Civil service mentors its BME workers

A new mentoring programme is aiming to get more black and minority ethnic (BME) civil servants into senior positions.

Twelve applicants have been selected for the Growing Talent pilot scheme following an assessment programme. The scheme will be based on “high-level mentoring”, alongside additional events “to reinforce what participants have learned through the mentoring programme”.

The participants have been paired with mentors from the senior civil service — either permanent secretaries or those working at director-general level.

The four-year pilot scheme is one of the first initiatives to be developed by the Minority Ethnic Talent Association (META) — the body set up in 2006 for BME civil servants with the potential to advance to senior management or leadership level. Another development scheme, Leaders UnLtd, is aimed at civil servants who are women, disabiled or from BME communities.

Growing Talent and any programmes that develop from it will contribute towards the Cabinet Office’s 10-point plan for increasing diversity in the upper reaches of the civil service — whose targets include filling 4% of senior posts with BME civil servants by this year. (It also aims for women and disabled people to fill 37% and 3.2% of senior positions respectively.)

Describing the scheme as “an important step” towards achieving a “more diverse and professional” civil service, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell said the civil service needs “a workforce which reflects the community we serve”.