Equal opportunities monitoring amongst Haringey Council staff has been criticised by the Conservatives.

Tory group leader Cllr Peter Forrest has questioned the value of regular head counts to determine the number of black and ethnic minority workers in the authority.

The figures are collated and assessed to ensure the council's workforce is in line with the percentages of different groups in the borough's population.

But Cllr Forrest said Haringey Council has already successfully created a multi-racial workforce which reflects the make-up of the community.

And he claimed a numbers-based monitoring system is outdated and called on the authority to install a different method.

He suggested that looking at staff development, promotions and job satisfaction would be a more effective way of monitoring.

Cllr Forrest also said it would highlight any problems and enable the council to make any necessary improvements or changes.

A spokesman for Haringey Council said staff head counts were a useful way of monitoring employee levels and also met guidelines set down by the Commission for Racial Equality.

He said all council staff had taken part in a recent survey to gather views

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