Inequality ‘must be addressed’ in public sector workforce planning

Inequality in the public sector workforce must be addressed, Holyrood’s Local Government and Communities Committee heard yesterday.

As a part of the committee’s inquiry into workforce planning,  MSPs heard from UNISON Scotland, the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER), the Society for Personnel and Development Scotland (SPDS) and the Public Sector Network (PSN).

Issues of inequality in age, gender, race and ability must be addressed if the public sector is to thrive, they were told.

Rebecca Marek, Parliamentary and Policy Officer for CRER, highlighted the ongoing racial inequality in local authority staffing.

“If you are seeing a number in local authority staff reducing while we are also seeing a rise in the BME population, that’s worth wondering how we’re going to achieve parity for the BME population locally and how it’s represented in councils,” she said.

“I think it speaks to some concerted work needing to be done to reach that.”

Marek cited institutional racism as a key factor in BME under-representation and called for a greater awareness of implicit bias at all stages of recruitment.

Graham Simpson, Conservative MSP for Central Scotland, expressed concern over the age profile of public sector workers.

He said: “I think one of the big issues, probably across the public sector, but certainly in councils, is that we have an ageing workforce.

“In fact, the average age of public sector workers in Scotland is 45, and 40 per cent of public sector staff are due to retire in 10 years.

“That strikes me as a bit of a ticking time-bomb.”

However, Marek argued that this presented an opportunity for increased BME representation in local government.

She said: “The BME community in Scotland is younger and is ageing into a time when they could take up these jobs that are going to be vacated through retirements.”

Dave Watson, Head of Policy and Public Affairs for UNISON Scotland, said gender discrimination is not just a women’s issue.

He said: “We have whole groups of jobs where there is gender segregation.

“Only three per cent of childcare workers are men. It’s about 13 or 14 per cent in social care.

“We need 65 000 [new workers] – these young women don’t exist, I’m afraid. We have to break down gender segregation and that’s a national issue about how we do that.”

When asked how well prepared local authorities were for Brexit and the impact it might have on workforce planning, Watson responded: “Any workforce planning has to include Brexit in there.

“Let’s all remember, however, that we had problems in the care sector before Brexit. Brexit has just added to those particular problems.”

The official report of the meeting is due to be published on Friday.