Diversifying your board

The latest information (which may now be a little out of date) indicates that there are 3 ethnic minority chairs on the 47 sixth form college boards. The picture is likely to be similar in 16-19 academies. Across all sixth form colleges and 16-19 academies responding to SFCA’s Workforce Survey, meanwhile, there are only 6 ethnic minority principals/chief executives. Both figures are, of course, well below the number of ethnic minority students in sixth form colleges, who now make up 25% of all students. Unless action is taken, that disparity will grow. 

It is clear from the recent SFCA governance webinar on sustained approaches to diversity that boards do wish to diversify but are finding it a challenge. Unless you have a number of vacancies at the same time (as we did recently), it can be a slow process, but much can still be done to enable change to happen. Using, in part, our experience at Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc), I set out some of the things that can be done to ensure a successful outcome. 

Setting the Scene 

Even if your board is not yet diverse, there are a whole range of actions that can be carried out to demonstrate your commitment to diversity and antiracism and ensure that white board members are well-equipped to ensure an inclusive college environment for ethnic minority students and staff. For example: 

• Ensure that diversity and antiracism become an essential part of your strategic plan 
• Adopt the Black Leadership Group’s 10-point plan and ensure that you get regular progress reports on how it is being implemented in the college 
• Review diversity data covering both students and staff, ensuring that there are action plans in place to address inequality 
• Require the College to collect ethnicity pay gap information alongside that for the gender pay gap (even if you do not meet the requirement to publish the information) and ensure that there is an action plan in place to address the findings
• Collect and put into the public domain information covering the diversity of your board, including all the protected characteristics 
• Ask your Search Committee to review the diversity of your Board and recommend actions to address issues identified. 
• Make it clear that you and your senior team take your obligations under the Equality Act seriously and, in particular, the duty to advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. 

Seeking and Recruiting Ethnic Minority Governors 

It is clear for all to see that, if colleges continue to use the same approaches to recruiting governors, it is very unlikely that things will change. The great thing is that small changes can make big differences. 

As we recently had a number of vacancies to fill for a variety of reasons (five in total), we decided to engage a recruitment agency to assist us in filling these vacancies. We knew that we needed additional financial specialist support on our board, and also decided to look for expertise in the area of IT and data management. Alongside identifying these specialisms, we also wished to diversify our board further and asked the recruitment agency to ensure that they advertised the vacancies widely and encouraged a diverse group of potential governors to apply. The end result was a highly diverse shortlist with four out of five new appointments being from backgrounds other than White. This made our Board even more diverse than previously. 

We are aware that many colleges may not wish to use an agency to recruit governors, but there are still actions that can be taken to increase diversity. For example, even in majority-white areas, a substantial number of students may come from more diverse areas. Why not focus your recruitment in those areas? You can also contact local organisations, specifying that you are specifically seeking applicants from underrepresented groups. You can also approach organisations such as the Black Leadership Group or the BAMEed Network who have a substantial number of potential governors amongst their membership. 

Above all, it is essential that we must not accept that things cannot change. By setting the scene and changing the way we recruit governors, greater diversity will result, and we will be in a much better position to support our students. 

Martin Rosner is Chair of Newham Sixth Form College.