Mr Wayne Marland, Principal Adviser with the Lancashire County Council’s School Effectiveness Service, has been invited to make a short address to the Committee on the processes in place to deal with racist incidents in schools.
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed Mr W Marland, Principal Advisor with the Lancashire County Council’s School Effectiveness Service, who had been invited to make a short address to the Committee on the processes in place to deal with racist incidents in schools.
Mr Marland (a former Ofsted Inspector) explained the duties of his post and his work in promoting race equality in the 643 schools spread across Lancashire. Mr Marland and his colleagues were responsible for the collation and monitoring of schools’ statistical reports on recorded racist incidents, as well as responsibility for the recruitment of tutors to teach English to new immigrants.
Mr Marland circulated at the meeting copies of the following four documents:
? A copy of the 2006 annual report from the Lancashire School Effectiveness Service monitoring and reporting racist incidents in schools from August 2005 to July 2006.
? A Race Equality Guide for School Governors, which aimed to assist Governors in their deliberations and monitoring of racist incidents in schools.
? Department for Education and Skills Guidance on recording and reporting racist incidents.
? Guidelines and Procedures for dealing with and reporting racist incidents in schools produced by the Lancashire Education Authority.
The County Council was currently reviewing the current procedures, with a view to revised guidance being produced later in the year.
Mr Marland reminded the Committee that, by accepted definition, ‘a racist incident is considered to be a racist incident if it is perceived to be a racist incident by anyone witnessing or experiencing the incident’. Whilst the definition was open to a wide-ranging interpretation, the guidelines and procedure document had been supplied to every school and training courses were held for School Governors and Head Teachers.
There was a statutory requirement for each school to produce a Race Equality Policy, which needed to be monitored and reviewed on a regular basis. The guidelines advised schools to record racist incidents as quickly as possible after the incident and all schools were required to produce and submit to the County Council regular statistical reports on the racist incidents occurring in schools. Appropriate extracted information and data was shared with the Police, MAPS Team and relevant agencies (including the newly constituted Multi-Agency Diversity Incidents Panel) responsible for community cohesion.
Mr Marland informed the Committee that around 600 recorded racist incidents had occurred in Lancashire schools in 2006, an increase of 25% on 2005 figures. The continued rise in the number of recorded incidents was attributed to a greater willingness of persons to report racist incidents.
Donna Hall highlighted Chorley Council’s commitment to the promotion of community cohesion and tolerance amongst all sectors and community groups and confirmed the Authority’s wish to work closely with local schools and parents on projects aimed at achieving joint aims.
At the conclusion of the debate, the Chair thanked Mr Marland for his contribution to the meeting. The Chair requested the Committee members to filter any queries or comments on Mr Marland’s presentation through Tony Uren at the Town Hall, Chorley (Tel: 01257 515122; e-mail: tony.uren@chorley.gov.uk)