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NIO Diversity Delivery Plan - 2007/08 - 2008/09

A. Introduction

1. This is the second NIO diversity delivery plan. It builds on the progress that has been made through initiatives that formed part of our delivery plan for 2005/06-2007/08 supporting our commitment to “valuing our people and encouraging diversity”.

2. The context for delivering this plan is that of preparing for devolution of policing and justice by May 2008, should the NI Assembly request this, to a new Department of Justice that would sit alongside the other devolved departments as part of the NICS. A period of transition, such as this, creates some constraints and uncertainty. But it is also a driver for change. A particular constraint is that there is likely to be less movement of staff in the coming 12 months which means that it is harder to change the diversity of our staff profile. But there are also opportunities to plan ahead and to strengthen links with the wider NICS for those who will be part of a new Department of Justice and, for those remaining in the future NIO (FNIO), building links with the FNIO Whitehall `sponsor department' once agreed. This will help ensure that we are best able to benefit from and influence our future `partners'. Our delivery plan for 2007/08 - 2008/09 seeks both to plan for this new future and deliver the best outcomes possible over the coming year for all our staff.

Background

3. The NIO comprises 1,928 Full Time Equivalent staff, of which 45 are Senior Civil Servants. This includes non-prison grades in the Northern Ireland Prison Service. Only 74 staff (3.8%) are based in London, with the remaining 1,854 staff (96.2%) working in Northern Ireland. Staff are also drawn from two different Civil Services with 1,790 (92.8%) from the Northern Ireland Civil Service and 138 (7.2%) from the Home Civil Service.

4. The NIO is responsible for Northern Ireland's constitutional and security issues, in particular law and order, political affairs, policing and criminal justice. The NIO has a number of agencies - the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the Compensation Agency, Forensic Science Northern Ireland, and the Youth Justice Agency. This diversity plan covers the department and its agencies.

5. In developing and delivering both our current and our previous plan, we have taken account of the particular circumstances of the NIO:

The importance of community background in achieving a diverse and representative workforce - this has rightly been, and continues to be a priority for action
The long established and comprehensive equality legislative framework - with regulated equality monitoring, impact assessment practice and equality proofed employment practice; published in annual returns and five yearly reports which provide detailed information on Equality assessments and outcomes. The reports are published on the NIO website and scrutinised by the Equality Commission
The important link between the NIO and the NICS - staff loans between the two are well established and there are shared recruitment policies and practices; these links are particularly important in helping achieve a representative workforce in terms of community background
The impact of two geographically separate office locations - the need to be mobile and to be able to travel on a regular basis between Belfast and London has an impact on career patterns and work life balance
A very stable workforce - low turnover and as a consequence a relatively old average age affects opportunities to accelerate progress towards diversity targets

As noted above, in this plan we have also taken account of the potential for the devolution of policing and justice and the likely creation of two new departments: a Northern Ireland Department of Justice and a Whitehall based future Northern Ireland Office.

B. Our Vision and Values

6. The Departmental Board launched the NIO Vision and Values statement in December 2006. They set the direction in which we want to go, and challenge everyone in the department to strive to live up to them. A programme of work is in hand to embed these values within the department. In particular, individual Board members have been asked to act as guardians in order to ensure they are effectively promoted in the department.

7. Our vision is:

“A safe and peaceful Northern Ireland with stable, devolved Government working for everyone”

8. Our values are commitment, focus, determination, supportiveness, consideration, creativity, and efficiency. Key to the value of consideration is valuing our people and encouraging diversity. The Diversity Champions, supported by the Diversity Steering Group, are guardians of this value. Leading delivery of this action plan is a key part of their work as guardians of the department's diversity value.

