Inclusion and diversity employment monitoring report 2024

This report forms part of Wiltshire Council's requirement to publish workforce data to demonstrate our compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and the Equality Act (2010). The PSED places a specific duty on the council to publish information about its employees and service users, broken down by relevant protected characteristic, to show how the council is having due regard to:

• eliminating discrimination, harassment, and victimisation
• advancing equality of opportunity
• fostering good relations between people

This report is based on all non-school workforce figures for 1 October 2023 or, where monitoring information is reviewed over a year, the reference period used is 12 months up to 1 October 2023 (for recruitment, leavers etc). The report does not include casual staff.

As part of the public-sector equality duty the council is required to identify equality objectives. The current Equality Objectives 2023-2026 are:

1. Deliver on the vision of the Inclusive Workforce Strategy
2. Achieve an excellent standard of understanding and working with our communities, measured against the Equality Framework for local government.

Further details of the council's equality objectives can be found on the council website under Public sector equality duty.

Inclusive workforce strategy 2021 - 2025

Our vision for the council is to be "an inclusive organisation that reflects the diverse backgrounds of the communities we serve, where everyone is valued as an individual and where fairness and respect run through everything we do". The council's Inclusive workforce strategy and action plan were informed by reviewing data and insight on our workforce and from staff surveys, as well as reviewing our policies and practices against the Local Government Equality Framework.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) steering group

To support the delivery of the Inclusive workforce strategy, we relaunched our EDI steering group, chaired by the Council's Inclusion Champion (member of our Extended Leadership Team and a Director), to provide strategic oversight for programmes of work relating to EDI. The steering group is made up of an EDI representative from each directorate at Head of Service level and the staff network leads.

The purpose of the council's Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Steering Group is to provide strategic oversight and assurance for Wiltshire Council's programmes of work relating to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. It is an opportunity to share authentic employee voice, implement the inclusion strategy, improve outcomes, raise awareness, and identify areas for development.

In 2023, all services were asked to create two inclusion targets to achieve in 2024 for their service areas that support the Inclusion strategy. These will be closely monitored and reviewed with support from the SDI Steering Group and the HR&OD Inclusion working group.

The council is committed to continuing good practice in relation to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We support and enable this commitment via the following:

Supporting the work of the Staff networks

The council has five staff networks which staff can choose to join. The networks offer mutual support, raise awareness, and give advice on specific equality issues and act as a consultative voice to the council. The staff networks are:

• Armed Forces network
• Black and minority ethnic (BME) network
• Carers and disability network
• LGBT+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) network (this is open to anyone working in the public sector, including the local authority area of Swindon).
• Women's staff network

Engaging with trade unions

We recognise and regularly engage with the trade unions via informal meetings and discussions and more formal meetings including the Joint Consultative Committee (JCC). Trade unions are regularly consulted on new and updated policies and projects, engaged in equality analysis panels, and take an active role as members of job evaluation panels.

Carrying out Equality Impact Assessments

Equality impact assessments are carried out to ensure that due regard is given to the aims of the general equality duty when we plan, deliver, and make decisions about the work of the council. Regular equality analysis panels are set up to consider the impact of new and amended policies and procedures. Representatives from HR&OD, Executive Office, trade unions and members of our staff networks attend the panels to ensure a breadth of perspective. Further information on Equality Analysis can be found on our Equality analysis website page.

Benchmarking and sharing good practice

The council belongs to the South West Equalities Network (SWEN) and regularly attends meetings with colleagues from other local authorities to share information, benchmarking, and best practice. We are also members of the Bath, Swindon & Wiltshire (BSW) NHS Partnership Integrated Care System EDI Leads Network.

We have delivered and continue to deliver several equalities events, working with multiple partners across the South West and beyond, including eighteen private and public sector organisations.

