Terms of reference
Objective
1. The Ethnic Minority Advisory Group (EMAG) supports the cross Government work on the ethnic minority employment agenda. That is a reduction in the percentage rate gap for ethnic minority employment compared with the general working age population.
2. The group follows the lead of the government in adopting the definition of an ethnic minority, basing this around visibility of ethnicity (this is not to say that other ethnic groups are of any less value, simply that they are covered elsewhere and are beyond the focus of the group). This definition also includes refugees and also Gypsies, Roma and Travellers.
3. EMAG, as the voice of the ethnic minority community on employment matters wants to maximise the effectiveness of its relationship with the ministerial group.
4. EMAG will provide high quality and practical advice to the about actions it could support that would make a difference. It is recognised that this is a multi-faceted challenge, and EMAG will prioritise its energies so as to have maximum impact within the available time and resources at hand.
Role
5. In supporting these priorities, the principal purpose of EMAG is to give independent objective advice to Government on the most effective measures to address difficulties within ethnic minority employment. This may involve both advising on proposals put to the Government by the project groups under EMAG, and providing more general advice on issues of concern.
6. EMAG is an independent advisory body, and as such offer advice to Departments and Ministers for consideration. It is also recognised that it is legitimate for EMAG to use its influence and lobby for policies and changes that it sees as appropriate outside of the relationship via DWP with Government such as via the media, access to politicians, MPs and officials across Government.
7. EMAG has no executive powers; for example, it is not able to direct the spending of public funds and must also take care to avoid any perceived, or real, conflicts of interest between its advisory role, including access to information, and any current or future commercial relationships with Government.
8. The group is independent of Government, but in recognition of its role as the sponsoring Department and as the Department providing Secretariat support, DWP is recognised as having a key interest in the group and so will have an active role to play, whilst also ensuring the groups independence. DWP’s interest will largely be around ensuring an effective work group and the practicalities of delivering quality advice Government, not the actual content of that advice – DWP will want to point out any practical issues about work proposed or ideas put forward, and help members understand the issues that sit with taking forward some ideas, but it is for EMAG to decide after having this conversation what it wants to do and say.
9. It is recognised that to tackle the ethnic minority employment gap, cross Government work is required. DWP sponsors and provides the Secretariat for EMAG. Issues to tackle the gap will range across Departments responsibilities (and sometimes wider). As such DWP will work with EMAG to facilitate growing relationships with other Departments, in particular by bringing the Departments Officials Group and EMAG members together as necessary. However, it will be important for members not to see this as their only engagement with other Departments, if real progress is to be made then a much deeper engagement and relationship will be necessary across Government.
Ways of working
10. The Ethnic Minority Advisory Group will meet on a quarterly basis. It is expected that members will prioritise attendance at these meetings, with dates set ahead each year and that accordingly members will be expected to attend 3 of the 4 meetings. Where they cannot attend, then they will need to send apologies in advance and agree with the Chair and give written reasons that their membership should continue if they attend 2 or less meetings for the Chairs and DWPs consideration.
11. All members will be required to volunteer to work on Task and Finish groups according to their interest and expertise as necessary. External experts, from within DWP and other Departments may be co-opted onto these groups according to the subject matter.
12. Due to capacity issues, it is recognised that we probably need to have two or three Task and Finish groups actively working at a time. The Chair of EMAG will work with DWP officials and Ministers to consider what priorities EMAG should work on and EMAG will be expected to develop proposals and a work plan with a timeline, in order to drive forward the agenda.
13. However, it is also recognised that rarely can an issue be fully said to have been finished, and that EMAG will probably want to come back to the issue at a later date to check on progress. To facilitate this, the Task and Finish Group Chair will work with DWP Secretariat to identify which individual in which Department (according to what the subject matter is) they need to jointly engage with to ensure good progress is made.
14. Members will be expected to use their networks between meetings, to read and comment upon papers (including formal Government consultations) and to feed in intelligence to the Secretariat and other members. Involvement only by attending the formal meetings is not acceptable as this level of commitment is extremely unlikely to be sufficient to get to grips with the subjects being considered or to make any real difference.
15. The Ethnic Minority Employment Secretariat will provide administrative and communicative support to EMAG, arranging meetings, minute taking and chasing action points, sharing information and statistics, being the first point of contact for queries, helping to finalise draft papers created by EMAG members, providing advice an annotated agendas to the Chair and maintaining the EMAG website.
16. Secretariat, nor wider parts of DWP, should not be expected to solely undertake research or analysis on behalf of EMAG members, nor be the primary source for the drafting of EMAG papers. Such a role would merely end up with a continued DWP and Civil Service view of the world, and the reason why Government want to engage with key external organisations through EMAG is precisely to add to this position the powerful view and voice of representatives from the wider world. However, EMAGs views on what research would be useful will be invaluable to Secretariat in putting forward a case to have research prioritised and funded.
17. Secretariat will broadly amount to the equivalent of one full-time member of staff who will sit within the broader DWP Ethnic Minority Employment Team. However, this contribution may consist of the part-time contributions of several members of the team to build on the expertise within the team and/or to develop team members.