Sheffield council leader pledges swifter response to tackle racism a year after critical report

Sheffield Race Equality Commission, an independent body commissioned by the city council, made 43 recommendations in its report that was published a year ago. The 25 commissioners, led by Professor Emeritus Kevin Hylton from Leeds Beckett University, looked at what changes need to take place at the council and other key institutions in order for Sheffield to become an anti-racist city.

The key areas they looked at were business and employment, civic life and communities, crime and justice, education, health and sport and culture.

Coun Tom Hunt, who took over as council leader in May, said that the council’s strategy and resources committee, which he chairs, will be looking at an action plan based on the commission’s findings at its meeting on August 2.

He said: “It will set out how we will be making faster progress on meeting the recommendations. I’ve been clear that yes, we’re a year on from the report and we hear the voices of students who came to a committee and we hear the voices in the community who rightly want to see some progress on it.

“We’re clear we need to accelerate the progress of the work going on but there has been progress over the last year. We’ve debiased the recruitment process to use anonymous CVs when we’re hiring and we’ve increased the amount of mandatory training on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Job fairs

“We’ve also run jobs fairs for black, Asian and minoritised ethnic (BAME) young residents to come and work for the council. There has been a slight increase in the workforce from a BAME background but we know we must go forward.”

He added: “The action plan is going to have clear, measurable targets that we will be holding ourselves accountable to. We want to show the people of Sheffield where we are making progress.”

Coun Hunt said that a new working group is being set up in order to create a legacy body that comes out of the Race Equality Commission: “That body will hold the council and other institutions in the city to account for the progress they are making to becoming the anti-racist city.

“The Race Equality Commission was commissioned by the city council but it is a report for the city of Sheffield. Other partners are going to be working with us.”

Coun Hunt added that an event to be held in early September will bring together city “anchor institutions” such as the emergency services, NHS and universities with community organisations to look at what progress has been made and what should actions be taken in the coming months.

He said following complaints by a group of students at last month’s education committee about institutional racism in city schools, the council’s new strategic director of children’s services, Meredith Dixon Teasdale, immediately contacted schools and BAME school leaders to offer a conversation on their concerns.

Working group

People who responded will set up a working group with her in early September.

Other initiatives include creating a new inclusive business board. “We are seeking to have a much more diverse range of businesses and entrepreneurs around the table,” he said.

Coun Hunt said that the council recognises that other advisory and governing bodies are not representative of the people of Sheffield and said having a more diverse range of people involved leads to better outcomes. “That’s at the forefront of my mind,” he added.

Coun Hunt acknowledges there are no quick fixes in this work. He wants to see early conversations taking place with people, working together to establish what outcomes a group might want to achieve for the city, rather than setting the agenda and then asking people to get involved.

He said that is how the council is working on City Goals, a new economic plan that aims to take a more ‘bottom up’ approaching to creating key policies by listening to and engaging with a wide range of people and groups, then setting priorities based on what they say.

He said: “Voluntary Action Sheffield led ‘collaborative conversations’. They helped groups that they work with across the city to have conversations with people they then work with around the City Goals.

Citizen’s assembly

“They were not giving out a set of questions, they were quite genuinely having quite open, wide-ranging conversations. We will need to reflect in the autumn on the City Goals process and how we can learn from it and bring it into the way we do things in the city council.”

Another idea is to set up a citizen’s assembly, similar to South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard’s idea to tackle climate change by bringing a representative group of people together to discuss challenging questions on the issue.

Coun Hunt acknowledged that these new moves will lead to difficult and uncomfortable conversations in order to change engrained ways of working and some of what is said will be hard to hear.

“You’re starting on changing the way you do consultation. It’s hard, you don’t know what the outcomes may be.

“You might not like what you’re hearing but it’s right and proper. We’re here to serve the people of Sheffield and that means listening.”

Coun Hunt said that includes listening to other political groupings as well. “I’ve been clear from day one in this job that we have more in common as political parties than what divides us.

“When speaking to councillors from across the political spectrum in this town hall there is an agreement that we must tackle cost of living, improve buses and do more to make sure that we are tackling the climate emergency. We must spend public money wisely.”

He sees all this work as being key to rebuilding trust in the council. “It is a cultural change that we’re trying to bring about for Sheffield City Council and that will take time but we’re beginning that work.”

Read this: Church flats conversion scheme refused

Read this: Executive homes plan for upmarket suburb rejected