Wiltshire Council is a lifetime partner of the inclusive job board Includability: Wiltshire Council (opens new window) and has successfully gone through their 5-star verification process to become an Includability committed employer, demonstrating our commitment and achievements in the areas of Sustainability, Accessibility, Mental Health, Wellbeing and Diversity and Inclusion. Wiltshire Council is also a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer.

Wiltshire Council has received the Employer Recognition Scheme Gold Award for their outstanding support towards the Armed Forces community.

Training, education, and awareness raising

We have developed an Inclusion and Diversity training offer, which is available to employees and external partners, including staff from across the NHS and other organisations. In 2023 we introduced a new cultural competence in the community training course which is available to all employees and managers and focuses on how we can work with our service users/customers in a more culturally competent way and see perspectives from another cultural lens.

We launched Inclusion cafés in 2023, as an opportunity for employees to share their experiences of inclusion at work and create a more diverse network.

We added 30 new EDI eLearning courses to Oracle in 2023 and our EDI Learning Hub is updated regularly.

After the successful reverse mentoring pilot, we have now expanded and rolled out the programme to the rest of the organisation. In addition to senior leaders, heads of service, middle managers, and staff in key influential positions such as HR, can now also take part and be mentored by a junior employee or member of the staff networks. Reverse mentoring provides safe spaces to gain honest and relevant feedback and gives senior leaders an opportunity to learn from the lived experience of employees.

We have successfully implemented a Mediated Resolution approach, a voluntary and confidential method of resolving workplace conflict. Trained, impartial mediators have worked with over thirty colleagues in the last year to support effective dialogue to resolve conflict with a view to reaching an agreement about how to work together effectively. All respondents to the participants' evaluation survey have reported that the process resolved the conflict/issue either fully or in part, and all respondents to the referrers' evaluation survey have reported that they would use Mediated Resolution again and would recommend Mediated Resolution to colleagues.

We have launched a Mental Health Advocates (MHA) initiative to support the council to promote positive mental health and normalise talking about mental health in the workplace. The MHAs are a team of trained employee volunteers who can support employees via 1-2-1 conversations and signposting to resources.

A diversity calendar is published annually with regular communications to promote awareness and understanding of key dates and events through our internal weekly communications and social media.

We continue to deliver campaigns and events for LGBTQ History Month, Women's History Month, PRIDE Month, Race Equality Week and National Inclusion Week etc.

We also organise (and support our networks in organising) regular events including one-off talks, webinars, and conferences to promote awareness and understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion issues.

How we collect equality information

The monitoring information set out in this report has been collected from the council's management information system (SAP), our recruitment system (TalentLink), and the completion of an equality monitoring questionnaire which is sent out to staff annually. The council also collects additional information through the employee experience survey.

The equalities monitoring questionnaire was supported with clear information about why we were collecting the information and how it would be used. Staff are encouraged to complete as much of the questionnaire as possible but could opt to state 'prefer not to say' if they did not feel comfortable sharing their information.

The council has implemented the first phase of its new Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in November 2023 with elements of Finance, Procurement and HR functions into live operation. The second phase which includes Payroll and full Nudge Management is set to go live in April 2024. The new ERP will help us use and analyse diversity and inclusion data more effectively and we will be reviewing our data collecting methods as part of our work to improve our workforce data analytics capability.

This data will be used, alongside the Wiltshire Census data to identify and reduce barriers to inclusion, identify key area of development and inform decision-making.

What data we collect

We collect data on all the protected characteristics in addition to caring responsibilities at different stages of the employee lifecycle. This enables the council to analyse and assess the impact of policies, procedures, practices and decisions on specific groups and to identify where action is required to remedy any disadvantage and ensure equality of opportunity for all.

Data gaps

The unstated figures across most areas have decreased this year although they remain high for some protected characteristics. We will continue to seek to address this gap in data and reduce the unstated figures by building confidence amongst staff in sharing this information.

Census 2021

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) undertook a new national census in 2021 and workforce data on this report has been compared against the census data for the whole of the Wiltshire population as opposed to the age-specific data sets (i.e., working age population) which are not yet available. Further analysis will be undertaken in the future once age-specific data sets are released by the ONS.

We aspire for our workforce demographics to mirror that of the Wiltshire population as identified in the Census 2021, to ensure that we remain an inclusive organisation reflecting the diverse background of the communities we serve.

This report sets out data based on the key areas of the employee lifecycle which the council currently monitors. These are:

• Recruitment: We monitor the protected characteristics of all applicants who apply for roles through our e-recruitment system and this report looks at the overall applications received, the number of shortlisted applicants and successful/appointed applicants.
• Internal appointments and promotions: We monitor applications for internal appointments and promotions. The information presented in this report relates to jobs advertised internally and includes all positions regardless of whether that job represents a promotion or a sideways move within the council.
• Turnover and leaver information: Turnover refers to the proportion of employees that leave within a specified period, expressed as a percentage of total workforce numbers. The report provides a breakdown of turnover rates by protected characteristics and compares this to the whole council turnover average. The report also includes information about the main reason for leaving employment for different protected characteristics (where known).
• Disciplinary and grievance:The report includes the proportion of staff that have raised a grievance or are the subject of a disciplinary procedure. The figures reflect the number of cases that resulted in a formal outcome and excludes cases which were not completed or resulted in informal or no action. Figures tend to vary from year to year and represent small numbers.
• Remuneration:The data contained in the report includes a breakdown of our pay grades against some of the protected characteristics to show the distribution of staff across the different pay grades. For ease of presentation, we have not included unstated figures in the charts. The council has also produced figures for the ethnicity pay gap and the disability pay gap in the ethnicity and disability sections. Our gender pay gap figures are covered in another report which can be found on Gender pay gap.
• Training:The report includes attendance figures for the Wiltshire Leader programme which is a programme aimed at developing future leaders.

Organisational overview

The total headcount of staff in post as of 1 October 2023 has increased by 8.3% from last year. The figures exclude our schools' workforce. The headcount figures used in this report are different to the Gender pay gap report figures which are based on data taken at a different point in time.

Headcount by Ethnicity

4.8% of the workforce indicated that they have a BME background compared to 4.5% last year and 3.7% in 2021. The White Other figure has increase from 3.8% in 2021 and 2022 to 4.0%. The figures from the Wiltshire census 2021 indicate that 5.7% of the population in Wiltshire have a BME background and 3.8% a White Other background.

95.8% of staff have disclosed their ethnicity. This is a very slight improvement on the figures from last year where 95.7% of staff disclosed their ethnicity.

Recruitment by Ethnicity

The proportion of BME appointees was 4.3% compared to 6.4% last year. However, the % appointed that did not state their ethnicity rose from 19.9% to 30.9%. Despite the decrease in the BME recruitment figures and an increase in the turnover rate (below), the BME workforce % has increased slightly. This is due to staff declaring their ethnicity after appointment, either during the on-boarding process or when responding to the annual survey exercise.

The proportion of applicants from a BME background was 19.5% compared to 13.3% last year. This significant increase is clearly partly a result of recruitment campaigns which included overseas applicants, particularly for social care roles, but this will be looked at in more detail.

Remuneration, Pay Gap, and Pay Quartiles by Ethnicity

The proportion of BME staff in the upper grades N/O/Hay has decreased from 3.8% in 2022 to 2.5% in 2023. This is a small decrease in the actual number (from 9 to 6), and the percent change for Grades N/O/Hay is also due to a 40% increase in the total of BME staff in all grades since 2021, however this needs further examination.

The mean ethnicity pay gap has increased slightly from  0.5% to 0.9% compared with last year. The median pay gap remains negative (-1.2% compared to  -2.2% in 2022) with the BME median hourly rate higher than the non BME median hourly rate. The ethnicity pay quartiles show an increase from last year in the upper middle quartile (5.1% to 6.2%, but a light decrease in the upper quartile  (4.5% in 2022 down to 4.4% in 2023).

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Ethnicity

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership programme by BME staff was 2.3% which is lower compared to last year (5.4%). Participation by employees from a White Other background has increased from 1.4% last year to 2.3%. However, the number of staff participating in this programme is small and increasing numbers is a priority for us over the next 2-3 years.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by Ethnicity

Turnover rates by Ethnicity

The turnover rate for BME staff (17.9%) and White Other staff (13.2%) are higher than the whole council turnover average (12.2%). The main reason for leaving for all groups, as in previous years, was resignation.

The proportion of BME staff leaving for other employment was consistent with the figure for all staff at around 50% of resignations. We are looking to increase uptake of exit interviews, and this will be supported by a new system to improve our understanding of areas to be addressed.

Headcount by Disability

The figures from the census 2021 indicate that 17% of the population in Wiltshire have their day-to-day activities limited a little or a lot because of a health condition or disability.

10.5% of the workforce has declared a disability compared to 10.4% in last year's report.

81.% of staff have disclosed whether they consider themselves to have a disability or not.

Mental Health conditions made up the highest proportion of type of disability(19.6%), followed by physical/mobility impairments (15.9%).  

Recruitment by Disability

Total recruitment

The proportion of appointees with a disability has increased, even though the proportion of applicants has decreased.

Internal recruitment

A lower proportion of people appointed internally were disabled compared to the proportion of total applicants who were disabled.

Remuneration, Pay Gap, and Pay Quartiles by Disability

Staff with a disability are proportionally less represented in the highest (N/O/Hay) and lowest (B/C) grades.  3.7% of disabled staff are in grades B/C compared to 3.2% last year and 2.7% the year before. For grades, N/O/Hay % is 5.5% compared with 5.4% last year and 6.5% the previous year.

The mean disability pay gap has increased from 3.9% in 2022 to 4.8% in 2023. The median pay gap has decreased from 7.5% in 2022 to 3.0% in 2023. The proportion of disabled staff in the upper quartile has decreased from 10.4% in 2022 to 9.2% in 2023.  The upper middle quartile went up from 11.5% to 12.6%.

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Disability

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership training by disabled employees was in line with the proportion of disabled employees in the workforce.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by Disability

Disabled employees accounted for 30% of grievances and 23.3% of disciplinaries, compared to 10% and 14.3% in 2022. The number of cases is low and this variation in a single year is not unusual, however this will be looked at in more detail.

Turnover rates by Disability

The turnover rate for staff with a disability is 10.5% which is lower than the figure for all staff (12.2%). The main reasons for leaving for disabled employees was resignation followed by retirement.

Headcount by Sex

The percentage of females is 73.7% and males 26.3% and these remain similar to the figures in last year's report which were female 74.2% and male 25.8%. Staff were invited to self-describe their gender identity if they wished to. However, as the number of staff using this category was small, the figures only reflect sex (female/male) to maintain the confidentiality of staff.

More male staff are working part-time than previously. 50.1% of women and 28.7% of men work part-time. Last year, these figures were 50.6% and 25.2% respectively.

Recruitment by Sex

Total recruitment

A larger proportion of applications and appointments in 2022-23 were male.

27.7% of applications received were from male applicants, with 47.7% from female applicants and 24.6% did not state. These were 24.6%, 57.8% and 17.6% last year.

19.0% of posts were filled by male applicants, with 51.1% filled by female applicants and 29.9% unstated. These were 16.8%, 59.7% and 23.4% last year.

The proportion of applicants and appointees not providing this data has increased.

Internal recruitment

Internal applications and appointments were in line with the makeup of the workforce.

Remuneration

Pay grade

Female staff are represented at all levels of the grading structure although they are slightly over represented in the lowest pay grades (B/C) and underrepresented in the top pay grades (L-Hay).

Gender Pay Gap

The council is required to report details of its gender pay gap. For further details please refer to our Gender pay gap report. The council's gender pay gap remains lower than the national gender pay gap and gender pay gap for the public sector.