C. Our targets

9. The NIO's targets for 2008, agreed in 2005 are:

SCS	2008
Women in the SCS	37%
Women in Top Management Posts	25%
Minority Ethnic Staff in the SCS	4%
Disabled staff in the SCS	7%
Feeder Grades
Women at Grade A level	47.5%
Minority Ethnic Staff at Grade A level	4%
Disabled staff at Grade A level	3.2%

10. The current statistics for the SCS and Grade A are as follows:

Senior Civil Service

Gender	Not known	Female	Male	Total	Proportion
All SCS	0	16	32	48	33.3%
Top Mgt	0	2	11	13	15.4%

Ethnicity	Not known	Other	White	Total	Proportion
All SCS	7	1	40	48	2.1%

Disability	Not known	Disabled	Not disabled	Total	Proportion
All SCS	7	0	41	48	0%

Grade A

Gender	Not known	Female	Male	Total	Proportion
	0	83	103	186	44.6%

Ethnicity	Not known	Other	White	Total	Proportion
	14	0	172	186	0%

Disability	Not known	Disabled	Not disabled	Total	Proportion
	13	4	169	186	2.2%

11. Given that the majority of staff are based in Northern Ireland, community background is an important target for the department. Our aim is to ensure that representation of Protestants and Catholics in the NIO is comparable to the wider NICS. In recent years, the NIO's figures have changed as follows:

Year	Protestant	Catholic
1997	75.0%	25.0%
1998	74.2%	25.8%
1999	72.6%	27.4%
2000	73.0%	27.0%
2001	72.7%	27.3%
2002	71.8%	28.2%
2003	71.1%	28.9%
2004	71.2%	28.8%
2005	68.6%	31.4%

The latest figures (as at January 2006) for the NIO and NICS are as follows:

Department	Protestant	Catholic
NIO	68.4%	31.6%
NI Departments	52.2%	47.8%

12. Good progress has been made on achieving our targets on community background and some progress has been made towards gender targets. Historically it was difficult to enhance our community balance because of the reluctance of many Catholics to work in security related fields. Changes in the wider environment have eased this and the situation has also been helped considerably by the removal from recruitment literature for the NICS of the option of opting out from working in NIO or a prison establishment. This coupled with more outreach on recruitment means we are seeing a much better balanced pool at entry level. We are also doing further work on our recruitment literature to enhance the attractiveness of the NIO to potential applicants at all levels. The electronic HR (eHR) Programme will also provide us with an opportunity to draw more easily on the wider pool of staff in the NICS (where the level of representation of Catholics is much higher), since the new functionality will allow for the freer movement of staff across Departments to take up internal vacancies (which have traditionally been filled almost exclusively by existing NIO staff).

13. The story is less positive in respect of our targets on ethnicity and disability where we still have some way to go. The relatively small size, both of the NI ethnic communities and of the department means that even a small movement of staff can have an impact upon meeting our targets. The department has recently joined the Stonewall Diversity Champions Network to encourage LGB recruitment and has developed a partnership arrangement with the Home Office Diversity Networks to increase awareness and share best practice to improve the recruitment and development of under-represented groups.

14. Improving diversity at senior levels remains a key objective for the department and for the civil service as a whole, but as noted above the prospect of devolution of policing and justice and the splitting of the current NIO inevitably means that the scope for making significant further progress towards these targets in 2007/08 is constrained. Our aim in respect of our targets and the underlying aim of these - to ensure that all staff, whatever their background are valued - is therefore to:

maintain, as a minimum, our current levels of representation;
take steps to ensure that we are effectively supporting the development of talent in minority groups so that, with other staff, they can make the most of opportunities post devolution and compete effectively within a new Department of Justice or future NIO.
improve our data collection, monitoring and analytical practice

15. The detail of the delivery plan is set out below.

D. Our objectives

Objective 1: Developing our staff

Success Measures:

Staff feel they are treated with respect, and their skills and contribution are valued and progress is monitored through regular staff surveys
Equality and diversity is embedded in learning opportunities
Our approach to equality and diversity should be combined and integrated more fully in the way we work and manage our people and features in our HR Strategy, Business plans, people competencies and Equality Impact Assessment duties

