Agenda item

Standing in the name of Councillor Sarah Cheung Johnson

Council notes:

 

1.    The killing of George Floyd in June 2020, for which a Minneapolis police officer has been charged with second-degree murder and three other police officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

 

2.    Previous racially aggravated murders, crimes and mistreatment of Black, Asian, minority ethnic (BAME) people in the US, UK and beyond, including but not limited to Stephen Lawrence, Darren Cumberbatch, Julian Cole, Joy Gardner, Adrian Thompson, Mark Duggan, Cherry ‘Dorothy’ Groce, Edson Da Costa, Rashan Charles, Michael Powell, Nuno Cardoso, Adrian McDonald, Olaseni Lewis, Daniel Adewole, Trevor Smith, Sarah Reed, Jermaine Baker, Sheku Bayoh, Kevin Clarke, Leon Briggs, Anthony Grainger, Kingsley Burrell, Jacob Michael, Mzee Mohammed Daley, Derek Bennett, Azelle Rodney, and Sean Rigg. (LinkLink)

 

3.    BAME people are 54% more likely than white people to be fined under the new coronavirus lockdown laws. (Link)

 

4.    In the UK 26% of instances of police using firearms are against black people, despite black people making up only 3.3% of the population. (Link)

 

5.    51% of young men in custody in the UK are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, despite these groups making up only 14% of the UK population. (Link)

 

6.    Around two thirds of healthcare staff who have died as a result of COVID-19 are from a BAME background whereas they make up 20% of the overall workforce. (Link)

 

7.    Black people were 47 times more likely to face suspicionless stop and searches by police than white people.

(Link)

 

 

Council believes:

 

  1. Racism in all forms, both structural and in individuals, continues to be a serious and often unseen problem in the UK. This is as true in Cambridgeshire, where the ethnic minority population is 18.6%, as it is in areas with greater diversity.

 

  1. Although progress has been made in combating racism, work to eradicate it entirely is far from complete.

 

  1. This Council, representing people in South Cambridgeshire, has a duty as a public leader to actively lead that work.

 

Council resolves to meet the challenge head on and:

I.              Ensure Black History month, an event initiated by Cllr Tumi Hawkins for the first time in SCDC’s history in 2019, is made an annual event at South Cambs.

 

II.            Request Scrutiny and Overview Committee to convene a Task and Finish group to:

 

a.    Review and examine the SCDC structure to ensure ethnic minorities are not disadvantaged. Understand specifically how many BAME staff we employ, where are they working, what barriers, if any exist to their career progression and whether a “name blind” recruitment process would aid in the recruitment of more BAME staff. Review the evidence, provide recommendations and devise a set of KPIs and a challenging outturn for us to achieve this.

 

b.    Consider BAME access to housing and to homelessness and welfare support, which are important parts of the council remit. The group would review and recommend concrete actions on how we adopt an actively anti-racist outlook within areas where we have influence, by reviewing our corporate equalities and diversity  policies so that anti-racism is explicit and not implied; by routinely calling for transparent reporting and continuous monitoring of the impact on the BAME community: for example, continuing to request reporting on the BAME pay gap;  by reviewing whether housing statistics can be broken down by ethnicity and if any other meaningful statistics that can be monitored regularly can be produced.

 

c.     Provide an input into the Equality policy currently being drafted.

 

d.    Conduct an audit of street names and any public monuments this Council is responsible for which name individuals or organisations, to review any that have racist links. Review this list and produce a set of recommendations on any actions that should be taken.

 

III.           Ask South Cambridgeshire schools to include BAME history and culture in lessons, including providing further historical context for events normally only seen through the lens of white British history.

 

IV.          Ask the Police & Crime Commissioner to:-

 

·         report on what measures have been put in place to reduce the disproportionality of BAME people affected by the use of stop and search powers seen nationally and how often are these measures are reviewed; and to provide a regular report to the Community Safety Partnership as to initiatives and progress;

 

·         get more BAME officers recruited and developed for Cambridgeshire; and

 

·         put in place measures to ensure that arrest and custody measures are proportionate.

 

V.            Request the Local Resilience Forum, as part of the recovery work being coordinated by the Strategic Command Group, to include in their review the impact of the coronavirus on BAME communities, with a breakdown to district level.

 

VI.          Ask the Combined Authority to produce a toolkit for businesses to help broaden their understanding of race inequality in the workplace, including but not limited to materials, signposts to relevant local groups and training that can be provided for staff, and links to relevant networks.

