Measuring Awareness of the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations (2003) Among Employers in the Yorkshire and Humber Region

Regulations have been in place since 2003 to prevent discrimination in employment on the grounds of Religion or Belief. However, legislation is not on its own enough to secure fair practices in the workplace. Importantly, previous research has suggested that employers lack awareness of the regulations and may not have fully adjusted to the requirements and implications of the legislation. As such, the Government, through the DTI, has made funds available for capacity building among employers to support the implementation of the regulations. Using this funding, the Fair Play Partnership commissioned the Policy Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University to undertake research which will provide baseline information on the existing state of awareness, understanding, attitudes toward and implementation of both the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief and Sexual Orientation) Regulations. This report presents findings from a survey of employers in relation to the Religion or Belief Regulations. A separate report provides a similar review of findings in relation to the Sexual Orientation Regulations

The ‘Brain Drain’ Academic and Skilled Migration to the UK and its Impacts on Africa

In December 2004 the Association of University Teachers and the College and Lecturers Union NATFHE jointly commissioned research to review some of the literature on ‘the Brain Drain’ with a specific emphasis on developing countries in Africa and on academic labour in the UK. This report is the culmination of that research. The project aimed to review some of the available literature on the ‘Brain Drain’, to locate this in debates and contemporary approaches to international development and to consider especially the impact of the Brain Drain on Africa, where possible drawing reference to the impact on higher education. The report also considers the scale of migration to work in UK higher education and suggests ways in which AUT/NATFHE might work together and with others to offset the impact of Brain Drain factors and to build the capacity of higher education, and those working in it, in developing countries. Migration is an emotive issue and debate in this country is often shaped by populist and right-wing arguments, sometimes with racist and xenophobic undertones. This project aimed to develop a more progressive approach to the debate on migration, explicitly addressing the motivations behind migration decisions. This project was shaped by a background understanding that the UK undoubtedly benefits enormously from skilled labour migration, economically, socially and culturally. However, the project is also shaped by a concern to ensure that individual choices to migrate are taken freely, not as a result of political repression, a lack of life chances or vocational opportunities. The project also aimed to assess the extent to which skilled labour migration, and the unequal relationships between rich and developing countries which drives it, is further embedding that inequality. Failing to address these issues, risks leaving the debate on migration to those that seek to use the issue to generate a regressive and dangerous politics of fear and difference

Measuring Awareness of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (2003) Among Employers in the Yorkshire and Humber Region

Regulations have been in place since 2003 to prevent discrimination in employment on the grounds of Sexual Orientation. However, legislation is not on its own enough to secure fair practices in the workplace. Importantly, previous research has suggested that employers lack awareness of the regulations and may not have fully adjusted to the requirements and implications of the legislation. As such, the Government, through the DTI, has made funds available for capacity building among employers to support the implementation of the regulations. Using this funding, the Fair Play Partnership commissioned the Policy Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University to undertake research which will provide baseline information on the existing state of awareness, understanding, attitudes toward and implementation of both the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief and Sexual Orientation) Regulations. This report presents findings from a survey of employers in relation to the Sexual Orientation Regulations. A separate report provides a similar review of findings in relation to the Religion or Belief Regulations

Evaluation of the Job Outcome Target Pilots: findings from the qualitative study

This report presents the results of a qualitative evaluation of the pilot of the Job Outcome Target (JOT) in seven Jobcentre Plus Districts, covering the first six months of the pilot's operation from January to July 2005. The research comprised interviews and focus groups with Jobcentre Plus managers and staff, employers, providers and customers in the JOT pilot districts in three stages, beginning one month before the start of the pilots. The evaluators' conclusion is that the qualitative evidence supports the view that JOT is a feasible alternative approach to the Job Entry Target (JET) as a system for performance measurement and management for Jobcentre Plus. Many of the desired behavioural changes among Jobcentre Plus staff were observed, including greater team working, an enhanced focus on the quality rather than quantity of interventions with customers and encouragement of appropriate customers to use self-help channels. In addition, JOT led almost immediately to the reduction or discontinuation of activities that were felt to be wasteful of resources under JET, notably the extensive use of the Adviser Discretion Fund and speculative submissions to ensure that job entries are validated. No evidence was found of negative impacts of JOT on customers, providers or employers, a finding corroborated by quantitative analysis. The report suggests that, should JOT be rolled out nationally, a programme of communication, training and support, building on the lessons of the pilot, would be necessary in order to ensure that behavioural changes associated with JOT develop into more deep-seated cultural change within Jobcentre Plus

Managing Development: EU and African Relations through the evolution of the Lomé and Cotonou Agreements

The relationship between the European Union 1 and Africa has been formalised since the beginning of the European integration project in the evolving Yaoundé, Lomé and now Cotonou Agreements. The relationship has shifted in line with the emerging global framework for neoliberal accumulation. This shift has involved the re-designing’ of developmental strategies and their ‘locking-in’ in the long term. Theoretically, this global shift in the organisation of both production and social relations (including popular understandings) has been well documented and the changing dominant patterns of production in advanced industrial economies has been highlighted at length. However, this article aims to develop further the idea of ‘locking-in’, outlined in the work of Stephen Gill, and to place an increased emphasis on the phenomena of both re-designing and locking-in as they apply to the alteration of developmental strategies in Less Developed Countries (LDCs), among which those in Africa have suffered from extreme marginalisation and exploitation. This article reveals the often ignored role of the EU in this process. It argues that the EU, through its institutionalised link with Africa, has played a key role in re-designing developmental strategies to complement the global shift to neoliberal accumulation which, in its latest phase, is aimed particularly at the complex, multifaceted and increasingly integrated project to ‘lock-in’ the gains of capital over labour on a global scale. The article begins with a brief introduction to the complementary projects of ‘re-designing’ and ‘locking-in’ before considering these against the historical evolution of the Lomé and Cotonou relationship

National Evaluation of the Capacity Building Programme in English Local Government: Annex 3. Direct Support in Poor and Weak Local Authorities: Emerging findings

This report summarises emerging findings from initial scoping analysis and case study fieldwork with authorities that have received Direct Support from the Capacity Building Programme (CBP) for local government. The report is one of a series of outputs from the national evaluation of the CBP, being undertaken by a team of researchers at the Policy Research Institute (PRI) at Leeds Metropolitan University and the Cities Research Unit at the University of West of England

Study of the parameters affecting contact performance of high reliability relays

Parameters affecting contact performance of high reliability relay