Slough Council hopes to hire less "pale stale males"

As part of its recovery plan, one of the 12 recommendations advises the council to monitor and publish its staff diversity figures and create opportunities through recruitment and development for people from diverse backgrounds to join and advance their careers.

Senior councillors say they want to reflect Slough’s diverse community. The borough is one of the few areas within the UK where the Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) population outweighs the white population.

The council has historically relied on interim staff to fill vacant posts temporarily and is now having to rely even more on interim staff in the senior officer and director roles as some permanent employees go off to other roles elsewhere within local government.

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Council leader James Swindlehurst (Lab: Cippenham Green) said the council was in progress in making its senior team reflective of the town and even hired more women.

However, having to rely on interim staff has stepped back this progress as the interim market is made up of “pale stale males” of a certain age.

He said: “We have through the lower levels of the council, the less senior-tiers, managed to get a population of workers cohort that does look incredibly like our town.

“The problem is that there always seems to be a blocker on getting that on a senior management level.

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“I think if we’re going to talk about all the failures, people need to be able to look at the staff leadership of the council as the permanent structure is put back together and feel that it reflects the town we’re in because otherwise there’s a sense things are done to Slough by other people and we got to get out of that.

“It’s frustrating for members, and it has been repeatedly, but we’ve got to make that change as part of the work in putting a finished permanent structure for the organisation.”

Cllr Balvinder S. Bains speaking at the meeting

Cllr Balvinder S. Bains (Lab: Upton), lead member for regulation and public protection, said Slough is a multi-cultural town with a lot of talented people the council could hire and help grow. However, the local authority does not have an ‘open door policy’ to allow this to happen more often.

Interim chief executive Gavin Jones said: “Not only should the workforce reflect the population that they serve but people in senior positions should reflect that diversity as well and I think that’s a really important cornerstone for the council to recover also.”