Transcript The Public Sector Equality Duty: Making a difference to people’s lives Kate Clayton-Hathway Oxford Brookes Centre for Diversity Policy Research and Practice [email protected].

The Public Sector Equality Duty:
Making a difference to
people’s lives
Kate Clayton-Hathway
Oxford Brookes Centre for Diversity Policy
Research and Practice
[email protected]
Background to study
• Meta-review of evidence for PSED
showed having a positive impact but
lack of ‘on the ground’ evidence
• Existing research on lone mothers
about them as a ‘social problem’ - not
their voices as service users
• Bristol City as case study area
Single mothers in context
•‘Protected characteristics’ - sex, maternity and
pregnancy
•91% of UK lone parents are women and face
disproportionate poverty
•75.5% of children in poverty in Bristol live in lone
parent families (compared with 68.2% in England)
•Over half of Bristol children in poverty live in
households where the youngest child is under five
Stakeholder input
• Understand services available and issues
• Ten interviewed including local authority, children’s centres
(public and private), campaigning organisations and
community workers
“…no doubt the original council equality forums [such as Bristol
Women’s Voice] were set up to deliver the requirements of the
duty … As you know public sector organisations are no longer
required to produce gender equality schemes … However the
duty is useful for reminding the council about EqIAs and
protected characteristics”
Committee Member, Bristol Women’s Commission
Stakeholder input
“So the decision to reduce the [equalities] team wasn’t my
decision … a lot of that was driven by a ‘statutory
minimum’ exercise where we said ‘what is it we need to do
to deliver our statutory duties’?”
Local Authority Equalities Specialist
“The culture has changed at the Local Authority and the
focus is now on financial outcomes. There has been a real
move away from the Equality Act – nobody talks about it
any more and it is seen as a ‘burden’”
Front-line Community Worker and Trainer (and former LA employee)
Service user input
• Five ‘initial’ chats (some group) and 14 1:1 interviews
• Lone mothers more intensive users of public services due
to pregnancy, maternity and caring responsibilities
• Recruitment included leaflets, posters, community enewsletters, websites for lone parents, community
meetings; Twitter, Facebook, word-of-mouth, front-line
stakeholders
• Identifying participants the biggest challenge so far
• Ages from 26-45; one child to six children; Children 16
weeks – 20+ years
Service user experiences
•Isolation: “social situations get harder” and difficult
keeping up with existing friends or making new ones
•Over-reliance on the internet and social media for social
interaction and information
•Insecure housing – inappropriate accommodation, away
from friends and family or over-reliant on friends and family
•Mental health issues – depression, breakdown, need of
emotional support
Service user experiences
• Services can be directly attributed to the PSED
• Cuts starting to bite – maternity grants, less childcare
investment and provision, increases in childcare
provision and leisure activity costs
• Significant difference between having one or more
children, and the implications for service use
• Stigma – lengths will go to, ‘to keep it all together’ and
the implications for access to services (eg, a preference
for meeting with other single mums who won’t judge)
Service users – networks for
coping
“I haven’t relied on people too much to help me, I
can’t really. I think I’ve tried to do a lot myself, if
anyone lets you down it’s not such a problem. It’s
quite difficult sometimes, all my family and parents live
[in another town, about 1.5 hrs away]. If I’m sick, my
friend around the corner can take my son to school, if
I’m really ill. ”
B, Single Mother, 30s, one son (7 years)
Case Study – Parks and
recreation
Parks and recreation –
adverse impacts?
Parks and recreation outcomes
Parks and recreation
“‘Playing out’ works well – where they close the
street off, you sit with a cuppa and chat and
take turns to guard the end of the road. The
park is so depressing, you sit on your own. As a
single working mum you don’t get a chance to
make those friendships – they all bring friends
already and go off for tea…”
Z, Single Mother, 40s, 2 children 12 and 18 years, BS3
Parks and recreation
“It’s a struggle to find things that the children
can do together … my daughter can do soft play
so we can go to Hengrove Park where there is a
coffee place to play after school in the
summer.”
Z, Single Mother, 30s, 2 children a 14-year-old girl with a severe learning
disability and a boy of 8 years, BS4
Parks and recreation
“Redcatch [park] is not gated except for one part
which is not a big space … not much there and my
daughter can get bored … at Hengrove there’s a
lot more for both children to do – big and small
stuff, sand and water”
K, Single Mother, 30s, 2 children a 14-year-old girl with a severe learning
disability and a boy of 8 years, BS4
Case Study – Review of
Children’s Centres
Review of Children’s
Centres - evidence
Review of Children’s
Centres - evidence
Children’s centres - support
“The [Children’s Centre] staff were really good when
my partner left me when I was six months’ pregnant …
taking me different places for different things like help
with benefits, they really gave me advice and support.
I think they’re fantastic, from personal experience.”
B, Single Mother, 30s, two daughters (16 weeks and 2 years),
BS4
Children’s centres - support
“They [at the Children’s Centre] do a lot, the staff work
really hard there. They helped me a lot [with study
support, getting into work, parenting classes, cooking],
but I can see a lot of other families are benefitting as
well. They had dad’s groups, and different groups for
different things, designed for speech, bonding, and
things like that”
S, Single Mother, 20s, one son (4.5 years), psychology student,
BS4
Single mothers as a ‘hard to
reach’ group
•
•
•
•
Exclusion of ‘hard to reach’ individuals (language
barriers; lack of confidence; time and cash poor)
Working via social media, eg, setting up interviews and
informing participants via Facebook or Twitter
Ethics: vulnerability - some were going through breakups and custody battles now; coercion – being
‘encouraged’ to take part by support workers, etc.
Logistics – fitting discussions in around childcare and
children, and very busy lives
Further discussion points…
• What are the benefits in ‘going the extra
mile’ to connect with hard-to-reach groups?
• How can small-scale, qualitative work be
used to provide richer data for EqIAs
(enabling focused services)?
• Whose ‘voice’ is represented with
consultation exercises?
References
Bristol City Council (2012). Bristol Child Poverty Strategy,
http://bristolchildren.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/child-povery-strategy-2011-20.pdf [Accessed
15/6/2013].
Bristol City Council (2013). Review of Children’s Centres and Early Years Support - Bristol City Council
Equality Impact Assessment Form
https://www.bristol.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/council_and_democracy/R-PP003%20Children%27s%20Centres%20and%20Early%20Years_0_0.pdf [Accessed 30/4/2015].
Bristol City Council (2014). Estates Playgrounds Hengrove (29/01/14) Bristol City Council Equality
Impact Assessment Form
http://www.bristol.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/council_and_democracy/R-PL010%20Estates%20Playgrounds%20Hengrove%20Update%20Feb%202014.pdf [Accessed
30/4/2015].
Clayton-Hathway, K. (2013) The Public Sector Equality Duty – Empirical Evidence Base
https://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/hr/cdprp/centre_projects/psed_evidence.pdf [Accessed
1/2/2014].
Office for National Statistics, (2014). Statistical Bulletin – Families and Households 2014 – Key
Findings, http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_393133.pdf [Accessed 3/4/2015].