NAO senior managers still too male and white

An active diversity plan has failed to hit targets for more women or ethnic minority senior managers in the National Audit Office.

The watchdog's recently published annual diversity report revealed "little change" over the past year in the ethnic and gender profile of the body's more senior grades, at director level and above.

The number of senior women managers at the NAO, which oversees central government spending, has fallen in the past year, from 32% to 27.5%, against a target of 34% for the year, while the number of ethnic minority directors has risen very slightly, from 5% to 5.3%, against a target of 7%.

The report acknowledges that there while the NAO's workforce have become more diverse, there has been little change at the highest levels of the organisation. "We need to do more to retain and progress talented staff from these groups to our more senior posts," says the report.

There is also a continuing difference between annual appraisal ratings, with ethnic minority staff more likely to receive lower ratings. This will be a worrying trend, given the emphasis on performance management in the civil service reform plan, and the NAO acknowledges there is a need to make further progress in eliminating this difference.

There is no "structural inequality" between pay for men and women at the NAO, but overall, men receive higher pay because more of them have been at the body for longer, and at more senior levels.

While the watchdog failed to reach the last set of targets, Amyas Morse, comptroller and auditor general at the NAO, said the organisation's new diversity strategy for the next two years would set "ambitious" objectives and targets, to increase the pace of change.

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