racial disparity in all our respective organisations. It’s a discipline to be welcomed, to spotlight what has changed, what we’ve learnt and to keep the urgency of eliminating inequality from the systems and practices that perpetuate, and often increase, injustices.

Leadership is necessary and required to turbocharge the change required to address long-standing racial disparities. For far too long the lack of representative senior leadership in social care has been highlighted, spoken about and yet, there's limited change. We know that representation matters, not least because it manifestly demonstrates inclusion. What we have instead is words of inclusion, but practice and outcomes of exclusion and under-representation. Representation matters at all levels in the leadership system from first line managers and leaders to the most senior leaders. It matters because decision-making can be biased, power is disproportionately exercised, interests (of the workforce and people who draw on care are support) are disproportionately served, legitimacy may be questioned, accountability is minimised and inability to capitalise on the imagination and desire for anti-racist practice in everyday decision-making means lost potential.

These power dynamics in the leadership system can be shifted by leaders at all levels acknowledging the disparities and amplifying the concerns of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. It can make the space for creative and productive problem solving whilst keeping constant gentle pressure for change in organisations.

‘The state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report published on 11 October 2022 highlights the significant presence of staff from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in the social care sector at 23%. This is slightly more than one in five of the whole workforce and is higher in some areas including London at 68% and in the West Midlands at 25%. The report also shows that 16% of managerial roles are held by people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, shifting the dial from 12% ten years ago to 16% in 2022.

The Skills for Care report outlines actions to support the sector towards greater equality and equity and it’s envisaged that the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standards (SCWRES) will help “monitor progress and to drive up standards and practice across the sector”.

The SCWRES was developed by Skills for Care, as a tool to measure improvements in the workforce with respect to the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff. It will help keep race equality on the agenda for social care employers and for sector organisations by providing trend data for recruitment, progression, access to training, discrimination (such as bullying and harassment) and representative leadership.

It's worth looking more closely at the trend data and to consider the pace and scale of change required towards representation of Black and Asian leaders and managers at all levels. We have representation of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in all job roles over the last ten years change from 20% to 23% of a growing workforce. The shift in the figures for the following roles over ten years is as follows: all managers from 12% to 16%; senior managers from 13.5% to 17%; registered managers from 12.1% to 17%; and other managers 12% to 15%. Although the data shows progress and an upward trend, there’s a shortfall of representation at all levels within the managerial and leadership system.

For the past 10 years, there’s been progress but for many of us this is at a snail’s pace, with possible complacency. There’s acknowledgement that there could be “lack of equal opportunity or discrimination in the sector” to explain this disparity, as cited in the recent Skills for Care report.

To improve representation, for some years now, Skills for Care has offered the leadership development programme, Moving Up. However, data for outcomes in the sector isn’t available. Anecdotal evidence suggests that participants from the Moving Up programme have progressed their careers, what we don’t know is how far up the managerial and leadership ladder. Too often we see a lack of representation at senior levels, board levels and hear stories of how challenging it is to be the only one who seriously and consistently looks for opportunities to make representation count. What I mean by making representation count is to have ambition for the workforce of people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to succeed, to have ambition for fairness and justice in social care practice, and to have ambition for wellbeing of all staff.

I believe that we need not only representative leadership and management but over-representation precisely to overcome the scale of effort required to shift the dial on numbers and more importantly to shift the culture, systems and processes that enable lack of opportunity and discrimination in the sector. Numbers in themselves are never enough, what is needed is turbo charged leadership commitment from both Black and white leaders and the capacity to nurture, progress and support people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, and by so doing the whole workforce.

What would be good to see is senior leaders in the sector doing some of the following things.

• Ask questions about the 10-year trend data to understand why progress is slow;
• engage with Black and Asian leaders, for example in the Race Equality Reference Group, to review the data and set more ambitious targets and expectations for equality and equity in the sector;
• engage with employers to review the efficacy of the tools and initiatives on equality, compassionate practice, and wellbeing of staff in the sector; and
• secure sign-up to the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standards (SCWRES) with private and third sector employers.

Find out more about the Social Care Workforce Race Equality Standards (SCWRES).

Find out more about Black History Month and view more support for equality, diversity and inclusion with our Black History Month spotlight.

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