YEF Race Equity Report

In October 2022, we published our race equity goals and objectives. These provide us with clear and actionable targets to work towards and mean that we can be held accountable for our actions, internally and externally. 

Our Race Equity Progress Report outlines our advancement towards these published goals over the past year. It describes what we’ve done, shows where we’ve taken significant steps forward and highlights the areas where there’s still work to do. 

The data and findings in this report were compiled using self-reported ethnicity data from YEF funding applications and YEF staff, staff survey results, commentary from and information provided by departmental directors and heads. The report has been reviewed internally by the YEF’s Race Equity Accountability Group.

Objective	Goal	Status
We’ll make sure that our themed grant-round funding reaches organisations with Black, Asian and minority ethnic leaders.	We’ll publish data on the proportion of organisations we fund through our themed grant rounds that are led by people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.	Commitment met
	We’ll make sure that, in every grant round, we fund organisations in England and Wales that are led by people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.	Commitment met
	We’ll ringfence a £10 million fund specifically for grassroots organisations led by people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds who are working to prevent children from becoming involved in youth violence.	Commitment met
We’ll provide funding that reaches children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.	We’ll make sure at least 30 % of the children who benefit from our funding are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.	Commitment met
	We’ll gather and publish accurate data that we’re confident in, so that we have a solid understanding of the proportion of children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds that our funding reaches.	Commitment largely met

Objective	Goal	Status
We’ll invest in improving the cultural competency of the researchers we work with	We’ll build a pool of consultants that we can pair with our evaluators, researchers and project-delivery organisations to advise on the race equity implications of their research designs. We’ll cover these costs.	Commitment met
We’ll commission specific research about racial disproportionality and racism.	We’ll commission research into the extent of racial disproportionality in, for example, social care, mental health and other areas related to youth violence. We’ll use this research to understand how we can help to make change for children from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.	Some progress
	We’ll commission research that will help us better understand existing evidence about approaches to reducing racial disproportionality in the youth justice system.	Some progress
We’ll make sure that all of our work is clear on racism and disproportionality.	We’ll commit to making sure that every one of our future reports includes a section on race. This means, for example, tracking differences in the change that our programmes make for White children who participate, as well as those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, or including specific details in our guidance on research related to cultural competency.	Commitment largely met
	We’ll make sure that the findings from our research into racism and disproportionality directly inform our change and influencing work. This means that we’ll have clear activities in our change and influencing plans that aim to address racism.	Some progress

Objective	Goal	Status
When working with other people and organisations, we’ll live up to the YEF values of being questioning, brave and empathetic. This means that when we believe that approaches or plans have not considered people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, we’ll use our position to understand, question and challenge.	We’ll make sure that we only fund organisations that have considered race equity when developing their plans and enforce our Code of Conduct if things go wrong.	Commitment met
	We’ll use our evidence to make change.	Some progress

Objective	Goal	Status
We’ll monitor and hold ourselves accountable for our performance against our race equity goals.	We’ll make sure that our goals on race equity feature in all of our planning processes, at organisational, team and individual levels.	Commitment met
	We’ll publish an annual review of our progress against each of the goals we’ve set out here. We’ll be honest about what went well, what’s been challenging and where we’ve fallen short. By doing so, we’ll encourage other funders to do the same.	Commitment met
We’ll develop new internal structures, to help us stay on track with our goals.	We’ll hold regular meetings of senior staff, who will be assigned specific responsibility for progressing race equity within their team.	Commitment met
	We’ll bring in external consultants and advisors to check and challenge our race equity work.	Commitment met

Objective	Goal	Status
We’ll change the way we recruit and retain staff and our governance bodies	We’ll only use recruitment practices and services that help us to build pools of applicants from diverse backgrounds (for example, using recruitment agencies with a strong track record in equality, diversity and inclusion). We want at least 40 % of our shortlisted applicants to come from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. If we fall short, we’ll ask ourselves why, review what’s gone wrong and make changes	Commitment met
	We’ll develop a new retention strategy, which creates new recommendations for making sure that our Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff members are well supported.	Some progress
	We commit to making sure that at least 20 % of members of our Grants and Evaluation Committee are from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background, making sure that all the advisory bodies we develop and consult with reflect the diversity of the communities they are meant to serve.	Commitment largely met

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