Our commitment to anti-racism

Our actions to end racism

For years, we have sought to tackle racial inequality across all areas of the council and wider systems and society in which it has influence and reach.

For the past five years, ourselves and our partners have been on a mission to tackle racial inequality. We focus on making a difference at key touchpoints, such as:

  • early years (children aged 0 to 5)
  • education
  • employment and health

We started to develop a system-wide approach to anti-racism. Many of the partnerships needed were already in place, including with schools, the police and health partners.

We launched our Anti-Racism Action Plan in 2021. The plan saw us begin to lead from the inside out by investigating how inclusive we are and how we tackle all forms of racism in the community.

By March 2022, we adopted a working definition of racism and anti-racism: foundational to unmasking racism where it hides or is blatant, and seeking solutions at institutional, community and individual level.

This meant that anti-racism was already reflected in how we were working with children and young people, particularly in schools.

However, the Child Q review and the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Black and Global Majority people, raised the urgency of recognising institutional racism and of working across the system to bring about change. As a result, we developed a full whole system’s anti-racism plan.

Since these events, we are redefining ourselves as an anti-racist organisation building on ours and the borough’s proud history of campaigning on equality. It is no longer enough for us to tackle inequalities, we must be actively anti-racist.

This means committing, or recommitting, to action at every level of our organisation to become a truly anti-racist council and borough.

Key moments in our anti-racism journey

Page updated on: 6 March 2023