CULTURAL SENSITIVITY IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S SERVICES: COMMISSIONING SERVICES
Introduction
A low take-up of mainstream support services for children, young people and families among people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities is reported by many organisations in Solihull. This contrasts with the increasing number of some groups of Black and Minority Ethnic people in Solihull. Related to this is the question of whether it is necessary to commission specialist Black and Minority Ethnic provision, and if so when
It should be commissioned only when it is demonstrably clear that it would provide ‘added value', beyond what could be provided to Black and Minority Ethnic users through culturally sensitive mainstream provision. This section therefore considers the questions:
- How can provision be made more sensitive to the needs of different Black and Minority Ethnic client groups?
- When is it appropriate to look at commissioning specific Black and Minority Ethnic provision?
How can provision be made more culturally sensitive?
In order to ensure culturally sensitive provision, we should ensure that commitments to equality of opportunity; anti-discriminatory practice; and valuing diversity, all feature in the specification and criteria for contracting services from all providers, whether mainstream or specialist.
Equality of opportunity in access to services
A commitment to equality of opportunity in access to services is essential. In order to fulfil this, the collection of data on the ethnicity of service users will be required. As good practice and to meet the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, all providers of services for children and young people should complete a client record form for new clients detailing their ethnic origin and client group. This data will feed into a report for equality performance management, which analyses the characteristics of clients receiving services in your area.
As a starting point, you can use the same classifications of ethnicity as those used in the 2001 census. These are:
- White - British / Irish / Any other White background
- Asian or Asian British - Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Any other Asian background
- Black or Black British - African / Caribbean / Any other Black background
- Chinese or Other ethnic background.
Service providers and commissioners of services may want to collect information that is more detailed that the above categories which would more closely reflect the exact make-up of their local communities. In some cases, for example, there may be a case for collecting data about particular minority ethnic/national groups, say Indian people. In other areas, it might be appropriate to collect data on say, Irish or Polish people, separately from the general category for White people. The key requirement is, however, to ensure that the information about ethnic origin is collected for the groups present in reasonable numbers locally and who may therefore be represented among service users.
Once a service provider has information about the ethnic origin of current service users, this can be compared with data available from the census and elsewhere about the ethnic make-up of the population as a whole. Neighbourhood profile data from the 2001 Census - including ethnicity and religion - is available on National Statistics web site. (Include web address for this site)
The data about the ethnic origin of the current users can also be compared with information available about the needs mapping on the disparity between the proportions of current service users from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and the levels that the benchmark data from the census and needs mapping suggest; the provider should set a target for the proportion of users they want to achieve from a particular ethnic group. Proactive or remedial action may be needed if targets are not met, for example, by publicising services through community or religious networks or by recruiting specialist outreach workers.
The data collection on users, the benchmark data, the targets set and the measures proposed to address any under-representation taken together would contribute towards equality impact assessment of the sort required under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.
Anti-discriminatory practice
Anti-discriminatory practice in service delivery is founded on two essential values. First, that people who are different in one way or another should not be expected to minimise that difference or to be oppressed into conforming; on the contrary difference should be valued. Second, staff or service users who treat people unfairly or express bigotry or prejudices should be challenged. At the extreme, harassment of staff and service users may result in a service user losing the service or a member of staff losing their job, if they persist despite warnings.
As an organisation that is committed to valuing diversity and challenging discrimination and harassment you will want to take a range of measures to make that commitment explicit and to ensure that staff and users know of, and act upon these commitments. These would include:
- Adopting a clear equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory statement of principle.
- Producing a policy or action plan that sets out the measures the organisation is going to take to achieve this statement of principle.
- Producing a set of procedures for staff to follow if they feel they are being treated unfairly or harassed, or what they should do if they are aware that anyone else is not being treated appropriately.
- Making it clear in tenancy and other agreements with service users what is expected of them, i.e. not to discriminate or harass anyone else, and what they should do if they feel they are being discriminated against.
- Training for staff in the obligations that the statement of principle, the action plan and the procedures place on them as individual members of staff.
