From June 12th to November 9th 2020
On June 12th 2020, the online Newsroom page for Brighton and Hove City Council posted this headline: ‘Brighton & Hove City Council pledge to be an anti-racist council’.
The article opened with:
Speaking ahead of global protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the council’s lead councillor for equalities, Councillor Carmen Appich today gives her commitment to becoming an anti-racist council.
Also reported in the Argus newspaper, Cllr Appich’s announcement included:
“As a predominantly white council we must recognise what we don’t know, what we don’t experience and see”.
Among the actions promised was a commitment to “Educate councillors and officers on white privilege, on language and structural racism”. A week later, following a meeting of the CYPS, a second Newsroom item appeared. ‘Tackling racism and bias in schools’ announced:
“Councillors in Brighton & Hove have agreed to do more to help schools address racism and bias in the educational curriculum. All training offered by the council to schools, teachers and trainee teachers will now include building understanding of the impact on pupils and staff of bias, discrimination, white privilege and institutional racism”.
Cllr Hannah Clare, stated:
“The Black Lives Matter movement has reminded us that taking action is overdue. Rather than a short-term approach, we know it’s important that work to dismantle racism is built into how we deliver services both now and into the future.”
It had been quite a week in the life of Brighton and Hove. Saturday June 13th had seen over 10,000 people attend the Black Lives Matter demonstration. As with many other towns and cities in Britain, the mood for protest reached a climax in June. The May 25th police killing of George Floyd in the US city of Minneapolis had been caught on camera phones in vivid, shocking detail.
In Britain, as in other parts of the world, the protests sprang up after several months of COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ Thousands took to the streets of British cities. The mood in Brighton that Saturday morning was palpable. As if released from house arrest, young people emerged from their family homes and student garrets. On that sunny June morning they swarmed onto the seafront in their thousands. Many of them clutching homemade placards, it was hard to spot a protester who looked above the age of 20. For a significant number the slogan ‘black lives matter’ galvanised a feeling that this was an issue far more important than observing Covid rules on mass gatherings.
The sense of spectacle and sheer thrill invoked by this mass gathering cannot be underestimated. The march through the town centre, the rally at The Level (thousands sat on the grass bathed in sunshine is if it were a festival), the impromptu speeches – sent an electrical charge into the activism which followed.
On June 15th the council’s Children, Young People and Skills committee (CYPS) discussed a joint Labour/Green Notice of Motion titled ‘Supporting our BAME communities’. Despite missing the council’s strict deadline for submissions, the motion was allowed. It instructed Executive Director of Families, Children & Learning Deb Austin to carry out three tasks:
- Ensure that all the training that the Council delivers or commissions – for schools, teachers and trainee teachers – includes building understanding of how bias, discrimination, white privilege and institutional racism impacts our city’s pupils and staff. This training will enable the council and schools to work actively to address racism and bias in the educational curriculum.
- Give a commitment that this training will be devised in collaboration with members of the BAME communities.
- Ensure that training is meaningful and equips teachers with practical tools for teaching and communicating around racism, colonialism, global citizenship, interconnection, immigration and diversity.
The Motion, which was agreed, also instructed the CEO to write to both the Secretary and the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, requesting the introduction of “mandatory training around the issues of race, prejudice and privilege”.
As for the reasons these measures were deemed necessary, they can only be deduced from the statements read out by the two proposers of the motion (Cllr Clare and Cllr Knight).
Cllr Clare opened with these remarks:
“…time and time again people of colour have said to us that our society is institutionally racist. And time and time again they’ve said that early intervention among young people is really important. And time and time again they’ve said we need to take action. The actions we’ve taken so far haven’t fixed the problem so now its time to be more forthright and ambitious”.
“BAME communities have been screaming from the rooftops for solutions but we’ve not listed hard enough. So now we must take what they’ve asked for and make it happen”.
“…we know that the BAME population of this city is highest among young people so it’s really important that we get it right in the places where they are – which is in schools”.
