Councillor 'disappointed' with data showing a fifth of Warwickshire council staff do not 'feel safe' to be themselves at work

A county councillor has declared himself “disappointed” with data that showed a fifth of Warwickshire County Council staff do not “feel safe” to be themselves at work.

It was one of the questions asked as part of the authority’s efforts to measure inclusivity and was presented as part of an annual performance report last week.

Staff members were asked whether they agreed with certain statements with 79 per cent of respondents replying positively to the phrase “I feel free to be my authentic self at work”.

All workplaces are legally obliged to ensure no one is discriminated against on the basis of age, gender, gender reassignment, marriage status, pregnancy, disability, race, skin colour, nationality, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

Councillor Tim Sinclair (Con, Stratford North) said he was “disappointed” with the figure and asked for some context.

Rob Powell, the county’s strategic director for resources, said that a lot of work was ongoing in relation to diversity and that Warwickshire compared well against other authorities.

“It is not that many years ago that people with certain protected characteristics would not reveal that fact to colleagues at work because they were scared it would damage their career,” he replied.

“We have done a lot over many years to try to build a more diverse and equal culture. The figure of 79 per cent benchmarks well but we would like it to be 100 per cent and we are working hard on that.

“The reasons why different people do not feel safe at work is something that needs to be worked through but we have a big focus on equality, diversity and inclusion this year.

"We have seen huge increases in disclosure rates of protected characteristics after a big campaign which gives us a great deal of confidence that people do feel more secure.

“I would not use this measure on its own as the sole measure on inclusion in the workforce. There is a great deal of work going on across 11 or 12 different staff networks on a huge raft of different issues – they are not all race, sexuality, religion, they are much broader issues and experiences that our colleagues are going through at different times.

“We are trying to build supportive groups for those people or colleagues who might be interested or not know how to engage with those colleagues at difficult times for them.”

Other measures showed that four out of five staff members (80 per cent) would say they are “proud” to work for the county council.

The authority did fall short in one area with 79 per cent agreeing that internal information keeps staff informed of what the council is doing against a target of 88 per cent. The report acknowledged the council is not on track for that but that performance is improving.