Consulting
ethnic minority communities: an introduction for public services
Contents
Principles
Why?
- To find out about the needs and priorities of black and minority
ethnic communities in delivering public services to them.
Who?
- Consult a wide range of communities you serve. Individual black
and minority ethnic groups will have different needs and shouldn’t
be treated as a single group.,
How?
- Get top management commitment.
- Identify local ethnic minority communities and groups that
represent them.
- Work out resources available.
- Have a credible time-scale.
- Use a variety of methods and approaches – translation/
interpretation is likely to be necessary.
What?
- Decide how to consult hard to reach groups.
- Structure consultation carefully – give everyone a chance
to contribute.
- Monitor and evaluate effectiveness of consultation.
- Feed back to people you consult.
Where?
- Go to communities rather than expecting them to come to you.
- Choose places that people find comfortable and are easy to
get to.
- Ask local community organisations for advice on venue and for
any help they can offer (eg they might be able to facilitate discussions).
When?
- Avoid any festival or holy days in the communities’ calendar
[see attached calendar of religious festivals www.namss.org.uk/fests.htm.
- Find out about any fixed dates for other community events to
avoid.
1.
Introduction – Why consult?
1.1 With any consultation there are a number of key questions to
ask yourself before you start, like what do you want to find out,
and are you, and others in your organisation prepared to act on
the results you get.
1.2 After all, why bother
to try to consult minority groups when they are, by definition,
only a small proportion of your overall customer base? Because consultation
is the only way of focusing your services on the
needs of all your users: and you are accountable to them all. In
particular, consulting minority groups will:
- alert you to particular problems;
- help build good relations with these communities - but only
if something changes as a result of the consultation – if
you consult and then do nothing, better if you hadn’t consulted
at all;
- symbolise your commitment to equality in the delivery of services;
and
- may well impact positively on service delivery to other groups.
1.3 When consulting particular groups
of users or potential users there can be added complications in
actually accessing those people you want to consult, and in making
sure that those you do reach are representative. This checklist
gives some pointers to help when consulting ethnic minority communities.
Back
to Contents
|
Introduction
Template