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by Sex

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership programme was 75.% female and 25% for male staff which was in line with the overall workforce figures.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by Sex

Men represented nearly half of all the disciplinaries, i.e. proportionately higher than the workforce figures. Grievances were in line with the workforce figures.

Turnover rates by Sex

The turnover rate for male staff is marginally higher in 2022-23 than the whole council turnover rate (12.2%). Last year, the rates were male 15.0%, female 15.2%, all turnover 15.1%.

Resignations for other employment were higher for men (58%) than for women (48%). Conversely, resignations for 'Family Commitments/ Domestic/ Personal' reasons were higher for women (15% versus 5% for men) Whilst unsatisfactory probation only accounts for a small proportion of all leavers, there was also a significantly higher % of new male staff leaving for this reason (6% versus 1% for women).

Headcount by age

The largest group within the workforce is in the age range 45 - 54, 25.8%

Under 25's make up 7.0% of the workforce (a decrease from 7.2% in 2022) but slightly lower than the Census 2021 data for this group (10.1%).

Over 65s increased from 4.7% to 5.3% of the workforce.

The other age bands have not changed significantly.

Recruitment by age

Total recruitment

Applications from under 25s have fallen from 15.1% in 2020-21 to 10.6% in 2022-23. This is complicated by an increase in applicants not stating their age (from 14.0% to 24.6%) but is a decrease regardless.

Similarly, Under 25 appointments have fallen from 10.5% in 2020-21 to 6.5% in 2022-23, which although also complicated by the increase in the unstated %, represents a decrease.

There has been an increase this year in applications from Over 65s and appointments for those aged over 55.

Internal recruitment

Internally, under 25 appointments have fallen from 9.0% in 2020-21 to 6.5% in 2022-23. Again, this is complicated by an increase in the unstated % (though less so) but is a decrease. The proportion of applications from Under 25s has not fallen.

Remuneration by age

The much larger representation of under 25s concentrated in the D/E grades is expected given that this age group is more likely to be in entry level roles or at the early stages in their careers. However, this proportion has risen from 41.4% in 2021 to 50.9% in 2023. The F/G band also now has a greater share of Under 25s (from 15.7% to 21.0%). Conversely, Under 25s have fallen in H/I (21.0% to 15.9%) and J/K grades (13.8% to 7.5%). This suggests a possible reduction in promotion opportunities but needs further examination (see also Recruitment).

Staff representation has risen for staff aged 55-65 in the N/O/Hay grades (from 2.9% last year to 3.8%).

Attendance to the Wiltshire Leadership Programme by age

Participation in the Wiltshire leadership training is highest in the 35 - 44 age range. Participation has increased for those aged 25-34, from 9.5% to 20.5%.

There was no participation from the 65+ age group or under 25 age groups which might be explained by the fact that this age group is more likely to be in entry level roles or be at the early stages in their careers.

Disciplinary and Grievance cases by age

Disciplinary and grievance cases occurred amongst all age groups.

Disciplinary cases were broadly in line with the workforce figures.

Grievance cases tend to vary more as there are fewer of them. These were proportionally higher for the 25-34 and 45-54 age groups when compared with the total workforce figures.

Turnover rates by age

The whole council turnover rate (12.2%) has decreased from last year (15.1%). All age bands have seen a reduction in turnover, but this is slightly less pronounced in the 25-34 group (from 15.5% to 14.5%).

The turnover rate remains highest for staff over 65 (now 22.0%, down from 28.6%) and staff under 25 (now 21.4% down from 25.5%).

Headcount by Sexual orientation

75.9% of employees have stated their sexual orientation, a slight reduction from last year (from 76.3% in 2022).

The LGBT+ figure has risen from 3.0% in 2021 to 3.4% in 2023. This is higher than the census figure even with a significantly higher number unstated.

