· web viewthe revised guidance cross references to ‘public engagement in forestry: a toolbox...

Equality Monitoring Report1 April 2014 to 31 March 2015

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2 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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Contents

1. Introduction....................................................................................................................................................................................... 52. The Commission’s Structure.............................................................................................................................................................. 6

2.1 Our Values.................................................................................................................................................................................... 72.2 Our People Strategy and our Equality and Diversity Strategy......................................................................................................72.3 Our Diversity Objectives............................................................................................................................................................... 8

3. Our Approach to the Equality and Diversity Agenda........................................................................................................................ 113.1 Our approach to engagement..................................................................................................................................................... 113.2 Our approach to Equality Analysis.............................................................................................................................................. 123.3 Our approach to our Customers.................................................................................................................................................. 123.4 Our approach to Internet accessibility........................................................................................................................................ 193.5 Our forests in your home............................................................................................................................................................ 193.6 Monitoring our visitor numbers................................................................................................................................................... 19

4. Our approach to our staff................................................................................................................................................................. 264.1 Building and retaining a diverse workforce................................................................................................................................. 264.2 Restructuring our business......................................................................................................................................................... 294.3 Equality and Diversity training.................................................................................................................................................... 304.4 Equality and Diversity Staff Forum............................................................................................................................................. 314.5 Staff Survey 2015....................................................................................................................................................................... 31


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5. Monitoring data................................................................................................................................................................................... 365.1 Overview of our analysis............................................................................................................................................................. 365.2 Staff in post as at 31 March 2015............................................................................................................................................... 385.3 Full/part time split at 31 March 2015.......................................................................................................................................... 395.4 Type of contract at 31 March 2015............................................................................................................................................. 405.5 Pay Band at 31 March 2015........................................................................................................................................................ 415.6 Internal post filling and promotion during 2014/2015................................................................................................................ 425.7 External recruitment during 2014/2015..................................................................................................................................... 455.8 Performance marking for the year ending 31 March 2015.........................................................................................................495.9 Internal training, average events attended per person during 2014/15.....................................................................................505.10 External training, events attended per person during 2014/15................................................................................................515.11 Leavers during 2014/2015........................................................................................................................................................ 525.12 Discipline during 2014/15......................................................................................................................................................... 545.13 Grievances raised during 2014/15............................................................................................................................................ 545.14 Work patterns at 31 March 2015.............................................................................................................................................. 555.15 Return to Work after Maternity Leave...................................................................................................................................... 55

6. Equal Pay......................................................................................................................................................................................... 566.1 Equal Pay Audit........................................................................................................................................................................... 566.2 Average earnings at 31 March 2015........................................................................................................................................... 59


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7. Our approach to monitoring and evaluation.................................................................................................................................... 618. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................................................... 61

Appendix 1.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 63Equality and Diversity Objectives – Summary.................................................................................................................................. 63Summary Table of Objectives – Diversity Team Responsibilities..........................................................................................64Summary Table of Objectives – FC England Business Responsibilities................................................................................71Summary Table of Objectives – FC Scotland Business Responsibilities...............................................................................89


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1. IntroductionThe Forestry Commission is the Government Department responsible for the protection and expansion of Scotland and England’s forests and woodlands, including increasing their value to society and the environment.

The Forestry Commission is committed to ensuring that the forests and woodlands we manage are accessible to and enjoyed by all communities, including those with protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation).

The Forestry Commission:

Welcomes millions of visitors every year to our woodlands, many of whom utilise and enjoy our visitor centres and thousands of way-marked walks and trails, cycle routes and bridle paths, including more than 140 accessible trails;

Employs around 2,600 people, most of whom live and work in rural areas; Plants many millions of trees every year; Sustainably harvests almost four million tonnes of timber every year, which equates to almost a third of the UK’s total domestic

timber production; Is custodian of 900,000 hectares of sustainably managed woods and forests and other land, two thirds of which lie within National

Parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Sites of Special Scientific Interest; Takes degraded land no one else wants and turns it into green space for the benefit of all, helping to regenerate blighted industrial

landscapes such as former coalfield communities and bring new woodlands closer to urban areas; Provides grants, licences and advice to community and private woodland owners to encourage new tree planting and sustainable

forest management; Provides research services relevant to UK and international forestry interests, providing an evidence base for UK forest practices

and UK Government policies.


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2. The Commission’s StructureThe Forestry Commission is a statutory body and non-Ministerial Government Department with responsibility for forestry in England and Scotland. Under the Devolution Settlement, the Forestry Commission was designated a cross-border public authority. Therefore, it exercises its powers and duties separately and receives separate funding in England and Scotland.

The Forestry Commission has a statutorily appointed Board of Commissioners consisting of a Chair and up to ten other Forestry Commissioners, who are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of Ministers. Delivery of policy, as well as progress against strategy objectives, is overseen in each country by the Commission's National Committees.

The Forestry Commission is led by a Director in England and Head of Forestry Commission Scotland, who are also members of the Board of Commissioners. The Forestry Commission also has an Executive Board which assists the Country Director and Head, Director Central Services, Chief Executives of the Forest Enterprise Agencies in England and Scotland and Chief Executive of Forest Research Agency in the effective management of the Commission by providing leadership and setting direction for the organisation.

The Forestry Commission takes the lead, on behalf of the Westminster and Scottish Governments, in the development and promotion of sustainable forest management. The Commission delivers the distinct forestry policies of England and Scotland through specific objectives drawn from the country forestry strategies.

The Forestry Commission has three executive agencies that work to targets set by Commissioners and Ministers. Forest Enterprise England and Forest Enterprise Scotland manage our public forests, woodlands and other land in England and Scotland respectively on behalf of the Forestry Commission. Forest Research provides research services relevant to UK and international forestry interests and informs and supports forestry’s contribution to UK Governmental policies. Forest Research provides the evidence base for UK forestry practices.

Further information on the Forestry Commission, including its aims and structure, can be found on its website.


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2.1 Our ValuesThe Forestry Commission is an organisation that values:

Teamwork - We work collaboratively with each other and our stakeholders, ensuring trees, woods and forests meet the needs of society;

Professionalism - We enjoy and take pride in our work, acting with integrity and political impartiality to achieve high standards of health and safety, quality, efficiency and sustainability;

Respect – We value each other and our stakeholders, recognising diverse perspectives and treating everyone with consideration; Communication - We are open, honest and objective with each other and our stakeholders. We are prepared to challenge and to

be challenged; Learning – We are always learning, developing the skills, knowledge and behaviours to support organisational success; and, Creativity - We seek new ways of doing things, sharing ideas and embracing change.

2.2 Our People Strategy and our Equality and Diversity StrategyThe corporate plans for each country and for Forest Research determine the key strategic drivers for how the organisation manages its people and services.

Our People Strategy, ‘Fit for our Future’, is a framework focused on staff to support the Forestry Commission through the five years from 2011 to 2016. Its vision is to ensure that staff are prepared, equipped and engaged to manage the changing work environment and to drive change in a positive and successful way. A new People Strategy, covering the years 2016 to 2019 is in development.

The current People Strategy focuses on five key themes, one of which is Equality and Diversity. Within that theme, we are committed to:

Legal compliance; Improving the diversity of our workforce; and, Supporting our staff in engagement with communities to meet the General and Specific Duties placed on public bodies through the

Equality Act 2010.


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Our Equality and Diversity Strategy was published in April 2012. This is our framework to help embed the diversity elements of our People Strategy throughout the Forestry Commission until 2017. The vision of the Equality and Diversity Strategy is to have a diverse workforce that reflects the society that we serve and to continue to offer exemplar customer services to diverse communities.

The five goals of this Strategy are to ensure that we;

Build on our successes and continue to work towards making our services and facilities available to all; Continue to ensure our departmental policies, organisational objectives and operational practices enable everyone

to access our services and facilities; Continue to engage with communities to ensure out services and facilities are fit for purpose and tailored to meet their

requirements; Continue to respect, support and value all our staff, treating them in accordance with our values; and, Recruit and employ people in order to make our workforce more representative of the population in England and Scotland.

2.3 Our Diversity Objectives In addition to the objectives set out in the People Strategy and the Diversity Strategy, we have also produced a series of Diversity Objectives for the four years from 2012 to 2016. A new set of objectives for the Forestry Commission is in development, with separate objectives for England and Scotland covering the period 2016 – 2020.

The Objectives have been selected to ensure that the Forestry Commission meets the three aims of the General Duty as outlined in the Equality Act. The three aims of the General Duty are:

To eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation; To advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups; and, To foster good relations between people from different groups.


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We have classified the Objectives by each of the nine protected characteristics, and then split them between staff and customer focussed actions.

The Forestry Commission recognises that diversity of its staff group is intrinsically linked to the provision of valued services to diverse communities and vice versa. Diverse staff can provide insight into ways of working with diverse communities, suggesting appropriate customer services, and as role models can encourage a wider pool of potential applicants to apply to work for the Forestry Commission if they can see that the organisation takes a positive and proactive approach to equality and diversity.

A summary of progress against our Objectives by key business areas is given below:

Recreation & Leisure -

Increased the provision of accessible trails across the Commission.

Continued to increase the information provided about these trails to our customers in various formats (including website-based info) so customers are aware of accessibility before they visit a site.

Increased the provision of adapted bikes for use by disabled people.

Increased provision of disabled parking spaces and accessibility of parking meters.

Developed an inclusive approach to cycling to enable disabled people to participate in extreme cycling, via the first accessible trail in the UK for Rough Riderz Gravity Cycling Club.

Work is well underway in Scotland to audit accessibility of all built visitor centres, toilets and parking facilities.

Workforce Development-

Provided our staff and volunteers with training to understand the needs of disabled customers and how we can best support them, including;

Mental health awareness training at Westonbirt.

Working with a group of 12 young people in West England Forest District, who have been removed from mainstream education and are studying a BTEC in sustainability and access to increase their employability.


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Provided a small area of woodland to a group supporting people with learning disabilities at Salters Wood where the service users learned outdoor skills

Supported the sector’s efforts to recruit a greater diversity of trainees, by encouraging young women and people with mental health disabilities to apply for jobs in the forestry sector. We are especially pleased to report that two of our former trainees, both young female foresters, have been recognised for their learning and achievement at an external awards ceremony (see Forestry Commission Staff Shine Brightly at Awards on page 27).

Engagement - We have continued our positive work to increase the number of visitors from Black Asian and Ethnic Minorities (BAME) visiting our sites, by undertaking positive outreach and engaging with minority communities and providing specific activities and opportunities for engagement (see sections 3.3 and 3.6 for more detail and case studies).

We have tried to understand the diversity of all parts of our workforce. By reaching out to our agency staff with a Polish version of the Safety Climate Survey, we were able to get a fuller picture of the health and safety experience of this group, who otherwise would have been excluded from an important safety management tool (see Thinking Outside The Box page 27).

Guidance & Support -

Delivered onsite training and support to operational staff delivering services to diverse communities including a refresh of Equality Analysis training for recreation staff in our customer facing sites, including how to engage and work with protected characteristic groups.

Continuing to provide our employees with support and guidance to understand how to communicate with diverse groups; we published a language guide to help staff develop more inclusive and welcoming language when dealing with customers and colleagues.

Detailed progress against achieving our Objectives can be viewed at Appendix 1.


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3. Our approach to the Equality and Diversity AgendaAlthough the responsibility for forestry is devolved, the Forestry Commission adopts a cross border approach to equality and diversity. Responsibility for the implementation of the equality duties, as defined by the Westminster Government, is shared across the Forestry Commission, with guidance and support being provided from the central Diversity Team based in Edinburgh.

In developing our Monitoring Report we recognise that the Forestry Commission has made good progress in embedding equality and diversity into everyday business. However, we are not complacent and recognise that there is still much to achieve.

We have examined our relevant policies, functions, service planning and service delivery processes to ensure that no-one is in any way discriminated against or subject to unfair opportunity/adverse treatment. Further, as an employer we ensure that appropriate training is available to all staff to raise awareness of the equality and diversity agenda and ensure that staff are aware of their responsibilities.

As a service provider the Forestry Commission ensures that working with community groups, other public bodies, voluntary organisations and private organisations and individuals is done in an inclusive manner, offering fairness of opportunity to all. We also endeavour to procure goods and services from organisations and individuals that have or subscribe to equality and diversity values and objectives, as set down in legislation.

3.1 Our approach to engagementAs a Government Department we comply with the current guidance on consultation and engagement. Therefore, consultations are conducted with key stakeholders when regulations change.

The provision of recreation is one of our principal objectives and we understand that recreation initiatives provide us with a major opportunity to meet the General Duties of the Equality Act. In our internal recreation guidance, we stress the importance and value of understanding the local community and being proactive in identifying and seeking views from those people who currently do not access our services, as well as those we are more used to working with and who are established visitors to our forests. The guidance includes checklists to assist field practitioners to include their whole community. 12 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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Through engagement we hope to improve our understanding of any barriers to visiting our forests and to work with different groups to identify and put in place solutions, events and facilities that will encourage more frequent visits from a more diverse range of the local and wider population.

3.2 Our approach to Equality Analysis We have continued to mainstream the use of Equality Analysis (EqA), to ensure that our new policies or services, and any changes to existing policies or services, fully take into account any impact on our diverse customers and staff.

We have reviewed and updated our existing guidance on Equality Analysis, in line with the Equality Act’s General Duties for the public sector. This resulted in a more streamlined process and was announced via our all-staff communication bulletin. The revised guidance cross references to ‘Public Engagement in Forestry: a toolbox for involving people’, intending to help those undertaking EqA to achieve effective consultation, capturing the views of all communities, at both local, Regional, Country and national levels. The EqA guidance is supported by training delivered by the Diversity Team to those responsible for creating policies or delivering large initiatives that may have an impact on our staff and/or the public.

Our HR policies, including Learning and Development strategies and initiatives, are subject to EqA, as well as our customer-facing projects. A summary of completed Equality Analysis (and previous Equality Impact Assessments) is available on our website.

