It defines the group as practitioners who work to safeguard children or support their families to protect them, who self-identify as Black and whose total or partial ancestry come from any of the Black racial groups of the African diaspora. Its report on the survey said that while it was important not to over-generalise from the responses of professionals, the headline results chimed with anecdotal feedback from Kijiji over members the past six months, so were likely to be indicative of wider feelings among BSPs.
It added that the findings also fitted with the low representation of Black professionals in leadership roles across organisations. The report also identified challenges for BSPs about raising race-related issues within the workplace β a problem that has come under the spotlight following the killing of George Floyd.
Half of respondents disagreed that they found it easy to raise racial issues within the organisation or with clients, with a third agreeing. The report also raised concerns about the use of the term Black Asian and minority ethnic BAME , as it risked conflating the experience of BSPs with those of other professionals from ethnic minority groups. I have decided after seeing my Caucasian colleagues progressing, after being pushed for the additional training and courses offered by LA to go agency.
Before doing this , I noticed that a large proportion of agency workers where black etc. Now I know why. Hopefully, things improve. I think the way forward is to encourage diversity training within social care to enable white managers to understand how they work black workers. Structural and systemic racism remain the core issue and unless these are going to change, we will see no change.
Black and Asian leaders who reach to the top have a fear of raising the issue, worried about bring stigmatised, which means there needs to be a culture shift. I am black, in a senior role and I actively seek out opportunities to remain eligible for promotions internally or externally, the famous line of you being good, but need more experience is common for us and the reality is we will need to continue to work harder, smarter and trusting that someone with integrity will recognise our worth and offer us that senior post.
