Our Chief Executive Officer talks about Commission priorities and successes

Rebecca Hilsenrath, our Chief Executive Officer, discusses what success and impact look like at the Commission and shares her highlights from our work over the last 12 months. In her first interview as CEO, she also talks about the Commission’s priorities over the next few years and what the future holds.

1. What have been the key successes for the Commission over the past 12 months?

First we have to ask ourselves what success looks like. To the Commission, it is about having impact on legislation and policy, on compliance with the law and with good practice, and having a voice and influence through media coverage to raise awareness of important issues. Above all, we want to have a direct positive effect on people’s lives.

With this in mind, something we are very proud of from the past year is our inquiry into deaths in the detention of adults with mental health conditions. We found serious flaws in the system and contributed to its improvement. Other examples of our successes are the guidance we published for the broadcasting industry on increasing diversity on and off screen, and our research into the workplace experiences of pregnant women and those on maternity leave. Both were very well-received by our stakeholders, attracted a lot of interest, and enhanced our reputation. But it doesn’t stop there. We’re just about to launch our recommendations into how to improve things for pregnant women and those on maternity leave, informed by this research. This is something the Commission really does well – taking our evidence base and turning it into concrete recommendations for how we can change things for the better.

Our work on monitoring how well the UK Government is promoting and protecting human rights is also an area in which we have real impact and we can see this from the number of our recommendations for Government that are adopted by the UN treaty bodies. The same can be said for our strategic litigation where we have had huge success this year in showing that the decision to recover Gypsy and Traveller planning appeals in relation to green belt sites was unlawful discrimination. The High Court ruled that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government had failed to meet his responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty and used passages from our guidance to demonstrate this.

Last but hardly least, our comprehensive report on Britain’s progress towards equality and human rights protection (‘Is Britain Fairer?’) was a huge achievement for the Commission this year. It demonstrated our credibility and reach, with key findings appearing on the front pages of broadsheets and informing the debate. It has been welcomed by our stakeholders and our follow-up conversations have been extremely productive. This is a critical piece of work for the Commission as we will use the evidence from the report to shape our priorities for the future.

2. What are the challenges arising from the context in which the Commission is working?

My glass is normally more than half full and what I see are plenty of open doors and plenty of chances for us to make a difference. As we know from ‘Is Britain Fairer?’, there is definitely scope for improvement in equality and human rights across the country, but there have also been a number of areas of progress since we conducted the review five years ago.

The economic context in which we are operating is obviously tough, but it makes our work even more necessary and important. Equality is now seen as a priority across different political parties and this provides real opportunities for us to contribute and add value.

3. What is the Strategic Plan and what are the Commission’s priorities over the next 12 months?

It is part of our statutory duty under the Equality Act 2006 to set out and consult on our strategy for the coming years. The Strategic Plan is a chance to outline our vision and make sure that we are joined up in our thinking, and that we have involved our stakeholders, all of our staff and our Board. Everyone needs to be signed up to the same vision in terms of what we will be doing over the next three years and how we will be doing it. The Commission is now very focused on being a national expert whose work is based on strong evidence and delivering genuine change in people’s lives. We want to maintain the UK’s long history of upholding people’s rights, valuing diversity and challenging intolerance. Some of our priorities for 2016 include developing effective ways to tackle pay gaps, examining people’s access to civil justice, understanding the relationship between prejudiced attitudes, values and behaviours, helping employers to deal with issues of religion and belief in the workplace, and promoting and educating the general public on human rights.

We’re also very keen to ensure all Commission employees are working as effectively as possible together and that we’re really getting the most from all the expertise and talent across the organisation. We want the Commission be proud of what it is achieving, to have a supportive atmosphere and to encourage good teamwork. This internal culture should translate into how the external world sees us.

Last Updated: 22 Dec 2015