3.3 Our approach to our CustomersThe Forestry Commission recognises that forests and woods contribute positively by providing opportunities for people to participate in and enjoy woodlands. We deliver an extensive range of practical programmes to ensure that communities and individuals can get the most from them.


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There are a number of ways in which we can reach and engage with people. For example, we offer: Education and learning initiatives; Healthy living initiatives and activities; Play, recreation and sporting opportunities; Volunteering; and, Community forestry and woodland creation in and around towns and cities, to be closer to where people live.

As the needs of communities change and develop, we will continue to adapt to ensure that we offer equality of opportunity for all.

Case Studies:

Branching Out

Branching Out is a twelve week programme for people experiencing long term and severe mental health problems in Scotland. The project is tailored to the groups’ needs. Whilst out on site participants will take part in a wide range of activities and learn new skills, such as campfire cooking, environmental art, photography, natural furniture construction, willow weaving, and conservation activities such as litter picking or rhododendron removal. The project tries to include a wide variety of activities to make the project appealing to both genders and a large age range.

Evaluation of participants’ health on the project has shown improvements in mental well-being, physical health, social skills development and networking opportunities, as well as the provision of a daily structure and routine and gaining transferable skills. The programme has ensured consistent delivery through core policies and procedures, which covers all aspects of the programme from staffing, referrals, evaluation and publicity. Within this model each programme still retains a degree of flexibility.


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The project was developed by Forestry Commission Scotland in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde in 2007. It has since grown from strength to strength and now runs in nine of Scotland’s 14 health boards. The first year saw just four groups being run in Cathkin Braes with a total of 19 participants. Annual figures to date are between 240-260 participants across Scotland.

The expansion was enabled through the development of the Branching Out leader training course. The course trains experienced outdoor staff e.g. ranger services, in the core criteria and background of the programme, and gives them valuable training to work with the Branching Out client group. A trained leader also has to have completed the Scottish mental health first aid course, an outdoor first aid course and a minimum of two days shadowing with an experienced Branching Out Leader. Once two leaders are trained, a new outdoor provider can become a Branching Out deliver partner, and with help from Forestry Commission Scotland funding, run Branching Out on their own sites.

For more information please read:

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/supporting/strategy-policy-guidance/health-strategy/branching-out

Forests as places of mental well-being for people with dementia15 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission




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The Forestry Commission has supported the research of Mandy Cook, a University of Dundee PhD student which has shown how the woodland environment can help people with early stage dementia. The ranger-led pilot activity programme offered meaningful experiences that contributed to well-being and feelings of self-worth. The ten-week pilot programme in Callander Wood, Falkirk led by Forestry Commission Scotland ranger and involved three hours of woodland-based activities once a week. These included walks, tree planting, fire lighting and woodland cooking, nature photography, willow sculpting and tree and bird identification.

This innovative approach was seen as being complimentary to traditional health approaches. It offers a chance for participants to stay active and connected with their community, and to keep their independence as long as possible. Given the results, Forestry Commission Scotland plans to roll out the programme to new locations in the future. Findings of the research stated that the woodland activity programme provides a positive experience for people with early stage dementia and offers a viable and potentially more effective alternative to traditional approaches such as reminisce therapy and reality orientation for those with early stage dementia.

The therapy can help both people with early stage dementia and their carers remain active and connected to people and maintain independence, while also providing support for carers. One of the key outcomes from the this pilot programme was that the existing “end of the road” approach to people with dementia is no longer acceptable, making it clear that there are other ways of providing care with an emphasis on empowerment and maintaining the best possible quality of life.

The next steps proposed by the research include: To increase the evidence base by delivering and evaluating a further pilot woodland activity programme. To find funding to carry out a larger scale research and evaluation study to quantify the benefits of woodland activity

programmes for people with dementia. To find funding to carry out an economic assessment of the benefits of the woodland activity programmes against more

traditional therapeutic intervention.


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We proactively promote our services and facilities as open to anyone who wishes to use them. However, we also recognise that there may be perceived barriers and reasons why people may not be able to fully benefit from them. Therefore, we are actively seeking to address this by adapting infrastructure, providing a wide range of activities and events, engaging with communities and in some cases providing specialist equipment and/or tailored activities. To achieve our objectives the Forestry Commission is working closely with a range of partner organisations at a local, regional and/or national level.

A summary of how we develop, implement and deliver our customer services is given below:

Customer Initiatives & Accessibility -

Working with partner organisations to encourage people to access forests and greenspace, including working with the NHS to deliver programmes for people experiencing long term mental health problems, for ethnic minority communities to increase mental well-being and promote a healthy lifestyle (see case studies on Branching Out (page 13, and Funding Walks and Foraging Partnerships with MEHIS (page 21).

We have helped religious groups celebrate their faith in woodland settings, which was seen as an unusual but welcome change by our customers (see Bows, Arrows & Prayers page 18).

We have worked with local authority partners to develop award winning leisure facilities on FC land, by embracing the best equipment for disabled services users to enjoy the most of the forest, where otherwise they might be excluded because a physical disability or not being able to afford their own specialist bikes.

We have continued to work with experts and researchers to increase what we know about the benefits of visiting the forest can have on people’s lives. By working with a PhD researcher and running an activity programme for people with dementia we have helped contribute to study which has identified that spending time in the forest and offering positives experiences can improve the self-worth of people with dementia and hopefully will ultimately influence the long term approach to dementia care going forward.

We are proactive to encourage and organise a range of events aimed at bringing people from diverse communities, especially where they are minorities in terms of accessing our services, into the woods and forest. We want to continue to be seen as an inclusive organisation which welcomes all and celebrates the diversity of the land we manage and the communities we serve.


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Increasing participation in cycling for people with disabilities, women, and children of all ages.Understanding Customer Needs -

We undertake a range of surveys to compare and test customer satisfaction and explore needs. These range from public opinion surveys, site questionnaires, focus groups, to feedback forms.

Our site managers use local demographic data to more strategically assess the potential demand for services and facilities and compare this with actual site usage.

Communications - Our external websites are built to level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines standard, to meet the demands of a wide range of users, including those with visual impairments, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Applying this standard ensures that we are inclusive in how we provide information to all potential customers, suppliers and the public to meet our public duties around accessibility; and that our websites are also more accessible to users in general.


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Case Study: Bows, Arrows and Prayers

Organised by the Scottish Council for Jewish Communities, in partnership with Rabbi Eli Wolfson from Giffnock and Newton Mearns Synagogue) and Carol Levstein from Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation. The Forestry Commission Scotland was proud to host Lag Bomar, the Jewish bow and arrow festival in the beautiful Vogrie Country Park. More than 170 people travelled from Glasgow, Edinburgh, and much further afield, including many children who learned to make and use bows and arrows, listened to story-tellers, and built fires for outdoor cooking.

"It's just good to get out into the woods", said one participant. "Far too few Jewish events involve the outdoors." Another commented, "This was a superb day, great activities on offer, brilliantly organised, staff (both Jewish community and woodland leaders) were all delightfully friendly, and it was an all-round resounding success." Another participant said: “We don’t always take the opportunity to pray outside and it was a really great experience.”

A wide range of activities were on offer, including willow craft, wild food and campfire cooking, pond dipping, storytelling, dream-catcher making and guided walks. Children were also able to participate in tree identification sessions that included being blindfolded, spun round, and then guessing which tree they had been taken to.

One of the biggest hits was the bow and arrow making sessions, the results of which were subsequently put to use in the archery competition. Learning how to safely make a fire was also very popular, with everyone foraging for materials to burn. Once the gathering was finished, ranger Dougie produced a flint and, together with some of the children, soon got the fire going. A host of volunteers served the food, while the queues were entertained by a Fire Juggler. Rabbi Eli had no problem getting a Minyan (the Hebrew term for the quorum) needed for Minchah, the afternoon prayer service, after which, in the beautiful forest setting, he gave a talk about the meaning of LaG B’Omer. When we first started to discuss this event, the Forestry Commission suggested including 60 participants. In the end we had around 178 people there, including around 90 children under 16, almost three times our previous biggest event – and definitely three times as much fun.


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3.4 Our approach to Internet accessibilityOur external website has to meet the demands of a wide range of users, including woodland owners seeking information about regulation and grant aid, school teachers and parents looking to understand how to use the forests as a learning environment, people looking for jobs or volunteer opportunities, and those looking for recreation opportunities.

As a Government department we are committed to making our site accessible and easy to use. To ensure that our site continues to meet the needs of our users we work to the AA standard and have in the past commissioned independent audits and testing by people with total and partial vision impairments, physical disabilities and those with cognitive impairments.

3.5 Our forests in your homeIn order to give people who are unable to visit, or are unsure of visiting our forests a taste of what we can offer, we have created pages on our web site called Our Forests in Your Home. The site shows many of the activities that can be experienced by visitors, gives information and videos on wildlife, recreation options and climate change. The site also offers a link to the pages that let people search for details of the nearest forest to their home and discover what events and facilities are available there. In order to make these pages as useful and interesting as possible for our intended audience, we will add to them and refine them over time as new content becomes available.

3.6 Monitoring our visitor numbersDuring 2015 we conducted Public Opinion Surveys for Scotland and England. The Surveys indicate that people have a great interest in visiting forests and that around two thirds or more of all respondents said they had visited forests or woodlands in the last few years.

The Public Opinion Survey records positive responses from respondents in different categories. Those that responded “Yes” to the question ‘In the last few years, have you visited forests or woodlands for walks, picnics or other recreation?’ also provided the following information in relation to their protected characteristics:


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Age 44 or Age 45 or

6617% 83% 51% 49%19 6% 94% 46%69 54%11

We are increasingly creating woodlands close to towns, to make these green spaces more accessible to a wider range of communities and customers. Those that responded “Yes” to the question ‘Types of woodlands visited - Woodlands in and around towns.’ also provided the following information in relation to their protected characteristics:

Disabled Not disabled Female Male BAME White Age 44 or less

Age 45 or over

20% 80% 48% 52% 9% 91% 54% 46%

Those that responded “Yes” to the question ‘Types of woodlands visited – Woodlands in the countryside’ also provided the following information in relation to their protected characteristics:

Disabled Not disabled Female Male BAME White Age 44 or less

Age 45 or over

18% 82% 48% 52% 2% 98% 45% 55%

The Public Opinion Survey is undertaken every two years. This year we have few significant changes. However, there was an increase from 2% to 7% in the number of BAME visitors to sites near towns or cities, although no increase in the number of BAME visitors to sites in the countryside.


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The responses given by participants of the Public Opinion Survey highlighted that there are various reasons why people do not visit forests. These reasons include personal mobility problems (difficulty in walking, etc), not having a car or that woods were too far away.

Our initiative of creating and facilitating the creation of woods close to towns should, over time, mean that more people have access to woodlands that are closer to where they work and/or live. We also continually review our existing facilities to ensure they are available and can be accessed by as wide a range of people as possible. To ensure that these facilities meets the needs, where possible, of all our diverse customer groups, we continue to work to understand the barriers which can prevent people visiting our forests and are working with different groups and associations to identify and put in place solutions, and promote the services we offer.

Case Study:

Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) with Health All Round & Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service (MEHIS)

FCS has funded an application from Health All Round to deliver walks in local woodlands in partnership with the Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service.

Health All Round is a community health project based in South West Edinburgh with the aim of improving physical, social, and mental wellbeing, and contributing to the reduction of health inequalities in Edinburgh. The project aimed to engage people with local woodlands and fitted in with FCS’s diversity objectives. A key part of this project was the partnership between Health All Round and MEHIS to deliver the project to the target group. MEHIS is an NHS service which works specifically with Black Asian Ethnic Minority (BAME) communities and exists to change the negative outcomes for their communities.

BAME people are less likely to achieve the targets for physical activity than that of the general population. Less than 1 in 5 members of BAME communities are participating in physical activities even as regularly as once a month, with 92% of South Asian women not achieving the recommended levels of activity. Also, there is evidence of a lack of engagement in accessing greenspace.

Lack of physical activity and accessing greenspace show the potential for projects like this to help address these health inequalities. 22 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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This project addresses both of these by encouraging and supporting people from BAME backgrounds to be more active, and engage with local woodland.

The project delivered a guided walk, mini beast adventure for families and wild art. A total of 54 people attended. This included people of six different ethnicities, three people with disabilities and four different faith groups participated.

A new resource was created to support more walks in the area – a map and information leaflet in various languages was produced from the walk in Urdu, Arabic and Chinese.

In partnership, this project successfully engaged with a group which is traditionally viewed as ‘hard to reach’. Through this project, there is scope for future projects and work around the same topics of accessing woodland and walks. Those attending the walks were actively asking if there were other plans, and when future walks would be.

Knowing where local greenspace is, and low level physical activity levels are two health inequalities this project helped to address and will continue to do so going forward. One of the projected outcomes was for participants to come away with a better understanding of where local woodlands are. Feedback has shown that this project has helped to achieve this, and also, increase the likelihood of them returning or accessing other woodland areas.

In relation to physical activity, this project has helped to raise the participant’s awareness of physical activity. This is important as being physically active can be an effective way of combating many of the health issues faced by these communities including cardio vascular disease and diabetes. Also, as a short term health impact the participants reported improved mental health through reduced feelings of anxiety and depression.

By funding this project FCS has created a long lasting legacy which will continue to impact on those involved and wider communities for the foreseeable future. One of the main positive outcomes has been the development of the partnership between Health All Round and MEHIS opening the door for future projects together.

The maps and leaflets developed to support this project will be an excellent local resource to encourage more people in the local area to access and explore this piece of woodland. These maps, as well as being used through Health All Round and MEHIS, will also be 23 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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used by the water of Leith conservation trust to engage and encourage others to explore this woodland. This will allow all organisations to engage with other local community groups and schools. It is also hoped that maps will also be made available in other languages; increasing the awareness of the walks in minority communities where English is not the first language, overcoming one of the barriers which prevents people from accessing local woodland and greenspace. Additionally, one of the benefits was that all ages of the communities came together, improving inter-generational relationships within communities.

