BAME Leadership Summit

The BAME Leadership Summit is necessary as it works towards our aims of increasing BAME representation at SCS. Cabinet Office have asked each Department to set targets for flow into SCS. Defra has a target of 7% (rolling year target) of all new SCS staff to be from a BAME background. We are currently behind this, our latest data shows that only 6% of all new staff into the SCS have been from a BAME background. This is far below the BAME working age population of 12%.

In addition to Defra failing to meet our BAME into SCS flow targets, it's important to also note that when Defra has recruited new SCS, they have all been external recruitments - either from OGDs or the Private Sector. In the last year, no BAME staff have been promoted to SCS in Defra. The summit has been targeted at BAME G6/7. As we know, BAME women will face barriers across Race and Gender, hence why we are focusing specifically on this group.