As a white female principal of a college with a large black and minority-ethnic (BAME) community, it is with some trepidation that I pen a piece about racism and inequality. The fear of not saying, or more importantly, doing, the right thing is very real - but what I do know is that things can only change if we face up to them.

With the despicable murder of George Floyd thrusting the issue of racial inequality into the global spotlight, it has led many of us to question our own actions and attitudes. My colleagues and I have always been focused on ensuring our provision and our community is wholly non-discriminatory, with opportunities open to all and ensuring racism, harassment and bullying are never tolerated. We celebrate success inclusively and ensure we recognise a wide range of multicultural events and dates within our organisational calendars.

But I am now asking myself - is this enough? Is it enough just to have a zero-tolerance policy on racism and discrimination and to celebrate Black History Month each year? After some reflection, it has become clear to me that, while we have been doing our best as an organisation, we can do more. The tragic events in the US have served as a catalyst to address systemic societal racism across the country (and indeed the world), but what next on a local level?

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As an educator, I know that education is the key to understanding and is absolutely relevant to the issue of inequality. Education in this sense is a personal responsibility: it is up to all of us as individuals to find out more for ourselves and to do our best to walk in others’ shoes. While reflecting on the issue of white privilege, I realise that our most important learning often comes when we are at our most uncomfortable and we must all dig deep and soul search in this regard.

This must be the starting point if we are to effectively address and tackle discrimination of any kind.  

To do this, we all need to be able to talk openly and empower our BAME colleagues and students to open up and feel safe about discussing what needs to change. Not only must these conversations happen, but real action must then follow.

Tackling deep-rooted issues

As we have seen over the past few weeks, there has been an outpouring of outrage and disbelief as to the racial inequalities that continue to exist in our supposedly modern, forward-thinking society. Yet when the furore dies down, we run the danger of all the important words being forgotten - and the deep-rooted issues remaining untackled.

So, rather than simply reacting, we must take action. FE has always been about making a difference and never before has this sentiment been more important. We are fortunate to have a diverse staff and student community, who we are now calling on to help us understand and learn from. We launched a full staff consultation earlier this month and will be including students in this shortly as part of a strategy to ensure we take the right kind of action. In addition, I’m pleased to see our governors have already held their own focus group, reflecting on how best to extend their work - very much our “critical friends with listening ears”.

By the power of Zoom technology, we have held two staff forums, giving all our employees from every level and part of the organisation the chance to share their thoughts, opinions and ideas. Listening to these conversations has highlighted to me that although we have work to do, we are already moving in the right direction simply by starting a real conversation.

A fund to promote diversity 

Our plan now is to create a community grant fund to which staff and students can apply in order to set up projects that promote diversity and help to reduce all types of inequality, but starting with racial inequality. Projects may include (but are not limited to) mentoring, sports events, industry placements, festivals, speaker programmes, arts and cultural activities and much more.

Bids will be assessed by our new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Grant Fund Committee, which we are in the process of setting up. We have asked staff to put themselves forward to be part of this group, with the aim of representing our fantastically diverse community. The projects with the greatest measurable impact on learners’ and our communities’ lives will be selected for funding.

In addition to this grant programme, our new committee will help us to make more, positive changes throughout our business. Early suggestions have included ensuring we offer a more diverse range of literature, feature black history more significantly in our curricula and invite more mentors and speakers from BAME backgrounds to engage with all our students. These are all achievable and important steps forward.

We are looking to partner with an organisation to help us monitor and look at the impact of our work - ensuring that it is moving at a fast enough pace and addressing the issue of systemic and structural racism in the way we anticipate.

FE is a fantastic sector when it comes to creating opportunity for people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. We must now use this expertise to effectively move this important agenda forward.

Dr Sam Parrett is the chief executive and principal of London South East Colleges