A main outcome of the project had been to identify walk leaders; we have found thirteen individuals who are interested in becoming walk leaders. Again, this will help to increase the sustainability of the project by giving the participants the skills and knowledge to set up their own walking groups. Once these groups are established they will be supported through a walking network, this demonstrates the natural progression/encouraging integration and promoting good relations between the communities of Lothian, across different ethnic and racial groups.

To find out more about the Minority Ethnic Health Inclusion Service click here

Forestry Commission joint venture site named the best of the best

Moors Valley Country Park, which is a joint venture between Forestry Commission England and East Dorset District Council, was hailed as the winner of winners at the Dorset Tourism awards. The site won this award after being awarded the gold award for large visitor attraction, and a silver award for access and inclusivity – the first time this award has been made- and a silver award for our Go Ape partner.

To win the award, the team at Moors Valley has undertaken a range of work to make the park more accessible and inclusive of all abilities and levels of fitness. The routes on flat ground have been levelled and tarmacked to make them more accessible. This good practice makes the paths more accessible to everyone, not just wheelchair users, but people pushing prams or using walking sticks as well. The site has acccessible toilets, with a pull cord for safety and a radar key access toilet facility to ensure greater access and inclusivity for our visitors with a disability.

A “Changing Room” accessible toilet has also been built to help the carers for disabled adults assist them in the toilets. There is a 24 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/article/5697/Minority-Ethnic-Health-Inclusion-Service

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hoist, adult sized cot, lower toilet seat and extra room for careers to be able to manoeuvre an adult, which most disabled toilets don’t have.

To make Moors Valley more accessible the FC has invested in two Tramper all terrain mobility scooters, which can cope with woodland paths even in wet conditions and some cross country terrain to enable people who wouldn’t normally be able to access the park off the main thoroughfares to see more of the forest and parkland. The staff at Moors Valley will demonstrate how to use the scooters to first time users to ensure they can safely and inclusively access the park.

Additionally, Moors Valley Country Park – in conjunction with Wessex Accessible Cycling Club, have a wide range of additional facilities such as specialist bikes for accessible cycling which include Recumbent Hand Cycles, Trailer cycles, Trikes, Tandem bicycles and side by side cycles. This enables people without the use of their legs or with mobility issues or learning difficulties to be able to enjoy the experience of a cycle ride through the woods. Matt Beavan, Visitor Services Ranger from Moor Valley explains how it all started. “We were approached by Wessex Accessible Cycling club to work with them. We were inspired by their passion and enthusiasm, we shared their vision for inclusiveness and accessibility of the countryside, so we were happy to work with them. They have successfully sourced funding and grants to buy accessible bikes”. The range of accessible bikes and equipment means that there really is something for everyone at Moor Valley.

All of this is done not to simply comply with equality legislation, but rather to ensure that we are being inclusive to attract the widest range of customers.

Since the park is part owned by the local authority they have worked together with a council department called Activate, which encourages locals referred by their GP to take part in exercise where it can be seen as a positive contribution to both their rehabilitation and general fitness.

In addition to customer service, facilities, information, accessibility, use of social media and effectiveness of websites, Moors Valley’s entry emphasised how the Park’s environment and wildlife helps visitors to have fun outdoors, learn and be active throughout the year.


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2014 was the first year that Moors Valley had entered any scheme of this type and they were delighted to come away with a silver award in the Large Visitor Attraction category on that occasion. Clare Gronow, Team Leader at Moors Valley said, “Dorset has some fantastic visitor attractions and the competition was really intense so I’m over the moon that we achieved gold in the Large Visitor Attraction group this year. To get a silver award in the new Access & Inclusivity category and for our Go Ape partner to also win silver was a fantastic bonus. But to also be named Winner of Winners is beyond our wildest expectations.

“Last year was the first time we had put ourselves forward for anything like this and we were delighted to achieve silver status on our first attempt. To return this year and do so well against such tough opposition is a great reflection on the dedication of the Moors Valley team and the partner businesses that are based here. It is a public acknowledgement of the way we continue to deliver the highest possible levels of customer service to three quarters of a million visitors, of all ages, for 364 days of the year.”

As well as a visitor centre, restaurant, trails and picnic areas, Moors Valley runs a full programme of activities and events. The Park is also home to the Moors Valley Railway, 18-hole golf course, and Go Ape Tree Top Adventure and Junior Tree Top Adventure. It is one of the most-visited country parks in the UK with around 750,000 people using its facilities every year.

Mike Seddon, Director of Operations for Forestry Commission England congratulated Moors Valley Country Park:

“We are delighted and proud to win this award as being the best large visitor attraction in Dorset. It is great recognition of the excellent site and staff at Moors Valley, especially when you consider the range of attractions we were up against. I am especially pleased that we were recognised with a silver award for access and inclusivity, as ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access and enjoy forests and the facilities at our sites is central to the diversity vision of the Forestry Commission. This, together with the silver for Go Ape contributed to us being crowned the winner of winners, which marks an outstanding achievement for all the team at Moors Valley Country Park”.

To find out more about Moors Valley Country Park please click here


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/moorsvalleycountrypark

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4. Our approach to our staff4.1 Building and retaining a diverse workforce A key theme of our People Strategy is to recruit and employ more people with as wide a range of protected characteristics as possible, in order to make the Forestry Commission more representative of the communities we serve. The introduction of Government wide cuts and restrictions on budgets has meant that our external recruitment has reduced, due to the requirement to downsize the organisation and the wider public sector. Improving the diversity of our staff is difficult under these continuing restrictions, but it remains an aim.

Traditionally, employment in the forestry profession has been male dominated and perceived as a practical, outdoors, and physical role. Given that the locations of many of our sites are far from urban areas, it is unsurprising that historically the workforce has been almost exclusively white. In order to attract a more diverse range of applicants to our advertised vacancies we have been proactive in trying to dispel some of the myths surrounding forestry, including working with schools and careers services to promote the forestry sector as a career option, developing skills training in a forest environment for young people aged 16 to 24, and increasing the number of apprenticeships. Whilst one part of the forestry sector continues to manage trees and process timber, the contemporary forestry profession is far broader in the scope and the variety of roles on offer.

Jobs in forestry today include the development of policy, the management of grants and regulations, sales and retail, public education, recreation, conservation, teaching and lifelong learning, resource planning, development planning, science and research, civil engineering, and partnership brokerage, as well as support roles in Human Resources, administration, finance, marketing, communications and business development.


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Case Studies:

Thinking outside the box helps answer safety questionnaire

Early in 2015 the Safety, Health and Environment team were helping to prepare the Safety Climate Survey when they identified an opportunity to get more people to complete the survey by engaging with agency staff who were working on Forestry Commission Nursery sites growing our youngest trees. Many of the people doing this job are Polish and only have English as their second language. In order to improve the opportunity to understand those people’s attitudes and their perceptions of health and safety where they work, the Safety, Health and Environment team decided to have the survey translated into Polish (by existing bi-lingual staff) as a pilot to increase the return rate. We used the Nursery sites at Delamere and Newton as we knew that a large proportion of staff were native Polish speakers.

The net result was that the return on the survey by Polish agency workers was excellent. It meant we have been able to produce reports on what really matters to people and to show where we should be making improvements. Following this successful pilot the Forestry Commission indicated it would use this method of communication again if it would improve how we engage the minority communities we work with and have a duty of care to.

Safety, Health and Environment Manager Gordon Adam said; “This practical example of taking positive action to better understand the views of our diverse agency workforce means that as an employer we better understand the safety issues affecting our people, which in turn gives us the opportunity to make us a better and safer place to work.”

Forestry Commission staff shine brightly at awards ceremony

The Forestry Commission is delighted to report that two of members of staff have been awarded at the Lantra Scotland’s 12th annual Land-based and Aquaculture Learner of the Year ceremony; attended by 220 employers, trainees and industry representatives who came together to celebrate the achievements of 29 talented winners and runners up across 15 award categories, the highest numbers since the awards began in 2003.


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Lesley Stalker, aged 27 from Clydebank Office in the Scottish Lowlands Forest District won the Trees and Timber Learner of the Year 2015 at Lantra Scotland’s annual awards ceremony. In a doubly successful evening for the Forestry Commission Heather Forbes, 32 from Inverness Ross and Skye Forest District was named runner-up.

Our two former apprentices received their awards from chef Nick Nairn at a gala dinner at Dunblane Hydro. Lesley has recently completed a Modern Apprenticeship Level 2 and 3 in Trees and Timber with Forestry Commission Scotland and works as a Woodland Warden. She is currently assisting with the management of over 10 sites, where she is involved in hands-on practical work, from general site maintenance to community engagement work. She is also helping set up and run community events and regular volunteer sessions for local schools and colleges.

Lesley was delighted to pick up her award: ”Winning the Trees and Timber Learner of the Year award is a real honour and being one of the few female trainees to do so makes it extra special. I have recently started a permanent post with Forestry Commission Scotland where I hope to gain more knowledge and take on greater responsibilities within the organisation. Becoming a work supervisor is my next goal. This will allow me to get involved with practical work as well as gain more responsibility within the team.”

Peter Mitchell, Lesley’s nominator from Forestry Commission Scotland added: “We are all delighted that Lesley has won this award, it is thoroughly deserved. She is a great ambassador for Forestry Commission Scotland and the Trees and Timber Apprenticeship. Lesley showed great drive to complete her Level 3 in Trees and Timber, working evenings while doing a full-time job. She completed it in record time for an apprentice during the time the Skills Unit has been in existence, and shows real promise for the future.”

Heather, who was formerly a trainee was appointed to a full time role as a Forest Crafts Person in late 2014, and recognises the importance of focusing on development for her choice of career: “ I don’t come from a forestry background so all the learning has 29 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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been very important “. Having completed her Level 2 in Trees and Timber Heather hopes to study further to develop her knowledge at the Forestry College in Inverness. “I have decided that I want to stay in this industry until I retire as I enjoy this job and being outdoors. I will need to continually increase my learning and progress into other jobs across the Forestry Commission, as there are so many roles I could do.” She is also aware of the gender diversity in forestry; “I don’t know any other women who are Forest Crafts People, so it’s important to me to grow in my role and do well. I am happy to break a barrier and set an example for other young women who want to enter forestry.”

Keith Paterson Head of Skills Support Unit FC Scotland applauded their efforts and achievements: “We are very proud of the success of our trainees and the recognition this provides for the Forestry Commissions’ training programmes. We are especially pleased that ambitious young women like Heather and Lesley have been successful as we know that historically some of the roles in forestry have been male dominated and we want to develop a culture where everyone has the opportunity to develop to their full potential.”

4.2 Restructuring our business As a public sector organisation, the Forestry Commission will continue to embed the structural changes necessary as a result of the Government’s Spending Review reductions.

In addition to this, the Government’s response to the Independent Panel on Forestry included the establishment in the longer term of a new body to hold the Public Forest Estate in trust for the nation. Establishing such a new body with greater independence from Government, and greater freedom to manage its own resources, will require further significant structural reform and demand long


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term resourcing to manage the transition. The Scottish Government has also announced its intention to take full responsibility for forestry in Scotland.

As a result, new governance and management arrangements are in place for Shared Services and Cross Border Functions. FC England, FC Scotland and Forest Research will build their own support service capacity and functions and teams such as the Diversity Team will be delivered from the countries and Forest Research Agency from April 2016.

4.3 Equality and Diversity trainingThe Forestry Commission has developed and delivers in-house equality and diversity training. We have different levels of training events, tailored to suit the needs of staff and depending upon their level of exposure to customers and/or their involvement in policy making. The training includes all aspects of equality and relates to the Forestry Commission’s business. We have developed on-line training modules for staff and managers and face-to-face training on the Equality Analysis process. The sessions included in our New Entrant (induction) courses have also been re-designed. In addition, FC staff now have access to the suite of Equality and Diversity training available through Civil Service Learning.

All new and existing training events managed by the Forestry Commission are reviewed to ensure appropriate equality and diversity messages and considerations are included. All our in-house Learning and Development trainers have attended learning sessions and have regular liaison with the Diversity Team to increase their understanding of equality and diversity and how it might impact upon their work. This year, the Diversity Team presented sessions of the future of the Diversity agenda, the business benefits of engaging with diverse communities and having diverse staff and unconscious bias to the entire Learning and Development team at one of their bi-annual team away-days.

4.4 Equality and Diversity Staff ForumMembership of our Staff Forum is drawn from volunteers across the Forestry Commission, and includes people from a range of different protected characteristic groups. Formed in 2008, the Staff Forum meets regularly to provide advice and feedback on policies and services that affect staff, to highlight any equality and diversity issues and support the Equality and Diversity Team in promoting equality and diversity throughout the organisation. 31 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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Over the last 12 months the Staff Forum has contributed to a number of policy developments and reviews, including:

Engaging with our Diversity Champions to continue to embed diversity priorities across the organisation; Reported on diversity events in their business area, and shared best practice with others; and, Contributed to the review and refresh of HR and Equality and Diversity policies, processes and guidance notes that impact on

staff. Helped develop and cascaded a practical language guide, reinforcing acceptable language in order to create an inclusive and

welcoming workplace.

4.5 Staff Survey 2015 We conduct a staff survey every two years to gauge satisfaction levels across the organisation and to identify areas for further investigation and improvement. The latest staff survey was undertaken in September 2015.

Overall, 62% (1605) of staff in post completed the survey, which is higher than the response rate of the previous survey in 2013. This means the FC has a good robust set of results on which to make decisions and inform the development and implementation of the People Strategy for the future. The organisational strengths and improvements since 2013 all contribute to a continued high level of staff engagement with the index at 71% in 2015 which is 13 percentage points higher than the benchmark for other civil service organisations.

The staff survey asks staff to provide information on their protected characteristics, which enables us to gather and analyse data in relation to information not currently gathered on our HR system, including religion and belief, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as age, disability, ethnicity and gender.

Of those staff that completed the staff survey:

57% said they were male (down 1% from 2013), 32% female (same as 2013) and 11% preferred not to say (up 1% from 2013).


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2% identified as being aged 16 to 24 (down 1%), 15% as 25 to 34 (down 1%), 23% as 35 to 44 (same as 2013), 31% as 45 to 54 (up 1%), 20% as 55 to 64 (up 4%) and 1% as 65 and over (same as 2013) and 9% preferred not to disclose their age (down 3%). Note that because of rounding figures, these percentages do not add up to 100%.

92% identified as White (down 2% from 2013), 2% identify as Black Asian or Minority Ethnic (up from 2013) and 6% preferred not to disclose their ethnicity (same as 2013).

40% identified as Christian (all denominations, down 2%), 46% as having no religion or as Atheist (up 3%), 2% as other religion (down 1%), and 12% preferred not to disclose their religion or belief (same as 2013).

86% do not have a disability, 5% considered themselves to be disabled (up 1%) and 9% preferred not to disclose.

82% identified their sexual orientation as heterosexual (down 3% from 2013), 2% as a gay man or lesbian or as bisexual (up 1% from 2013) and 16% preferred not to disclose their sexual orientation (up 2% from 2013).

3% identified as being transgender (up 1.5% from 2013).

An interesting observation is that we now have a similar number of staff from the following protected characteristics; BAME, LGB and other religions, which helps FC managers realise the importance of a broad diversity agenda, supporting an inclusive workplace for all staff from all protected characteristics.

More employees would rather not share their sexual orientation, than any other protected characteristic, with 16% withholding the information, whereas only 6% withheld their race, 12% their religion and 9% their disability. Also, a surprisingly high number of people failed to identify their gender (11%). This may reflect a potential lack of organisational trust.

Under the section on “Inclusive and Fair Treatment”, the following results were received:

“My part of the organisation has a culture where discriminatory treatment, harassment and bullying are not tolerated”. Average positive score was 79% (a fall of 3% since 2013) and 8% disagreed.

There was little difference in ages, although among 16-24 year olds, 79% agreed, while 83% of over 55s agreed with it. Similarly, 9% of 16-24 year olds disagreed with the statement, while 7% 45-54s, and 6% of over 55s.


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81% of men said bullying was not tolerated, against 82% of women. Although 7% of men disagreed with this statement, against 8% of women.

82% of non-disabled people agreed with the statement, while 78% of disabled people did. While 81% of Christians and Atheists agreed that discrimination was not tolerated, a lower proportion of other religions felt

this with only 69% agreeing. 7% of Christians and 8% of other religions and Atheists disagreed, 79% of LGB staff said they agreed with the statement, and 82% of heterosexual people. However, while only 7% of

heterosexual people disagreed, 12% of LGB people disagree that discriminatory treatment, harassment and bullying were not tolerated.

“I would feel able to report bullying/harassment without worrying that it would have a negative impact on me”. 72% of participants provided a positive response (down 4% on 2013), while the negative response was 11%.

In terms of age, 78% of over 55s and 75% of 16-24s agreed. While 35-44 and 45-54 year olds were both lower at 72%. On gender, males were more likely to agree they’d feel comfortable reporting bad behaviour (76%); women were lower at

70%. Similarly only 9% of men disagreed, but 12% of women would not be comfortable reporting bullying, marking a strong gender difference.

With regard to disability, 75% of non-disabled agreed, while only 58% of disabled people did. Also, 10% of non-disabled people disagreed that they would be able to report bullying without worrying about any negative impact, whereas 22% of disabled people would not report it.

On race, 78% of BAME were positive about reporting problems without any impact on them, against 72% of the white majority. Although 15% of BAME disagreed that they wouldn’t worry about reporting, whereas only 12% of Whites did.

In terms of religious groups, 73% of Christians and 74% of Atheists were comfortable reporting concerns, whereas only 69% of other Religions felt comfortable about the lack of impact. There was no difference in negative perceptions; all groups said 11% would not report it.

Heterosexual (74%) and LGB (73%) feel similar levels about feeling comfortable to report without impact, but more LGB staff (18%) have negative perceptions than heterosexual staff (11%).

“I am treated fairly at work”. 82% of participants provided a positive response, down from 85% in 2013, while 16% responded negatively that they weren’t.

Men and women responded the dame positive rate with 85% agreeing, and 6% disagreeing. There was little difference in terms of age with all groups responding 85% positive apart form 45-54 who were at 82%.

Disabled people were less positive (78%) than non-disabled (85%); and 12% responded they disagreed about being treated fairly, compared to 6% of non-disabled people.


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BAME were less likely to feel respected, 74% compared to 84% White staff; although the same amount of staff disagreed, 7% for both groups.

LGB staff responded only slightly less positively than heterosexual staff, 82% versus 84%, although two years ago, this figure was 100% for LGB staff.

“I am treated with respect by the people I work with” 84% of participants provided a positive response, and decrease of 1% from 2013, while 7% disagreed.

There were no significant age differences, although age 45-54 again were less positive (82%) than others. 2% more women felt treated with respect compared to men, (87% compared to 85%) and men were slightly more likely to disagree they were treated with respect. Once again disabled staff felt less positive, only 78% against 86% against non-disabled. There were no significant racial differences in terms of positive responses to being treated with respect, Whites 84% and BAME 85%) although Whites felt less likely to agree with the question, 7% against 4% BAME.

Other religious groups were likely to feel less respected, (only 78% agreed compared to 86% Christian and 85% Atheists, and were more likely to say they were not treated with respect 11% against 6% for all others. LGB staff (88%) felt slightly more respected that straight staff (86%).

“I think my part of the organisation respects individual differences e.g. cultures, working styles, backgrounds, ideas, etc.” 82% of participants provided a positive response, (same as in 2103) and only 5% disagreed.

Women were more positive about their teams respecting differences (86%) than men (83%). Disabled people were also less likely to agree 79% against 84% non-disabled and much more likely to disagree, with 13% against 4% non-disabled. Only 2% less BAME staff agreed (81% versus 83% white) but 11% disagreed, compared to 5% White staff. Other religions were less positive and more likely to disagree (8%) about their teams respecting differences, compared to Christians (5%) and Atheists (4%). LGB Staff felt their teams were positive 88%, compared to 84% heterosexual, and less likely to be negative about their teams.

The staff survey also seeks to identify where staff feel they are being bullied or harassed, or that they feel they are being discriminated against. The following results highlight that in response to the question:

“Are you currently being harassed or bullied at work” 2% of participants stated yes, a decrease of 3% from 2013; and,

“During the past 12 months have you personally experienced discrimination at work?” 5% of participants stated yes, a decrease of 1% from 2013.


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The highest age group to experience bullying were the 45-54 year olds at 3%. There were no gender differences. 7% of disabled staff felt they were being bullied or harassed. BAME staff were less likely than White staff to experience bullying and Other Religions a little more than Christians and Atheists. However LGB staff are three times more likely to feel bullied than Heterosexual staff (6% compared 2%).

Based on investigation and analysis, it seems increasingly unlikely to be accurate that 3% of staff who answered the survey have transitioned gender. This equates to 49 individual staff who have changed gender in their lifetime. An estimate of the GB Trans population is 1%, with approximately 20% of this group seeking treatment. This means that according to the Staff Survey results the FC has considerably more Trans people than the average UK population. This seems unlikely and the higher reporting rate is likely to be mis-reporting.

The results show that there is a sizeable group of staff who are reluctant to share their personal demographic diversity data. This group of staff are among the more disengaged employees when answering every question. The Diversity Team will explore the reasons for this with the Survey provider and compare results with other organisations to explore whether this is a common issue experienced by other organisations.

5. Monitoring dataWe have completed a detailed monitoring process for employment data collected between April 2014 and March 2015. In the outcomes detailed in the following tables, we have represented the total Forestry Commission figures, though breakdown for each management unit is available on request from the Diversity Team. The information was based on a snapshot as of 31st March 2015.

Please note that staffing data used to complete these tables covers those considered to be in paid employment by the Forestry Commission, including Public Appointments, office holders, and some apprentices. As such, figures may differ from other published reports, which only include Forestry Commission staff.

5.1 Overview of our analysis


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The following tables show the detail of our workforce and specific comments have been made against each table. In summary, the tables below demonstrate that our workforce is predominantly male (66%), White British (95%), not disabled (97%) and aged 40 or over (68%).

Of our administrative staff 77% are women and 23% men. Of our forestry staff 12% are women and 88% men. Our IT staff are made up of 34% women and 66% men, while scientists are 38% women and 62% men. When looking at professional staff (who are defined as non-administrative, forestry, IT or scientific staff, above pay band 5); 40% are women and 60% men, showing that women do hold senior influential roles in the organisation.

Of the women in our workforce 42% of hold administration roles, 17% work in forestry roles, 3% in IT, 6% in scientific roles and 32% are in professional roles.

Only 22 staff report that they are Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME), 0.85% of the total workforce, with 7 staff preferring not to disclose their ethnicity. Of our BAME staff, 19% are in administrative positions, 19% in forestry posts, 0% in IT and 24% in science roles and the remaining 38% are in professional roles.

Of our disabled staff of 15% are in administrative positions, and 51% in forestry posts, 5% in IT, 3% in scientific roles and the remaining 22% are in professional roles. It is noted that disabled staff are far less likely than women or BAME staff to hold a professional role.

In our internal post filling and promotion process, male applicants were more likely to be successful and promoted than their female colleagues. However, it should be noted that the current gender demographic of the organisation is male dominant (66%) therefore we are more likely to receive a higher volume of applicants from this group for our internal recruitment campaigns. However, when considering the percentage of successful applicants and those promoted within each protected characteristic group, males were only slightly more successful. Disabled applicants were less likely to be successful than people without disabilities, and also less likely to be promoted. We shall continue to monitor this, but the low numbers of disabled staff make it difficult to draw conclusions. There were no direct reports of discrimination by people with disabilities based on the recruitment and/or promotion procedures. BAME and White Other applicants were least likely to be successful or promoted during the year. Again, we shall continue to monitor this, but the low numbers of BAME and White Other staff employed overall and applying for vacancies make it difficult to draw conclusions.37 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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As a result Government Spending Reviews, we have limited our advertising programme which promoted our job opportunities in media outlets specifically targeted to women, people with disabilities and people from minority ethnic backgrounds. We took this action, as although a more limited recruitment programme remained, we did not want to raise expectations beyond our capacity to recruit while the organisation was downsizing. However, our External Recruitment data shows that there was an increase in the number of applications from people from Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) and White Other backgrounds, and those aged 40 and over this year than had been recorded in the previous year although the numbers remain low in comparison to the overall number of applications.

We provide a wide range of internal training, to suit the requirements of the business and provide a Management Development Programme to provide our managers with the necessary skills to progress, or to improve their performance. This programme is targeted more towards managers’ individual skill sets than our previous management training events. The Forestry Commission has its own in-house Learning and Development team, who design and deliver training in response to business needs. External training is also widely used to cover areas of particular expertise e.g. IT software. Our in-house Learning and Development team receives regular updates on equality and diversity issues and offer flexible training options to those who request them because they have a disability or caring responsibilities. This enables more people to access training by removing barriers created by the training materials, or by the need to travel to a training venue or commit whole days to training.

Our analysis allows us to identify and investigate any apparent discrepancies in the year, but the low numbers of disabled and BAME staff means that the data can be significantly changed by just one or two people being promoted, accessing training, receiving top performance marks etc. We compare data gathered over the years to see whether any trends are developing, and whether discrepancies are repeated year on year. There are some historical and cultural reasons behind the composition of our workforce. Careers in forestry operational roles can be perceived as masculine and requiring great physical strength and mobility; this has resulted in long-standing occupational segregation.

5.2 Staff in post as at 31 March 2015


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Age 39 or Age 40 or

76 2524 873 1727 22 101 2469 843 1757

3% 97% 34% 66% 1% 4% 95% 32% 68%*0.3% of staff racial group “unknown”

The table shows that our workforce of 2600 people is predominantly male, not disabled, aged 40 or over and White British.

Our staff turnover was 23% for 2011/12; 24% for 2012/13; 13% for 2013/14 and 12% for 2014/15. The higher rates in the earlier years can be accounted for by a higher number of exits due to a voluntary exit programme.

Our staff age data shows that our workforce is predominantly made up of staff aged 40 and over. Only 4% (115) of our staff are aged 24 or under and 34% of these are on Short Term Temporary Contracts compared with 56% in 2013/14. Many of these staff are participating in our Apprenticeship Schemes.


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5.3 Full/part time split at 31 March 2015

Disabled Not disabled Female Male BAME White Other

White British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Full time 75% 85% 66% 94% 91% 89% 84% 88% 82%

Part time 25% 15% 34% 6% 9% 11% 16% 12% 18%

The percentage of staff that work part time has decreased slightly in comparison to 2013/14 across all staff, from 15.8% to 14.9%. While there were slight increases in the number of female, over 40 and White British staff working part time and an 8% increase in disabled people working part time. Conversely there was an increase in the number of BAME staff working full time, from 82% to 91% up 9% this year.

The data highlights that women are still more likely to be part time than men to work part time. The reasons why women are more likely to work part time are generally well understood and the Forestry Commission has good family friendly policies, including a range of working pattern options, in place to support staff. To help staff with caring responsibilities learn about their rights and what the Forestry Commission can do to help support them, the Diversity Team published guidance on support for Carers.


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5.4 Type of contract at 31 March 2015Disabled Not disabled Female Male BAME White

OtherWhite British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Perm 74% 89% 86% 90% 82% 81% 89% 80% 93%Fixed Term Temp 5% 4% 5% 4% 9% 10% 4% 11% 1%Short Term Temp 11% 4% 5% 3% 9% 6% 4% 8% 2%

Other* 10% 3% 4% 3% 0% 3% 3% 1% 4%* Other – Casual, Office Holders, Part year appointments, Re-employed pensioners, seconded officers, fixed term recurring appointment, committee members, other contractors

The table highlights that the majority of the Forestry Commission’s staff are on permanent contracts. The percentage of staff that have a permanent contract has reduced by 5% to 85%, due mostly to the high number of people recruited on STTAs. As the organisation is currently undergoing a major change programme, there has been an increase in recruitment of Fixed and Short Term staff.

There was a marked increase in the number of Short Term Temporary Assignments declaring a disability, with 11% of those on STTA saying they are disabled, where it was previously zero. This could indicate that younger and newer staff are more comfortable advising us of their disability.

We also offer temporary contracts for our apprenticeship programme and a range of seasonal work; some of these roles such as Nursery workers, are predominantly men, aged under 39, who are non-disabled and from White Other, often Eastern European backgrounds.

5.5 Pay Band at 31 March 2015


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White White Age 39 Age 40

Senior Pay Bands* 1% 1% 1% 1% - - 1% <1% 1%Middle Pay Bands** 5% 12% 9% 12% 14% 7% 12% 4% 15%Other Pay Bands*** 89% 86% 88% 85% 86% 92% 86% 95% 82%Contractors and Office Holders 5% 2% 2% 2% - 1% 1% 1% 2%* Indicates staff who are Commissioners, or in paybands SSG1A, SSG1, and SSG2;** Indicates staff who are in pay bands PB1, PB2 and PB3; and *** Indicates staff who are in paybands PB4, PB5, PB5(Op), PB6A, PB6A(Op), PB6B and PB7.

The table shows that distribution of protected characteristics across the pay bands is quite even and has not changed significantly from the figures reported in previous years, with non-disabled, male and aged over 40 staff likely to be in a higher pay band.

The differential for age at Middle Management level can be explained by longer service and greater experience, with most senior staff being older. The most significant difference is for Disabled staff in the lower grades, where there was a drop of 4% to 89%. Detailed analysis shows that 13% of our White Other staff are employed on Part Year Appointments to work at our Tree Nurseries in entry level roles, where limited management positions are available.

Despite continued staff turnover and because of limited permanent recruitment, there has been little change in the distribution of staff across the Pay Bands compared to previous years.


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5.6 Internal post filling and promotion during 2014/2015

376

Disability Gender Ethnicity Age

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Number of Applicants 11 362 3 97 277 2 6 11 356 3 193 178 5

Breakdown of number of applicants

from each protected characteristic 3% 96% 1% 26% 74% <1% 2% 3% 95% <1% 51% 47% 2%

Breakdown of number of Interviewed applicants

from each protected characteristic 3% 96% 1% 28% 72% <1% 1% 2% 96% 1% 58% 41% 1%

Breakdown of number of Successful applicants from each

protected characteristic moving in sideways career move 2% 97% 1% 32% 68% 0% 1% 2% 97% 0% 65% 34% 1%

Breakdown of number of Successful & Promoted

applicants from protected characteristic 3% 97% 0% 27% 73% 0% 0% 4% 96% 0% 72% 28% 0%

Outcome of promotion process, broken down by stages of the process, for each Protected Characteristic Group Interviewed 82% 76% 67% 82% 74% 50% 50% 55% 77% 33% 85% 65% 80%Successful 27% 36% 33% 44% 32% 0% 17% 27% 36% 0% 45% 25% 20%All Successful and Promoted 18% 19% 0% 20% 19% 0% 0% 27% 19% 0% 26% 11% 0%

With the exception of Forest Research, which holds traditional promotion boards for its scientific staff, the Forestry Commission holds internal competitions for many of its vacancies. Success in an internal competition will result in promotion when the job advertised is at a higher pay band than that of the successful applicant. 43 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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The data highlights that:

Applicants for internal vacancies are predominantly male, not disabled, White British and aged 40 or over; Females, disabled, BAME and White Other, and aged 39 or less were slightly more likely to be successful in their application in

comparison to overall numbers who applied; and Staff who were not disabled, male, White British and aged 39 or less were more likely to gain promotion following a successful

application. While no BAME staff were promoted internally, and they were 27% less likely to be interviewed than White British Staff, 17% were

successful in obtaining sideways moves. 22% fewer White Other staff than White British were likely to be interviewed, but were more likely be appointed.

Given no BAME staff were promoted internally, the Diversity team will raise this at the next Staff Forum and write to HR Business Partners suggesting that all recruiting managers receive formal recruitment training and that they are asked to undertake the Civil Service Learning Unconscious Bias e-learning module.

Previously the Forestry Commission decided to introduce compulsory completion of diversity information as part of our recruitment process to improve the data analysis. This continues to provide better quality analysis. Although now in the third year, it should be noted that there still remains a small number of candidates who preferred not to disclose their information when applying for internal vacancies but this had a very minor impact on the statistics.

We shall continue to monitor this data and establish whether there is any trend or indication that staff from BAME or White Other backgrounds are less likely to apply for vacant posts than other staff. If so, we shall invite the Equality and Diversity Staff Forum to help us understand any barriers and identify solutions, to encourage more of our BAME staff to enter internal competitions.

The results of Staff Surveys have consistently highlighted that there was a significant proportion of staff who felt that the organisation’s post-filling and promotion procedures were not fair or transparent. In response to this, in 2013 the Social and Economic Research Group (SERG) of Forest Research were commissioned with designing and managing a survey open to all Forestry


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Commission staff with the objective of assessing levels of staff satisfaction with these and improving understanding of the reasons behind satisfaction or dissatisfaction.

The results of the survey by SERG highlighted that staff felt that:

Clarity of policy, procedure and process could be better; Sometimes there was perception of failure to apply policy procedure and process correctly; There was a lack of skills and experience of the recruitment procedure and process within the business; Timeliness of process could be better defined, particularly around time taken to trawl vacancies and in providing constructive

feedback to candidates; and, Difficulty and dislike of I-Grasp E-recruitment portal (online application process).

Findings from the survey were presented to the Human Resources Management Board (HRMB), and the following key actions were agreed and turned into a plan which ran until early 2015:

A Working Group should be convened to oversee and deliver actions; Undertaking a full review recruitment of policies, procedures and processes to provide clearer guidance for Managers and

Employees; Develop further training to support managers, including the development of E-Learning modules; Create additional guidance to support candidates (both internal and external), including the development of E-Learning modules; Review ‘Best Practice’ to simplify using the Civil Service Competency Framework; Review alternative options and consider changing our E-recruitment portal; Create end to end process maps of the recruitment process to define gaps and look at ways to streamline the process; and Produce progress reports to provide ‘Time to Hire’ details, highlighting recruitment timescales for recruiting managers.

In 2014/15 we continued work to implement these actions, to create a more inclusive Forestry Commission. Part of the good work we have done includes using the Civil Service Recruitment Portal, which ensures we will follow best practice from the Civil Service, including using the guaranteed interview scheme, for disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role.


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In addition, Forest Research has also undertaken a review of recruitment and selection procedures in their business area, particularly in relation to Science Promotion Boards. Changes have been made this year to improve the process and an assessment of the impact of the changes, including reviewing staff views, has been carried out.

5.7 External recruitment during 2014/2015

4554 total

applicationsin 2014/15

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Number of Applications Received 176 4285 93 1487 3022 45 195 417 3882 60 3100 1339 115Breakdown of number of applicants from each protected characteristic 4% 94% 2% 33% 66% 1% 4% 9% 85% 2% 68% 29% 3%Breakdown of number of interviewed

applicants from each protected characteristic 3% 95% 2% 39% 60% 1% 3% 8% 88% 1% 63% 34% 3%Breakdown of number of successful appointed

applicants from protected characteristic 3% 94% 3% 41% 58% 1% 3% 10% 86% 1% 69% 30% 1%As % of total applicants within each Protected Characteristic Group the following were interviewed and successfully appointed.

Interviewed 13% 15% 17% 18% 14% 15% 10% 13% 16% 15% 14% 17% 17%Successful 3% 4% 5% 5% 3% 4% 3% 4% 4% 3% 4% 4% 3%

We advertised 282 external vacancies in 2014/15 and in total we received 4554 applications. A total of 814 people applied for apprenticeship posts – this equated to 17% of overall applications

It was observed in previous monitoring reports that a number of candidates did not complete diversity monitoring information when applying for external vacancies, which affected our data analysis.


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As per internal recruitment, we introduced obligatory completion of diversity information as part of our recruitment process. While we have now done this for three years, it should be noted that there still remains a small number of candidates who preferred not to disclose their information when applying for external vacancies but this had a very minor impact on the statistics.

Restrictions implemented as part of the Government spending review means we have stopped promoting our job opportunities extensively in targeted media outlets to avoid raising expectations beyond our current capacity to recruit.

In 2015, the FC Resourcing team identified a glitch in the Civil Service e-recruitment portal which led to some non UK born applicants having their previous nationality identified during application. This was raised with the Civil Service leads who have taken action to ensure this was fixed at source by the system providers and to ensure that going forward; all aspects of recruitment are anonymous.

In the last three years our data shows that in:

2011/12 we had 284 external vacancies, which attracted 2,151 applications and gives an average applicant to vacancy ratio of 8:1;

2012/13 we had 337 external vacancies, which attracted 11,569 applications and gives an average applicant to vacancy ratio of 34:1; and

2013/14 we had 214 external vacancies, which attracted 3,908 applications and gives an average applicant to vacancy ratio of 18:1.

2014/15 we had 282 external vacancies, which attracted 4,554 applications and gives an average applicant to vacancy ratio of 16:1.

Data shows that, of the successful candidates:

The number of females appointed was 41% while men were 58%. Although women were more likely to be interviewed and appointed.

BAME applicants were less likely to be interviewed and appointed than all White applicants. Over 40s are more likely to get an interview, but the appointment rate is the same.47 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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Applicants from a BAME background, or who considered themselves disabled were least likely to be successful overall, although it should be noted that proportionately these groups have the lowest numbers of applicants.

Additionally, during 2014/15 we also held a recruitment exercise for our Graduate Development Programme (GDP) for three positions. The GDP does not utilise our standard recruitment process, instead applicants successful at each stage progress through the following process:

Application/Pre-screening; Online Aptitude tests; Short interview; Assessment Centre; and Final Interview.

516 total applications *

Disability Gender Ethnicity

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Applicants 3% 95% 2% 43% 56% 1% 5% 11% 81% 2%Successful - 100% - 67% 33% - 33% - 67% -

*Data on age has not been included due the very small number of people applying who are aged 40 and over, as this could lead to people being identified.

Information regarding the protected characteristics of applicants to the GDP highlights similar trends to our main recruitment process, in that the majority of applicants are White British, not disabled and male. We do not analyse age as the vast majority of


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applicants are aged under 25. Although we collect the religion and sexual orientation of graduate applications, we have chosen not to report this as this information is identifiable about individual graduate trainees

Through monitoring we identified a trend in the low percentage of people with disabilities that apply for our external vacancies, including the GDP. Therefore, we commissioned Forest Research to carry out research to gain a fuller understanding in to what disabled people feel and understand about the Commission and the employment opportunities we offer, learn more about the barriers to recruitment experienced by disabled people, and identify potential means to improve application rates from this group.

The research highlighted that in general the environment sector and specifically employment with the Forestry Commission is not an attractive proposition for people with physical, sensory and mental health disabilities. The main issues are perceptions that work is based in inaccessible rural areas, in outdoor settings and involves physical work and complex health and safety contexts. There is very low appreciation of the full range of roles on offer, and the kinds of transferable skills and competencies that can be applied.

A number of recommendations that could potentially increase the numbers of applications from disabled candidates were identified, including:

Changing some advertising practices; Adjusting recruitment processes; Making the Forestry Commission more visible as an organisation and a prospective employer; and, Continuing with a programme of action to support social diversity and quality within the organisation.


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5.8 Performance marking for the year ending 31 March 2015

Performance rating

Disabled Not disabled

Female Male BAME White Other

White British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Top 8% 17% 19% 15% 14% 18% 17% 16% 17%Good 92% 83% 81% 84% 86% 82% 83% 84% 83%Not Fully Effective – less than <1%, figures would be identifiable.

The data shows that females are slightly more likely than males to be awarded a Top Performance and this mirrors the previous two year’s figures. The data also shows BAME staff are less likely to receive a Top Performance rating than any other racial group, as has previously been the case. However, in comparison to last year, there has been less staff across all ethnic groups awarded a Top Performance rating. Previous analysis shows the length of service has a significant impact on the probability of being regarded as a Top Performer; 61% of all staff receiving a Top Performance rating had more than ten years’ service. Currently, only two of our BAME staff have more than ten years’ service.

Staff with a disability are also less likely to be awarded a Top Performance rating than those without a disability, with the number of disabled people achieving a Top Performance rating decreasing from 21% in 2012/13 to 15% in 2013/14 and down further to 8% in 2014/15. Closer analysis of the data shows that the number of staff with disabilities who have achieved a Top Performance rating decreased from 10 people in 2011/12 to 9 people in 2013/14 and is down to only 5 in 2014/15, which is 8%, a drop of 7% in total However, no disabled staff are rated as not fully effective. As a result of the smaller number of disabled staff we employ overall, a small change in the number of people who achieve a rating can have a significant impact on the proportion of staff who achieve a particular rating.

Given the drop in the number of Disabled staff receiving top ratings the Diversity team will work with the L&D team to build positive messages around the management and recognition of disabled staff into performance management training. Also, this will be raised with both the staff forum and with HR Business Partners to monitor and review in the new bodies.


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It should also be noted that traditionally only a few Forestry Commission staff receive a not fully effective rating, meaning that numbers available for analysis at this level are typically very low and therefore there is no traditional normal model of distribution for analysis of performance ratings.

5.9 Internal training, average events attended per person during 2014/15


White British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Forest Man’ment and Operations 0.93 1.28 0.65 1.59 0.95 1.67 1.48 2.24 1.12IT, Product Knowledge People Skills 1.24 1.62 1.88 1.47 0.86 0.98 1.05 1.12 1.01Man’ment Dev’ment Prog 0.04 0.10 0.13 0.08 0.45 0.39 0.19 0.26 0.17All training 2.21 3.00 2.66 3.13 2.77 3.04 2.72 3.62 2.30

Overall, the data shows that there has been a decrease in the average number of internal training events attended by all staff groups and each protected characteristic. Staff under 40 continue to receive more internal training than those over 40 and white staff more than BAME. The table shows that during the year, those aged 39 or less received highest amount of training. This is to be expected, as we have a large proportion of staff aged 39 or less who have been recruited or moved into new roles, including our Apprentices.

