ACCREDITATION PROGRAMMES 45
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C ommitted 2 Equality
Public sector organisations may have already taken some internal steps to demonstrate that they are employing fairly and that they will comply with the forthcoming Equality Bill *, but what do you do to ensure that fair employment and equality practices are in place across the entire supply chain? And what do you do if you wish to continue to supply public sector organisations?
Getting started Public bodies should already be assessing their suppliers to ensure that their equality and employment credentials are confirmed and that monitoring information is available, which can all be achieved with C2E’ s Diversity Assured Accreditation programme. The programme examines and approves an organisation’ s employment practises, resulting in a positive declaration that they are a fair and equal employer. Companies and organisations that achieve this first stage of accreditation can then add C2E’ s Diversity Assured logo to all corporate stationery.
As well as being able to add a logo to stationery, the benefits of accreditation for companies that have gone through the programme have all seen an increase in the number of employees from an ethnic minority, as well as more women and older people employed. There is also the added benefit from the recruitment perspective given that the company can position itself as a fair company to work for, which is an increasingly important factor for prospective employees.
The cost of the programme to suppliers is calculated according to the information the suppliers provide, based on the number of employees and their operating locations. There is no charge to the Councils for providing support, statistics and monitoring information from accredited suppliers.
Extending the accreditation process C2E ensures that there is support and minimal disruption when going through the Diversity Assured Accreditation programme and the same very much applies to evaluating suppliers’ equality credentials. The process of implementing a supplier diversity programme might seem rather daunting, but C2E’ s unique programme takes care of every aspect of the accreditation process including evaluating, monitoring and reporting.
By making the procurement process transparent and more inclusive, C2E’ s Supplier Diversity Programme, identifies those suppliers with a genuine commitment to employing fairly and enables those suppliers to clearly demonstrate that they meet all their statutory, reporting and monitoring obligations.
Good business sense Whilst the impending Equality Bill will reemphasise and strengthen the existing legal requirements for public sector organisations to monitor fair employment practices of their suppliers, there is a very powerful business case for private sector companies to embrace equality and fairness at work. Organisations with good equality practices are more sustainable, competitive and efficient.
Private sector businesses, if they wish to continue to supply the public sector, must be able to demonstrate their fairness and equality credentials, which will be scrutinised as public sector bodies move through the accreditation programmes.
Summary Public sector and local authority suppliers are required to provide annual reports and to demonstrate evidence of their current equal opportunities policies and practices, which extends to suppliers and their subcontractors. In addition, these annual reports must include verified statistics, and monitor the representation among staff and contractors’ staff, of different racial groups, those with disability and gender groups.
Councils and public bodies can accept the C2E’ s Diversity Assured and Supplier Diversity Accreditation as evidence of an organisation’ s profile, policies and practices and by gaining the C2E kite mark a supplier can demonstrate their commitment to fair employment practices to public sector organisations.
As all public sector organisations legally require annual confirmation of fair employment practices and monitoring information from their suppliers it is very much in the suppliers’ interests to demonstrate that they continue to meet the requirements of their public sector clients. C2E is running a free seminar on October 8th at the BT Centre in London, entitled Procurement and The Equality Bill— How Procurement Will Change. For more information please send an e-mail to: info @ c2e. co. uk.
ISSUE SEVEN 2008 engage | uk