FAQ

For further support and guidance on anything relating to safe re-opening, please contact THCVS at info@thcvs.org.uk and see their COVID-19 resources and support pages.

If you have specific queries about infection control or PPE you can also contact the Public Health inbox PHCov19@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

Commitment

Data

We will analyse and publish annually our ethnicity pay gap information for our staff group and the ethnic profile of our executive team and Board. We will deliver on our action plan to increase opportunities for Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic staff to progress. We already analyse access to our key services and resident satisfaction by diversity strands and report on this annually to our Operations Committee and will continue to do so.

Targeted interventions

We use our resident profile data to tailor how we communicate and engage with residents to ensure the options for involvement are inclusive and that our service offer recognises particular needs that communities have in relation to their housing requirements. Our main maintenance contractor Axis ensures that their trades people understand the importance of the home to the residents of Tower Hamlets, through their ongoing campaign, ‘My Mum’s house.’ They have recently relaunched it, and it highlights the respect they want their teams to deliver as part of the service offer. In addition, Axis ensure processes are in place, so their scheduling teams are aware of people with additional needs, protected characteristics and once these needs are identified they ensure the tradespeople understand any additional steps they need to take for residents to feel safe and respected in their home. Through our community development work, we provide a safe and accommodating space for all members of the community to access to deliver or take part in wide range of activities, from youth clubs delivering services to the BAME community, social clubs where older members of the community meet to groups tailored for disabled Asian women in the community. Many of our groups are led by members of the BAME community resulting in a mixed and vibrant feel to activities delivered from our centres.

Targets

Our average BAME representation at Manager level up to Executive Team was 32% as at 31 March 2021. We have set a target to increase Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation at Manager - Executive level(s) to 37% by 31 March 2023. Our target is reflective of our organisational size.

Influence

We work with our main contractors to ensure they meet our expectations on equality and diversity and have shared the Borough’s pledge with our main maintenance contractor Axis. Axis have shared with us their own organisational commitments to promote equality and diversity across their work force. We will include equality and diversity as an element in our annual review meetings with key contractors. When we let other substantial contracts we will highlight the boroughs equality pledge as part of the tender process

Awareness and communication

We will - Create a schedule of events to be posted on our internal intranet (i.e., articles about Bengali & Black History month, Somali History Week, St George’s Day, Faith events and things of a cultural importance etc) - Continue to offer community groups support to host events (we already do this… groups celebrate St George’s Day, Bengali New Year, Ramadan etc) - Explore diversity training for our community groups - Share progress on our delivery of this pledge with our staff, residents, and key stakeholders.

Additional commitments

We are currently developing a Dignity at Work policy which sets out how we will provide specific protection against bullying, harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. This includes reference to all the protected characteristics, of which race is one. The policy should be finalised and published internally in December 2021.

Signed pledge

By signing this pledge on behalf of my organisation, I pledge that we will address the issues identified, monitor our progress on an annual basis, and agree to be held accountable for the
delivery of our actions.

Organisation: Tower Hamlets Community Housing

Name and role: Andrew Taylor - Interim Chief Executive

Signed: 

Commitment

Data

We are currently undergoing our SLT surgeries, which will analyse the implementation of Anti-Racist strategies within participating schools and the work done by schools to diversify their leadership teams. We plan to write a report after the surgeries, analysing SLT diversity levels as well as the steps taken to increase leadership opportunities for underrepresented (BAME) teachers.

Surgeries plan to be completed by the end of spring term, report by end of May.

Regarding the ethnic pay gap, we have discussed that the council have a role to play, considering that they regulate pay for Global Learning London employees.

Targeted interventions

Before every training session, we have a call with a leading staff member to fully grasp the climate and needs of the school. We then tailor our training to ensure they receive as much practical and relevant training as possible.  In the future we plan to ask other staff members within the school to fill out a survey before training starts, and with this we can see a range of views about the school’s current approaches to anti-racism. We plan to implement this in the next wave of our ‘Towards an Anti- Racist Curriculum’ training.

Targets

We pride ourselves in having a diverse core team and have created a culture which values diversity and provides the space and environment which enables Black, Asian and Minority people to develop into community leadership roles within the governance of the organisation.

Through the creation of a ‘Junior Associates’ programme, we plan to remove the education and age barriers facing BAME communities in Tower Hamlets. This project is in its very early stages, and we plan to do more of this work in mid/late 2022.

Influence

We plan to ensure all associates at Global Learning London are aware of our pledge, ensuring they always have an Anti-Racist lens and embody the values of Tower Hamlets. We also plan to alter the contracts signed to become part an associate, guaranteeing it aligns with the Tower Hamlets values. We plan to bring in an external specialist, who will review them in the next quarter.

Awareness and communication

Details on the pledge and how to sign up have been broadcasted to all schools we work with in our “Towards an Anti-Racist Curriculum” package. Once the pledge is complete, we plan to publicise our commitments in our monthly ‘Headteachers Bulletin’, as well as on our website. This will all be done by the end of the second yearly quarter.

We also plan to hold monthly team meetings where we review the pledge, making sure that we are adhering to our commitments.

Additional commitments

-       Continue the facilitation of anti-racist CPD’s this year

-       Raise the profile of the work Global Learning London is doing in terms of Anti-Racism; we have found that a lot of organisations in the borough (Tower Hamlets Council included) are unaware of the work we do.

-       Create more diversity within the associates sector in terms of ethnicity and gender, age in particular.

-       We currently have our anti-racist statement made in June 2020 on our website and we are planning to analyse this, ensuring it still contains the relevant vocabulary.

Signed pledge

By signing this pledge on behalf of my organisation, I pledge that we will address the issues identified, monitor our progress on an annual basis, and agree to be held accountable for the
delivery of our actions.

Organisation: Global Learning London

Name and role: Shea Williams, Project Assistant

Signed 

An EWS1 certificate is an External Wall System Fire Review certificate. 

They come into play when a leaseholder is buying or selling or re-mortgaging an apartment in a multi-storey multi-occupied residential building.

 It is not a building safety certificate or a legal requirement. It is a mortgage valuation tool. EWS1 certificates are not issued by the Fire Brigade.

 The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and mortgage lenders jointly created the EWS1 form. It was launched in December 2019 as a way for mortgage lenders to assess the external wall safety of buildings over 18 meters.

It helps them decide whether to offer a mortgage on any given apartment within multi-storey, multi-occupied residential buildings.

Over time, they have been used for buildings under 18 meters. This reflects the Government’s Building Safety guidance published in January 2020 which applies to buildings of any height. 

To find the latest information on which buildings EWS1 forms apply to, and current exemptions for buildings under 18 meters, please see Cladding Q&A (rics.org). 

The certificate gives two main options:

• Option A is for buildings where the external wall system is unlikely to support combustion.
• Option B is for buildings with combustible materials present in the external wall system, which may or may not need to be remediated.

The survey outcome for each block will fall into five categories, or ratings:

Option A

A1 rating There are no attachments whose construction includes significant quantities of combustible materials (i.e. materials that are not of limited combustibility).
A2 There is an appropriate risk assessment of the attachments. This confirms that no remedial works are needed.
A3 Where neither of the above two options apply, there may be potential costs of remedial works to attachments.

Option B

B1 Surveyors conclude that in their view the fire risk (Note 8) is sufficiently low that no remedial works are required.
B2 Surveyors conclude that an adequate standard of safety is not achieved, and they have identified to the client organisation the remedial and interim measures required (documented separately).

The Mayor of London has also issued EWS1 best practise guidance.

This sets out how landlords can raise standards and improve service to leaseholders when dealing with EWS1 forms.