Staff who are female, disabled or aged 40 and over received the least amount of training. However, as operational training is focussed in the Forest Management and Operations category, predominantly staffed by men and who less likely to be disabled, we would expect to see these results.


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5.10 External training, events attended per person during 2014/15


White British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

IT 0.00 0.15 0.02 0.01 0.14 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.05Interperson Skills 0.00 0.03 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.03 0.01 0.01 0.00Man’ment training 0.00 0.06 0.07 0.08

0.000.01 0.02 0.00 0.03

Personal Dev’ment 0.01 0.73 0.16 0.27 0.14 0.24 0.25 0.27 0.24Technical training 0.01 0.77 0.19 0.36 0.05 0.2 0.27 0.00 0.25All training 0.02 1.75 0.46 0.74 0.32 0.51 0.61 0.64 0.59

External training covers Continuous Professional Development, specialist courses and conferences. The data shows that in comparison to 2013/14 overall participation in external training by staff across all groups decreased, apart from for those under 40.

The demand for external training can vary, and be influenced by external drivers. For example, due to the high risk nature of our work to comply with Health and Safety legislation 34% of external training was in relation to first aid in the workplace, which must be renewed at least every three years. Given the higher proportion of men in operational roles, this contributes to the higher rates of technical training for males over females.


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5.11 Leavers during 2014/2015

Disabled Not disabled Female Male BAME

White Other

White British

Prefer not to disclose

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Leavers during 2014/2015* 8% 92% 39% 61% 2% 94% 3% 1% 57% 42%

Turnover rate 12%

The breakdown of leavers from each Protected Characteristics Disabled

Not disabled Female Male BAME

White Other

White British

Prefer not to disclose

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Total no of leavers

End of contract ** 46% 54% 54% 55% 43% 64% 54% 60% 66% 37%54%

Retirement *** 25% 13% 9% 18% - 9% 15% - - 33%14%

Resignation 18% 27% 31% 24% 43% 27% 26% 40% 28% 24% 26%

Compulsory Early Leaver - - - - - - - - - -

_

Transfer / Secondment 7% 3% 6% 1% 14% - 3% - 3% 3%

3%

Voluntary Early Exit - <1% - <1% - <1% - - - 1%

_

Dismissal /death in service 4% 2% - <1% - - 2% - 2% 2% 2%

* Total Leavers in 2014/2015 = 363; ** end of contract – end of casual STTA, FTA, PYA contracts; *** Retirement – Actuarial, Age, Medical, Re-employed Pensioner Retired.

As the Forestry Commission continues to prepare for full devolution, there has been a continued increase in the use of Short Term Temporary Appointment contracts (STTAs) that last up to three years to fill seasonal/short term jobs and to cover for staff absences 53 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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i.e. maternity leave, long-term sick absence, etc. As a result 48% of all leavers during the year were as a result of STTA contracts ending, down from 62% in 2013/14. It should be noted that this will increase in future years, due the nature of recent recruitment being mostly on STTAs. Historically, it is younger people who are appointed to STTA contracts, and this accounts for the higher level of leavers aged 39 or less. Other than end of contract, resignation is the main reason for younger staff leaving. We have a high proportion of White Other staff on temporary contracts, mainly in our seasonal positions based in nurseries, and that also accounts for the higher leaver rate as a result of termination of contract.

Disabled staff were least likely to leave because their contract had terminated, although the percentage of disabled staff on temporary contracts is comparable to other staff. Disabled staff were more likely to retire, highlighting the link between aging and disability. The low disabled staff population means that one or two additional leavers will have had a significant impact on the proportions shown in the table. An Exit Interview is offered to all staff that leaves the organisation, and there has been no indication from these staff that any issues related to their protected characteristics were the reasons for resignation. Other resignation levels are comparable and indicate no underlying issues that might prompt an increased turnover in some groups in comparison.

The fact that BAME staff were more likely to resign should be monitored as it seems a high rate, along with 40% no ethnicity recorded, as in 2013/14 there were no BAME leavers. This could be influenced by the high turnover of short term seasonal workers. If the trend around BAME leavers continues especially if this is duplicated in redundancies, this will need further monitoring by HR teams.


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5.12 Discipline during 2014/15

Disabled Not Disabled Female Male BAME White Other White British Age 39 or under

Age 40 or over

- 100% 20% 80% - - 100% 10% 90%

Given the very low numbers of disciplinary proceeding raised during 2014/15 (only 10 cases are recorded, meaning this affected less than 0.5% of Commission staff) little analysis can be undertaken. All disciplinary proceedings resulted in a penalty. There is no evidence from the table or from reasons for discipline (not shown) of any discrimination. This figure compares with seven disciplinary cases in 2013/14 and fourteen in 2012/13.

All disciplinary cases are individually overseen by a HR Case Manager, to ensure that the Discipline Policy and Procedure is applied correctly and consistently across the Forestry Commission. There is no evidence from the table or from reasons for discipline (not shown) of any discrimination.

5.13 Grievances raised during 2014/15

Disabled Not Disabled Female Male BAME White Other White British Age 39 or under

Age 40 or over

- 100% 11% 89% - - 100% - 100%

The number of staff grievances rose during 2014/15 increased to nine from three in 2013/14 and four in 2012/13. Even with a proportional increase this figure represents less than 0.5% of staff in post. There is no evidence of any discrimination.

The reasons for raising the grievances are varied, with none citing any discrimination. Of the grievances, two were partially upheld and one was not upheld.


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5.14 Work patterns at 31 March 2015


White British

Age 39 or less

Age 40 or over

Five weekdays 71% 81% 65% 89% 86% 86% 81% 80% 81%

1 – 4 weekdays 8% 7% 17% 2% - 7% 7% 5% 8%

Other 21% 12% 18% 9% 14% 5% 12% 14% 11%

*Five weekday = any five day worked in a 7 day week ** 1-4 weekdays = any 1-4 days worked in a 7 day week

Female and disabled staff are more likely than others to work a one to four day week or other working pattern. This reflects what would be expected when considering traditional caring responsibilities and the perceived difficulties that some people with disabilities may have to sustain a five day week working regime.

Male staff are less likely to work one to four weekdays, although the number of male staff who working a five day week has reduced slightly to 89% in comparison to 91% in 2013/14 and 93% in 2012/13.

Other work patterns include Annualised Hours, which allow for attendance to vary through the year, and Rostered Contracts, which generally include duty turns over weekends. BAME staff are more likely to be on these contracts. This flexibility is important to the Forestry Commission, as it allows us to manage both recreation and forest management needs and accommodate seasonal peaks and troughs.

5.15 Return to Work after Maternity LeaveThe Forestry Commission exceeds statutory legislation in relation to paid maternity leave, and also offers a range of family friendly policies to support parents in the workplace.


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During 2014/15 we had 47 staff members on maternity leave, of which:

As of 31 March 2015, 22 had returned to work; 18 of whom commenced maternity leave in the previous year (2013/14); and 4 of whom commenced and returned from maternity during the same year, 2014/15.

Of the 22, 12 women had a period of unpaid maternity leave prior to returning to work; Five remained on maternity leave at the end of the year. Of the 22 returners between 01/04/14 and 31/03/15, two staff left the FC after a period of maternity leave; one transferred out of

the organisation, and one resigned.

Analysis from the 2014/15 data shows an average return rate from maternity leave of 95%. This compares favourably with the BSI/DWP report: “Maternity and Paternity Rights and Women Returners Survey 2009/10”, which indicated that in 2008, 77% of new mothers returned to work. Whilst the Trade Unions Congress 2014 publication entitled: “Ending Discrimination at work for new mothers” indicates that a quarter of women do not return to the labour market after maternity leave. As a result the TUC has recommended that all employers publish their return to work rates of women following maternity leave.

In the 2013/14 report, the Forestry Commission reported that we had 70 women on maternity leave. Upon further investigation, we have discovered that this figure was probably over reported due to a change in how figures have been calculated in HR systems. The actual figure was probably much closer to the figure reported for 2014/15, which is in line with the figure reported in 2012/13 of 40 women on maternity leave during the year.

6. Equal Pay6.1 Equal Pay AuditThe Forestry Commission wants employees to be fairly and equitably rewarded for the work they do, therefore Equal Pay Monitoring is part of the annual pay review process. A full Equal Pay Audit was concluded in July 2014, and involved comparing the pay of protected groups who are doing equal work; investigating the causes of any pay gaps to establish if there is an explanation and justification; and identifying any gaps that could not be satisfactorily explained.


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The scope of the audit was to identify pay gaps on grounds of gender, working pattern, ethnicity, disability and age. Sufficient diversity information was not available on the other protected characteristics so a broader review was not possible. The audit considered pay, overtime and pensionable allowances.

The audit focussed on employees in Pay Bands 1 to 7, including operational pay bands. The Senior Staff Group was excluded from the audit, as responsibility for Senior Civil Service pay is held by the Cabinet Office. As there is a single staff group for pay negotiation purposes the data was analysed at Forestry Commission level.

Below the Senior Staff Group there are 10 pay bands, reflecting eight levels of job responsibility. At Pay Bands 5 and 6A there are operational pay bands which have a higher basic salary to recognise the requirement to undertake operational working which involves greater flexibility in working hours, longer working hours and on-call duties. These roles do not normally qualify for overtime or on-call allowance. Operational Pay is currently under review, therefore detailed analysis of these pay bands were not included in the audit.

On conclusion of the pay audit, a number of recommendations were developed to ensure the FC continues to identify and address any pay anomalies, specifically:

Pay: Continue action to reduce the number of spine points or make awards that provide higher rises for those lower down the pay band with particular focus on operational pay bands and their non-operational equivalents.

All pay modelling must include a gender pay gap analysis at FC and pay band level. Equality monitoring during post-filling and recruitment must continue to review essential criteria to ensure that any

requirement for a particular number of years and/or level of experience can be materially and legally justified.Overtime: Investigate further the effect of different overtime rates on different age groups

Actions to diversify the workforce and encourage more females to undertake operational delivery roles, where there is a business requirement to work more additional hours, will improve the overtime pay gap.

Allowances: Investigate how to improve the consistency and level of detail being provided when Recruitment & Retention Allowance (RRA) is approved to ensure that rationale are clear and size of payments justified.

Update the Temporary Responsibilities Allowance (TRA) guidance to ensure that those over normal pension scheme 58 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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retirement age are not excluded from consideration for opportunities to take on additional responsibilities. In posts where staff are required to be on-call the business must ensure that it is available for everyone in the post

irrespective of gender or age. Consider if a mark-time allowance with no fixed end date remains appropriate given the current public sector pay policy.

A copy of the full Equal Pay audit is available on request from the Diversity Team.


mailto:[email protected]

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6.2 Average earnings at 31 March 2015

Average earnings for staff in post include full time equivalent Salary and Overtime. Protected characteristic earnings are compared to all-staff earnings by Pay Band. Details shown in red in the table below highlight where average earnings are below the all staff average earnings for the protected characteristic groups, and details show in blue highlight where it is equal to or above the staff average earnings.

All staff average earnings

Disabled // All staff

Not disabled // All staff

Female // All staff

Male // All staff

*BAME // All staff

White Other // All staff

White British // All staff

Age 39 or under // All staff

Age 40 or over // All staff

SSG2 £108,928 - 0.0% - 0.0% - - 0.0% - 0.0%SSG1A £76,934 7.9% -2.2% 1.9% -1.3% - - 0.0% - 0.0%SSG1 £70,318 - 0.0% -5.7% 0.9% - - 0.0% -2.4% 0.4%PB1 £62,896 - 0.0% -1.2% 0.1% - - 0.0% - 0.0%PB2 £51,524 - 0.0% -1.5% 0.7% -8.1% -8.1% 0.2% -7.1% 0.6%PB3 £41,772 0.3% 0.0% -2.8% 1.2% 0.7% -3.2% 0.1% -4.1% 0.6%PB4 £34,702 2.1% 0.0% -2.8% 1.0% -1.2% -3.1% 0.2% -4.9% 1.6%PB5Op £30,685 1.7% -0.1% -3.8% 0.8% -2.6% -4.9% 0.3% -4.6% 2.2%PB5 £26,671 3.2% -0.2% -1.1% 1.3% -1.4% -5.8% 0.4% -4.1% 2.4%PB6AOp £27,451 0.0% 0.0% -2.4% 0.7% - -2.7% 0.0% -2.6% 1.6%PB6A £25,572 -3.0% 0.0% -8.7% 3.0% -12.2% -10.8% 0.3% -4.7% 2.6%PB6B £20,699 -1.2% 0.0% -1.3% 1.1% -1.7% -5.7% 0.2% -3.0% 1.4%PB7 £16,047 -1.2% 0.1% 0.1% -0.1% -3.2% 0.9% 0.0% -0.8% 3.1%All Staff £28,934 -6.7% 0.2% -8.3% 3.7% 0.0% -6.0% 0.2% -14.7% 5.9%*Includes 0.3% of staff racial group “unknown”


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The data indicates some statistically significant differences (highlighted in bold) in average earnings per Pay Band between the different protected characteristics for which we capture data. The pattern of significant differences remains in the same grades and demographic differences to last year. Further investigation of the differences show that they occur as a direct result of staff length of service and payment of overtime.

39% of those eligible for overtime are women, compared to 61% being men. Only 24% of overtime payments go to women, while 76% go to men.

This division, while based on the split of genders in operational roles, could appear that men are more likely to get overtime because of the roles they are in. This could contribute to overall pay inequality.

Many of our roles, and associated Pay Bands, are operational and specifically forest-based roles such as forest crafts, machine operators, etc which are historically and predominantly roles held by older, White British and mostly non-disabled male employees.

Details below of average length of service highlights that this dominance is still apparent in the structure of the workforce today, although the data indicates that people who consider themselves disabled are more likely to have longer service:

20.7 years for staff with who consider themselves disabled, and 15.5 years for staff who are not disabled; 17.6 years for males, and 11.0 years for females; 16.1 years for White British, 7.1 years for BAME, and 6.2 years for White Other; and, 5.7 years for those aged 39 or less, and 20.4 years for those aged 40 and over.

