Workforce diversity in the public sector : An evaluation of the performance of English local authorities

The increased recognition of diversity within Western democracies has resulted in particular attention being paid to the representativeness of staff within public organisations. However, little systematic research has been conducted into workforce diversity in public organisations in the UK. In this article we develop criteria of performance on workforce diversity, and analyse the Best Value Performance Indicators for 2001-03 to evaluate whether employment in English local government is equitable with respect to gender, minority ethnicity and disability. Our analysis shows that the relative performance of councils varies markedly, depending on the dimension of diversity and the criterion of performance that is applied. © The Policy Press, 2006.