Action	Action Planned	Owner	Timing	Progress

1.1	NIO Vision and Values are reinforced in business plans and messages to staff	Directors	Ongoing	Promoted and visible in plans - monitored by Diversity Champions / DSG
1.2	The Leadership programme being rolled out to all staff at Grade B2 and above has a particular focus on the department's vision and values	PSD - BIT	Ongoing	EQI assessed. Participation is monitored for representative up-take
1.3	Competence frameworks for all grades amended to include diversity	PSD - BIT	Apr 07	Visible in all competence frameworks
	Consider including diversity in performance objectives when bonus scheme is reviewed	PSD - Policy	Mar 08	Review of NCPB scheme will take place during 0708
1.4	Complete a tailored programme to raise awareness of diversity and equality amongst all staff in the department. Evaluate and follow up, as necessary.	PSD - BIT	Mar 08	A classroom programme is planned to start in June 07
1.5	Participate in central diversity development initiatives, providing candidates, placements and funds.	PSD - Ops	April 07	Candidates, placements and funds are being provided

Objective 2: Encouraging equality and diversity

Success Measures:

Equality and diversity is a central theme in induction and is regularly reviewed
Staff surveys show continuous improvement in levels of satisfaction in working for the NIO and an improvement in terms of equality and diversity
Leaders are visible in encouraging and supporting diversity in teams
A culture where unacceptable behaviour is challenged and best practice is promoted

Action	Action Planned	Owner	Timing	Progress

2.1	Induction is used to reinforce the behaviours, stress the importance of equality and diversity to all we do, and signpost where to go to build understanding and improve skills and knowledge	PSD - BIT	Ongoing	Following review, Induction Programme to include separate module on Diversity/Equality from June 2007
2.2	Use the staff survey to gauge attitudes and progress. Work to improve staff survey response rates. Use the staff survey to examine issues relating to culture change and barriers to inclusivity.	PSD - BIT	Autumn (bi-annual)	The Departmental Board have discussed the Autumn 2006 survey and agreed an action plan
2.3	Reinforce the department's commitment to diversity by holding a diversity celebration event which will see the re-launch of the diversity networks and hold at least one event annually	DSG	Ongoing	Bi-centennial Abolition of Slavery event hosted at Millbank. Future events hosted with Home Office. Department wide Diversity event scheduled for September.
2.4	Directors will ensure diversity is embedded in Business Plans	Directors	Apr 07	Promotion and annual monitoring

Objective 3: Being valued by stakeholders as advocates of equality and diversity

Success Measures:

Our recruitment brand is recognised as an example of good practice by benchmarking organisations such as Stonewall and the Equality Commission, and recruitment consultants understand the issues are a priority in our recruitment.
Feedback from Equality Commission and Equality Impact Assessments illustrates that our policies are compliant with equality legislation
Reasonable adjustments actively involve consultation with staff and visitors to promote a Disability Friendly organisation
A good all-inclusive relationship with the local communities is evident through our Community Partnership scheme
Cabinet Office Peer Review assesses progress against the Ten Point Plan