 

VII.         Work with NHS to ensure that it fully compensates BAME Covid-19 affected staff and families as they are disproportionately impacted.

 

VIII.        Ask Scrutiny & Overview Committee to convene a sub-group to regularly review our progress on the measures above and recommend any additional steps required to achieve these goals.

 

IX.          Write to our District MPs to ask that rather than spending money on another race inequality review, the Government implements recommendations of previous reviews - for example, the Lammy and Windrush recommendations.

Minutes:

Councillor Sarah Cheung Johnson gave notice of her wish to alter the motion of which she had given notice by the deletion of paragraph 2. Council consented to the alteration. Councillor Cheung Johnson then proposed the following motion, seconded Councillor Tumi Hawkins:

 

Council notes:

 

1.    The killing of George Floyd in June 2020, for which a Minneapolis police officer has been charged with second-degree murder and three other police officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

 

2.    BAME people are 54% more likely than white people to be fined under the new coronavirus lockdown laws. (Link)

 

3.    In the UK 26% of instances of police using firearms are against black people, despite black people making up only 3.3% of the population. (Link)

 

4.    51% of young men in custody in the UK are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, despite these groups making up only 14% of the UK population. (Link)

 

5.    Around two thirds of healthcare staff who have died as a result of COVID-19 are from a BAME background whereas they make up 20% of the overall workforce. (Link)

 

6.    Black people were 47 times more likely to face suspicionless stop and searches by police than white people.

(Link)

 

 

Council believes:

 

A.   Racism in all forms, both structural and in individuals, continues to be a serious and often unseen problem in the UK. This is as true in Cambridgeshire, where the ethnic minority population is 18.6%, as it is in areas with greater diversity.

 

B.   Although progress has been made in combating racism, work to eradicate it entirely is far from complete.

 

C.   This Council, representing people in South Cambridgeshire, has a duty as a public leader to actively lead that work.

 

Council resolves to meet the challenge head on and:

I.             Ensure Black History month, an event initiated by Cllr Tumi Hawkins for the first time in SCDC’s history in 2019, is made an annual event at South Cambs.

 

II.            Request Scrutiny and Overview Committee to convene a Task and Finish group to:

 

a.    Review and examine the SCDC structure to ensure ethnic minorities are not disadvantaged. Understand specifically how many BAME staff we employ, where are they working, what barriers, if any exist to their career progression and whether a “name blind” recruitment process would aid in the recruitment of more BAME staff. Review the evidence, provide recommendations and devise a set of KPIs and a challenging outturn for us to achieve this.

 

b.    Consider BAME access to housing and to homelessness and welfare support, which are important parts of the council remit. The group would review and recommend concrete actions on how we adopt an actively anti-racist outlook within areas where we have influence, by reviewing our corporate equalities and diversity  policies so that anti-racism is explicit and not implied; by routinely calling for transparent reporting and continuous monitoring of the impact on the BAME community: for example, continuing to request reporting on the BAME pay gap;  by reviewing whether housing statistics can be broken down by ethnicity and if any other meaningful statistics that can be monitored regularly can be produced.

 

c.    Provide an input into the Equality policy currently being drafted.

 

d.    Conduct an audit of street names and any public monuments this Council is responsible for which name individuals or organisations, to review any that have racist links. Review this list and produce a set of recommendations on any actions that should be taken.

 

III.          Ask South Cambridgeshire schools to include BAME history and culture in lessons, including providing further historical context for events normally only seen through the lens of white British history.

 

IV.          Ask the Police & Crime Commissioner to:-

 

·         report on what measures have been put in place to reduce the disproportionality of BAME people affected by the use of stop and search powers seen nationally and how often are these measures are reviewed; and to provide a regular report to the Community Safety Partnership as to initiatives and progress;

 

·         get more BAME officers recruited and developed for Cambridgeshire; and

 

·         put in place measures to ensure that arrest and custody measures are proportionate.

 

V.           Request the Local Resilience Forum, as part of the recovery work being coordinated by the Strategic Command Group, to include in their review the impact of the coronavirus on BAME communities, with a breakdown to district level.

 

VI.          Ask the Combined Authority to produce a toolkit for businesses to help broaden their understanding of race inequality in the workplace, including but not limited to materials, signposts to relevant local groups and training that can be provided for staff, and links to relevant networks.

