10 Background extending the Race Relations(Amendment)Act 2000 to cover the private sector, perhaps with monitoring and enforcement arrangements; as an alternative to legislation,to develop voluntary schemes for ethnic minority monitoring. The latter point is supported by the comment that: 'It may well be that a great deal of the ethnic disadvantage in the private sector is unintentional and unrecognised by senior management.Monitoring schemes may well...encourage responsible employers to address the weaknesses identified'. (2006:69) However,they are also clear that: 'One implication of our research is that more work needs to be done on the causal issues,perhaps through careful monitoring of pilot policy interventions or through field experiments on racial discrimination'. (2006:66) The National Audit Office(NAO)reported on DWP's role in increasing employment rates for ethnic minorities(NAO,2008).This report notes that the Department has used mainstream employment services as the principal instrument.While this approach has achieved a reduction in the employment gap,there is more that can be done(2008:8).The NAO makes six recommendations: all future City Strategies for areas with significant ethnic minority populations should include targets for ethnic minority employment as a condition of funding;1 in more flexible New Deal programmes,changes should be made to meet the needs of ethnic minority customers,such as in the length,content and format of training courses; Jobcentre Plus should increase awareness among ethnic minorities of reporting arrangements where discrimination has been perceived to occur; Jobcentre Plus Districts should identify services local organisations can provide to ethnic minority customers; Jobcentre Plus should bring good practice in ethnic minority employment to the attention of personal advisers; the Department and Jobcentre Plus should conduct a further customer survey of ethnic minorities to identify trends since the last survey in 2005. However,the report notes that 'the Department does not accept this recommendation on the grounds that power has been delegated to the local level and targets can be included through negotiation between the Department and local organisations'(2008:9).10 • extending the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to cover the private sector, perhaps with monitoring and enforcement arrangements; • as an alternative to legislation, to develop voluntary schemes for ethnic minority monitoring. The latter point is supported by the comment that: ‘It may well be that a great deal of the ethnic disadvantage in the private sector is unintentional and unrecognised by senior management. Monitoring schemes may well…encourage responsible employers to address the weaknesses identified’. (2006: 69) However, they are also clear that: ‘One implication of our research is that more work needs to be done on the causal issues, perhapsthrough careful monitoring of pilot policy interventions or through field experiments on racial discrimination’. (2006: 66). The National Audit Office (NAO) reported on DWP’s role in increasing employment rates for ethnic minorities (NAO, 2008). This report notes that the Department has used mainstream employment services as the principal instrument. While this approach has achieved a reduction in the employment gap, there is more that can be done (2008: 8). The NAO makes six recommendations: • all future City Strategies for areas with significant ethnic minority populations should include targets for ethnic minority employment as a condition of funding;1 • in more flexible New Deal programmes, changes should be made to meet the needs of ethnic minority customers, such as in the length, content and format of training courses; • Jobcentre Plus should increase awareness among ethnic minorities of reporting arrangements where discrimination has been perceived to occur; • Jobcentre Plus Districts should identify services local organisations can provide to ethnic minority customers; • Jobcentre Plus should bring good practice in ethnic minority employment to the attention of personal advisers; • the Department and Jobcentre Plus should conduct a further customer survey of ethnic minorities to identify trends since the last survey in 2005. 1 However, the report notes that ‘the Department does not accept this recommendation on the grounds that power has been delegated to the local level and targets can be included through negotiation between the Department and local organisations’ (2008: 9). Background