Hindu Council UK launches its Public Appointments Strategy
10 December 2009

The Hindu Council (HCUK), the UK's largest representative body for Britain's 560,000 Hindus, today launched its Public Appointments Strategy to help improve the representation of this entrepreneurial community at the highest levels in the public sector. Spearheaded by successful Interim Manager Dilip Joshi MBE, the 12-strong HCUK Public Appointments Taskforce has already met with major government departments, politicians from all parties and specialist recruiters for the public sector.

"The strategy, nearly two years in making, came about after the HCUK was asked to intervene in a legal workplace discrimination case in a public organisation" explained Dilip, "from there we started looking at representation issues across Public Bodies. As my background is in transport, Transport for London (TFL) and other rail and transport bodies were the first ones we considered. Frankly, I was shocked at the dearth of Hindus at board level. There are plenty of Asians at middle management level, what was lacking was a voice at senior level".

The HCUK Public Appointments Taskforce then decided to "test the waters" and taskforce members themselves started applying for Public Appointment roles. "We set a low target of getting twenty-five public appointments in 2009 and despite having an extremely talented, experienced and knowledgeable team, I am sad to report, that so far, we have failed to get even one success". Undaunted, the taskforce provided feedback to the Government Equalities Office (GEO) and the Cabinet Office explaining their qualitative research.

"There are many reasons for the lack of Hindus in Public Appointments. Part of taskforce's objective is to encourage and inspire successful members of the community to apply; highlight those already in key roles and guide, train and mentor more people to consider public service. One of the fundamental Hindu tenets is 'Sewa' (selfless work for others) and so Hindus often prefer charity work over public service. Our aim is to showcase the benefit of public service for Britain and for the Hindu community" added Dilip.

Their strategy was given a boost in April 2009, when the Rt. Hon. Harriet Harman QC MP tabled The Equality Bill, designed to make Britain stronger, fairer and more equal. Also established was a new cross government 'Diversity in Public Appointments' action plan co-led by the Government Equalities Office, under the direction of Harriet Harman QC MP, Minister for Women and Equality, and the Cabinet Office, under the direction of Tessa Jowell MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office. The action plan includes measures such as mentoring and raising awareness, as well as setting targets on gender, disability and ethnicity.

The aim is that by 2011, 50% of new appointments will be women, 14% will be disabled people and 11% will be ethnic minorities. "We saw this as a significant opportunity for the highly-skilled, well-educated, entrepreneurial Hindu community in the UK" said Dilip "and we started working hard on producing a three year strategy to help deliver this for the community"

"There is a lot to do. As part of the strategy, the HCUK Public Appointments Taskforce will continue lobbying politicians, developing partnerships with government departments and public bodies themselves. We will be increasing our communications with the Hindu community on this issue and we will be looking to work with partners who can help us achieve better representation."

Behind-the-scenes activities include workshops on 'Getting Your First Public Appointment', networking events, a mentoring scheme, development of a database of key Hindu candidates suitable for a public appointment and specialist events for Hindu women, the first of which was held in November 2009 where The Commissioner for Public Appointments, Janet Gaymer CBE QC, was a lead speaker.

"We are monitoring senior level public appointments and will intervene where we feel barriers are being created" explained Dilip "we have lobbied hard to reduce to term of office for public appointees to no more than three years, reduce the number of automatic reappointments and the number of public appointments an individual can hold. These measures will help to create opportunities for the Hindu community"

"In the longer term we will address the issues of efficiency, performance and appraisal for public appointees, but for now we are focussed on encouraging more Hindus to apply and breaking down barriers to them successfully getting their first appointment".

HCUK will be working with affiliated member organisations and other faith groups to extend the reach of Public Appointments strategy. "In the longer term, we will also looking at Civil Service appointments, Judiciary appointments and Public bodies that currently fall outside the remit of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA) and the Public Appointments Commission."

Dilip is keen to hear from Hindu candidates who think they have what it takes to be a Public Appointee or from any public sector organisation that wishes to work with the HCUK.

He can be contacted on Tel: 020 8432 0400 or via admin@hinducounciluk.org

About Dilip Joshi

Dilip Joshi MBE is a seasoned transport professional having held a variety of roles within the transport sector that included Head of Retail Operations for stations in the London sector and Thames Valley. He was honoured with an MBE for Services to the Rail Industry in 2000 and was awarded the prestigious citation of 'Videsh Samman' for contributing to the enhancement of human welfare and Indo-British understanding by High Commissioner of India.

He holds a Masters degree in Transport and Logistics Management is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Member of Chartered Management Institute and a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts. In his spare time Dilip coordinates HCUK's relationship with the Greater London Authority and Central Government. He currently leads their drive in making private and public sector organisations more representative of their customer and taxation base. Dilip was previously a Non Executive Board Member of the Ealing Partnership.

About Public Appointments

Public appointments are appointments, usually made by a Government Minister or by The Queen on the advice of a Minister, to the boards of national public bodies. This includes NDPBs (Non-Departmental Public Body), NHS bodies (i.e. Primary Care Trusts, NHS Trusts, Strategic Health Authorities and other NHS bodies) and key national public corporations. As at 31 March 2008, there were around 18,500 men and women serving on the boards of around 1,200 public bodies.

USEFUL LINKS

The Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments (OCPA)
https://www.publicappointmentscommissioner.org/

Government Equalities Office
http://www.equalities.gov.uk/

Public Appointments Online
http://www.direct.gov.uk/publicappointments

The Appointments Commission (Health Service Recruitment)
http://www.appointments.org.uk

DOWNLOADS

HCUK Public Appointments Strategy 2009-2012
Cabinet Office 'Public Bodies' Report 2008
Public Appointments Statistics (GEO factsheet)
GEO Action Plan