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Technical Note for PSA 9

URN No: 02/1613/A9

PSA Target 9. By 2006, working with all departments, bring about measurable improvements in gender equality across a range of indicators, as part of the Government's objectives on equality and social inclusion.

The Women and Equality Unit report, Delivering on Gender Equality, sets out the specific targets and initiatives across Government, which the Ministers for Women believe are key to delivering improvements in gender equality and which they agreed should formally underpin the gender equality PSA.

Success Criteria

DTI considers the target will have been met if measurable improvements are achieved in a majority of indicators by 2006.

Definitions

SEE ANNEX A for Definitions

Women’s economic participation and advancement
Rationale

The position of women in the workplace has improved over the last few decades, but opportunities for women are still narrowed by their caring responsibilities and in particular a lack of childcare, the scarcity of flexible working options and assumptions about traditional ‘women’s work. And of course, in some areas, direct discrimination still exists. Combined these factors are preserving the pay gap at an unacceptable level and must be tackled. The Government’s overall aim is to increase competitiveness and generate high levels of sustainable growth and productivity in a modern economy. Specifically it aims to ensure that all women have the opportunity to play a full role in the economic life of the nation that will benefit the individual by:

Enhancing the lifetime incomes and economic well-being of all women and their dependents, especially those who are socially excluded.
Maximising their career development
Optimising work-life balance at all stages of their working life.
Measures

Sub-target 1

DTI will work with other government departments to improve the labour market position of women and their overall lifetime incomes. DTI will increase the percentage of employees who are satisfied with their work/family balance. In order to do so, DTI will aim to ensure:
(i) By 2006 there is an increase in employee awareness of their right to request flexible working arrangements. Baseline 2003/04: 52%, increase to 56% by 2006;
ii)By 2006 there is an increase in the percentage of employers who provide two or more flexible working time arrangements to their employees. Baseline 2003/04: 44%, increase to 50% by 2006.
Sub-target 2
The Government will work with businesses and trade unions, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Opportunity Now towards ensuring that 35 per cent of large companies have done pay reviews by 2006. Baseline: 2003 – 18%

Sub-target 3
The Government is committed to encouraging women into sectors where they are currently under-represented and helping women to succeed once in those sectors:

i) By 2005, DTI will ensure that women make up 40 per cent of the representation of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) related boards and councils; Baseline 2002 – 23%

ii) By 2006, we will increase the number of women entrepreneurs to that in comparable economies such as the UK.  To this end, at least 40% of Business Links’ customers will be women. Baseline 2002-03 – 25.8%.

iii) DTI will aim to reverse the serious under-representation of women in Information, Technology, Electronics and Communications (ITEC) jobs, so that the UK matches the best of our competitors As a first step, DTI will aim by 2006 to have increased the proportion of women in the UK ITEC workforce from the 2002 figure of 23%.

Data Sources

Sub-target 1
1a) The Second Work-Life Balance Study employee survey, conducted by MORI on behalf of DTI in early 2003, surveyed employee awareness of the new employment rights.  See Jane Stevens, et al, The Second Work-Life Balance Study: Results from the Employees’ Survey, Employment Relations Research Series No 27, DTI, URN 04/740, March 2004. 

Results of the first Flexible Working Employee Survey, conducted by the ONS on behalf of DTI in 2003-04, were published by DTI in April 2004.  See Tom Palmer, Results of the First Flexible Working Employee Survey, Employment Relations Occasional Paper, DTI, URN 04/703, April 2004.  This has been used to establish a preliminary employee baseline for sub-target 1a).

The second Flexible Working Employee Survey will be conducted in early 2005, and published by April 2005. 

1b) The Second Work-Life Balance Study employer survey, conducted by NatCen on behalf of DTI between December 2002 and April 2003, surveyed employer provision of flexible working arrangements.  See Stephen Woodland, et al, The Second Work-Life Balance Study: Results from the Employers’ Survey – Main Report, Employment Relations Research Series No 22, DTI, URN 03/1252, October 2003.  This report has been used to provide a preliminary employer baseline for sub-target 1b).

First findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS 2004) will be published by March 2005.  Like the Second Work-Life Balance Study, this survey draws upon a large sample frame of employers in Great Britain in workplaces with five or more employees drawn from the IDBR. 

Sub-target 2
This will be measured by the EOC Survey following initial research ‘Monitoring Progress Towards Equal Pay’ published early 2003. The Survey is conducted annually. Baseline in 2003 was 18%

Sub-target 3
For (i) Baseline data was established using Cabinet Office data in ‘Public Bodies’ and statistics compiled by the University of Warwick. In 2002 this figure stood at 23%. In the future, data collection will be co-ordinated through the new ‘Resource Centre for Women in SET’. The data will be updated every six months.

For (ii), Customers of BLOs are businesses rather than women, so this target is measured using a gender breakdown of the ownership of the businesses using BLOs.  From 2003-04 onwards this will be measured using data from the Business Link Operators (BLO) customer satisfaction surveys, which is obtained from the BLO Management Information System.  This data will be available every six months, using a rolling four-quarter average.  However this data will only be available from 2003-04 onwards. The baseline is from data collected by Business Links operators in 2002-03.

For the baseline year 2002-03, the data on usage of Business Links by gender was collected from returns submitted by BLOs themselves.  However this data should be regarded as indicative only as returns were incomplete.  Also, this data related only to businesses given significant assistance rather than for all businesses.  The figures showed, excluding those of unknown gender of ownership:

Female majority ownership          17.0%
Equal gender ownership              17.7%
Male majority ownership              65.4%

For the purposes of this target the “equal gender ownership” category will be evenly divided between male and female. This gives our 2002/03 baseline as female 25.8%, male 74.2%.

For (iii) this will be measured using IT workforce figures obtained from the Sector Skills Council for the IT Telecoms and Contact Centre. Office of National Statistics Labour Force Survey.   Baseline: in 2002 the number of people in ITEC professions in the UK was 1.2m. The proportion of women was 23%.
Territorial Scope
Sub-target 1: Great Britain
Sub-targets 2 and 3: UK

Women’s Social and Civic Inclusion

Rationale
The Government believes that for women to be truly equal, they must become equally represented in key areas of public life. This includes our political institutions such as Parliament and local councils, as well as those public bodies, which help to frame and shape public policy. It is important, too, that other high profile or influential professions have senior ranks representative of the population.

Measures
Cabinet Office will work with other Government Departments to improve the representation of women in public appointments.

Sub-target 4

By 2005 boards of public bodies should have an overall balance of men and women. This target is underpinned by individual Departments’ targets in respect of the public bodies they sponsor. Baseline: 2002 34% increase to over 40% women appointed by 2006.

Sub-target 5
By 2004/5, 35 per cent of all SCS posts and 25 per cent of the top 600 civil service posts should be filled by women.  The Baseline figures from the Cabinet Office for April 2003 show that:

26.4% of the SCS are women;
22.9% of those in the very top management posts are women. This includes 3 women at Permanent Secretary level.

Sub-target 6
The Government will ensure that the judicial appointments process is accessible to all those who aspire to judicial office, particularly those from under-represented groups. This will lead to a more diverse range of applicants for judicial appointment.

Data Sources
Sub-target 4

Cabinet Office Publication Public Bodies (Public Bodies 2003 was published on 16 July 2003). Also Cabinet Office publication Delivering Diversity in Public appointments 2003 (published December 2003) these are the diversity action plans for each central government department. Please note: the target of over 40% of women to be appointed by 2006 is for a majority of departments and is not a target for public appointments as a whole.

Sub-target 5

This is measured by Cabinet Office statistics twice yearly. A full diversity collection is made each April (including experience and pay data); limited collection in October (to cover gender, ethnicity and disability). Published 6 monthly position on gender in the SCS and Top management Posts (payband 2 and above).

Sub-target 6
Figures published in the Judicial Appointments Annual Report by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) which can be found on their website www.dca.gov.uk.

Baselines: 2001/02 - 34.4% women appointed.

Territorial Scope
Sub-target 4: Public bodies and appointments sponsored by the UK Government.
Sub-target 5: UK
Sub-target6: England and Wales

Women’s access to and experience of public service delivery

Rationale

The Government is committed to ensuring equal opportunities exist in the delivery of public services. With equal access to all service users and protection from violent crime for the citizens of this country.  The vision for childcare is that every parent is able to access affordable, good quality childcare. This enables parents, particularly lone parents to move into work or increase their hours if they wish, thereby lifting their families out of poverty. Childcare is also essential to enabling women, to participate in paid work. Being safe in one’s own home – as well as on the streets – is a fundamental right of every citizen. Domestic violence is an appalling crime, which has a terrible impact on the lives of thousands of women and their children.

Measures

DTI will work to influence other government departments to make progress on women’s access to and experience of public services.

Sub-target 7

By 2006, the Government is committed to create 250, 000 new childcare places for at least 450,000 children (approximately 280,000 children net of turnover) in addition to the new places for 1.6m children to be created between 1997 and 2004.

Sub-target 8

The Government is committed to: taking action to reduce domestic violence, which currently accounts for 25 per cent of violent crime; bringing more perpetrators to justice; and providing better support to victims.

Ministers have agreed a basket of performance indicators that will be used to measure effectively the success of the Government’s domestic violence Strategy. For the purposes of this PSA, DTI will monitor and report on one of these indicators:  the percentage of reported domestic violence incidents where there is a power of arrest where an arrest is made. The target will be to increase this percentage. It is envisaged that baseline data will be set in 2003/04.

Data Sources
Sub-target 7

Performance against targets will be monitored quarterly by means of a Quarterly Financial Statement detailing eligible spend and places created, together with a quarterly Childcare Report detailing all new places created (including unregistered places and those created from other funding streams) and places closed in the quarter.

Baseline data:  Number of childcare places created in 2002 – 185,374.

Sub-target 8

Data on these statistics has previously been required from police forces as part of the Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI). From April 2004 this indicator will become part of the new Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF). The data, which will be received quarterly from police forces will now be quality assured to ensure that the data supplied under this indicator has been accurately recorded in the correct BVPI category. The proportion of arrests is a proxy for the response to domestic violence.
Territorial Scope

Sub-target 7: England
Sub-target 8: England and Wales

ANNEX A Definitions

Gender Equality: refers to a situation where discrimination based on an individual’s sex (male/female) does not exist and where there is equality of opportunity and outcomes between men and women.

Measurable improvements: a decrease in the disadvantage experienced by (usually) women.

Flexible working:  The right for parents of children under 6, or disabled children under 18 to request a flexible work arrangement from their employer. Part of the new employment rights introduced on 6 April 2003.

Public Bodies: bodies, which have a role in the process of national Government. It is not a government department or part of one. It operates at arm’s length from government. Such bodies are often referred to as non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) or ‘quangos’ (quasi autonomous non-government organisation). For (i) this includes 'policy committees' and 'SET related public bodies', NDPBs from other Government departments and public bodies in the devolved administrations.

Equal Pay Review:  An equal pay review involves: comparing the pay of men and women doing equal work; explaining any equal pay gaps; and closing any gaps that cannot be explained on grounds other than sex. Whatever kind of equal pay review process is used and whatever the size of the organisation, the essential features are the same. While employers are not obliged to carry out and equal pay review, only a review can ensure that they are providing equal pay.

Senior Civil Service:  Created in April 1996 following the continuity and Change White Papers, the Senior Civil Service (SCS) is made up of some 3,800 senior managers, specialists and policy advisers, managed within a central personnel management framework.
Childcare Place: A childcare place is a new place offering a minimum of 3- 3.5 hours of continuous care (4 hours from 1 April 2004) This is deemed an appropriate period for any parent wishing to undertake training, further education or employment.

Domestic Violence: is defined by the Home Office as "any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality."