New Report Finds Discrimination Against BAME Social Care Workforce In Wales
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) social care staff are less likely to be appointed to senior positions, and more likely to be referred to fitness to practise, according to a new report.
BAME colleagues are also more likely to face discrimination and abuse from the people they care for and their families, their co-workers and managers.
The report, The Workforce Race Equality Standard helps monitor the experience of BAME people who work in health and social care in Wales, and an action taken from the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan, which describes the ambition of making Wales an anti-racist nation by 2030.
The report found that:
• despite an appetite to seek progression, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic social care staff are under-represented in managerial positions
• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff were more than twice as likely to report a lack of additional training to support career progression compared to their White counterparts
• Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic social workers were more likely than their White peers to report experiencing discrimination.
Sarah McCarty, our Chief Executive, said: “Racism is, and will always be, unacceptable. Social care staff join the profession to help, support and make a positive difference to individuals lives. Working in every community in Wales, individuals working in social care provide a critical role to support individuals and families to do what is important to them.”
“The workforce are committed to helping people and have a fundamental right to be treated with respect, but many tell us that they’re not being treated fairly. The data in this report identifies areas Social Care Wales, Welsh Government, partners and employers need to take action.”
“Inequality in leadership development was one of the areas identified in this report. We’ve taken steps to address this by working with individuals with lived experience to develop a new ‘supporting progression for ethnic minority workers programme’, which will start in the autumn.”
Professor Anton Emmanuel, the Workforce Race Equality Standard Lead in Welsh Government said: “The data should trigger organisations, regional partnership boards and local authorities to review the discriminatory processes that allows this inequality to continue.”
“Taking targeted action to address the areas highlighted by the data in this report will improve the experiences of the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic workforce. As a result, this will then translate into better care for the people of Wales.”