The seemingly interchangeable use of terms like ‘people of colour’ (PoC) and ‘BAME’ is a little confusing. Certainly at this point in June 2020, with BLM protests so prominent, there was a palpable sense that when council people used “BAME” they really meant “PoC”. The overriding urgency for a new schools policy, as expressed by Cllr Clare, is motivated by the consensus she says exists amongst the non-white population of the city.
Cllr Knight who seconded the motion said:
“…words are not enough and noble sentiments won’t wash – we urgently need to take action and things need to change so that the BAME communities in the city begin to see an actual change in their lives”.
Her reasons for a new anti-racist schools strategy centred on addressing a pupil knowledge deficit
“Let’s all work together and make sure that this is the last generation to lack knowledge about black history and the part Britain played in that oppression. And the last generation to not be fully aware of the contribution BAME communities make and continue to make to the worlds achievements. This is the very least we can do”.
It would be hard to underestimate the effect Saturdays 10,000 strong BLM demonstration had on the city’s council. Eager to be seen as doing the right thing, the emergency Green/Labour Notice of Motion ordered officers to produce plans for an anti-racist intervention into schools despite the lack of a mandate for doing so. The objections of conservative councillors Vanessa Brown and Alistair McNair swam against the tide. Cllr Brown found the wording of the motion “demeaning to our hard working teachers, stating that “it is not the job of this Council to micro-manage the history curriculum”.
Acknowledging that the city has issues with racism, Cllr McNair added that:
“at the same time I’d find it hard to identify racism as needing the action this Notice of Motion seems to suggest…”.
With the motion approved, Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists were adept at seizing the moment. A July 2020 petition ‘Declare Brighton & Hove To Be An Anti-Racist City’ challenged the council to demonstrate “concrete and visible actions”. Insistent that anti-racism should shift its focus from ‘BAME’ to ‘POC’, it proposed Brighton schools have “anti-racism, history of POC, British imperialism and colonialism taught at a significant level throughout the school curriculum across all year groups” as well as a program of in-service training for teachers. That same month, from within the council, individual officers and councillors (i.e. those who were also members of ‘Brighton BLM’) appear to have been extremely effective in advising and influencing the administration.
On the council Newsroom webpage for July 10th, Cllr Appich appears yet again to reiterate the commitment to urgent anti-racism action:
We acknowledge that it is not enough to be non-racist and we must actively use our privilege, position as community leaders and platforms to challenge structural racism and injustice within the council and in the city.
However, within days, Appich and her Labour colleagues saw their Labour administration collapse amidst accusations of anti-Semitism directed at three councillors. [ ] For local BLM activists, these events seemed, if anything, to blow more wind into their sails. Leading the petition ‘Declare Brighton & Hove To Be An Anti-Racist City’, Mo Kanjilal, sounded a note of satisfaction at the arrival of a new Green administration. Writing for Sussex Bylines she expressed pleasure at the appointment of Green Party committee chairs, “…there is a growing movement of change here”. One of the new committee chairs, BLM supporter Cllr Amy Heley, opened her speech to full council with “I’m really appalled by the racism we saw in the council last month, we must have a zero tolerance approach…”.
- No off switch: Policy on a conveyor belt.
Change was certainly swift. If any councillor thought a set of radical-sounding anti-racism pledges were going to be enough, activists were on hand to put the straight.
An activist appeared at a special TECC meeting on 29th of July. “Invited member” Dr Anusree Biswas Sasidharan spoke about the many residents who “continue to experience racism and diminished opportunities”. They were, she said, “disadvantaged in housing, education, employment, criminal justice and health systems – as Covid and George Floyd’s brutal death indicate”.
“While ending racism requires action by all organisations, it also requires powerful white-led organisations like the council, CCGs (clinical commissioning groups), police and community and voluntary organisations to release their grip on power and to trust in black-led organisations and people”.
The report under discussion, which was titled “Becoming an Anti-Racist Council”, had been prepared by Interim Director of Housing, Neighbourhoods, Emma McDermott. Under the heading “Purpose of report and policy context” it made reference to “a significant body of research that demonstrates the structural inequality experienced by Black, Asian and minority ethnic people – in education, in employment, in health outcomes…”. Listing 13 specific action points as the pre-requisites “towards becoming an anti-racist council”, a key recommendation was that “the authority’s plan for being led by Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) residents and communities in the development of its anti-racism strategy”.
Two of the 13 action points are relevant to the schools strategy that later emerged:
- To work with BAME school staff on an action plan for staff training, recruitment and retention of and support for BAME staff, support for BAME pupils and decolonisation of the curriculum
- To educate councillors and officers on white privilege, on language when talking about ethnicity and race, and structural racism (Autumn 2020)
At the TECC meeting Emma McDermott had made some explicit qualifications to her recommendation that policy be BAME-led. Anusree Biswas Sasidharan preferred the term “Black-led” defining ‘black’ as the political term referring to the struggle of African, Arab and Asian communities against racism. She urged the committee to acknowledge “the depth and breadth of black activists and professionals in Brighton and Hove who may not be part of a group – not to include them would be a travesty and a missed opportunity”.
McDermott said “…we’re very much looking at how do we engage all residents not necessarily just those who are involved in groups”. Of note is this comment by McDermott:
“We’re also quite aware that this conversation needs to be had with white British people as well so there’s something about having a collective city conversation within all this as well because otherwise obviously we keep conversations here and here and actually were not tackling structural racism because actually white people need to understand how they participate in that even if they are ‘non-racist’”. (our emphasis)
At first, one might think McDermott is proposing a much needed public consultation over such, potentially, far-reaching changes but it quickly becomes apparent that the aim of widening ‘the conversation’ to include white citizens relates to educating them about their complicity in racism.
Under ‘ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION OF ANY ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS’, McDermott ponders on whether continuing with an existing programme tackling race inequality within the council would be enough but unsurprisingly concludes “…the momentum of Black Lives Matter in the city, country and internationally the public commitment to be an anti-racist council complements and strengthens the work already underway”.
“A further option was to do nothing. This was not considered viable as the local Black Live Matters protests provided a strong message to public institutions in the city that to be non-racist was not sufficient and that to tackle structural racism and make real and lasting difference to the lives of Black residents, institutions had to commit to anti-racist action. Inaction would be to condone the status quo”.
Two weeks later, a full council meeting hears Mo Kaliljali present her petition. This paved the way for Green Cllr Amy Heley’s specially prepared statement written by Brighton BLM. Described as a ‘motion to council’ (to pledge BHCC to become anti-racist) support for both petition and statement was agreed [ ]. Writing the next day in Sussex Bylines, Mo Kanjilal heralds Heley’s passionate speech but asked if the unanimous support was “a fleeting moment of change, or are we going to see a real dismantling of power structures…”. In essence, Heley’s BLM statement gave notice to herself and all 52 of her fellow (white) colleagues that immediate and specific actions were now expected of them. ‘Words and statements are nothing without action’, she said, ‘the global [BLM] movement strives for the eradication of white supremacy while empowering black communities – empowering takes the form of fostering black innovation, creating safe spaces for black expression and ensuring we centre all black lives at all times’. Kanijali’s petition may have provided something of a crib sheet for Heley’s statement as well as lending it an air of legitimacy. Along with the June mass protest, both petition and statement merged to give councillors the vague impression of widespread public support and therefore a mandate for BLMs list of proposed actions. In her report, McDermott describes the protest as, “a powerful demonstration and affirmation of the city’s values of inclusivity and desire for Brighton & Hove to become an anti-racist city, and for public institutions to amplify their commitment and actions”.
- A city-wide anti-racist schools strategy
On November 9th, the Newsroom page announced its plans for schools.
“The proposal would see the council’s education team working in partnership with the Brighton & Hove Educators of Colour Collective (BHECC). This was founded by a group of staff during the summer to support and empower educators of colour and to support anti-racist action in schools.
The collective has worked with a consultant commissioned by the council to draft a strategy with racial literacy training at its centre”.
A report on the proposed strategy (along with the strategy document itself) was presented to, and approved by, the council’s Children, Young People and Skills committee (CYPS) that same day.
“The chair of the committee, Councillor Hannah Clare, said: “A recent YMCA poll of black children found that 95% of them hear racist language and half think racism is biggest barrier to success. We cannot let this continue.
I’d like to welcome the formation of the Brighton & Hove Educators of Colour Collective and thank them for sharing their expertise and experience and agreeing to work with us on this vital initiative”.
The report introducing the strategy, which CYPS had requested after the Notice of Motion of June 15th, set out the plan for more anti-racist action in schools. Written, we assume, by executive officer Deb Austin, the report was introduced by her junior, the ‘Partnership Adviser Health & Wellbeing’ officer, Sam Beal. The strategy document, titled ‘Brighton & Hove Anti-Racist Schools Strategy (DRAFT for engagement)’ had been written by a consultant working with members of the Brighton & Hove Educators of Colour Collective (BHECC). Five members of BHECC attended this meeting.
Introducing the strategy, Beal said:
“I’m here [with members of BHECC] to recommend that you support the strategy that you see in the report that’s been written by an expert consultant and, as you can see from the list of references, informed by research”.
“So the strategy and this report follows on from the notice of motion passed in June committee that called for further support to schools to challenge and prevent racism and prejudice. In Brighton and Hove there has been work that’s gone on to develop anti-racist schools [ ] but I think there has been an acceptance that this hasn’t gone far enough or deep enough to make the sort of difference that we want to the lives of children and young people and staff of colour or from black and Asian minority ethnic backgrounds”. [our emphasis in bold]
“[The strategy] aims to go wider and deeper. It aims to both consider the needs of staff and young people who are experiencing racism within our schools currently – but also to do the work needed to challenge and prevent that in an ongoing way”. [our emphasis in bold]
“The strategy as you see it now is a draft written by [consultant] and in partnership with the Collective. The next step is to go and engage with partners and schools, school leaderships, young people in those settings – but also other partners in the community”.
- The stated reasons for the schools strategy.
- The a priori belief that racism is systemically/structurally/institutionally entrenched.
The strategy document begins with this paragraph:
“Whilst it must be recognised that racism is a complex issue that is an entrenched problem in British society at large and in our school systems, and there are no simple solutions to ‘eradicate’ racism, the aim of this document is to lay out a strategic plan for anti-racism practices to be embedded in the Brighton & Hove school system over a 5 year timeframe”. [our emphasis in bold]
With interchangeable use of the words ‘systemic’, ‘structural’ and ‘institutional’, the presence of racism is presumed. Sam Beal describes the reason for the strategy as, firstly, the result of the June 15th Notice of Motion which called for it. And secondly,
- References to specific sources.
Later in the document it says:
There is ample evidence spanning decades that children as young as 3 years old begin to learn the markers of racial categories and racial hierarchy (Apfelbaum, Sullivan, and Wilton, 2020; Brown, 2005) and yet the widespread view that children, particularly young children, are racially ‘innocent’ persists.
Alongside Cllr Clare’s reference to a YMCA poll and the mention of Apfelbaum and others (above) the following sources are mentioned:
The report offers links to two national reports which, it says, highlight some of the key issues. In the first – Race and Racism in English Secondary Schools (by Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury), Runnymede Trust 2020 – the term ‘racial literacy’ appears. Again, the a priori existence of systemic, entrenched racism is cited in the first paragraph:
“Despite widespread denials of the ongoing significance of race, racism continues to underpin key socio-political events and to shape lives in profound ways. From the racisms that have surfaced in popular and political discourses on Brexit, to the racisms manifest in the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy and the racially uneven impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it should be increasingly difficult to deny that racism is an enduring and fundamental problem for our times”.
According to this report, to train teachers in ‘Racial literacy’ is a taken for granted imperative:
“‘Racial literacy’ refers here to the capacity of teachers to understand the ways in which race and racisms work in society, and to have the skills, knowledge and confidence to implement that understanding in teaching practice”.
Deb Austin’s report to CYPS offer a link to a second national report, also published by Runnymede, titled ‘Visible Minorities, Invisible Teachers – BME Teachers in the Education System in England’. A survey of 676 UK BME teachers, conducted by teaching union NASUWT, found evidence which Austin’s report viewed as relevant to Brighton’s schools.
“The NASUWT continues to find evidence of everyday racism in schools and colleges, discrimination, harassment, ostracism, lack of pay progression, and BME teachers being held back from promotion. As these concerns have been examined in more depth, it is increasingly clear that they remain deep-rooted, endemic and institutionalised”.
The strategy document lists references that include a number of studies and books by academics. These include Asare, Y. (2009) ‘Them and us’: race equality interventions in predominantly white schools. London: Runnymede Trust; Moncrieff M, Asare, Y, Dunford, R and Youssef, H (2019) Decolonising the Curriculum, University of Brighton and Gillborn, D (2008) Racism and Education – Coincidence or Conspiracy? Routledge.
We will elaborate on the sources (cited by Sam Beal as the research which informed the strategy) later in this document.
- References to ‘lived experience’.
Across the second half of 2020 references to ‘lived experience’ began to appear in council communications. In June, Cllr Appich was among the first of a steady stream council figures to demonstrate their understanding of the term:
“As a white woman, I can empathise, discuss and inform myself, but I have no lived experience, so can never fully understand what impact statues of people like Edward Colston have on people whose ancestors were enslaved”.
At the November CYPS, Cllr Clare’s comments (following the speeches of BHECC members) further illuminate how ‘lived experience’ is understood by council leaders. To the BHECC invitees she says:
“Thank you for your emotional labour that you’ve given this evening in talking about your experience of racism and how that’s affected you. I know that you, well, I don’t know because I haven’t experienced it, … that you continually have to explain to white people what racism is and how it affects you and how there is an emotional labour impact of that …”.
In their capacity as educators of colour the five representatives from BHECC acted as supporting witnesses for Sam Beal’s recommendation that the strategy be approved. Testifying to their lived experience of racism simply required them to confirm that their perception of this experience was to see it as persistent and every day. Precise examples of these experiences were few.
- BHECC founder Kate Jordan (a staff governor at Patcham High School and local Equalities officer for the NEU) said:
“All training that happens – all that anti-racism training that can be delivered to all staff – means that we’re all further empowered to deal with racist incidents in schools – as we know casual racism is rife”.
“It has been difficult at times. I have anecdotal evidence of a situation where a member of staff of colour from the governing body and when the equalities policy had been updated by the head teacher and was delivered at the governors meeting unfortunately there was some questioning about why that’s important ‘when there aren’t that many of them in the school’. And that kind of thing is why we really need to focus on this anti-racist strategy”.
Examples tended to focus on their perception of a generalised free-floating experience of racism revealed by such things as the absence of BAME teachers or BAME people in school books. When veteran Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown objected to the description in the strategy document of racism in the school system as “entrenched” her own reference to personal experience left her wide open to criticism. She said this:
“From my experience I’d be loathed to call it entrenched – we are generally a very inclusive city”.
Noting the emphasis in the strategy document on inadequate ‘BAME’ teacher recruitment, Cllr Brown went on to ask if anyone knew what percentage of Brighton and Hove teachers are BAME.
BHECC member Anoushka Visvalingam confirmed that she didn’t have the percentage (Sam Beal later confirms that BAME are underrepresented). However, Visvalingam wanted to address Cllr Brown’s upset over the word “entrenched” stressing that the important issue here was to “distinguish between individual or racist incidents and institutionalised and systematic racism”. To illustrate this distinction Visvalingam gave the example of BAME children not seeing themselves in the books they read, the resources schools use, the curriculum as its currently designed…”.
“its about their everyday experience and the psychological impact of not seeing BAME adults in the environment you’re learning in, or about BAME history, that’s what we’re talking about…”
The riposte to Cllr Brown was given further backing by BHECC member Peddy Knowles. Also directing her remarks to Cllr Vanessa Brown, Knowles said:
“A current example is the Me-Too movement where for many women the idea of the abuses that many women and girls were experiencing was nothing new. But for men who weren’t being subjected to this or weren’t aware of the everyday – whether its abuses the underlying incidents that undermine women’s ability to further their lives – so because it wasn’t being done to men they weren’t aware of it. So it wouldn’t surprise me that it [racism] was not being done to you [Cllr Brown]. As a white person you wouldn’t be as aware of it as a person of colour. So the examples that Anoushka gives [lack of BAME diversity in books and staff] are the everyday examples of things that undermine or prevent a child from being to raise themselves up on an equal level with their white peers”.
Conservative councillor Alistair McNair speaks: He points out that the ‘BAME’ category covers a wide variety of different minority groups many of whom are white.
“Are we ensuring that all these categories of people are being represented in this strategy for anti-racism in schools?”
“Are schools systematically racist? Teachers should be free to teach history factually and critically and to encourage their pupils to ask hard questions. I worry that education organised by committee however well-meaning can lead to an echo-chamber….”.
“Training is not education, it is instruction to think a certain way…”.
Referring to Carden Primary school in his ward (where he is a governor), Cllr McNair recounts a visit to meet with the Curriculum Lead to discuss how to make the curriculum more diverse.
“It couldn’t be more so. The school introduces the children to Maya Angelou, Zaha Hadid, Islamic mathematicians, native south Americans… In the past the school has invited Holocaust survivors to talk to the children. It couldn’t be more diverse”.
Cllr McNair stated that at this meeting with the Curriculum Lead they had discussed what was particularly important for children… critical thinking, the freedom to ask questions.
“…this ability to ask questions is the quickest route to empowerment”.
“We also discussed the importance of how schools represent the students they teach- that they don’t forget the community in which they live….And who knows the community best? That particular community? Teachers. Racism and prejudice are tackled not by addressing representation per se, but by teaching students how to discern good ideas from bad”.
While Kate Jordan responds with a view on the defining characteristic of ‘BAME’ as “we have all been othered in some way”, and Liz Soper points out the presence of intersectionality in the strategy, it is Peddy Pedro Knowles who offers Cllr McNair a more detailed corrective to his thinking:
“When we [the BHECC] talk about systemical, structural racism we’re talking about societal structures. [ ] If I give an example that’s not to do with race, the example of capitalism, which is the system that was developed back in, I think, the 13th century, there have been numerous structures that have developed to support the growth of capitalism whether it’s to do with the banks, whether it’s to do with certain attitudes we’ve developed around money, around property – around a whole range of different aspects of life in the 21st century now … and so all of those structures combine together to support the existence of capitalism to enable the society to function with capitalism as its underlying ideology. It impacts the way we view each other, it impacts the way we view ourselves, it impacts the way we view community – it has an impact on a whole range of different aspects of human life. That impact then affects the way we treat each other, whether we’re aware of it or not.
So when we talk about structural racism we’re talking about the same sort of effect – that racism was a system developed not long after capitalism and it has numerous structures having been developed over the years which have supported the growth of racism in one way or another. And although life today looks very different from life 100 years ago in terms of how racism impacted people but there are still lots of similarities … “.
- Evidence referred to but never revealed.
In section (2) above, we pinpointed some of the initial, broader problems that the council cited as the rationale for a city-wide anti-racist strategy. Council officer Emma McDermott summed it up in this passage from her report to the July TECC:
“There is a significant body of research that demonstrates the structural inequality experienced by Black, Asian and minority ethnic people – in education, in employment, in health outcomes…”
A few paragraphs later the report asserts:
“Individual, institutional and structural racism exists in Brighton & Hove”.
(s1.1 and 3.4, ‘Becoming an Anti-Racist Council’. Report of McDermott to TOURISM, EQUALITES, COMMUNITIES & CULTURE COMMITTEE (TECC), July 29th, 2020).
It is of note that Cllr O’Quinn (a history teacher for 33 years) intervenes with this comment to Emma McDermott:
“I’ve taught Africa, India, I’ve taught civil rights in America …. I’m not quite sure what it means to decolonise the curriculum?”
O’Quinn goes on to describe how a lot of her teaching covered the colonial actions in Africa and its pre-colonial history. On Indian independence,she makes the point that here and in other parts of the empire classroom discussion over the cultural clashes between and within various groups (Muslims, Hindu’s etc.) would lead to very good debates amongst her A-Level students as different forms of prejudice were explored.
McDermott replies:
“My understanding of decolonisation is looking at the way that history and our colonisation, our empire building has influenced how we perceive and how we present what British history is and how its evolved, My understanding is that we’re not always as open and honest and understanding of how we colonised, what we did and our history.
…And also the representation of black people in their history as well – so we often present it – even the colonisation when we’re confronting it and seeing it, we’re not always seeing black people and where they were, what role they took and their participation [ ] You never see in a certain period [mumbles/unclear] the fact that there were black residents in a certain city or certain historic event and so on. So its always from a very much white perspective”.
O’Quinn makes one last comment in response to McDermott:
“…If you’re a really good history teacher you do do all that you were just talking about”.
Since Emma McDermott produced her report she has declined to cite the body of research she refers to. In reply to a Deputation read to TECC a year later (July 18th 2021), Chair Stephanie Powell stated:
“In answer to your more detailed questions about the sources of evidence for the original report from July 2020, we can send you a written response”.
At the time of writing (January 2022) no such evidence has been received. A freedom of information request (10.12.21) for this information received a council notification that more time was needed to answer it and a fresh deadline of February 10th 2022.
3.2 Did the Nov 9th CYPS properly scrutinise the strategy?
It is unclear how much scrutiny CYPS members gave to the 2,300 word document ‘Brighton & Hove Anti-Racist Schools Strategy (DRAFT for engagement)’ (hereafter ‘ARSS’). The document was appendix one of Deb Austin’s report. Sam Beal’s presentation and the discussion that followed entailed only one specific references to the strategy document. This took the form of Conservative councillor Vanessa Brown expressing her upset when she read the word “entrenched” (in the first paragraph of the strategy) as an appropriate description for racism taking place in the city’s school system.
- In the wake of the Nov 9th 2020 CYPS approval.
Even before the ARSS had been approved at CYPS that afternoon, communications from council to schools were being sent out.
“This strategy is being presented to Children and Young People’s Committee on the 9th November. [ ] The strategy is now in a position to be shared with schools for your engagement, feedback and ideas for how to turn this into action. This will be done at racial literacy training events for staff this term and next term and at Head teacher and governor meetings. The draft strategy is attached …”
[Bulletin, dated 09/11/20, sent to Carlton Hill School and obtained via FOI request 21/04/21]
Indeed, during the CYPS meeting Anoushka Visvalingam states that at her school, St Luke’s Primary school, all staff had taken the Racial Literacy training the previous week.
A snapshot of how quickly the training began its roll-out emerged in a response to an FOI request from Carlton Hill Primary School which included this:
“Our Headteacher attended the Racial Literacy training on 8th December 2020. Our Inclusion Co-ordinator who also leads on Equalities and Diversity, attended the same training on 11th November 2020. She also attended a Facilitating focus group discussion on ‘Race and Racism’ on 11 February 2021, as part of her PSHE lead role. We have booked the Racial Literacy training workshop for our whole staff group on one of our INSET training days in September 2021”.
[FOI response, 17th May 2021, Carlton Hill School, Brighton]
It may even be the case that Racial Literacy 101 training began in various schools long before it had been improved and justified as part of the ‘engagement’ process that formed the development of strategy. Even as the strategy document was presented to CYPS it was careful to be titled as a “draft for engagement”.
The first council mention of Critical Race Theory that we can find, came in the form of this online advert to schools:
