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Concerns over Welsh Government plan that 20% of its new employees will be from ethnic minorities
Martin Shipton
The Welsh Government has been challenged over a target to recruit 20% of its externally recruited staff from ethnic minority communities - more than three times the 6% ethnic minority proportion of the population of Wales.
Action 2 in the government’s recently published Anti Racist Wales Action Plan 2024 Update states:
* Recruitment target: 20% of all successful candidates recruited externally to be from an ethnic minority background in order to reflect the 6% of the population in Wales that are ethnic minority. As a result, at least 6% of all staff at all levels of the Welsh Government will be from an ethnic minority.
* Ethnic minority staff are successful in promotion at a level that matches their organisational population share.
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Questions
We asked the Welsh Government a series of questions aimed at establishing how the policy will work in practice:
* What instructions are given to those who recruit staff with a view to achieving the 20% target?
* How is the recruitment of staff in different departments coordinated to ensure the 20% target is attained?
* Clearly preferential treatment will have to be given to candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds when job appointments are made. Does this mean there will be occasions when candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds will be appointed even when they are less qualified than candidates who do not have such a background?
* People from ethnic minority backgrounds are not evenly spread throughout Wales. Does this mean that the percentage of ethnic minority candidates appointed in Cardiff, for example, will be higher than 20% in order to meet the overall 20% target? Alternatively, will those offered jobs be expected to move to areas where the proportion of the population from ethnic minority backgrounds is much lower?
* How does the Welsh Government defend the 20% policy against the allegation that it discriminates unfairly against candidates who do not come from ethnic minority backgrounds?
* As a result of the policy on promotion, will there be occasions when candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds will be promoted when they would not have been if they had not been from such a background?
*What is the estimate of the number of posts that need to be filled with ethnic minority candidates before the overall target of at least 6% of staff coming from ethnic minority backgrounds is achieved, and how long is the achievement of this target expected to take?
* Once the overall target of at least 6% of staff coming from ethnic minority targets is achieved, will the instructions to those recruiting staff change or will the current 20% target be maintained?
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'Counterintuitive'
Dr Altaf Hussain MS, the Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Equalities and Social Justice, said: “While we would all like to see greater diversity in the civil service, diversity of thought in particular, setting these arbitrary targets is counterintuitive and in and of itself, a discriminatory practice.
“This Welsh Labour Government recruitment target must be clarified, not least because public sector discrimination, as described, is potentially unlawful.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson didn’t respond to some of our questions specifically, but defended the recruitment policy, saying: “We’re fully committed to building an organisation that represents the diverse communities it serves. Greater diversity within our workforce will enable us to develop richer skillsets, bring in wider perspectives and ensure decisions are rooted in experience and insight.
“When permanent appointments are made, they are done so on the basis of merit, following a fair and open competition aligned to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. The best qualified candidate will always be offered the job. Appointing an individual on the basis of their ethnicity (or another characteristic) would be ‘positive discrimination’ and, as such, unlawful.”
Underrepresentation
Further points were made in a series of notes sent to Nation.Cymru by the Welsh Government:
* Our focus is on attracting and developing a wide field of diverse candidates when job roles arise. To address historic underrepresentation across the organisation, we have set ambitious recruitment targets to harness our collective efforts and make us accountable in driving change.
* The Welsh Government’s HR department is supporting recruiting line managers with a range of lawful positive action measures to encourage a greater number of applications from underrepresented groups, including targeted recruitment outreach, development programmes and mentoring support, as set out in the Equality Act 2010 guidance.
A further note referred to Recruitment Principles set out by the Civil Service Commission, one of which distinguishes between “Positive Discrimination” and “Positive Action”:
* Positive Discrimination: Hiring or promoting someone solely because of a protected characteristic (eg race, gender) regardless of merit. This is illegal under UK law.
* Positive Action: Measures taken to encourage or support under-represented groups to apply for roles or develop their skills, as long as the selection itself is still based on merit. This is legal under certain circumstances (eg outreach programs, training initiatives).
A Welsh Labour councillor who did not want to be identified told us: “Of course it is right to have a diverse workforce that represents the make-up of the population of Wales, but having an external recruitment target of 20% from ethnic minorities seems disproportionate and is likely to breed resentment.”
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