 

VII.        Work with NHS to ensure that it fully compensates BAME Covid-19 affected staff and families as they are disproportionately impacted.

 

VIII.       Ask Scrutiny & Overview Committee to convene a sub-group to regularly review our progress on the measures above and recommend any additional steps required to achieve these goals.

 

IX.          Write to our District MPs to ask that rather than spending money on another race inequality review, the Government implements recommendations of previous reviews - for example, the Lammy and Windrush recommendations.

 

 

Councillor Heather Williams proposed the following amendments, which were accepted by the proposer of the motion, Councillor Sarah Cheung Johnson and the seconder, Councillor Tumi Hawkins:

 

III.          Write to the Secretary of State for education to review the national curriculum to ensure the inclusion of Ask South Cambridgeshire schools to include BAME history and culture in lessons, including providing further historical context for events normally only seen through the lens of white British history, and also ask South Cambridgeshire schools to include such material proactively.

 

IV.          Ask the Police & Crime Commissioner to:-

 

·         report on what measures have been put in place to reduce the disproportionality of BAME people affected by the use of stop and search powers seen nationally and how often are these measures are reviewed; and to provide a regular report to the Community Safety Partnership as to initiatives and progress;

 

·         Report on strategy to get more BAME officers recruited and developed for Cambridgeshire; and

 

·         put in place measures to ensure that arrest and custody measures are proportionate.

 

V.           Request the Local Resilience Forum, as part of the recovery work being coordinated by the Strategic Command Group, to include in their review the impact of the coronavirus on BAME communities, with a breakdown to district level.

 

VI.          Ask the Combined Authority to produce a toolkit for businesses to help broaden their understanding of race inequality in the workplace, including but not limited to materials, signposts to relevant local groups and training that can be provided for staff, and links to relevant networks.

 

VII.        Work with NHS to ensure that it fully compensates BAME Covid-19 affected staff and families as they are that have been disproportionately impacted.

 

VIII.       Ask Scrutiny & Overview Committee to convene a sub-group to regularly review our progress on the measures above and recommend any additional steps required to achieve these goals.

 

IX.          Write to our District MPs to ask that while conducting rather than spending money on another race inequality review, the Government also accelerate the implementations of recommendations of from previous reviews - for example, the Lammy and Windrush recommendations.

 

Councillor Brian Milnes spoke in favour of the motion. He recognised his white privilege and hoped that we could make progress now for future generations. He regretted that despite the Stephen Lawrence enquiry more progress had not been made to address apparent institutional racism within the Police. He referred to the Windrush scandal and expressed the view that the Prime Minister had used outdated and discriminatory language. He concluded with the hope that Councillors Hawkins and Bhattacharya would be the last generation who were forced to sit down with their children and explain the discrimination that they would face.

 

Councillor Shrobona Bhattacharya spoke in favour of the motion. She thanked Councillor Tumi Hawkins for commemorating Black History month in 2019. She stated that she had organised the first south east Asian event in November 2018 to commemorate Diwali.

 

Councillor Deborah Roberts welcomed the amendments made to the motion, but explained that she was not going to support it. She strongly disagreed with Councillor Brian Milnes and stated that it was wrong to suggest that people were privileged because they were white or that the Government was racist. She stated that the motion was an attempt to jump on a “bandwagon” started by an anarchist group in America. She reported that none of her residents had complained to her of racism.

 

Councillor Philip Allen welcomed the cross-party support for the motion, which was sensibly worded and should be agreed in full. He asserted that the Government should honour its commitment to implement the Lammy review. He believed that white privilege existed and stated that whilst he did not know what it was like to be discriminated against, he could at least listen to those who did and he urged others to do the same.

 

Councillor Nigel Cathcart expressed his support for this motion. He believed that minorities in the District did feel vulnerable, especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and he hoped that the Scrutiny and Overview Committee could investigate this. He asserted that immigration could have a positive impact and he lamented that villages were no longer twinned with other communities.

 

Councillor Bridget Smith admired the sincerity of Councillor Milnes and she asserted that all lives should matter equally.

 

Councillor Gavin Clayton supported the motion. He suggested that Council should receive a report on the implementation of the motion, with a Red, Amber and Green rating ascribed to each of its aims. He requested that the discrimination against Travellers in the District also be addressed.

 

Councillor Tumi Hawkins stated that as a black woman she had experienced racism in the UK, which was in the nation’s structures. She asserted that due to an Act passed in 1971 Britishness was seen as being white. She feared for the safety of her children at the hands of the Police and urged councillors to support the motion if they wanted to be part of change.

