Sunday 13 June 2010

Making A Strong Case – Yr Doin’ It Wrong

Shahnaz Ali, (associate director of equality, diversity and human rights at NHS North West), tries desperately to stave off the impending axe:
As public sector workers wait to see where the axe will fall in the emergency budget later this month, I fear equalities and diversity work will face severe cuts.
I hope they do!
I believe we're at a crossroads and if the advances we have made aren't to be overturned, all who work in equalities and diversity must make a very strong case.
Don’t think that’s going to happen, somehow…
Be very sceptical of any claims you might hear that equalities and diversity will be embedded into core functions when organisations contract. While that is the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow, the reality is that it won't happen without a great deal of leadership and a good kick from effective performance monitoring
It’s no wonder that someone working in this sector wants to give the impression that it’s a vital job, without which the earth would open up and swallow us all, but is it really?
The irony is, if everyone delivered on equalities and diversity, the public sector would save a fortune. If you do things like public health initiatives in a scattergun fashion, with no targeting based on an understanding of specific factors for different groups, then some of that money is clearly going to be wasted.
Oh? Well, give us an example then, Shahnaz…
The classic case is the very different way you need to approach men and women to get their engagement with an initiative. Women are easy to target in surgeries. With men you often need to take the initiative to them.


That’s it?!
Now let's suppose you're screening to identify and treat chlamydia. If you only design a campaign that gets to the women and not to men then the money could be wasted as reinfection occurs.
Ummm, isn’t that either a clinical or PR-led decision?

Do we really need to employ, at vast expense, another layer of bureaucracy to say, in effect, ‘Hey! Remember, there’s two sexes!’..?

I think not…

11 comments:

Ross said...

I wish I could trust the coalition government to do away with these diversity makework jobs.

Unfortunately I suspect that a Cameron government looks at this sort of thing as an opportunity to show how modern they are.

Anonymous said...

Dave 'n' Nick need to get ruthless now! The longer they leave it the more painful it will be.....and we'll have to read more pathetic drivel like this.

You've got to be cruel to be kind in the right measure......

Woman on a Raft said...

The irony is, if she hadn't written the piece, we wouldn't even know we were paying her or which job to scrap.

These are the directors of NW NHS. Somebody should tell them.

Jiks said...

Does this activity, whatever the hell it is, provide direct medical benefits? Can't say it does, so its not "frontline" ...

Next question, is it providing a vital support function to the frontline services? Well ... not not really. Not at all actually.

So it's not frontline, its not supporting the frontline so its Waste, so should be removed whether or not we can afford it.

A good next step is find the bits of the organisation the offending activity claims to provide "support" to. Chances are they are either going to be overjoyed the time wasters are no more ... or not doing anything useful themselves and ideal to be next on the chopping block.

Greencoat said...

And she's only an 'Associate' Director in one region!

There could be hundreds of these highly-paid hustlers.

The King of Wrong said...

"Women are easy to target in surgeries. With men you often need to take the initiative to them."

So, a Director of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights says it's necessary to target men and women differently based on their sex. Not to mention making a gross generalisation about the sexes in a way that would have most HR (and PR) departments facepalming at the stupidity. I guess it's OK, though, because it's good discrimination...

The seemingly-boundless nature of the Left's hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me.

dr cromarty said...

I am going to be spending SO much on popcorn in the very near future....

Foxy Brown said...

@ Ross,

Unfortunately I suspect that a Cameron government looks at this sort of thing as an opportunity to show how modern they are.


More crucially to demonstrate how anti-racist the Tories are, and how they really like blacks people. Perhaps with good cause, because no doubt, the Guardian and BBC will seize upon ever instance of a redundancy involving trans-gender, enrichment egalitarian commissars as bigotry. I think it's fair to say that Trevor Phillips' job at that overstuffed quango he's in charge of is safe. And he'll receive a knighthood as well for services to public life.

blueknight said...

How about this hot from the pages of the Diversitylink website.

...(They) are now recruiting for a Senior Manager to head up diversity in the UK. The Senior Manager role is the senior leadership role in the UK Diversity team, with responsibility for shaping the strategy and direction of diversity and inclusion in the firm in the UK. The post holder will be expected to both consolidate the progress already made on diversity and inclusion and take it to the next level. They will be responsible for progressing the strategic alignment between diversity and the changing business environment, together with the development and practical implementation of projects which deliver real and visible results to the business and to our people....Salary: £65,000 - £75,000 per annum.
To view the employers contact details, you will first need to become a registered job seeker.

(They) appear to have something to hide. Perhaps the tax payer is funding it, or may be it is a private company that thinks employing a diversity advisor is good insurance against an expensive discrimination claim.

JuliaM said...

"Unfortunately I suspect that a Cameron government looks at this sort of thing as an opportunity to show how modern they are."

I fear so too, though the cut to the EHRC budget is a welcome sign...

"The irony is, if she hadn't written the piece, we wouldn't even know we were paying her or which job to scrap."

That's actually a pretty good yardstick. Anyone who has the time to write columns for the Guardian protesting clearly hasn't got enough work to do. So can go...

"So, a Director of Equality, Diversity and Human Rights says it's necessary to target men and women differently based on their sex. Not to mention making a gross generalisation about the sexes in a way that would have most HR (and PR) departments facepalming at the stupidity. "

Indeed. We are through the looking glass, people...

"To view the employers contact details, you will first need to become a registered job seeker.

(They) appear to have something to hide."


That's not very 'inclusive' at all..

banned said...

The more axes falling on the necks of Shahnaz Ali and his non-job types the better.