The latest census (2021) data on sexual orientation for Wiltshire is:

• LGBT+ - 2.5%
• Heterosexual - 91%
• Not answered - 6.6%

Recruitment by Sexual Orientation

The proportion of LGBT+ appointees has risen from 2.9% 3 years ago to 3.4%

Remuneration by Sexual orientation

LGBT+ staff are represented across all grades, including the highest and lowest salary grades.

Turnover rates by Sexual Orientation

The turnover rate for LGBT+ staff is slightly higher than the total workforce turnover rate.  It has decreased slightly from 16.7% to 16.2% this year.

Headcount by Religion and belief

76.0% (compared to 76.3% in 2022) of employees have stated their religion and belief. Wiltshire census data 2021 indicates that 50.2% of the Wiltshire population is Christian, 41.3% have no religion and 2.5% have other religion or belief. Low figures in some of the other religion or belief categories have meant that we are not able to include all data due to confidentiality reasons. Our unstated figure is 24% compared to 6.02% for the Wiltshire population (ONS, census 2021).

Recruitment by Religion and Belief

Pay grade

The proportion of staff from 'other religion or beliefs' in the top pay grades has decreased  from 6.6% in 2022 to 5.1%. It has increased in grades L/M from 15.6% in 2022 to 18.2%.

Turnover rates by Religion and Belief

The turnover rate for staff from 'Other religion or belief' was 12.3% which is in line with the total workforce at 12.2%.

Headcount by Caring responsibilities

The definition of unpaid caring responsibilities is someone who gives help or support to anyone who has long-term physical or mental ill-health conditions, illness or problems related to old age. It does not include any activities as part of paid employment and the help can be within or outside of the carer's household (ONS, 2021).

14.1% (compared to 14.7% in 2021) of the workforce indicated that they had unpaid caring responsibilities, and this compares with 8.3% of the Wiltshire population in the 2021 census. 64.3% indicated that they had no unpaid caring responsibilities compared to 86.7% of the Wiltshire population in the 2021 census.

Recruitment by Caring Responsibilities

Internal recruitment figures indicate that staff with caring responsibilities were less successful at appointment than non-carers.

Remuneration by Caring responsibilities

Staff with caring responsibilities are represented at all grades, including the highest salary grades.

Turnover rates by Caring Responsibilities

The turnover rate for carers is below the whole council average.

Headcount by Marital status

77.1% (compared to 76.8% in 2022) of employees have disclosed their marital status. For comparative purposes the figures from the census 2021 for Wiltshire are as follows:

• Single (never married or never registered a civil partnership - 24.9%
• Married or in a registered civil partnership - 41.9%
• Divorced, separated, or widowed - 15.3%

Recruitment by Marital Status

A lower proportion of people appointed were single compared to the proportion of total applicants who were single.

Remuneration by Marital Status

Representation of staff who are single is lower in the highest and lowest grades

Turnover rates by Marital Status

The council had 76 employees on maternity leave who returned or left during the period 1st October 2022 to 30th September 2023.  Of these employees, 93% (71 staff) returned to work after maternity leave and 7% (5 staff) did not. The figures for the non-returners are low so a further breakdown for equality and statistical reporting has not been included.

The council offers a period of enhanced maternity pay to employees who return to work for a period of at least three months following maternity leave in line with the national local government scheme. The council also has a shared parental leave policy, ordinary parental leave policy and flexible working policy which can provide further flexibility.

The proportion of the workforce who does not identify with their sex as registered at birth is 3.8% and this compares to 1.4% in 2021.  Data from the census 2021 for Wiltshire estimates that 0.4% of the Wiltshire population does not identify with their sex registered at birth.

In the census, 4.9% of the population did not answer and this compares to 22.7% for our workforce.

If you have any queries regarding the contents of this report, please contact us:

By Post:

Human Resources
Wiltshire Council
County Hall, Bythesea Road
Trowbridge
Wiltshire BA14 8JN

By email:

HRstrategy@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window)