FAQ

Commitment

Data

At Queen Mary University of London, our Mission is to become the most inclusive university of our kind anywhere by 2030. Our Strategy 2030 espouses our values and these are translated into practice through a comprehensive People, Culture (PCI) and Enabling Plan. In 2019, Queen Mary commissioned and completed an independent Inclusion Audit to understand the barriers and challenges faced by our ethnic minority communities.

In response to these findings, and as a stated goal under the PCI Enabling Plan, Queen Mary established the Race Equality Action Group (REAG) in 2020 comprising staff and students from across all levels of the University, to oversee and direct our work on promoting race equality.

REAG are leading the development of a Race Equality Strategy and Action Plan to further address identified issues, including developing innovative ways to capture qualitative data and understand the lived experiences of our Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME)  staff and student communities. Our approach is both values-led and evidence-based, in order to deliver the greatest impact.

We have been developing the quality, robustness and transparency of our data via PowerBI dashboards. These dashboards enable our organisation to monitor and measure BAME staff and student representation (across levels) and includes service user (student) data. These dashboards help us to identify and address areas for action.

The EDI Team publish race equality data in our Annual Report and produce a separate, voluntary Ethnicity Pay Gap Report on an annual basis, which is aligned to statutory Gender Pay Gap reporting.

Targeted interventions

71 per cent of Queen Mary’s home domiciled students are BAME; almost half are first in their family to participate in HE; a third are from East London (12 per cent from LBTH) – up from 26 per cent in 17/18; we are proud to attract our students and staff from local boroughs. Queen Mary is international, proudly so; we recruit our staff and students from around the globe with over 160 nationalities represented across our organisation, increasing the diversity of the local boroughs.

Inclusive is one of our five core strategic values and inclusion is part of our fabric and identity. Our values feature in our leadership and governance, informing our decisions around race equality and beyond.

Our People, Culture & Inclusion Enabling Plan is intersectional by default – addressing complex interactions and forms of disadvantage that staff, students and local people may experience.

Queen Mary have adopted the Race Equality Charter principles and build these into our core missions – Education and Research – and as an employer and anchor institution. We are committed to undertaking further analysis and tailoring interventions, with investment in a new post – EDI Manager – to lead our Race Equality Strategy from 2021.

In 2020, Senate the University’s body responsible for academic governance, adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism and have worked closely with our students and their representatives to tackle reports of antisemitic behaviour on campus and on-line.

In 2021, the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences partnered with Google DeepMind to recruit a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Machine Learning to increase opportunities for Black researchers to engage with, and enjoy improved representation in, the academic discipline and industry. We will continue to design and develop tailored interventions in partnership with business, industry and not-for-profits to extend such future opportunities.

Queen Mary recognise that language around race is complex and rarely universal or uncontested. REAG and the EDI Team are finalising the University’s first Language & Terminology guide, with a view to recognising the nuances of language and coming to a consensus about what terms to use in which circumstances that largely meets the needs of our diverse communities.

Target

As mentioned, Queen Mary’s Mission is to become the most inclusive university of our kind anywhere by 2030. To realise this ambition, in 2019 we established KPIs around race and gender equality. Our KPIs aim for greater, more equitable representation of BAME colleagues (particularly at middle and senior levels for staff) and the elimination of the student BAME attainment gap.

By 2030, we are committed to at least 40 per cent BAME representation in junior, middle and senior roles. BAME people are over-represented in our junior roles and under-represented in our most senior, currently.

We have designed a new leadership framework to help promote inclusive leadership and provide a fair and equitable model to facilitate succession planning, so that we can identify talent early and develop our future leaders, to enhance representation at all levels of the University’s structures and meet our targets for BAME representation.

Each School, Institute and Directorate at Queen Mary annually reports on their performance against these metrics to our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Steering Group chaired by the Vice Principal for People, Culture & Inclusion, who is a member of the University’s Senior Executive Team. Oversight of progress of the University’s EDI agenda, and performance against our institutional KPIs, resides with the University’s Council.

