Racism Review

This page gives an update on the progress that the Council has made in delivering the recommendations from the Racism Review.

The original Racism Review paper including the recommendations has been published on our website.

Below we present the 17 recommendations made by the review panel. Each one outlines the Council’s:

• planned actions and
• progress updates made as of January 2026. 

It shows how we are implementing changes across areas such as workforce diversity, community engagement, political participation, service delivery and equality governance.

Content overview

1. Encourage workforce diversity
2. Encourage diverse political candidates
3. Engage with the ethnically diverse community
4. Listen to children and young people
5. Listen to ethnic minority staff and councillors
6. Address racism as community leader
7. Information about our staff and customers
8. Celebrate diversity through events
9. Manage racism on social media
10. Review services to the ethnic minority community
11. Public sector bodies ethnic minority staff network
12. Review training and development programmes
13. Equality and diversity officer
14. Cabinet responsibility
15. Share practices in council-owned companies
16. Public sector partnership to address racism
17. Reducing barriers for ethnic minority residents

1. Encourage workforce diversity

Torbay Council needs to do more to recruit and retain an ethnically diverse workforce.

• Wellbeing Champions are already in place across the Council. HR colleagues have drafted a Freedom to Speak-up champion model paper for consideration by senior leadership. The paper draws on good practice from the Speak Up models already within the NHS and the Fire and Rescue Service. Engagement with colleagues within the NHS and Fire and Rescue Service has taken place to inform the paper.
• The recruitment website has been updated and is engaging and welcoming. This work has largely focussed on increasing accessibility and reasonable adjustments, though these changes are beneficial to everyone.
• Additionally, actions included in Recruitment and Retention strategy action plan include:
  • Explore delivering inclusive recruitment panel training for recruiting managers.
  • Explore options for targeted recruitment adverts to promote diverse recruitment.
  • More work will focus on this area in 2026.
• We have reviewed our staff support offer and have an extensive staff support offer is in place. This includes a wellbeing offer, staff networks and mechanisms for staff to share their views and feedback on a regular basis. We are continuously improving and reviewing our offer.
• We listened to the views of employees during our recent refresh of the Council’s suit of equality, diversity and inclusion related policies. As we continue to build our staff networks we will be exploring how we can engage staff further in our policy and strategy development. 
• A question is included in all staff surveys which asks about colleagues’ experiences of discrimination while at work. The feedback gathered through the staff survey is used to shape organisational responses.

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2. Encourage diverse political candidates

Torbay Council needs to do more work with the political parties in Torbay to encourage ethnic minority candidates to stand for election as councillor.

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3. Engage with the ethnically diverse community

Torbay Council needs to do more to engage meaningfully with Torbay’s ethnically diverse community via a range of reference groups - but this engagement must be sustained and not only activated when the Council wants something from the ethnic minority community.

• The Council uses a range of mechanisms to gather feedback on its proposals. All consultations are held on the Council’s website. There is the option for respondents to provide optional demographic monitoring information within most consultation surveys. This allows us to monitor responses for trends and insights from different communities.
• We use a range of channels to communicate with different audiences. These are under constant review – including using national data and trends to support decision making on best channels for the audience we encourage to engage with us.
• We have recently launched our Inclusion Partnership which acts as a critical friend on our equality work. The Partnership brings together representatives from a range of organisations to support the Council to listen to different voices and community when shaping policy and services.

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4. Listen to children and young people

Torbay Council needs to make sure that the voice of children and young people is heard in Torbay in relation to race and racism. The Council should facilitate a survey collecting their views as well as using social media channels such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. However, face to face school visits should also be part of this engagement.

• There is a Participation Team at the Council who continuously work to seek to gather the views of children and young people on a range of issues in Torbay.
• Our Point of View Feedback Service has been launched. This initiative recognises that the corporate feedback process is complicated and provides an alternative less formal mechanism for children and young people to provide feedback. Feedback is picked up by the participation officers who listen to the young person and work with the young person to resolve the issue.
• The Participation Team is working to build meaningful relationships different groups and seldom heard communities in Torbay and has had recent successes in this area. A project is due to begin shortly which will explore how we currently engage with children and young people across the Council.
• TikTok currently isn’t used as a social media channel corporately. This platform is part of our regular review on the channels we corporately use. However, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn are used corporately. Children’s Services also use Facebook and Instagram to specifically engage with children and young people.
• A Divisional Director in Children’s Services has been engaged with and a limited programme of engagement with schools is planned for early 2026. This work will focus on engaging teachers around identifying and dealing with racism alongside raising awareness of wider community safety issues such as healthy and respectful relationships.

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5. Listen to ethnic minority staff and councillors

Torbay Council needs to gather the views of ethnic minority staff and councillors regularly, so that their views about working at the Council can be taken into account in changing the organisational culture of the Council.

• Annual Staff Check-In surveys are now shared to gather feedback from staff. Surveys were shared in 2024 and 2025. A further Staff Check-in is planned for May 2026. Results were used to inform directors priorities.
• Where appropriate focus groups are used to gather feedback on HR policy and practice. For example, during the updating of the HR EDI policies, staff were engaged with.
• The exit interview process was reviewed, and new process were launched in 2025. All exit interview data is now reviewed by HR and followed up as required.
• We have recently reviewed the Council’s core values to reflect our commitment to inclusion. This year (2026) we will be developing and embedding a behaviour framework which sets out how we turn our values into action.

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6. Address racism as community leader

Torbay Council needs to do more to address racism that exists in our community by being the community leader and role model on this issue.

• We published an Inclusion Strategy in 2025 which set out our organisational commitment to inclusion.
• We have a range of policies in place which include guidance for:
  • a member code of conduct
  • acceptable behaviour policy
  • equality impact assessments.
• We are looking into including a session in our member induction which includes training on EDI to support councillors in challenging behaviour. Currently councillors can access training and resources in this area from the Local Government Association.

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7. Information about our staff and customers

As a matter of urgency Torbay Council needs to do more to improve its collection and analysis of data on ethnic minority staff and our ethnic minority customer base and community, to ensure that it is accurate, up to date and is used to improve the services we offer to staff and the wider community.

• The latest census has provided community insights for each of the nine protected characteristic groups. This information is available on the Council’s website and the national Census website. Information has been used to inform the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
• My View collects a range of demographic information about the workforce when provided by colleagues. Work is underway to review the data that is collected.
• A community and workforce report is published annually on the Council’s website to meet our Public Sector Equality Duty reporting requirements.
• We have reviewed our current EIA template and approach. Guidance has been shared with managers and extensive engagement with staff has been provided. The quality of EIAs within the organisation is improving.

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8. Celebrate diversity through events

Torbay Council, as part of its community leadership role, needs to develop, in partnership with other organisations, a full programme of multi-cultural events to celebrate our diverse community and to encourage better understanding between communities. This should include education establishments in Torbay.

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9. Manage racism on social media

Torbay Council needs to manage and monitor its Facebook page more robustly to immediately remove racist comments left by some contributors and report incidents of racism that take place on the Council’s Facebook page to the police if necessary.

• The Council’s corporate social media channels are monitored a number of times each day, reviewing comments on posts and direct messages.
• The mechanisms to hide, and block residents who are abusive / post racist comments on the Council’s corporate social media posts, is regularly reviewed and used. The information on how we handle these are part of our House Rules on Facebook.

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10. Review services to the ethnic minority community

Torbay Council needs to review its delivery of housing services to the ethnic minority community to ensure it meets their needs, but should also undertake reviews in all service areas of the Council to make sure that current service delivery meets the needs of our ethnic community.

• We reviewed our housing policies when Tor Vista were integrated into the Council.
• We are going to continue to explore how we can undertake equality impact assessments on service reviews across the Council.

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11. Public sector bodies ethnic minority staff network

Torbay Council needs to work with other public sector bodies in Torbay to establish a public sector ethnic minority staff network.

• We have explored options for joint networks however, at present we wish to support our own staff networks. We are members of Devon County Council’s LGBT+ Network.

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12. Review training and development programmes

Torbay Council needs to review its training and development programmes for staff and elected members to ensure it reflects the right levels of insight into cultural diversity, so that the organisational culture of Torbay Council provides the right environment to serve our ethnic minority community. The panel is clear that all diversity training should be mandatory, it should include unconscious bias training for all councillors and senior officers, and it should include input from our ethnic minority community.

• We have reviewed our all-staff EDI course and have launched a new mandatory EDI e-learning course called an ‘Inclusive Council’. This course includes content on unconscious bias and cultural sensitivity.
• A mandatory managers framework has launched which includes a session that explores the role of managers in promoting EDI and the importance of managers creating an inclusive culture and accessible services.
• Workshops have been delivered to councillors which explored how EDI is relevant to their role. Members are also sign posted to LGA training and LGA Councillor workbooks on Equality, diversity and inclusion, and community leadership.

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13. Equality and diversity officer

Torbay Council, as a matter of urgency, needs to appoint a dedicated and full-time equality and diversity officer to lead and support the organisation on a cohesive approach for all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion and to work with partners and the community to develop a better understanding of the Torbay community and its needs. The panel are clear that any recruitment process should have significant input from our ethnic minority community.

• An Equality and Diversity Officer has been in post from December 2023. Since then, the Officer has driven forward at pace the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda at the Council.

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14. Cabinet responsibility

Torbay Council should ensure that one of its Cabinet Leads has a clear responsibility and oversight of equality and diversity.

• Responsibilities for equality sit within the Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services, Public Health and Inequalities portfolio.

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15. Share practices in council-owned companies

Torbay Council needs to ensure that any changes to the way it approaches cultural diversity is mirrored by its wholly owned companies TDA Group and SWISCo.

• TDA became part of the Council in April 2024.
• Best practice continues to be shared with SWISCo. A conversation with the Director of Pride in Place has taken place to identify how the Council is best placed to support SWISCO.

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16. Public sector partnership to address racism

Torbay Council, as the community leader on this issue, needs to develop a partnership of the public bodies in Torbay to address the issue of racism jointly rather than in organisational silos.

We will explore how this recommendation can be moved forward in the most effective way.

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17. Reduce barriers for ethnic minority residents

Torbay Council needs to address the barriers that exist to ethnic minorities wanting to come and live and work in Torbay – these barriers include:

• ­appropriate and affordable housing
• ­wide range of job opportunities
• ­a welcoming culture and environment.

• The Council is fostering a culture that supports people to feel as though they belong. We are working hard to make sure that our services are welcoming and accessible.
• We are working to deliver our Housing Strategy to increase the provision of affordable housing within Torbay.
• We have a range of programmes in place to foster inclusive growth which are delivered by our Economic Development Team such as Connect to Work.
• Our Community Safety Team works in partnership with the police to cultivate a welcoming and safe environment in Torbay for everyone.

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