As our longer-serving staff are male, White and over 40 years of age proportionately we have more of these groups of staff at the maximum of the pay scales than women, those who are BAME or White Other and those aged 39 or less which gives rise to ‘natural’ pay gaps. Many of these roles also have a greater business need to work additional hours, resulting in payment of overtime and this continues, although to a lesser extent than in previous years.

For over ten years, we have been actively re-structuring our pay system, shortening the length of pay scales and the time it takes to progress from entry point to pay band maximum. This approach is steadily reducing the gender pay gaps in our system, as the 61 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission

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shortening of the pay scales means staff can theoretically reach the maximum of the Pay Band within four years. However, the previous two-year pay freeze, limited pay rise announced in 2015 and continuing Civil Service wide cap on pay has halted progression from minimum to maximum of our Pay Scales.

7. Our approach to monitoring and evaluationMonitoring and evaluation is a key priority for the Forestry Commission and will form the basis, along with Equality Analysis, of future action. Comprehensive and meaningful data, information and research will be collected and used to build an evidence base to help us assess our progress in meeting our objectives for equality. The Forestry Commission will continue to monitor the required areas under the Equality Act and will report and benchmark progress on an annual basis. This information will be used to identify gaps in representation. Where gaps are identified, action will be taken to investigate reasons and to address discrepancies appropriately.

We will ensure that monitoring information in relation to employment and service provision offers:

Comprehensive benchmarks against which we can monitor progress against achieving our Equality Objectives (see Section 2.3 and Appendix 1)

A quantitative basis for Equality Analysis with which we can highlight areas of required action.

8. ConclusionWe continue to be encouraged with the progress we are making as an organisation to provide services to all parts of the community, and to think and behave more inclusively. However, we are also very aware that we still have a challenge ahead of us and know that there is more to do. This will not be an easy challenge, many of the issues will take time, but work is underway and we are committed to making a real difference to our customers and our staff.

As the Forestry Commission continues to devolve, the existing Diversity Team will be decentralised. In the future, new specialist Diversity Managers will be appointed in FC England and FC Scotland who will enjoy the support of the country HR teams. These new


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/forestry.nsf/byunique/infd-7kgdxa

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Managers will be responsible for producing monitoring reports from now on and delivering country focussed diversity strategies and objectives.

Thank you for reading our annual monitoring report. If you have any views, please write to us at:

The Diversity Team,Forestry Commission,Silvan House,231 Corstorphine Road,Edinburgh,EH12 7AT.

Or e-mail us at [email protected]

If you would like a paper copy of this document or to receive it in an alternative format, please contact us at the address or email above or phone us on 0300 067 5046.


mailto:[email protected]

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Appendix 1Equality and Diversity Objectives – Summary

This document is a summary of our specific equality and diversity objectives.

These have been split into three tables of responsibility as follows: the Diversity Team, FC England, and FC Scotland. Although the FC is a cross border organisation, responsibility for forestry is devolved and the FC exercises its powers and duties separately, and receives separate funding in England and Scotland. This has led to different FC business models in each country and as a result, some objectives cannot be taken forward in all countries, and the pace of progress will depend on the resources available.

As of April 2013 a new body, Natural Resources Wales has taken over the functions previously carried out by Forestry Commission Wales, and details of their approach to diversity can be found on their website.


http://naturalresourceswales.gov.uk/splash?orig=/

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Summary Table of Objectives – Diversity Team ResponsibilitiesObjective Suggested

ResponsibilitySuggestedDeadline

SuggestedMeasure

Progress as at December 2015

Develop a new Diversity Communications Strategy

Diversity Team & the Communications Team

December 2012 Diversity Team to check via next staff survey whether staff understand this agenda

A new Communications Strategy was drafted after discussions with the Communications Team. We have increased the tools used internally to convey diversity messages to all staff – a new suite of posters, leaflets of advice for particular staff groups e.g. Recreation Rangers and a revised ‘Diverse Woodlands, Diverse Communities’ were produced and published.There are also regular pieces on diversity issues in our weekly staff communications bulletin and discussion boards on our staff internal communications forum.Guidance has been produced and published on creating accessible communications materialsPresentations and reports have been made to the Forestry Commissioners and Executive Board


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Review and re-launch suite of diversity training

Diversity Team December 2012 Diversity Team to review course feedback from staff

New on-line training modules have been developed and launched both for all staff and managers.We have also re-developed the training course to support staff completing equality analysis.The standard diversity session delivered on every FC New Entrants’ course has also been redeveloped.New training sessions have been delivered this year to support staff carrying out Equality Analysis in Districts

Ensure that staff over 55 have an Individual Learning Plan and are developed appropriately

Diversity Team with Learning and Development Team

On-going Diversity Team to analyse future staff survey returns about this issue

Diversity Team engaged L&D team and messages have been delivered to managers that all staff should have an Individual Learning Plan and must be engaged about development needs. Staff Survey 2015 results indicate that this is improving

Monitor the age distribution of FC staff

Diversity Team January 2013 Results will be published in the annual Monitoring Report

This information and analysis is included in the annual Monitoring Report and also considered and reviewed within the analysis of the biennial Staff Survey.


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Improve level of self-declaration of disability by providing easier and better systems and more supporting guidance for managers and staff

Diversity Team Throughout 2012 Review numbers of disabled staff during annual monitoring exercise

In order to increase the number of staff telling us of their disabilities we have provided advice, training and guidance to managers. However, our numbers of disabled staff who have formally told us of their disability remains low.

Investigate the Two Ticks Standard

Diversity Team During 2014 A review and report will be made on the options from discussion by the HR Management Board

We will examine the suitability of this Standard once the results of the Government Review of the Standard have been completed and published

Increase the number of job applicants with a disability

Diversity Team On-going (when external recruitment begins again)

Monitor number of applicants to declare a disability and report in annual Monitoring Report

This information and analysis is included in the annual Monitoring Report. This year we had 4% disabled applicants, of which 13% were interviewed and 3% offered the job (compared to 4% of not disabled applicants)

We will prepare and publish guidance on FC interaction with the Gypsy and Traveller Communities

Diversity Team December 2012 We will have this guidance externally assessed by contacts within the gypsy and traveller communities

This guidance has been externally assessed and published on our Intranet. Staff were informed via our weekly all-staff news bulletin.


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We will prepare and publish factsheets on specific religions

Diversity Team On-going throughout 2012-13

We will monitor staff feedback on these

Factsheets have been externally assessed and published on our Intranet throughout the year.

We will review and consider launching another Graduate Recruitment Programme at the appropriate time

Learning and Development Team

When recruitment freeze ends

Diversity Team will monitor diversity of successful candidates

The Graduate Recruitment Programme has begun. The Diversity Team were involved in developing the recruitment process.

We will review and consider launching another Leadership Development Programme at the appropriate time


Date to be confirmed


There are no current plans to launch another Leadership Programme.

We will consider mentoring and coaching of women by women in higher pay bands with the aim of increasing the number of women in the middle management group


March 2016 Progress will be measured via the annual diversity monitoring of staff and published in the Monitoring Report each January

There are no current plans to undertake this exercise at the current time, as the organisation is downsizing and being restructured.


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Summary Table of Objectives – Diversity Team Responsibilitiesby 5%


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We will re-commence events to highlight and promote the range of career opportunities that the Forestry Commission can offer

Diversity Team and wider HR

When recruitment freeze ends


Not commenced while a Government-wide recruitment freeze is in place.

Canvas views of LGB community on FC services through a short survey

Diversity Team Summer 2012 Diversity Team and Stonewall monitor quantity and quality of responses

A survey was completed in partnership with Stonewall Scotland. No significant barriers to FC services were identified.

Participate in the Stonewall Good Practice Programme

Diversity Team On-going Diversity Team monitor views of LGB staff via the biennial Staff Survey

The Diversity Team continues to engage in this Programme.


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Summary Table of Objectives – FC England Business ResponsibilitiesObjective Suggested


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Continue to offer disabled viewing platforms and free carer tickets for people with disabilities who need assistance attending live music events

Box Office Manager/ Local Managers

Ongoing Events Manager to monitor and report annually to Diversity Team the number of disabled/carer tickets issued

Disabled viewing platforms are routinely provided at Forest Live events. The ticket policy includes provision for the offer of free carer tickets for people with disabilities who need assistance attending live music events.

During the 2015 concert season 252 free carer tickets were issued (total saleable tickets 130,000). This provision is now business as usual. Although the total number of sales increased by over 30,000, the number of carers tickets actually fell by 40% This was down to a drop in demand and not because of any other FC practice.

Promote local accessible trails and facilities and improve information available

Local staff On-going Local teams to analyse and record feedback from customers with disabilities and take action where necessary. Annual report to Diversity Team

Within our Equality and Diversity Objectives 2016-20 it is our intention to concentrate our efforts on reviewing how we procure play facilities with a view that new and replacement Forest Enterprise England play facilities are capable of being enjoyed by children and families with a wider range of disabilities. We also intend to provide activities and learning products for families with pre-school, younger children (0-5


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years) and 11-15 year olds having identified that these age groups are underrepresented in our visitor data.

NationalWe aim to provide learning opportunities for ‘everyone, everywhere’, including self-led and third party led activities for children and young people of all ages, as well as families and (occasionally) adult visitors.

We have enormous engagement with families and carers of children aged 0-5, through the pre-school trails - Gruffalo, Gruffalo’s Child, Superworm and after Christmas – Stickman. From a learning perspective – the learning message (your forest is cared for by the FC for timber, people and wildlife) is included in all the above trails, and in addition, several of our third party providers offer learning activities for pre-school children.

We are about to embark on some work to produce curriculum linked resources for key stage 3 (age 11-13), and after that will


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consider similar resources for KS4 (13-15); some of our third party providers offer led sessions for all ages, from birth to adult; our FC learning teams lead specialised sessions, which are often for the older groups e.g. GCSE and A-level, as these tend to be more detailed and require more forestry knowledge than a third party will have; we have a few specialised programmes and projects that work specifically with hard to reach groups, and disengaged youngsters, many of whom are in this age group.

WestonbirtWestonbirt National Arboretum now has a new Changing Spaces disabled toilet with hoist and changing bed. We are looking to promote this through the ongoing community work.

Work continues on our community shelter facility that benefits a wide variety of groups with mental health issues. We are working with a range of organisations on this including NHS early intervention hubs,


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Alzheimer’s society, drug and alcohol rehabilitation charities.

As part of recommendation by Visit England we now have an Access Statement on our website.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt

South FDAt Alice Holt landscaping has now been completed around the new visitor centre, which has improved access from the car park and connecting paths. Disabled car park spaces have also been made bigger. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-72dg7l

At Moors Valley Country Park Crocodile Crossing II was installed in April ‘15. The design of which was a result of consultation at the park with users with access issues.

Moors Valley Country Park took silver in Dorset Tourism Awards for ‘Access and Inclusivity’ in Octhttp://www.forestry.gov.uk/



http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-72dg7l

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-72dg7l

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/westonbirt

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moorsvalleycountrypark

West FDForest of Dean:MindSCAPE: Braceland log circle and Farmhouse – this is a partnership project working with people with early onset dementia reconnecting them with the landscape and the outside environment. This is met through therapeutic arts, crafts, walks and informal discussions. Currently there are approximately 20 people frequently attending the sessions that are held fortnightly.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestofdean

Wyre Forest:Wyre sensory trail being actively promoted to local disabled / special needs groups.Maintain education zone close to facilities for the benefit of disabled and /or very young visitors to Wyre.Consider the needs of all users when setting up third party led learning agreements across district - on-goinghttp://www.forestry.gov.uk/wyreforest


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/wyreforest

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestofdean


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East FDIn response to Visit England Visitor Attraction Quality Scheme recommendations, access statements have been written & published for Jeskyns, Wendover and High Lodge.

Following customer feedback suggesting inclusion of interactive play at Wendover Visitor Centre, the Wendover team liaised with a disability group who funded and commissioned an interactive sound play piece.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/wendoverwoods

The refurbishment of toilet facilities at Birchden Wood, Kent, have included a new disabled toilet facility with disabled access.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8zuf6x

An all ability trail is proposed for High Lodge visitor centre and has received development phase funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund. If HLF support the


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8zuf6x

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-8zuf6x

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/wendoverwoods

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developed bid the project will be delivered in 17/18.http://www.forestry.gov.uk/highlodge

North FDThe ‘Park with Ease’ parking system has been installed and commissioned making it easier for all visitors to pay for parking more easily. The Visitor Welcome has been brought indoors making it more comfortable and accessible for visitors seeking information.

Central FDThis project has been delayed due to the Design team taking over a year to respond, and then saying they couldn’t do the project. This has now been out sourced to another company, but progress remains slow, however the local team are still proactive and enthusiastic about the project.

White lining in the car park re-done last year and put large bays with hatched areas surrounding them to make disabled access


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/highlodge

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easier.

There has been a new toilet installed which is big enough for a wheelchair to go inside, plus space for a carer if needed. The ramp is still on a gradient which is steeper than we would ideally like, , due to the nature of the area it’s in, but has been used by several wheelchair users successfully.

New toilet facilities are now installed at Salcey and Sherwood and open to the public, offering improved access and visitor experience. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/salceyforest

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/sherwoodpines

Use Visitor Experience Toolkit developed with the Sensory Trust to audit facilities at our Forest Centres

Local staff 2016 Recreation Managers to record audit findings and report progress to Diversity Team annually

In England in 2015 our efforts were on embedding the good practice we have learned using the visitor experience toolkit to turn making our Forest Centres accessible to all disabilities; turning the knowledge we have from the toolkit into business as usual.


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/sherwoodpines

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/salceyforest

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Improve information available about accessible trails

Local staff and Communications Teams

2016 Recreation Managers to advise Diversity Team of progress by 1 March each year

Progress reported under the objective “Promote local accessible trails and facilities and improve information available” is applicable to this objective also.

WestonbirtWe now have an access statement on our web site and a full range of information for less able users of the site.


South FDThe New Forest:We have secured Heritage Lottery Funding as part of a Partnership project- Our Past Our future, to improve sensory interpretation at three of our key visitor sites. This funding will improve the media cover of these accessible sites. At Blackwater we will look to employ a consultant to engage user groups with special needs to see how the funding for this can be used to improve the visitors experience (press embargo until 26th Nov



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on this)

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/newforest

Promoting Cycling to deprived and disabled communities

Local Community/Recreation staff

Ongoing engagement & involvement

Local monitoring and evaluation

East FDIn 2015, the use of adapted bikes more than doubled in comparison with the previous year - with 505 adapted cycles hired during April – August 2015 verses 182 during the same period in 2014.

South FDSpecifically during 2015 and old railway route has been resurfaced to make it more accessible to all users, along with resurfacing of the Ober and tall trees waymarked trails.

West FDLaunchpad: Disabled extreme cycle route for disabled users has been opened. The trail is the first of its kind in the UK and has been specifically designed for use by the Rough Riderz Gravity Biking Club and their 4 wheel mountain bikes.



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Leonard Cheshire cycle trail

Skills Training for those with disabilities and from different ethnicities

Local Community/Recreation staff

Ongoing engagement & involvement

Local monitoring and evaluation

Within our Equality and Diversity Objectives 2016-20 we intend to improve our understanding of who is engaged in volunteering on the PFE and whether this reflects local community diversity, and to take action where groups are under-represented. We also aim to improve the diversity of our workforce as recruitment takes place. WestonbirtWe have run training for volunteers and staff on mental health and psychosis. Our community staff have also worked with community groups supporting people with various disabilities; many of these participants have achieved John Muir Awards.


West FD81 Equality Monitoring Report 2014/2015 Forestry Commission


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BTEC group – working twice a week with approximately 12 young people all of whom have been removed from mainstream education delivering a BTEC in Sustainability and Access (level 1 and level 2). Last year we supported the delivery of a BTEC Level 1 in Sustainability and Access one of the male students had a form of autism. He found the sessions quite daunting to begin with, but after a few weeks he was far more willing to participate and found the outdoor environment relaxing and helped in his concentration and ability to communicate with the others in the group (small group). He is now back working with the group doing his Level 2.

CPU – New Leaf add value to the CPU group who carry out work on the Public Forest Estate twice a week, the clients working with this group have a mixture of backgrounds all of whom would be classed as the most vulnerable and hard to reach members of our community. We do have participants from different ethnic backgrounds (many asylum seekers),


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language is usually a barrier but in the outdoor environment it is easier! Although we did do a lot of miming and showing, lots of laughter and a good sense of humour is really important in this instance.

Salters Hill :Salters Hill is a special needs residential group who live on the edge of the Public Forest Estate they have an agreement for a small area of woodland that they use for teaching of outdoor skills, collection of fallen wood for charcoal burning (very small scale) and the propagation of wild daffodils. The daffodil project is worked with another community group the Dymock Forest Rural Action group who have the skills and knowledge in this area.

Investigate the possibility of providing free car-parking for people with disabilities

Local staff 2015 Recreation Managers to discuss this issue and report back to Diversity Team of decisions made

NationalThe national team reviewed the practice of charging Blue Badge holders across other major countryside access organisations and concluded that FCE is not out of step with these organisations. Therefore, no change in policy is proposed.


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WestonbirtWe provide free access for carers. Not limited to one per disabled person but as needs dictate. The new car park increased the number of disabled bay significantly now with 21 spaces.


North FDGrizedale and Whinlatter:On installation of the new Park with Ease parking system, all spaces are now charged.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/whinlatter

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedale

South FDNew Forest: New toilet designs being researched into making the facilities more accessible. New pay metres have been installed at key recreation sites. These again, are donation


http://www.forestry.gov.uk/grizedale



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only, but consideration has been given to access for all, i.e. Bigger buttons lower to ground. New information posts have also been received but not yet installed for all of the 135 car parks in the new Forest (which are all free to use), which contain access information.


We will continue to work with disabled mountain bike users to develop accessible trails where appropriate

Local recreation teams

On-going, as and when new trails are proposed

Recreation Managers to report progress to Diversity Team by 1 March each year

Within our Equality and Diversity Objectives 2016-20 it is our intention to review FEE cycling policy with a view to increasing inclusivity of opportunity.

South FDIn the New Forest 7 cycle routes have been identified and resurfaced with path gravel to make more accessible, funded by National Park Authority’s Sustainable Transport Fund

Moors Valley Country Park hosts (through Activate project funded by Sport England) an adaptive bikes project with the bikes



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now stored on FC land.


North FDPhil Taylor from Rough Riderz Gravity Biking Club (a group supporting disabled and non-disabled people participate in the mountain bike scene and to make it more accessible) gave a presentation at the recent IMBA UK MTB Conference and he praised Whinlatter for the work that the team have done in modifying the cycle trails to enable the adapted 4 wheel ‘Rough Riderz’ MTB’s to use them. (Access is generally on organised ‘try out’ days).


We will identify two or three locations to specifically target BAME groups with publicity about

Business Partners When actively recruiting again

Progress will be measured by annual analysis of job applicants which will be published in the

Spending Review 2015 will require further reductions in spending for FCE and although unknown at this time, it is likely that a further reduction in headcount may be required to meet revised spending levels





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employment (and recreation)

annual monitoring report and by analysing customer feedback to check if the number of BAME respondents to the Public Opinion of Forestry Surveys increases

over the next five years to 2020. In addition to this change, how Countryside Stewardship will be delivered into the future and the joining up of services with RPA and NE means we plan to close two of our admin hubs, one in January 2016 and the other by March 2018. It is likely that a few opportunities may arise over the next few years with the decentralisation of shared services from Edinburgh into FCE, which may give rise to some external recruitment and the opportunity to attract a more diverse group of applicants. All businesses cases require an EqA to be undertaken to look at the likely staffing impact and to see what might be done to address any potential loss of staff.

We continue to recruit apprentice Forest crafts personnel on a bi-annual basis and to recruit to our trainee Forester programme and Graduate programme in Forest Enterprise England on an annual basis. Although we actively encourage applicants from underrepresented groups and the pool is not as diverse as we would like, this goes


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some way towards addressing our needs to recruit a more diverse workforce. It remains difficult to attract applicants who have a BAME background or a disability given the nature of our work.

The opportunity to therefore recruit externally remains limited.


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Summary Table of Objectives – FC Scotland Business ResponsibilitiesObjective Suggested


SuggestedMeasure

Progress at December 2015

We will create local office databases of local disability organisations to develop an identifiable Forestry Commission profile, offer services and share information about our facilities and services

Local teams – use Best Practice contacts

2012-14 Review Annually (by December)

There are a variety of approaches to lists and/or databases across all ten forest districts, but clearly going in the right direction e.g. specific actions undertaken include Branching Out with NHS and work with various mental health charities as detailed in this report.

We will continue to provide educational support to children with additional needs and/or disabilities where resources allow

Local staff On-going Review Annually (by December)

Due to resource shortages, all ten districts support and facilitate educational activities through schools, OWLS and other groups.

For example the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre near Aberfoyle the new activity hub is being developed in a way which provides all ability access to activities for children with special needs.

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/queen-elizabeth-forest-park/the-


http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/queen-elizabeth-forest-park/the-lodge-forest-visitor-centre




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lodge-forest-visitor-centre

We will raise awareness of local accessible trails, etc. through advertising and promotion through local networks and our Internet site.

Local staff On-going Review Annually (by December)

We have improved the path grading system, clarifying the accessibility of our trails, following the Fieldfare Trust report.

An audit of all our trails is underway; to enable a portfolio analysis to be undertaken which will inform future decisions on the provision of facilities and also ensures a consistent approach to grading, management and maintenance.

The recreation website’s content and search facility has been greatly improved for all users – e.g. ‘easy-access’ trails are now more simple to find. Districts are promoting accessible trails and ensuring information is kept up-to-date online on any new internal publications and external promotions.

Much of our awareness-raising is done in collaboration with others. E.g. The Lodge



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Forest Visitor Centre is working with the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park to pilot a mobility scooter hire scheme and running a Walk in the Park programme.

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/queen-elizabeth-forest-park/east-loch-lomond

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/queen-elizabeth-forest-park/three-lochs-forest-drive

We will audit by 2016, and then continually monitor all built facilities including visitor centres, toilets and parking facilities to ensure these are accessible and meet the needs of all users.

Local staff 2016 Review Annually (by December)

Action to meet this objective is underway across all 10 districts. Scale varies, depending on the number of built facilities, but this is an ongoing process – e.g. the Lodge EqIA is reviewed every 3 years. Key projects including improvements for all ability access are the Lodge Landscaping Project, Lodge House re-development, improvements to the Waterfall trail at the Lodge Forest Visitor Centre and the development of an accessible camping pod at Sallochy.








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http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/queen-elizabeth-forest-park/sallochy

Fully accessible trails (resulting from the Fieldfare Trust audit) are used as examplars, and trails which have been identified as non-compliant have had their signage removed.

Improve information available about accessible trails

Local staff and Communications Teams

2016 Recreation Managers to advise Diversity Team of progress by 1 March each year

The recreation website’s content and search facility has been greatly improved and delivers information in a more user-friendly fashion. Districts are promoting accessible trails and ensuring information is kept up-to-date online on any new internal publications and external promotions.

We will investigate the possibility of providing free car parking for disabled people by 2015.

Local staff Complete N/a Completed.





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We will explore opportunities to support marketing with partners e.g. RADAR accessibility holiday guide.

Recreation Managers and Communications Team

2015 Review Annually (by December)

FES Marketing strategy is being rewritten during Q4 2015/16 and will incorporate marketing with a variety of partners, to a variety of audiences.

Develop a database of volunteers/staff who can conduct guided tours of forests for different groups

Local staff 2015 Local Office Managers to report progress to Diversity Team by 1 March each year

Where resources allow, development of this database is underway. However, it varies across Scotland. Where we have volunteers, they may be able to do such tours, but it is still limited at time of writing.

We will continue to work with disabled mountain bike users to develop accessible trails where appropriate. This work will be on-going, as and when new trails are proposed over the next four years. The local recreation teams will take this forward

Local recreation teams

On-going, as and when new trails are proposed

Review Annually (by December)

Cowal & Trossachs FD is working with a group (FABB), to develop a sensory trail for mobility cycles, as part of a larger Callendar MTB group.

However, across Scotland, this is primarily reactive as we are not building new trails.


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building on the working relationships already built up with relevant groups.We will identify two or three locations to specifically target BAME groups with publicity about employment (and recreation)

Business Partners When actively recruiting again

Progress will be measured by annual analysis of job applicants which will be published in the annual monitoring report and by analysing customer feedback to check if the number of BAME respondents to the Public Opinion of Forestry Surveys increases

Visits to sites by organised BAME groups have been facilitated by Central Scotland conservancy in Cowal & Trossachs/Scottish Lowlands. Other districts in Scotland have a small BAME population.

Forest Enterprise Scotland has increased restrictions on recruitment due to organisational change and projected headcount reduction. This has reduced the number of external posts being advertised since October 2015.

In 2016, HR will begin to work directly with staff in Central Conservancy to encourage participants of our social Programmes to consider FC as prospective employer (Engagement Officer, Health Advisor, Programme Manager etc.)


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We will liaise with local public transport providers to improve transport links where possible and appropriate. We have done this at one of our sites but the costs may prove prohibitive.



Talks ongoing in Galloway, no stops secured yet. Scottish Lowlands have many sites accessible by public transport due to urban locations. Queens View (Tay) has public bus stop.This is looked at frequently, but opportunities are usually limited due to road infrastructure or proximity to towns/villages.

http://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/forest-parks/galloway-forest-park

Maintain a log of actions taken and improvement required / completed.

Beginning January 2013


Log completed as part of OGB42 (Recreation management operational guidance) and/or other formal monitor requirements.

All major projects to have a current Equality Analysis (EqA)

Ongoing Continual review All major projects have EqA, reviewed as necessary at the 3 year point.

The Apprenticeship Programme was successfully audited in October and work is now underway to develop the next Apprenticeship Programme which will be an industry rather than dedicated FC programme.




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Specifically, the EqA relating to the Skills Programme (2012–2015) and therefore encompassed Apprentices/Students within the Forest Sector Skills project and youth employment in the Employability Skills Project. The programme concluded in April 2015, although the Youth Employability project has continued with a new intake within FY 15/16.

Whilst the EqA recognised the impact upon all the protected characteristic groups, both projects sought to measure age, gender, ethnicity, and disability in particular.

The outcomes of the Skills Programme were :

Employability Skills Project :

No. of participants : 563Age : average 19Gender : M-82%; F-18%


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Disability : 16%Ethnicity

White Scottish – 66% White British – 11.7% White English/Irish/Welsh –2.1% White Other – 0.3% Mixed Ethnicity – 0.2% Black/Black British or Other – 1.1% Asian/Asian British/Pakistan– 1.2% Gypsy Traveller – 0.9% Arab – 0.2% Not disclosed – 0.2%

Forest Sector Skills (2012–2015):

No. of participants : 88Age :

15-17 : 5% 18-19 : 17% 20-24 : 31% 25-40 : 34% 41-50 : 5% Not disclosed : 7%

Gender : M-73%; F-27%Disability : not recorded by project


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Ethnicity : White Scottish – 54% White English - 29% White Irish/Welsh – 2% White Other – 9% Asian Other – 1%

Given the Forest Sector Skills participants were employed by FCS, they are likely to be contained within other data collection figures.

When actively recruiting externally again promote employment opportunities to disabled communities

HR Business Partner Currently unknown – at present recruitment freeze been extended indefinitely.

Forest Enterprise Scotland has increased restrictions on recruitment due to organisational change and projected headcount reduction. This has

Ongoing HR will identify 2-3 local groups to work collaboratively with to promote FC as an employer and proactively encourage applicants from disabled community.


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reduced the number of external posts being advertised since October 2015


· web viewthe revised guidance cross references to ‘public engagement in forestry: a toolbox...

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