New ‘inclusive’ history of city will reassess statues and street names
HISTORIANS and schools will be asked to work with Birmingham City Council and help create a new curriculum which teaches children about every part of the city’s diverse community.
It will be known as the “Birmingham Story”, and it’s one of a number of initiatives the council is planning “to embed equality and inclusion across all aspects of the council’s activities”.
A detailed plan has been drawn up by city council leader Ian Ward and the rest of his cabinet, which includes senior councillors responsible for issues such as health, education, transport and finance. They will be debated by the cabinet at a meeting next week.
Others include a review of the city’s street naming policies, “to ensure that potential names properly reflect and respect the city’s history and communities”, and a review of the “appropriateness” of local monuments and statues on public land and council property.
Every elected councillor and every member of staff will be required to participate in mandatory equalities training at least once a year, which will include programmes to challenge and tackle unconscious bias. Cabinet members will boycott public panels that don’t include women and ethnic minority members.
Artwork in council buildings will be reviewed to ensure they “tell the full story of Birmingham”.
And, as previously reported, the council will introduce the so-called Rooney Rule (named after the former owner of an American football team in the US).
This means ensuring that every single shortlist for a job with the city council – whether that’s the chief executive or the most junior position – includes at least one black, Asian and minority ethnic candidate, and one female candidate.
The goal is to reduce inequality in the city and end discrimination on the basis of race, disability, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation or class, or a combination of these characteristics.
A report prepared on behalf of the council by Jonathan Tew, the assistant chief executive, states: “The unprecedented socio-economic crisis created by Covid-19, together with the global calls for justice articulated by the Black Lives Matter anti-racism movement have starkly highlighted the extent to which injustice, inequality and discrimination persist within our society.”
While it’s not mentioned in the report, it seems fair to suggest that coverage by the Birmingham Post and its sister paper the Birmingham Mail may have played a role.
The council’s report states: “Many of the leadership bodies within the city, including the council, have rightly been criticised for failing to properly reflect the diversity of our city with regard to race and gender. This has to change.”
So what will the council do? It says it doesn’t have all the answers and plans a “wider conversation” with communities, voluntary sector organisations, statutory partners and council staff.
But a number of initial concrete proposals are set out in the document drawn up by Councillor Ward and colleagues. It proposes:
Shortlists for all Birmingham City Council staff vacancies, at all levels, will include at least one black, Asian and minority ethnic and one female candidate.
All council interview panels will have black, Asian and minority ethnic and female members.
The council will create a fast track recruitment and development programme for black, Asian and minority ethnic people.
Every elected councillor and member of staff will be required to participate in equalities training, at least once annually.
The council will publish a ‘Race Pay Audit’, revealing whether people from different ethnic groups are paid different amounts. It will explore the potential for establishing a Citizens Assembly or similar body to decide the measures needed to tackle inequality in all its forms.
Together with colleagues in the London Borough of Lewisham, Birmingham City Council will publish a review of African and Caribbean health inequalities by Autumn 2021 and if successful, establish similar reviews into the health inequalities affecting other ethnic minorities.
Cabinet Members will ‘call out exclusionary behaviours’ by declining to participate in any public panels that do not include female and black, Asian and minority ethnic representation.
The council will work with schools and local historians to develop a new curriculum and resources that tell the ‘Birmingham Story’ – fully exploring its diversity, challenges and its meaning for the Birmingham of the 2020s and beyond.
It will work with partners in the
The council will review the appropriateness of local monuments and statues on public land and council property
education and community sectors to develop a new ‘Race Equality education programme’ for use in Birmingham’s schools.
The council will review the appropriateness of local monuments and statues on public land and council property. It will also ensure that the plaques accompanying monuments properly and fully explain their historical context, where appropriate.
It will review street and public space naming protocols to ensure that potential names properly reflect and respect the city’s history and communities.
It will review the displays of art in civic buildings to ensure they also tell the full story of Birmingham, including the renaming of a room in the Council House to properly mark the contribution of black and minority ethnic civic leaders.
However, the ideas are not cast in stone. The paper states: “These are our initial thoughts and proposals, but we want to work with everyone in Birmingham to ensure we get this right and deliver the fundamental change that people in our city need.”