Monitoring the ethnicity of housing service users: forty years of progress?

It is 40 years since ethnic monitoring in housing services was first recommended, but this paper suggests that true monitoring is in decline. Whilst basic sources of information are available, practitioners do not appear to be putting them in context.  The key issue for housing services is to ‘get beyond frontline figures to actually identify, explain and (consequently) act on any potential areas of concern that may emerge’.

Key messages:

• Despite forty years of recommendations for ethnic monitoring in housing services, there is little evidence that such monitoring is actually taking place in a regular, systematic and detailed manner
• A number of clear reasons why services should be monitored can be identified
• Classifications used to record ethnicity should reflect the local picture whilst still being possible to compare to CORE and Census data
• Although there is generally a lack of detailed analysis of the data collected, a number of housing associations and local authorities are producing reports that seek to go beyond merely presenting frontline lettings data
• There is a real danger that ethnic monitoring may be lost within the broader equalities agenda, particularly given the time and resource constraints under which service providers operate

Sections:

• Background
• Why monitor?
• What categories should be used?
• Ethnic Monitoring Good Practice
• Good Practice Examples Housing Associations
• Good Practice Examples Local Authorities