Leader of Sheffield City Council, Tom Hunt, says that the response to the Sheffield Racial Equality Commission report published a year ago has not been fast enough. He outlines what will happen next.
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00:00 So here with Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council, we've been talking about the
00:05 Racial Equality Commission and the fact that it's a year on and there's been criticism
00:10 that not enough's happening. In your view, is that right? And also, what are the things
00:15 that people can expect that will be going on in the near future to move on with it?
00:21 Yes, it's been a year since the Racial Equality Commission report was published. And when
00:28 that report was published, the City Council accepted all of the recommendations and made
00:33 a commitment to become an anti-racist organisation as part of the broader work that's taking
00:39 place with partners to become, for Sheffield to become an anti-racist city. In two weeks'
00:46 time, on the 2nd August, the Strategy and Resources Committee of Sheffield City Council
00:52 will be looking at a new report which will bring an action plan showing how we are making
00:59 progress in meeting those recommendations. We know that we need to accelerate our progress
01:05 and do more over the coming year. We have made progress to de-bias our systems, including
01:14 making sure that our recruitment processes in this council are fairer, such as anonymising
01:20 CVs. We've taken steps to hold jobs fairs for Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic young
01:27 residents to hopefully encourage people to come and work for the City Council. But we
01:34 know that there's more to do. The racism and racial disparity in the city still exists.
01:42 People are rightly impatient for change to take place from the City Council. And so,
01:48 I'm clear as the new council leader that we must make more progress.