Leadership imbalance: Black and Asian leaders missing in action

By Meera Spillett, Design Advisor to the Black and Asian Leadership Initiative and former DCS.

The reality across children’s services in England and Wales is that despite an increasing Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) population both using and working in children’s services and the public sector as a whole, it is still possible to count on one hand the number of directors of children’s services who are Black. As researchers into one local authority observed:

“Nearly every organisation has a problem with diversity. The reality is that most are not as diverse as they would like to be, and those in positions of power are even less diverse than in the rest of the organisation.”

Across local authority management structures there is a pyramid which essentially means that whilst a larger number of Black professionals work within these organisations, they are not gaining promotion into more senior managerial and leadership roles in proportion to their representation within the sector.

This is the first in a series of think pieces presenting the challenge and providing approaches to address the issue of under-representation.

To download the full think piece please click on the box below:

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