Cultural diversity
Since supported housing services often provides for people's most personal needs, an in-depth understanding of the cultural needs of individual service users is essential to effective service delivery. Looking at the person's problem, without seeing - or understanding - the person will degrade the service offered.
Key aspects of recognising cultural diversity in service delivery include ensuring:
- service users who prefer to communicate in a language other than English either have access to staff who speak their preferred language or skilled interpreters, in person as well as on the telephone.
- religious observance and practices can be met;
- cultural dietary requirements can be met.
When is culturally specific provision appropriate?
You may wish to consider commissioning specialist services for Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the following circumstances:
- The needs of Black and Minority Ethnic children and young people and their families/carers are not being met by mainstream providers currently.
- Mainstream providers lack credibility and trust with Black and Minority Ethnic communities and are therefore unlikely to be trusted by people from those communities.
- Existing mainstream services do not meet the requirements of cultural, linguistic, religious and dietary diversity.
In some cases elsewhere, Black and Minority Ethnic community groups have come together and organised themselves as a provider of services to their own communities. Consequently they may enjoy greater trust and credibility among people from these communities. In some circumstances larger mainstream providers may feel that they wish to set up a dedicated service to meet the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
You may also want to consider whether particular kinds of need are best met, for cultural or other reasons, by specialist Black and Minority Ethnic staff or providers. If so, the strengths and weaknesses of existing local providers or the desirability of encouraging the formation of new local Black and Minority Ethnic providers will need to be considered. This would have the merit of ensuring a close link between the local community and local services.
Alternatively, there may be a value, in terms of speed, track record and quality, in commissioning an existing specialist provider from outside the area who could expand its activities in the locality, or may not currently be active in the locality at all.
Conclusion
It is important for organisations to understand that ensuring culturally sensitive and culturally specific provision are often complementary aims, not alternatives. Even organisations with a track record of funding BME specific services and of pressing for mainstream services to be more culturally sensitive have sometimes found that they lack specific knowledge about the support needs of particular communities
A low take-up of mainstream support services for children, young people and families among people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities is reported by many organisations in Solihull. This contrasts with the increasing number of some groups of Black and Minority Ethnic people in Solihull. Related to this is the question of whether it is necessary to commission specialist Black and Minority Ethnic provision, and if so when
It should be commissioned only when it is demonstrably clear that it would provide ‘added value', beyond what could be provided to Black and Minority Ethnic users through culturally sensitive mainstream provision. This section therefore considers the questions:
- How can provision be made more sensitive to the needs of different Black and Minority Ethnic client groups?
- When is it appropriate to look at commissioning specific Black and Minority Ethnic provision?
How can provision be made more culturally sensitive?
In order to ensure culturally sensitive provision, we should ensure that commitments to equality of opportunity; anti-discriminatory practice; and valuing diversity, all feature in the specification and criteria for contracting services from all providers, whether mainstream or specialist.
Equality of opportunity in access to services
A commitment to equality of opportunity in access to services is essential. In order to fulfil this, the collection of data on the ethnicity of service users will be required. As good practice and to meet the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, all providers of services for children and young people should complete a client record form for new clients detailing their ethnic origin and client group. This data will feed into a report for equality performance management, which analyses the characteristics of clients receiving services in your area.
As a starting point, you can use the same classifications of ethnicity as those used in the 2001 census. These are:
- White - British / Irish / Any other White background
- Asian or Asian British - Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Any other Asian background
- Black or Black British - African / Caribbean / Any other Black background
- Chinese or Other ethnic background.
Service providers and commissioners of services may want to collect information that is more detailed that the above categories which would more closely reflect the exact make-up of their local communities. In some cases, for example, there may be a case for collecting data about particular minority ethnic/national groups, say Indian people. In other areas, it might be appropriate to collect data on say, Irish or Polish people, separately from the general category for White people. The key requirement is, however, to ensure that the information about ethnic origin is collected for the groups present in reasonable numbers locally and who may therefore be represented among service users.
