City marked as hot-spot to tackle race inequality
GLASGOW will become on of the Government’s 20 ‘hotspots’ aimed at tackling racial inequality.
Theresa May announced that the 20 locations across the country will be the sites of extra support and initiatives to get minority groups into work.
It comes after the Prime Minster launched the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website, which showed how successful people of different ethnicities and races are across a range of sectors.
Some of the initial findings from the new site include that black, Asian and minority ethnic people are twice as likely to be unemployed than white British adults, while white British pupils on free school meals perform worse in school than any other group. The Department of Work and Pensions wants to introduce schemes in Glasgow to help balance the inequality, which could include mentoring, traineeships and offering English, maths and vocational training alongside work placements.
Theresa May said: “People who have lived with discrimination don’t need a government audit to make them aware of the scale of the challenge.
“But this audit means that for society as a whole – for government, for our public services – there is nowhere to hide. These issues are now out in the open. And the message is very simple: if these disparities cannot be explained then they must be changed. Britain has come a long way in my lifetime in spreading equality and opportunity. But the data we are publishing today will provide the definitive evidence of how far we must still go in order to truly build a country that works for everyone.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission meanwhile called for a “comprehensive and coherent race equality strategy” from the Government.
Chairman David Isaac said: “The findings of the race audit do not come as a shock to us. The Prime Minister should be applauded for laying out this information for all to see and we now need to use the data to set the foundations for real change.
“Only by taking focused action to tackle race inequality can Britain become a fair country in which individuals can reach their potential and our communities can live and work together to create a strong economy and a cohesive society. The Government must tackle the significant disparities confirmed by the audit in order to address the entrenched inequality that is so prevalent in our society.”