News – DCMS issues race update

In an attempt to reaffirm its commitment to race equality, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has used the publication of its race equality scheme, a statutory requirement of all government departments, as a tool to encourage non-departmental public bodies to engage with the public over issues of race. The report, which provides a snapshot of the departments ongoing work in race equality, highlights next years bicentenary of Parliaments abolition of the slave trade and 2012s London Olympics as opportunities for the sector to engage with communities on their own terms and to be more responsive to what the public want. Detailing the ethnic make-up of its permanent staff, the report assesses the departments progress against targets to achieve a more representative workforce. It also details all activities carried out by the Department in recent years, analysing each one in terms of its potential to affect racial groups differently and the ways public concern about racism have been expressed.
However, the report does not detail the extent to which the Department, in conjunction with its non-departmental public bodies, is achieving its target of increasing attendance at and participation in the arts by Black and minority ethnic audiences. The DCMS has been given targets to increase attendance at arts events by priority groups by 3% and arts participation by 2% by 2007/08. Last year it was revealed that attendance and participation in arts events had actually dropped among these target groups. The report refers to preliminary figures from the ongoing Taking Part survey into public attitudes to culture and sport. The survey, which has now completed its first year, involved interviews with thousands of members of the public into attitudes to sport and culture. These are now being collated, and the results, due for publication later this year, are expected to clarify how the DCMS is achieving against its equality targets.