Influence

Queen Mary recognises our opportunity to influence the Borough through our buying and procurement power. In line with our values, we have procurement policies and procedures with which our contractors and partners need to comply. We regularly review and improve these policies to enhance our social responsibility

Contractors and partners are required to confirm their commitment in relation to equality issues, including Modern Slavery and Bullying & Harassment in order to work with Queen Mary. We are committed to continuous improvement in this space.

Awareness and communication 

This Pledge will be promoted and communicated via our Race Equality Action Group (REAG), the Professional Services Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group (PSEDISG) and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group (EDISG).

We will also communicate progress on actions within the Pledge through regular communications to the wider University community.

Additional commitments

• Our People, Culture and Inclusion Enabling Plan has a core workstream addressing race equality and key issues identified by staff surveys, in support of our commitment to inclusion and our 2030 Strategy.

• We will deliver our Education and Student Success Enabling Plan, with a major workstream on the development of an inclusive curriculum, with a particular focus on addressing the student ethnicity attainment gap at Queen Mary.

• We will design and deliver a programme of training and development to our staff to communicate our commitment to race equality and inclusion for all.

• We have an ongoing commitment to promote and sponsor women and BAME staff to attend the Aurora Leadership Programme, the Springboard Development Programme and the B-MEntor Mentoring Schemes.

We are exploring innovative strategies to address the talent pipeline to encourage more BAME students to progress from undergraduate to postgraduate studies, to enhance their career opportunities, either in academia, or in other sectors. We use many of our immensely successful BAME alumni to act as mentors to our students for this purpose and continue to grow our network of both national and international alumni to support this successful and valued activity. 

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: Queen Marie University of London

Name and role: Sheila Gupta, Vice Principal – People, Culture and Inclusion

Signed: 

We recognise that businesses in Tower Hamlets are facing a unique challenge due to the coronavirus pandemic. To support those businesses for whom we are the landlord, we have launched a rent deferral scheme.

It is aimed at allowing businesses to manage their cash flow, relieving stress during this unprecedented period and making it easier to meet immediate financial commitments such as paying staff and suppliers and meeting running costs.

The scheme will enable tenants to delay the payment of their rent for three calendar months from 1 April 2020.  

The expectation is that the deferred rent payments should be paid in full by 31 March 2021, however we understand that there may be some businesses that require an extension due to hardship and in such circumstances, we will give consideration to special arrangements.   

Businesses will be eligible to apply for a rent deferral if they meet one or more of the following criteria:

• The premises have been closed in accordance with the government guidance on closing certain businesses and venues.
• The premises have been closed by the council due to the coronavirus pandemic.
• The business cannot trade.
• The business has been granted business rates relief as part of the government relief scheme.
• The business is considered micro or SME in accordance with current government guidance.

Apply now

If you have questions about the scheme, please email rentdefermentscheme@towerhamlets.gov.uk

The government has also announced new protections for commercial tenants, other than those for whom the council is the landlord, that are not able to pay their rent during the next three months, as a result of COVID-19.

Network Rail has announced it is cancelling all first quarter (25 March to 23 June 2020) rent payments due from tenants in their commercial estate portfolio, providing significant relief for small businesses.

It has been announced that small and medium businesses on TfL's estate, which make up 86 per cent of tenants, are to get 100 per cent rent relief. This will start from start from 25 March for the next three months.

The government's self-employment income support scheme will provide a grant to the value of 80 per cent of average historic annual profits, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.

If you are a ‘gig-economy’ or zero hours contract worker you may be eligible for Statutory Sick Pay –  check your eligibility.

If you are not entitled to Statutory Sick Pay, you may be eligible for benefits such as the Employment Support Allowance (ESA) or Universal Credit.

ESA can be paid if you are sick, isolating according to government advice, or caring for a sick or isolating child.

ESA will be claimable from day one, rather than day eight of sickness.

ESA pays up to £73/week and is not impacted by a partner’s income, though it may be affected by a claimant’s personal pension.

Self-employed claimants on Universal Credit who are required to stay at home or are ill will not have a Minimum Income Floor (an assumed level of income) applied for a period of time while affected.

Please contact Job Centre Plus for claims for either Universal Credit or ESA.

Changes to the way freelancers and contractors are classified for tax purposes, under the IR35 or 'off payroll' reforms, have been deferred for 12 months.

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: