Published 27 December 2012
Promoting Gender Equality and Equal Opportunities
Embedding gender equality and equal opportunities is an important cross cutting theme within the 2007-2013 England ESF programme.
In support of this, in 2012 the ESF Managing Authority (based in the Department for Work and Pensions) has taken measures to raise awareness amongst partners and providers and to encourage them to increase female participation in the programme. These are consistent with the programme’s dual approach to mainstreaming equal opportunities:
- integrating equal opportunities into planning, procurement, contract management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation;
- funding specialised and niche support to promote equal opportunities for groups at a disadvantage in the labour market.
Main promotional measures taken in 2012 are summarised below:
Guidance
A new ESF Gender Equality Guide was published early in the year. Available in hard copy and on this website, this practical guide draws upon recent research undertaken by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) as well as good practice identified from 2010 and 2011 ESF Mainstreaming Leader Award winners. It also explains the programme’s mainstreaming aim to increase the female participation rate to 51 per cent during 2012-2015 and identifies measures providers can take to meet the needs of women so that they can be helped into training and employment.
Mainstreaming Leader Awards and other ESF Award events
The third annual ESF Mainstreaming Leader Awards for Equal Opportunities and Sustainable Development were launched in summer 2012. The national awards give high-profile recognition to those ESF providers who are leading the way in mainstreaming these themes. The award winners were presented with their certificates and gave short presentations about their work at an Equal Opportunities and Sustainable Development mainstreaming seminar at the national Skills Show event in Birmingham in November.
The 2012 ESF Gender Equality Leader Award was won by The Aim Partnership. The project is led by West Mercia Probation Trust and has piloted a number of innovative approaches aimed at improving the employability of offenders. One of the project's key aims is to identify the needs of women offenders and their families.
The national selection panel that chose The Aim Partnership to win the award were particularly impressed by the:
- positive approach adopted by the project – focusing on what the participant CAN do – rather than what they can't;
- use of female-only provision;
- practical help offered to female participants including childcare;
- use of one-to-one support;
- holistic approach – extending support to include the family; and
- use of mentoring to support women offenders where appropriate.
During the year, women also feature prominently as winners at other ESF award ceremonies including:
- Adult Learners' Week in May, where two of the three national ESF award winners were women - Faye Garley and Louise McKenny. With the help of ESF projects both winners have overcome issues including alcoholism and drug abuse.
- the Cornwall WISE Awards held in May; and
- the recent London ERDF and ESF Awards where three out of the four ESF winners were women.
National Gender Equality workshops
The ESF Managing Authority recently held two national workshops about gender equality for ESF Co-financing Organisations and some large providers to consider what further action can be taken to increase female participation in the ESF programme.
The European Commission were represented by Petr Musiol and Effie Meletiou, who offered a wider European perspective and some thoughts on how to improve female participation levels.
DWP representatives set out how gender equality is managed in the current programme and measures that are being taken to raise awareness amongst providers and to increase participation levels. More information about the workshops can be found on the ESF-Works website.
ESF-Works
The ESF-Works website focuses on a number of gender related themes including: families and households and gender equality.
The site includes a number of useful resources to help providers and others raise ESF awareness amongst participants and other groups. These include: an analysis of key themes, supported by data, project case studies and short films that tell the story of ESF participants.
Support for families
ESF funding is helping to provide support for families with multiple problems to help address the issues they face such as inter-generational worklessness and lack of qualifications. The DWP Co-financing Organisation ESF Support for Families with Multiple Problems web page was set up earlier in the year on the DWP website. Whilst the site mainly aims to promote the ESF Families provision, it also contains links to a range of useful information and resources.
Looking ahead
Promoting gender equality and equal opportunities will continue to be a priority throughout 2013.
ESF delivery partners including Co-financing Organisations, Intermediate Bodies and providers are encouraged to refer to available resources and to adopt and promote pro-active measures that encourage more women onto ESF-supported activities.