Once a service provider has information about the ethnic origin of current service users, this can be compared with data available from the census and elsewhere about the ethnic make-up of the population as a whole. Neighbourhood profile data from the 2001 Census - including ethnicity and religion - is available on National Statistics web site. (Include web address for this site)
The data about the ethnic origin of the current users can also be compared with information available about the needs mapping on the disparity between the proportions of current service users from Black and Minority Ethnic communities and the levels that the benchmark data from the census and needs mapping suggest; the provider should set a target for the proportion of users they want to achieve from a particular ethnic group. Proactive or remedial action may be needed if targets are not met, for example, by publicising services through community or religious networks or by recruiting specialist outreach workers.
The data collection on users, the benchmark data, the targets set and the measures proposed to address any under-representation taken together would contribute towards equality impact assessment of the sort required under the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000.
Anti-discriminatory practice
Anti-discriminatory practice in service delivery is founded on two essential values. First, that people who are different in one way or another should not be expected to minimise that difference or to be oppressed into conforming; on the contrary difference should be valued. Second, staff or service users who treat people unfairly or express bigotry or prejudices should be challenged. At the extreme, harassment of staff and service users may result in a service user losing the service or a member of staff losing their job, if they persist despite warnings.
As an organisation that is committed to valuing diversity and challenging discrimination and harassment you will want to take a range of measures to make that commitment explicit and to ensure that staff and users know of, and act upon these commitments. These would include:
- Adopting a clear equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory statement of principle.
- Producing a policy or action plan that sets out the measures the organisation is going to take to achieve this statement of principle.
- Producing a set of procedures for staff to follow if they feel they are being treated unfairly or harassed, or what they should do if they are aware that anyone else is not being treated appropriately.
- Making it clear in tenancy and other agreements with service users what is expected of them, i.e. not to discriminate or harass anyone else, and what they should do if they feel they are being discriminated against.
- Training for staff in the obligations that the statement of principle, the action plan and the procedures place on them as individual members of staff.
Cultural diversity
Since supported housing services often provides for people's most personal needs, an in-depth understanding of the cultural needs of individual service users is essential to effective service delivery. Looking at the person's problem, without seeing - or understanding - the person will degrade the service offered.
Key aspects of recognising cultural diversity in service delivery include ensuring:
- service users who prefer to communicate in a language other than English either have access to staff who speak their preferred language or skilled interpreters, in person as well as on the telephone.
- religious observance and practices can be met;
- cultural dietary requirements can be met.
When is culturally specific provision appropriate?
You may wish to consider commissioning specialist services for Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the following circumstances:
- The needs of Black and Minority Ethnic children and young people and their families/carers are not being met by mainstream providers currently.
- Mainstream providers lack credibility and trust with Black and Minority Ethnic communities and are therefore unlikely to be trusted by people from those communities.
- Existing mainstream services do not meet the requirements of cultural, linguistic, religious and dietary diversity.
In some cases elsewhere, Black and Minority Ethnic community groups have come together and organised themselves as a provider of services to their own communities. Consequently they may enjoy greater trust and credibility among people from these communities. In some circumstances larger mainstream providers may feel that they wish to set up a dedicated service to meet the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
You may also want to consider whether particular kinds of need are best met, for cultural or other reasons, by specialist Black and Minority Ethnic staff or providers. If so, the strengths and weaknesses of existing local providers or the desirability of encouraging the formation of new local Black and Minority Ethnic providers will need to be considered. This would have the merit of ensuring a close link between the local community and local services.
Alternatively, there may be a value, in terms of speed, track record and quality, in commissioning an existing specialist provider from outside the area who could expand its activities in the locality, or may not currently be active in the locality at all.
Conclusion
It is important for organisations to understand that ensuring culturally sensitive and culturally specific provision are often complementary aims, not alternatives. Even organisations with a track record of funding BME specific services and of pressing for mainstream services to be more culturally sensitive have sometimes found that they lack specific knowledge about the support needs of particular communities
Anti-discriminatory practice in service delivery is founded on two essential values. First, that people who are different in one way or another should not be expected to minimise that difference or to be oppressed into conforming; on the contrary difference should be valued. Second, staff or service users who treat people unfairly or express bigotry or prejudices should be challenged. At the extreme, harassment of staff and service users may result in a service user losing the service or a member of staff losing their job, if they persist despite warnings.
As an organisation that is committed to valuing diversity and challenging discrimination and harassment you will want to take a range of measures to make that commitment explicit and to ensure that staff and users know of, and act upon these commitments. These would include:
- Adopting a clear equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory statement of principle.
- Producing a policy or action plan that sets out the measures the organisation is going to take to achieve this statement of principle.
- Producing a set of procedures for staff to follow if they feel they are being treated unfairly or harassed, or what they should do if they are aware that anyone else is not being treated appropriately.
- Making it clear in tenancy and other agreements with service users what is expected of them, i.e. not to discriminate or harass anyone else, and what they should do if they feel they are being discriminated against.
- Training for staff in the obligations that the statement of principle, the action plan and the procedures place on them as individual members of staff.
Cultural diversity
Since supported housing services often provides for people's most personal needs, an in-depth understanding of the cultural needs of individual service users is essential to effective service delivery. Looking at the person's problem, without seeing - or understanding - the person will degrade the service offered.
Key aspects of recognising cultural diversity in service delivery include ensuring:
- service users who prefer to communicate in a language other than English either have access to staff who speak their preferred language or skilled interpreters, in person as well as on the telephone.
- religious observance and practices can be met;
- cultural dietary requirements can be met.
When is culturally specific provision appropriate?
You may wish to consider commissioning specialist services for Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the following circumstances:
- The needs of Black and Minority Ethnic children and young people and their families/carers are not being met by mainstream providers currently.
- Mainstream providers lack credibility and trust with Black and Minority Ethnic communities and are therefore unlikely to be trusted by people from those communities.
- Existing mainstream services do not meet the requirements of cultural, linguistic, religious and dietary diversity.
In some cases elsewhere, Black and Minority Ethnic community groups have come together and organised themselves as a provider of services to their own communities. Consequently they may enjoy greater trust and credibility among people from these communities. In some circumstances larger mainstream providers may feel that they wish to set up a dedicated service to meet the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
You may also want to consider whether particular kinds of need are best met, for cultural or other reasons, by specialist Black and Minority Ethnic staff or providers. If so, the strengths and weaknesses of existing local providers or the desirability of encouraging the formation of new local Black and Minority Ethnic providers will need to be considered. This would have the merit of ensuring a close link between the local community and local services.
Alternatively, there may be a value, in terms of speed, track record and quality, in commissioning an existing specialist provider from outside the area who could expand its activities in the locality, or may not currently be active in the locality at all.
Conclusion
It is important for organisations to understand that ensuring culturally sensitive and culturally specific provision are often complementary aims, not alternatives. Even organisations with a track record of funding BME specific services and of pressing for mainstream services to be more culturally sensitive have sometimes found that they lack specific knowledge about the support needs of particular communities
You may wish to consider commissioning specialist services for Black and Minority Ethnic communities in the following circumstances:
- The needs of Black and Minority Ethnic children and young people and their families/carers are not being met by mainstream providers currently.
- Mainstream providers lack credibility and trust with Black and Minority Ethnic communities and are therefore unlikely to be trusted by people from those communities.
- Existing mainstream services do not meet the requirements of cultural, linguistic, religious and dietary diversity.
In some cases elsewhere, Black and Minority Ethnic community groups have come together and organised themselves as a provider of services to their own communities. Consequently they may enjoy greater trust and credibility among people from these communities. In some circumstances larger mainstream providers may feel that they wish to set up a dedicated service to meet the needs of Black and Minority Ethnic communities.
You may also want to consider whether particular kinds of need are best met, for cultural or other reasons, by specialist Black and Minority Ethnic staff or providers. If so, the strengths and weaknesses of existing local providers or the desirability of encouraging the formation of new local Black and Minority Ethnic providers will need to be considered. This would have the merit of ensuring a close link between the local community and local services.
Alternatively, there may be a value, in terms of speed, track record and quality, in commissioning an existing specialist provider from outside the area who could expand its activities in the locality, or may not currently be active in the locality at all.