Action	Action Planned	Owner	Timing	Progress

3.1	Work with NICS, who carry out much of our recruitment for us, to develop our recruitment brand and materials to better appeal to applicants from a diverse background	PSD - Ops	Ongoing	All-inclusive welcoming statements in job advertisements. Joined Stonewall Diversity Champions. Consult with Diversity Networks to develop best practice.
3.2	Open dialogue with the future NIO sponsor department, to share experiences and to begin designing diversity plans for the Future NIO	PSD - Policy	Ongoing	Work will begin when the shape of the FNIO is better understood
3.3	Challenge recruitment organisations to seek out strong candidates from under-represented groups	PSD - Ops	Ongoing	All-inclusive welcoming statements in job advertisements. Joined Stonewall Diversity Champions. We invite staff to register reasonable adjustments
3.4	Continue to equality proof all new policies	Directors	Ongoing	Statutory duties to Equality impact assess all new policies. Annual monitoring takes place and Equality Commission scrutinise results
3.5	Develop relationships with the local communities by volunteering and inviting local communities to deliver awareness raising sessions	BIT	Ongoing	NIO promotes a Corporate Social Responsibility programme working with partners Business in the Community
3.6	Maintain links with Equality Commission, Business in the Community and other non governmental organisations on diversity issues	CMU	Ongoing	Reporting, liaising and consulting to develop and promote best practice
3.7	In addition to the actioning of any reasonable adjustments which are required in relation to disability, we are committed to consulting with disabled staff in relation to this process	PSD - Ops	Ongoing	The NIO actively consults with disabled staff and Networks to ensure high service standards

Objective 4: Supporting and bringing on talent

Success Measures:

Development programmes meet the needs of under-represented groups
Diversity networks are active and seen as a valuable tool

Action	Action Planned	Owner	Timing	Progress

4.1	Take full advantage of the Cabinet Office development schemes & look for opportunities to bring in under graduates and pupils on work experience	PSD / Directors	Ongoing	Cabinet Office have now started to advertise within Northern Ireland
4.2	Benchmark against best practice and promote flexible working in the SCS, including job sharing	PSD - Policy	Ongoing	We promote a range of work life balance solutions
4.3	Launch Grade A Development Scheme and monitor to ensure that it is contributing to our diversity objectives	PSD - Policy	Ongoing	Programme has diversity content and welcomes under-represented groups to apply
4.4	Examine the up-take of under-represented groups on the mentoring scheme and identify gaps where additional promotion should be targeted	PSD - BIT	Ongoing	Scheme has been Equality impact proofed and is monitored to identify gaps in customer base
4.5	Re-launch the Networks and develop links afforded by the Home Office	DSG	May 07	A high profile Diversity day is planned for Sep 07. More events planned with the Home Office
4.6	Consider what more we might do to bring on talent, particularly amongst ethnic minority staff, at B1/B2 grades	PSD - Policy	Ongoing	Monitor leadership programme for uptake, barriers and issues
4.7	Discuss, with Directors, whether staff from under-represented groups are taking advantage of all available opportunities to develop, or face any other obstacles to progression	PSD - Business Partners	Jan 08	Business Partners will be able to assist Directors in taking a strategic approach to talent management

Objective 5: Measuring and communicating success

Success Measures:

Good practice is shared and success is celebrated
Impact assessments undertaken on all our policies with risks to our equality and diversity agenda built in with countermeasures in place
Communications seen to include and reinforce equality and diversity

Action	Action Planned	Owner	Timing	Progress

5.1	Annual surveys for ethnicity and disability. Ensure age, gender and pattern of work information is accurate	PSD - Ops	Ongoing	Annual monitoring and data capture continue to occur
5.2	Continue to provide regular monitoring information to the Departmental Board and Equality Commission and look at improving the method of presenting the data	Diversity Champs	Ongoing	Diversity Steering Group provides a source for considering the best ways to monitor and present data
5.3	Review and enhance the range of equality data we produce to ensure a wider range of data is routinely available	PSD - Ops	Ongoing	Alongside equality impact assessments we explore new ways to produce data
5.4	Diversity Steering Group is more active in utilising various communication methods to publicise the work of the Group to the department	DSG	Ongoing	Diversity Steering Group has produced a communications strategy
5.5	Review the content of diversity and equality issues on the Intranet	PSD - Ops and Policy	Ongoing	Regular monitoring is completed to ensure latest information on best practice is available
5.6	Develop links with other departments, particularly a future NIO sponsor department, Home Office networks, with Stonewall and other external organisations to identify and develop best practice	PSD - Policy	Ongoing	Ensure networking activities occur on a regular basis and best practice is shared