 

With one vote against (Councillor Deborah Roberts) and all other councillors in favour with no abstentions, Council

 

RESOLVED to:

 

Note:

 

1.    The killing of George Floyd in June 2020, for which a Minneapolis police officer has been charged with second-degree murder and three other police officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

 

2.    BAME people are 54% more likely than white people to be fined under the new coronavirus lockdown laws. (Link)

 

3.    In the UK 26% of instances of police using firearms are against black people, despite black people making up only 3.3% of the population. (Link)

 

4.    51% of young men in custody in the UK are from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, despite these groups making up only 14% of the UK population. (Link)

 

5.    Around two thirds of healthcare staff who have died as a result of COVID-19 are from a BAME background whereas they make up 20% of the overall workforce. (Link)

 

6.    Black people were 47 times more likely to face suspicionless stop and searches by police than white people.

(Link)

 

Recorded its belief that:

 

A.   Racism in all forms, both structural and in individuals, continues to be a serious and often unseen problem in the UK. This is as true in Cambridgeshire, where the ethnic minority population is 18.6%, as it is in areas with greater diversity.

 

B.   Although progress has been made in combating racism, work to eradicate it entirely is far from complete.

 

C.   This Council, representing people in South Cambridgeshire, has a duty as a public leader to actively lead that work.

 

Resolved to meet the challenge head on and

 

 

AGREED to

 

A)   Ensure Black History month, an event initiated by Cllr Tumi Hawkins for the first time in SCDC’s history in 2019, is made an annual event at South Cambs.

 

B)   Request Scrutiny and Overview Committee to convene a Task and Finish group to:

 

                 i.   Review and examine the SCDC structure to ensure ethnic minorities are not disadvantaged. Understand specifically how many BAME staff we employ, where are they working, what barriers, if any exist to their career progression and whether a “name blind” recruitment process would aid in the recruitment of more BAME staff. Review the evidence, provide recommendations and devise a set of KPIs and a challenging outturn for us to achieve this.

 

               ii.   Consider BAME access to housing and to homelessness and welfare support, which are important parts of the council remit. The group would review and recommend concrete actions on how we adopt an actively anti-racist outlook within areas where we have influence, by reviewing our corporate equalities and diversity  policies so that anti-racism is explicit and not implied; by routinely calling for transparent reporting and continuous monitoring of the impact on the BAME community: for example, continuing to request reporting on the BAME pay gap;  by reviewing whether housing statistics can be broken down by ethnicity and if any other meaningful statistics that can be monitored regularly can be produced.

 

              iii.   Provide an input into the Equality policy currently being drafted.

 

              iv.   Conduct an audit of street names and any public monuments this Council is responsible for which name individuals or organisations, to review any that have racist links. Review this list and produce a set of recommendations on any actions that should be taken.

 

C)   Write to the Secretary of State for education to review the national curriculum to ensure the inclusion of BAME history and culture in lessons, including providing further historical context for events normally only seen through the lens of white British history, and also ask South Cambridgeshire schools to include such material proactively.

 

D)   Ask the Police & Crime Commissioner to:-

 

·      report on what measures have been put in place to reduce the disproportionality of BAME people affected by the use of stop and search powers seen nationally and how often are these measures are reviewed; and to provide a regular report to the Community Safety Partnership as to initiatives and progress;

 

·      Report on strategy to get more BAME officers recruited and developed for Cambridgeshire; and

 

·      put in place measures to ensure that arrest and custody measures are proportionate.

 

E)   Request the Local Resilience Forum, as part of the recovery work being coordinated by the Strategic Command Group, to include in their review the impact of the coronavirus on BAME communities, with a breakdown to district level.

 

F)   Ask the Combined Authority to produce a toolkit for businesses to help broaden their understanding of race inequality in the workplace, including but not limited to materials, signposts to relevant local groups and training that can be provided for staff, and links to relevant networks.

 

G)  Work with NHS to ensure that it fully compensates BAME Covid-19 affected staff and families  that have been disproportionately impacted.

 

H)   Ask Scrutiny & Overview Committee to convene a sub-group to regularly review our progress on the measures above and recommend any additional steps required to achieve these goals.

 

I)     Write to our District MPs to ask that while conducting another race inequality review, the Government also accelerate the implementation of recommendations from previous reviews - for example, the Lammy and Windrush recommendations.