Mr R J Philpott

1^st September, 2000

Dear Colleague,

As you may be aware, the Government requires Local Authorities and other public bodies to establish levels of ethnicity and disability in their workforce relative to the local population. Consequently, a survey is being carried out at the end of September by the County Council of all employees of the County Council and this letter is to inform you of this survey. This initiative is in direct response to recommendations following the Macpherson Report, Audit Commission requirements for Local Authority Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) and equal opportunity legislation and best practice.

For these schools and Education Department units, the County Council is the employer. The survey questionnaire will be sent to all permanent and temporary staff. The ethnicity categories to be used are those which will apply for the forthcoming 2001 Census. Employees will also be asked whether they feel they meet the criteria of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. This will additionally enable the Authority or the school to investigate the necessity for any reasonable adjustment that may be required to assist disabled employees in their day to day work and thus meet the Disability Discrimination Act requirements.

It is intended to circulate the survey to every employee towards the end of September to take account of September appointments. We need all staff to complete the questionnaire and I enclose a set of the documents that will be sent to each member of staff. Please do not complete and return the documents enclosed with this letter as these are sent for your information only.

The data compiled from the survey will be used to set targets in terms of the County Council's workforce in line with BVPIs and to monitor the success of our policies. From 1^st October, 2000 onwards, the data will be collected as staff are appointed and will be inputted directly by Education Personnel Services into the County Council's personnel information records.

The exercise is an important one for the Authority and its schools and must be completed in Autumn 2000. The operation will initially be dealt with centrally but it may be necessary to involve schools and Education branches and units in follow-up exercises to chase non-respondents. Education Personnel Services has been involved in the process and will act as the contact to schools or Education Department units if there are any queries (your school or Education Department Personnel Assistant). In any event, I would ask for co-operation from yourself and your staff in ensuring that the survey has their and your full support.

For these schools, the Governing Body is the employer but schools are advised to carry out this survey and keep the information up to date as new staff are appointed. It could be that this information will be required from you by Government departments or for OFSTED or audit purposes.

For schools that purchase Education Personnel Services and the County Council's payroll, this can be done for you and I will assume that you are happy for us to survey your staff now and keep information up to date as new staff are appointed. If this is not the case, please contact Ray Philpott, Head of Education Personnel Services (on 01603 223482) by Friday 8^th September at the latest.

For those schools that do not purchase Education Personnel Services and/or the County Council's payroll, I would advise you to maintain the information as enclosed yourself or through your personnel/payroll provider.

Should any schools or Education Department units have any queries then please contact the Personnel Assistant for your school or unit in the first instance.

Yours sincerely,

Bryan Slater

Director of Education

Enc:

c.c. Education Executive, Chair/Spokespersons