Diversity Crisis in Local Government Leadership

• Green Park’s Local Government Leadership Report 2018 reveals a chronic lack of ethnocultural diversity across the public sector
• Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) CEOs represent just 3 per cent of the heads of the UK’s unitary authorities, county councils, district councils, metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs
• Across the Top 20 senior management positions in local government organisations, just 3.7 per cent are held by BAME leaders compared to 7.1 per cent in the FTSE 100

London, Oct 9 2018, Green Park’s Local Government Leadership 2018 report highlights the failure of local government leadership to diversify. The report¹ reveals that black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) CEOs represent just 3 per cent of the heads of the UK’s 418 unitary authorities, county councils, district councils, metropolitan boroughs and London boroughs. This is a tiny percentage compared to the overall UK population, where demographics show 13 per cent of working age citizens are non-white. In total, just ten individuals holding the highest leadership position across all tiers of UK local government are from a BAME background.

Green Park’s report analyses ethnocultural diversity of both chief executive and chief officer roles across local authorities. The report analyses diversity trends within senior leadership, enabling authorities to measure their progress in creating inclusive senior teams that better reflect their wider workforce and communities they serve.

Metropolitan boroughs have a dismal record when it comes to ethnocultural diversity, with not a single ethnic minority CEO in 2017’s and 2018’s leadership analysis, despite these organisations representing some of the most diverse populations in the UK. County councils also have no BAME CEOs, falling from 3.7 per cent in 2017, while district councils have six BAME CEOs, yet this is only a representation level of just 3.3 per cent. Despite the population of London comprising 40 per cent non-whites, only two of London’s 32 boroughs have a BAME CEO.

Analysing the wider senior talent pool, the top 20 management positions incorporating both the CEO and their direct reports (chief officers), BAME representation is still a tiny fraction compared to the overall working age population with an ethnic minority background. Across the top 20 senior positions, just 3.7 per cent are held by BAME leaders, which compares incredibly poorly when set against the leading private sector organisations. In the FTSE 100, BAME representation amongst the top 20 leaders in organisations is currently 7.1 per cent. County councils have the worst levels of ethnic minority representation in the upper echelons of management, with just 2.6 per cent of the top 20 positions held by an individual with a BAME background.

Table One: Ethnocultural Diversity of Senior Leaders (Top 20 Senior Positions) in Local Government

Source: Green Park’s Local Government Leadership 2018 report

Neil Lupin, Managing Partner, Green Park, commented:

“At a time when public scrutiny and trust is volatile, local authorities have an even greater responsibility to not only to meet the demands of their communities, but also to also better reflect them from a diversity and inclusion perspective. To build management teams that reflect the interests of the whole population they represent, local authorities need to ensure that they remove institutional bias in all its forms from their recruitment and leadership development processes to enable employees to reach their full potential based on merit. While some progress has been made in the past 12 months - most notably in London – little or no progress has been made in other parts of the country with some key metrics going backwards not forwards. Building a network of talented future leaders, both inside and outside the local authority, is vital to its future success.”

- ENDS -

Notes to Editors:

The full report can be downloaded from: https://green-park.co.uk/gp-research/local-government-leadership-2018/

¹ Analysis of 2425 individuals using Origins software, which employs a database of 1.2 billion individual records globally to generate algorithms that can associate individual names with gender and ethnic or cultural identity. All figures are rounded to one decimal point.

Please refer to Green Park as “the executive diversity recruitment specialists”.

About Green Park

Since its inception in 2006, Green Park has become one of Europe’s most trusted suppliers of executive search, senior interim management and diversity and leadership development consultancy across the Private, Public and Third sectors. An award winning supplier, Green Park has consistently featured at the top of the recruitment industry league tables, most recently named in Recruiter as No. 1 in the Hot 10 Public Sector Providers, No. 1 in the Productivity Hot 20 & No. 2 in the Recruiter Hot 100.

At Green Park we are passionate advocates of the power of diversity as a source of competitive advantage, setting a benchmark for innovation and commitment to consistently attract diverse groups of appointable candidates. In 2012 we were appointed founding members of the National Equality Standard, representing the only recruitment firm on the founding board. We also host the Diversity Recruitment Institute for Value and Excellence (DRIVE) dedicated to sharing global best practices in D&I made relevant through research and toolkits useful in a UK context.

For more information please contact:

Louise Allerton
Marketing Manager, Green Park
T: 0203 145 3436
E: Louise.Allerton@green-park.co.uk

Nicola Hunt, NHPR
T: 0207 183 3383 M: 07976 934 342
E: nicola@nhpr.com